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Riddles Are Fun [citation needed]

Last week, the party vanquished the huge spider-like demon that stepped through the gate. Shanky was poisoned and badly wounded, but with Ione's help the party managed to keep him standing. After defeating the demon, the party realized that they had to avoid summoning something like that again1, and Cayosin and Lester the Jester agreed to compromise. Cayosin gave the miniature obelisk to Ione, and Lester cast his Comprehend Languages ritual on her, allowing her to read the writing on the base of the statue. Ione revealed that the writing contained two different riddles2, and the party set to work trying to solve them.

At first, the party made good progress. After a few false starts, they quickly set up an arrangement of orbs that opened the gate to a seemingly identical room. However, through this portal, there were still guards just outside the room. The party left Bob Stonybrook and Durgos Bronzebeard behind with instructions to re-open the gate every hour, and passed through the gate to the new room.

On the other side of the gate, the party determined that recreating the same pattern did not re-open the portal back to where they started, but it didn't summon a demon either. The guards were getting nervous, so Lester the Jester impersonated the voice of one of the Sages and began issuing them orders. The guards obeyed them without question, and the party soon received a wench, a poorly constructed winch, and books from the wizard's study. One of the books, "The Use and Construction of Artifacts", featured a familiar obelisk shape on the cover, which quickly caught the party's attention. According to the book, it was possible to construct an artifact called the Obelisk of Control. If properly constructed to its full size of several hundred feet tall, the obelisk could exert a powerful mind control effect on creatures within a massive area around it. The party went into the wizard's study themselves to investigate more thoroughly. They found two items of interest: a copy of the small obelisk statue, complete with identical writing on the bottom, and a scrap of paper in the same unknown language. Ione read the scrap of paper and found that it was a fragment of a journal entry, though it was of little immediate use3.

After completing their investigation of the wizard's study, the party turned their attention to the gate once more. They spent the rest of the day trying various combinations and fighting various demons spawned by incorrect solutions, and made little progress4. Near the end of the day, as they were still puzzling over the solution, the gate unexpectedly opened and revealed two Sages on the other side. The Sages were surprised, and before they could close the portal, the party charged through after them...

Tonight, the party will fight the Sages and hopefully solve the mystery of the Gate!

  1. This was, of course, doomed to fail. But at least they tried.
  2. First riddle:
    Eight Sages, bound in soul and purpose
    We serve that Its will be done
    Its Gates unite us in distant harmony
    Two balance two in the path to the center
    Mighty anchors above and below banish Its servants
    Second riddle:
    The Obelisk of Demogorgon exerts our will
    Build its fivefold form to find the core
    From lowly base to highest peak
    The Seventh Stone completes the path
  3. Journal entry:
    Our work on the obelisk nears completion. Its power defies imagination. We have worked so hard and long on it. What it will do when we turn it on is hard to imagine. We must keep them safe. Only the Elder Sage must know of their secrets.
  4. Despite increasingly annoying reassurances that they almost had the solution, or had figured it out earlier and just needed to do it again but better this time.

Stupid Awards

Cayosin Ione: Shanky Lester Craggles Everyone:
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