Delph takes a deep breath and then continues their tirade of unrelenting questions, "You two don't seem to be on the same page. Do you like to argue? Are you brothers? Wait... are you sisters? Are you brother and sister? Oh... do you a gender? I don't want to assume. What are both of your names? How long have you been here? I still don't k ow what the test is, so what is the test? If you guard both the gates why are you letting us through one of them? Do you let us through because you are bad guards? Why did you never go through either gate? Are you scared to go through? Why are you scared to go through?" The pause to breath and seem ready to ask more.
"We don't know what's behind the gates! We've never been back there!"
"Argue? No!"
"Brothers? My brother was a poodle! And he worked for Jareth for a long time scrubbing the latrines."
"What's a sister?"
"Gender?"
"I pee funny!"
The two guards laugh at this like it's the funniest thing ever.
"They call me Toejam!" The guard on the left gate says, sticking a thumb to his chest.
"And I'm Earl!" His partner says.
"We've been guarding these gates together for uh...for..."
They look at each other, confused. Both their brows furrow. One holds up his hands and starts counting on his fingers...and his partner pulls his boots off and starts counting toes.
"I don't know! A long time!"
They laugh at this too.
"The test is you have to figure out which gate is the right gate to get to the Castle beyond the Goblin City."
"You as a person can pass through only one gate! That's right! You don't have to all go the same way."
"No stupid, he's asking why we're letting them go through."
"Oh...I don't know! We were only told to guard the gates, not to stop people from going through."
"I don't think we're bad guards. We've been doing this for a long time and we've never been in trouble ever!"
"Because we're told to guard! Not to go. Nah, not scared to go through! But sometimes scared of Jareth!"
"Yep! My brother, the one that was a poodle, Jareth one time turned him into a jabberwocky! Nasty business, being turned into a jabberwocky! I don't want to be a jabberwocky, so I do my job!"
Shavaris turns on the fairy as the barrage of questions continue to fall from their lips, "Delph! We need to figure this out, this kind of questioning isn't helping!" she turns back to the guards, "if you don't know what is behind the gates, then how do you know which one leads to the castle?"
Delph looks to Shavaris and nods "Okay, I'll try some different questions... hmmm... okay how about these questions!?" Delph takes another deep breath and asks "What is your quest? What is your favorite color? What is the air velocity of a swallow? What is 2 plus 2? Where is the unicorn? What is the capitol of Assaria? How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? If I had 37 rock candies and gave 19 to ward hiw many would I have left? How long do brown bears hibernate for? Can pigs fly? What other animals in this can see in the dark? Are there traps we need to look ot for?
Travin digs through his cabinet and pulls out a large gem, roughly the size of his own head, a Blue Spinel, he hoists the gem above himself and says "Both guards, Both answer Travin's question yeh yeh! What colour is Travin's shiny? Hmmm? HMMMMM?" With that he looks around to his other party members smiling at his own perceived brilliance.
"I don't know that either? Ask King Blix, or King Haggard! Or Calibos the Fey Slayer! I bet they know. Oh, or Lord Darkness! Or Morla the Ancient One! Maybe even ol' Jareth the Fallen!"
"What's Assaria? I bet it's capital is....Bangladesh! That sounds good."
"Mathematically speaking, it has to be somewhere around 17 ricks."
They look at each other and begin counting when the rock candy question comes up. They're counting fingers, toes...both of them pull their boots off. One even starts sliding rocks around in the dirt.
"Eighteen!"
"Depends on where in Hyboria they are! The equatorial ones don't hibernate! Up north though, maybe four to five months!"
"Probably. I've seen some weird things."
"Other animals in...what?"
"Oh there's traps everywhere! So many traps! Trap doors and spike pits and boulders and Cleaners and..."
They both switch their focus to Travin when he holds up his gem.
"aha!" Squeals travin in excitement, "Travin made a discovery! Yeh yeh!" He looks around the group before realising something and looking to the floor "oh no! Travin doesn't know what it is... Hmm"
Delphinium flutters thinking on all the answers and seems to come to a decision. "Hmmm, Earl is way better at answering questions then you toejam. You should learn from your brother as they seem much smarter. Anyway, I would love to ask more questions but we got to go find stuff. You said this way to the castle Earl?" Delph points to the door they mentioned earlier "What else is down this way? Oh... that's another question. Okay, I'll also ask: how did you both become kinghts? Are you sure you're guards and not just gate watchers? Is that speed for a swallow a fey realm or mortal realm swallow? Oh! I got a riddle question for you too: What can you hold in your right hand but never your left hand?"
Johnathan feels a terrible headache come over him when the million questions are asked and answered. He didn’t realise just how bad this could get. He looks at these guards and thinks. This is a test. One says that it guards the door to the castle. Why would it be a test if they give the answer. He looks to the others, gives a sigh and walks to the right door. What could possibly go wrong by opening a door? He mutters as he approaches. He approaches the guard though when he speaks he speaks more soothing and relaxing, as if he speaking to a long lost friend. You can trust me friend, we are all buddies here. You would tell me what happens if I open your door wouldn’t you.
"Yep, that's the way! But I don't know what's down there. Still haven't gone through the gates since we last answered."
Both Toejam and Earl nod.
"It's what we do! When we're pups, we are raised as noble Knights, and then we devote our lives to the Labyrinth as regal guards! All the Lupine in the Labyrinth guard something! Unlike those dingy Goblins! But no, we are GUARDS, not gate watchers. King Jareth said so."
"I don't know? I've seen swallows, they're fast! It's a guess. I don't know what this realm business is you speak of."
"I uh..." He raises his left hand and studies it. "Your...right bones?"
"Why would something go wrong from opening a door?"
"The left one goes to the Castle, and the right one goes to the entrance of the Labyrinth. It's simple!"
"Travin's left, or guard's left?" Travin asks as he faces the guard who spoke last head on, the Junkperson has now stowed his highly valuable gem back into his cabinet and peers up at the guard from his squat 3ft position under his pile.
Ward walks out from the original spot the group entered and joins the group and talks only loud enough for them to hear. “Don’t attempt to circumvent the maze. That angers the labyrinth apparently. I attempted to scout ahead on top of the hedges and then got teleported somewhere random in the maze. So, we probably want to try really hard to figure out which of these paths is correct.” Ward says, wiping off his shoulders and legs of the occasional bush debris.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
P: The Traveling Ward: Natural Napalm Enthusiast. (AURYN: The Hunt For The Last Unicorn.)
Shavaris backs away from the guards and motions for the rest to huddle up with her. Making sure Delph follows and joins in with the group, she gives Ward a quick questionable glance, but doesn't follow up with it. Once they are all together, she lays it out in simplest of forms that she understands. "So it seems to me that Jareth has told them the left gate leads to the castle. Question is, would Jareth tell them the truth or would he lie to deceive anyone who approaches? Thoughts?"
Johnathan chuckles as the guard tells them about the gates. I thought you told us that you didn’t know which gate goes where a moment ago. Now you know which gate leads where. He looks back to the guard he hopefully charmed. My friend, you must be so tired here. Guarding gates that other people go though. Why don’t you head out the gate for a bit. Have a vacation. You know you’ve earned one. Johnathan points to the right gate that the “charmed” guard is at.
Persuasion (if charmed worked I have advantage so I’ll roll twice in case): 21, 5
As Shavaris signals for Delph to join the group they flutter on over and listen to what she has to say, "Oh? can Jerath lie? I keep forgetting big not fey people can do that. Are we sure he's not a fey? He can't lie if so. He can tell part-truths though which can be far more dangerous. I like to take people at their word though. Then I seem trusting and I learn if they lie, tell part-truths or other forms of deception. Then I know if I should do as they suggest or not. I say we go left as they say! If it's a lie then we know he lies and not to trust his word going forward. We could also tell Toejam and Earl this so they know they were lied to too. If it's the truth then we know we can trust his words. Also, it's really rude to just assume someone is telling part truths. I would imagine it is even more rude to assume someone is lying." Delph seems confident in their choice. Right or wrong they seem to value how they personally react and treat others rather then if they are being lied to or not.
Travin wracks his brain, which consists of him thumping the heel of his palm into his forehead several times and then twirling his mustache up. Finally he snaps his fingers and stands, "Travin knows it is the left side! Yeh yeh! Definitely that yeh! But Dawn Guard must go carefully, hmmm? Trusting Travin yes?" He then looks around the group and approaches the left guard, Earl? And smiles before asking the lupine to open.
The two Lupine look at Johnathan and both of them shrug in unison before pausing. They looked at each other and started having a quiet, low whisper conversation before nodding to each other again. They didn't wait. They waved to Johnathan as everyone else was talking, opened the right gate, stepped through, and closed it behind them.
Delph takes a deep breath and then continues their tirade of unrelenting questions, "You two don't seem to be on the same page. Do you like to argue? Are you brothers? Wait... are you sisters? Are you brother and sister? Oh... do you a gender? I don't want to assume. What are both of your names? How long have you been here? I still don't k ow what the test is, so what is the test? If you guard both the gates why are you letting us through one of them? Do you let us through because you are bad guards? Why did you never go through either gate? Are you scared to go through? Why are you scared to go through?" The pause to breath and seem ready to ask more.
"We don't know what's behind the gates! We've never been back there!"
"Argue? No!"
"Brothers? My brother was a poodle! And he worked for Jareth for a long time scrubbing the latrines."
"What's a sister?"
"Gender?"
"I pee funny!"
The two guards laugh at this like it's the funniest thing ever.
"They call me Toejam!" The guard on the left gate says, sticking a thumb to his chest.
"And I'm Earl!" His partner says.
"We've been guarding these gates together for uh...for..."
They look at each other, confused. Both their brows furrow. One holds up his hands and starts counting on his fingers...and his partner pulls his boots off and starts counting toes.
"I don't know! A long time!"
They laugh at this too.
"The test is you have to figure out which gate is the right gate to get to the Castle beyond the Goblin City."
"You as a person can pass through only one gate! That's right! You don't have to all go the same way."
"No stupid, he's asking why we're letting them go through."
"Oh...I don't know! We were only told to guard the gates, not to stop people from going through."
"I don't think we're bad guards. We've been doing this for a long time and we've never been in trouble ever!"
"Because we're told to guard! Not to go. Nah, not scared to go through! But sometimes scared of Jareth!"
"Yep! My brother, the one that was a poodle, Jareth one time turned him into a jabberwocky! Nasty business, being turned into a jabberwocky! I don't want to be a jabberwocky, so I do my job!"
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
Shavaris turns on the fairy as the barrage of questions continue to fall from their lips, "Delph! We need to figure this out, this kind of questioning isn't helping!" she turns back to the guards, "if you don't know what is behind the gates, then how do you know which one leads to the castle?"
The two guards look at each other, then back at Shavaris, and shrug.
"That's what Jareth said."
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
Delph looks to Shavaris and nods "Okay, I'll try some different questions... hmmm... okay how about these questions!?" Delph takes another deep breath and asks "What is your quest? What is your favorite color? What is the air velocity of a swallow? What is 2 plus 2? Where is the unicorn? What is the capitol of Assaria? How much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? If I had 37 rock candies and gave 19 to ward hiw many would I have left? How long do brown bears hibernate for? Can pigs fly? What other animals in this can see in the dark? Are there traps we need to look ot for?
Travin digs through his cabinet and pulls out a large gem, roughly the size of his own head, a Blue Spinel, he hoists the gem above himself and says "Both guards, Both answer Travin's question yeh yeh! What colour is Travin's shiny? Hmmm? HMMMMM?" With that he looks around to his other party members smiling at his own perceived brilliance.
"I don't think we have a quest?"
"Nope, no quest. Just guarding these gates."
"Blue!"
"Green!"
"I uh...I dunno? 18 miles per hour?"
"Four!"
"I don't know that either? Ask King Blix, or King Haggard! Or Calibos the Fey Slayer! I bet they know. Oh, or Lord Darkness! Or Morla the Ancient One! Maybe even ol' Jareth the Fallen!"
"What's Assaria? I bet it's capital is....Bangladesh! That sounds good."
"Mathematically speaking, it has to be somewhere around 17 ricks."
They look at each other and begin counting when the rock candy question comes up. They're counting fingers, toes...both of them pull their boots off. One even starts sliding rocks around in the dirt.
"Eighteen!"
"Depends on where in Hyboria they are! The equatorial ones don't hibernate! Up north though, maybe four to five months!"
"Probably. I've seen some weird things."
"Other animals in...what?"
"Oh there's traps everywhere! So many traps! Trap doors and spike pits and boulders and Cleaners and..."
They both switch their focus to Travin when he holds up his gem.
"Blue." They say together.
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
"aha!" Squeals travin in excitement, "Travin made a discovery! Yeh yeh!" He looks around the group before realising something and looking to the floor "oh no! Travin doesn't know what it is... Hmm"
Delphinium flutters thinking on all the answers and seems to come to a decision. "Hmmm, Earl is way better at answering questions then you toejam. You should learn from your brother as they seem much smarter. Anyway, I would love to ask more questions but we got to go find stuff. You said this way to the castle Earl?" Delph points to the door they mentioned earlier "What else is down this way? Oh... that's another question. Okay, I'll also ask: how did you both become kinghts? Are you sure you're guards and not just gate watchers? Is that speed for a swallow a fey realm or mortal realm swallow? Oh! I got a riddle question for you too: What can you hold in your right hand but never your left hand?"
Kerwyn starts laughing at the questions from the fey, a break in the tension that you haven’t seen in a while, he laughs in spite of himself.
A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.
Johnathan feels a terrible headache come over him when the million questions are asked and answered. He didn’t realise just how bad this could get. He looks at these guards and thinks. This is a test. One says that it guards the door to the castle. Why would it be a test if they give the answer. He looks to the others, gives a sigh and walks to the right door. What could possibly go wrong by opening a door? He mutters as he approaches. He approaches the guard though when he speaks he speaks more soothing and relaxing, as if he speaking to a long lost friend. You can trust me friend, we are all buddies here. You would tell me what happens if I open your door wouldn’t you.
Action: Cast charm person (make wis save of 15)
"Yep, that's the way! But I don't know what's down there. Still haven't gone through the gates since we last answered."
Both Toejam and Earl nod.
"It's what we do! When we're pups, we are raised as noble Knights, and then we devote our lives to the Labyrinth as regal guards! All the Lupine in the Labyrinth guard something! Unlike those dingy Goblins! But no, we are GUARDS, not gate watchers. King Jareth said so."
"I don't know? I've seen swallows, they're fast! It's a guess. I don't know what this realm business is you speak of."
"I uh..." He raises his left hand and studies it. "Your...right bones?"
"Why would something go wrong from opening a door?"
"The left one goes to the Castle, and the right one goes to the entrance of the Labyrinth. It's simple!"
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
"Travin's left, or guard's left?" Travin asks as he faces the guard who spoke last head on, the Junkperson has now stowed his highly valuable gem back into his cabinet and peers up at the guard from his squat 3ft position under his pile.
Ward walks out from the original spot the group entered and joins the group and talks only loud enough for them to hear. “Don’t attempt to circumvent the maze. That angers the labyrinth apparently. I attempted to scout ahead on top of the hedges and then got teleported somewhere random in the maze. So, we probably want to try really hard to figure out which of these paths is correct.” Ward says, wiping off his shoulders and legs of the occasional bush debris.
P: The Traveling Ward: Natural Napalm Enthusiast. (AURYN: The Hunt For The Last Unicorn.)
DM:
The guards both take a moment holding up their hands and trying to figure out left from right, then they both nod.
"My gate!" Earl said. They nodded again and looked at Travin. "This one goes to the castle!"
"And this one goes to the entrance of the Labyrinth!" Toejam said.
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York
Shavaris backs away from the guards and motions for the rest to huddle up with her. Making sure Delph follows and joins in with the group, she gives Ward a quick questionable glance, but doesn't follow up with it. Once they are all together, she lays it out in simplest of forms that she understands. "So it seems to me that Jareth has told them the left gate leads to the castle. Question is, would Jareth tell them the truth or would he lie to deceive anyone who approaches? Thoughts?"
Johnathan chuckles as the guard tells them about the gates. I thought you told us that you didn’t know which gate goes where a moment ago. Now you know which gate leads where. He looks back to the guard he hopefully charmed. My friend, you must be so tired here. Guarding gates that other people go though. Why don’t you head out the gate for a bit. Have a vacation. You know you’ve earned one. Johnathan points to the right gate that the “charmed” guard is at.
Persuasion (if charmed worked I have advantage so I’ll roll twice in case): 21, 5
As Shavaris signals for Delph to join the group they flutter on over and listen to what she has to say, "Oh? can Jerath lie? I keep forgetting big not fey people can do that. Are we sure he's not a fey? He can't lie if so. He can tell part-truths though which can be far more dangerous. I like to take people at their word though. Then I seem trusting and I learn if they lie, tell part-truths or other forms of deception. Then I know if I should do as they suggest or not. I say we go left as they say! If it's a lie then we know he lies and not to trust his word going forward. We could also tell Toejam and Earl this so they know they were lied to too. If it's the truth then we know we can trust his words. Also, it's really rude to just assume someone is telling part truths. I would imagine it is even more rude to assume someone is lying." Delph seems confident in their choice. Right or wrong they seem to value how they personally react and treat others rather then if they are being lied to or not.
Travin wracks his brain, which consists of him thumping the heel of his palm into his forehead several times and then twirling his mustache up. Finally he snaps his fingers and stands, "Travin knows it is the left side! Yeh yeh! Definitely that yeh! But Dawn Guard must go carefully, hmmm? Trusting Travin yes?" He then looks around the group and approaches the left guard, Earl? And smiles before asking the lupine to open.
The two Lupine look at Johnathan and both of them shrug in unison before pausing. They looked at each other and started having a quiet, low whisper conversation before nodding to each other again. They didn't wait. They waved to Johnathan as everyone else was talking, opened the right gate, stepped through, and closed it behind them.
DM of AURYN: The Measure of Devotion - Escape from New York