Seraphina watches the students as Cybele tries to chat them up. Are all wizarding students so full of themselves? Guess it makes sense as she has heard that wizards can be that way as well. She hopes they can get this scroll figured out, but it won't be the end of the world if they don't.
She leans over to Cybele, not taking her eyes off the elf girl and whispers, "You know, if these brats won't let us in, I bet there would be someone in town that is at least good at languages. And then hey, more cake for us.. cause I do have a sweet tooth." She smiles at this, but again, doesn't take her eyes off the elf, wondering how the girl is going to respond to Cybele.
The wizard apprentice is taken aback by Cybele's bubbly response and offer of cake! Oh, and the giant centipede, too. The apprentice is surprisingly not terrified of the creature - she actually finds it fascinating that you have somehow 'tamed' the thing! She is still a bit nasty and short with you, but takes the cake over to the common table and pulls out small plates, forks, and a uses her dagger (silvered, you can tell) to slice the cake up into (mostly) even slices. She takes the biggest piece and lets the other students fend for themselves. "Wait here - I'll see if Master Delfen wants to bother with you."
Before she can take three steps up the staircase, a human male with well-groomed and fashionably styled facial hair and rich-looking robes comes down and says with a smile, "I smell cake! Ah, Lorelion, who do we have here? Are they the cake-bearers? What brings you to my workshop?"
"Hello friend, I'm assuming you are Master Delfen? We have come here looking for you! We need this scroll translated, and thought we could tempt you with some cake and tea, hah!" Cybele jokes good-heartedly, with a friendly chuckle. "We've just come from a cave-crawling adventure of sorts, and we came across a number of curious things. One of the most mysterious being this scroll..." Cybele explains as she approaches the wizard.
"Hopefully you like the cake. I'm not much of a baker myself, but we just purchased it from town; the best cake you can get around here as far as I'm aware."
Delfen, tempted by the cake, is intrigued by the scroll you present. As he eats large mouthfuls of the sweet cake, he carefully unrolls the parchment on the worktable to examine it. For several long minutes he studies and mumbles to himself. He walks over to a bookshelf crammed with various books, manuscripts, and scroll cases, picking three and handing them to his students. He gives them cryptic instructions that make no sense to you, but they clearly understand, for they set about examining their books - quickly flipping through pages and reading through certain passages.
After an hour of research and consulting at least 20 books and scrolls, Delfen consults one last time with his students before turning back to the three of you sitting around in a corner of the workshop. "Well, my friends, you have brought us a challenging puzzle indeed! This is an ancient script - very rare to see a manuscript in such fine condition! I have found several references to the celestial beings who used it, but only one small example of the script. Sadly, that one scrap is not enough for me to translate this entire passage...but I am pretty sure this is about a sword and judgement." He points out two of the words in the title, and then one of the same words throughout the rest of the phrase. (Click here to see the image!)
"Do not be sad, for I think an old friend of mine might know this language - or at least some more of the words! You look like the adventuring sort, so the journey may be right up your alley, so to say! My friend, Vassorum, lives in the woods a week's travel northeast from Daggerford. He has a gleaming, golden horn - that's how you'll recognize him! Tell him that I sent you, and give him my fondest regards. Oh, and bring some fresh apples - the yellow ones seem to be his favorite." He draws a crude map on a spare sheet of parchment - enough for you to find the general locale...
Seraphina gives a little head bow to Delfen after all the help, and thanks the man. She smiles and is glad that the cake went over as well as it had and the fact the wizard thought they looked like the adventuring type! That definitely bolstered Sera's confidence. She wondered if it was the cake or the difficult puzzle that really made the man happy. She almost asked, but decided against it and got ready to leave.
"Thank you so much for your help, what you were able to figure out is actually making me more curious as to what this scroll means! I look forward to meeting your friend Vassorum."
The trip goes surprisingly well, considering the area around Daggerford was untamed. The road was lightly travelled, and you found secure campsites each night thanks to your druid friend. Even the weather was mild and comfortable - warm days and cool nights with no rain!
Eventually, you reach the outskirts of the emerald-green woods indicated on Delfen's crude map. Meiki lets out a low whistle as they enter the woods. "This is a special place - I can feel it. There must be a powerful being who preserves and protects these woods. Be respectful of the plants and animals here lest we spark the ire of the guardian..." he speaks in a low, reverent tone. He leads the group further into the woods, searching out the center where Delfen indicated they would find Vassorum.
You brush aside a branch and enter a wide clearing with a pool in its center. The pool looks like it may have once contained water but is now filled with oily black liquid covered with violet iridescence. At the edge of the pool is the body of a horse with a golden mane and a dirt-caked white hide. You are about 30 feet away from the horse and the edge of the pool.
Cybele is seemingly starstruck at the mention of celestials. She'd only ever heard stories of them, but they always intrigued her. After all, her surname Alcyone was of celestial origin. People who seemingly came from the stars... She couldn't even imagine what they'd be like. And the scroll was possibly talking about some sort of celestial sword? Her curiosity was boundless. These are the thoughts which floated in her mind during their journey.
Once they get to their destination, the branches are brushes aside and the pool comes into view Cybele gapes at the horse. She had never seen such a beautiful creature, even as dirty as it was. She immediately crouches down. She didn't want to spook the horse; not to mention how dangerous the creature could be when scared. One kick could be fatal!
"What a beauty that is!" Cybele exclaims in a stage whisper (she'd never been very good at whispering).
When Cybele approaches the horse, it weakly turns its head to look her, revealing that the creature is actually a unicorn with a golden horn that has turned almost pitch black. It telepathically says: “Please… I am dying. I need your help. The pond is defiled by dark magic - of course I drank from the pool before I could see these signs. Ehlonna left her ancient followers a ritual to cleanse the spring in case it was ever corrupted. Unfortunately, those followers have long since died out, and only creatures with hands can perform the ritual."
He looks towards a small island in the middle of the pool. Your eyes follow the unicorn’s gesture, and you see a small island in the center of the pool, about 15' away. A statue of a beautiful, fat woman with flowing hair and wearing a gauzy robe stands in an island in the middle of the spring. Three ornate jars are arrayed at her feet.
Cybele immediately becomes concerned, not paying too much attention to the fact that a unicorn was standing in front of her talking to her in her head!
"How do we help you? Do you know the ritual? I'll do whatever I can, I promise," Cybele replies while raising from her crouched position and starting towards the statue in the middle of the pool, guessing this is where she probably needed to go.
Seraphina follows Cybele into the clearing but when she sees the mare laying by the edge, she gets wary. She's too slow to stop Cybele from heading straight towards it, but while she talks to the unicorn, Sera starts looking around for anything else that might be of interest.
Perception 6
She then sees Cybele start to walk into the water! "Cybele, what are you doing? The water looks contaminated, get out of it!"
The unicorn says one last thing before it falls into a catatonic state: “My eyes grow cloudy… I sense I have only minutes before the shadow claims me. The statue of my lady Ehlonna… she bears a tablet with… the instructions.”
Wading through the water, which is about 3 feet deep, doesn't take long, but you can feel the dark magic seeping into your skin. (Unless you can jump, fly, or teleport the 10' to the island, you take 1 necrotic damage.)
On the island is a statue of the goddess Ehlonna, holding three stone tablets in her hands. Upon the tablets are written the following:
My sacred spring is a gift unto you, my faithful. Should evil ever profane it, I gift unto you the method to restore it.
Recall the fable of the eight archdruids. Once upon a time, eight mighty druids resided within this forest within three houses. Five were woman, three were men, and together they made eight. In the end, all eight found love in pairs. Four of the druids settled within one house, four settled within another, and the third house was left empty and was reclaimed by the forest.
At my feet rest three blessed vessels. Fill them with the profaned water in the manner of the eight druids, and speak my name with hope in your heart.
The three jugs are made of simple clay, but have somehow withstood the centuries. On the face of one is marked VIII, on the face of another is marked V, and on the face of the third is marked III. They seem to be of inconsistent size and weight, and have no measurement markings. Filling a jug from the pool, emptying a jug into the pool, or pouring water from one jug to another takes an action. Only one character can interact with a jug per round. If the unicorn was right, you have about 2 minutes to figure this out, purify the pool, and give some of the clean water to the unicorn. (Talking is a free action, but it does take some time...so we can't spend weeks talking through possible steps to solve this riddle =D
Seraphina shakes her head at Cybele as she makes it across the pond to the island. She doesn't want to leave her new friend stranded, "Ready Meiki?"and she dashes across herself.
She reads the tablet and lets out an audible hmmm as she considers. "What do you think they mean by the manner of the eight druids? That the two larger ones should have 4 units of water in them?"
She picks up the jugs and looks them over a bit. "That ends like the story then, four in each house or jug and the last one abandoned?"
She looks to her two friends to see what they think.
"That is actually really smart! I was just thinking filling them all up with water while saying the name of Ehlonna as we do so. Your idea sounds much more intuitive," Cybele laughs shortly, reminding herself that time is of the essence. "Though I am curious about the numbers. Obviously V refers to the number of women, III to the number of men, and VIII to the number of all of them together, but how should this affect how we pour the water in?"
Cybele tightens her mouth and furrows her brow in frustration. Puzzles were never her strong suit.
"I think if we are to try your idea we should both fill a jug at the same time right? We should probably try different ways as we figure it out so to save time."
Cybele looked over to the unicorn in worry. If only she were a bit smarter! She could only hope her wit, or lack there of, wouldn't be the difference between life and death!
Meiki follows the girls to the island, reading the tablets over their shoulders. "I agree with Seraphina - we need to use these jugs to figure out how to get four 'units' of water in two of the jugs. Maybe the number on the jar represents 'units'? So the V jar holds five 'units' of water? So how do we get exactly four units in two jars if none of them hold four units on their own?"
"Well, we can fill the 5 jar and then pour from that to the 3 jar and that leaves 2 units in the 5 jar. We can pour that in the 8 jar and then repeat. Then the 8 jar has 4 units. Getting 4 units in the 5 jar is more tricky... We can pour 3 units in from the 3 jar and then slowly add a fourth unit saying the name as we get close? Not sure how else to do that one." Seraphina suggests.
"That's good for the first four units, but not exact enough for the second four. There must be another way to get the second four units..." Meiki opines.
Cybele seems at a lost for word, puzzles always left her head spinning.
"Sorry, I may be getting mixed up, but why dont we fill the 8 jar with 8 units then pour 4 units into the 5 jar, and leave the 3 jar empty? It's like the houses. One house has four, which could be the 8 jar, then the second house has 4, which could be the 5 jar, and then we leave the 3 jar empty to represent the 3rd house? I may be getting a bit lost though...."
Seraphina watches the students as Cybele tries to chat them up. Are all wizarding students so full of themselves? Guess it makes sense as she has heard that wizards can be that way as well. She hopes they can get this scroll figured out, but it won't be the end of the world if they don't.
She leans over to Cybele, not taking her eyes off the elf girl and whispers, "You know, if these brats won't let us in, I bet there would be someone in town that is at least good at languages. And then hey, more cake for us.. cause I do have a sweet tooth." She smiles at this, but again, doesn't take her eyes off the elf, wondering how the girl is going to respond to Cybele.
Cybele - roll a Persuasion check please!
Love God. Love Others. Any Questions?
The wizard apprentice is taken aback by Cybele's bubbly response and offer of cake! Oh, and the giant centipede, too. The apprentice is surprisingly not terrified of the creature - she actually finds it fascinating that you have somehow 'tamed' the thing! She is still a bit nasty and short with you, but takes the cake over to the common table and pulls out small plates, forks, and a uses her dagger (silvered, you can tell) to slice the cake up into (mostly) even slices. She takes the biggest piece and lets the other students fend for themselves. "Wait here - I'll see if Master Delfen wants to bother with you."
Before she can take three steps up the staircase, a human male with well-groomed and fashionably styled facial hair and rich-looking robes comes down and says with a smile, "I smell cake! Ah, Lorelion, who do we have here? Are they the cake-bearers? What brings you to my workshop?"
Love God. Love Others. Any Questions?
"Hello friend, I'm assuming you are Master Delfen? We have come here looking for you! We need this scroll translated, and thought we could tempt you with some cake and tea, hah!" Cybele jokes good-heartedly, with a friendly chuckle. "We've just come from a cave-crawling adventure of sorts, and we came across a number of curious things. One of the most mysterious being this scroll..." Cybele explains as she approaches the wizard.
"Hopefully you like the cake. I'm not much of a baker myself, but we just purchased it from town; the best cake you can get around here as far as I'm aware."
Delfen, tempted by the cake, is intrigued by the scroll you present. As he eats large mouthfuls of the sweet cake, he carefully unrolls the parchment on the worktable to examine it. For several long minutes he studies and mumbles to himself. He walks over to a bookshelf crammed with various books, manuscripts, and scroll cases, picking three and handing them to his students. He gives them cryptic instructions that make no sense to you, but they clearly understand, for they set about examining their books - quickly flipping through pages and reading through certain passages.
After an hour of research and consulting at least 20 books and scrolls, Delfen consults one last time with his students before turning back to the three of you sitting around in a corner of the workshop. "Well, my friends, you have brought us a challenging puzzle indeed! This is an ancient script - very rare to see a manuscript in such fine condition! I have found several references to the celestial beings who used it, but only one small example of the script. Sadly, that one scrap is not enough for me to translate this entire passage...but I am pretty sure this is about a sword and judgement." He points out two of the words in the title, and then one of the same words throughout the rest of the phrase. (Click here to see the image!)
"Do not be sad, for I think an old friend of mine might know this language - or at least some more of the words! You look like the adventuring sort, so the journey may be right up your alley, so to say! My friend, Vassorum, lives in the woods a week's travel northeast from Daggerford. He has a gleaming, golden horn - that's how you'll recognize him! Tell him that I sent you, and give him my fondest regards. Oh, and bring some fresh apples - the yellow ones seem to be his favorite." He draws a crude map on a spare sheet of parchment - enough for you to find the general locale...
Love God. Love Others. Any Questions?
Seraphina gives a little head bow to Delfen after all the help, and thanks the man. She smiles and is glad that the cake went over as well as it had and the fact the wizard thought they looked like the adventuring type! That definitely bolstered Sera's confidence. She wondered if it was the cake or the difficult puzzle that really made the man happy. She almost asked, but decided against it and got ready to leave.
"Thank you so much for your help, what you were able to figure out is actually making me more curious as to what this scroll means! I look forward to meeting your friend Vassorum."
The trip goes surprisingly well, considering the area around Daggerford was untamed. The road was lightly travelled, and you found secure campsites each night thanks to your druid friend. Even the weather was mild and comfortable - warm days and cool nights with no rain!
Eventually, you reach the outskirts of the emerald-green woods indicated on Delfen's crude map. Meiki lets out a low whistle as they enter the woods. "This is a special place - I can feel it. There must be a powerful being who preserves and protects these woods. Be respectful of the plants and animals here lest we spark the ire of the guardian..." he speaks in a low, reverent tone. He leads the group further into the woods, searching out the center where Delfen indicated they would find Vassorum.
You brush aside a branch and enter a wide clearing with a pool in its center. The pool looks like it may have once contained water but is now filled with oily black liquid covered with violet iridescence. At the edge of the pool is the body of a horse with a golden mane and a dirt-caked white hide. You are about 30 feet away from the horse and the edge of the pool.
Love God. Love Others. Any Questions?
Cybele is seemingly starstruck at the mention of celestials. She'd only ever heard stories of them, but they always intrigued her. After all, her surname Alcyone was of celestial origin. People who seemingly came from the stars... She couldn't even imagine what they'd be like. And the scroll was possibly talking about some sort of celestial sword? Her curiosity was boundless. These are the thoughts which floated in her mind during their journey.
Once they get to their destination, the branches are brushes aside and the pool comes into view Cybele gapes at the horse. She had never seen such a beautiful creature, even as dirty as it was. She immediately crouches down. She didn't want to spook the horse; not to mention how dangerous the creature could be when scared. One kick could be fatal!
"What a beauty that is!" Cybele exclaims in a stage whisper (she'd never been very good at whispering).
When Cybele approaches the horse, it weakly turns its head to look her, revealing that the creature is actually a unicorn with a golden horn that has turned almost pitch black. It telepathically says: “Please… I am dying. I need your help. The pond is defiled by dark magic - of course I drank from the pool before I could see these signs. Ehlonna left her ancient followers a ritual to cleanse the spring in case it was ever corrupted. Unfortunately, those followers have long since died out, and only creatures with hands can perform the ritual."
He looks towards a small island in the middle of the pool. Your eyes follow the unicorn’s gesture, and you see a small island in the center of the pool, about 15' away. A statue of a beautiful, fat woman with flowing hair and wearing a gauzy robe stands in an island in the middle of the spring. Three ornate jars are arrayed at her feet.
Love God. Love Others. Any Questions?
Cybele immediately becomes concerned, not paying too much attention to the fact that a unicorn was standing in front of her talking to her in her head!
"How do we help you? Do you know the ritual? I'll do whatever I can, I promise," Cybele replies while raising from her crouched position and starting towards the statue in the middle of the pool, guessing this is where she probably needed to go.
Seraphina follows Cybele into the clearing but when she sees the mare laying by the edge, she gets wary. She's too slow to stop Cybele from heading straight towards it, but while she talks to the unicorn, Sera starts looking around for anything else that might be of interest.
Perception 6
She then sees Cybele start to walk into the water! "Cybele, what are you doing? The water looks contaminated, get out of it!"
The unicorn says one last thing before it falls into a catatonic state: “My eyes grow cloudy… I sense I have only minutes before the shadow claims me. The statue of my lady Ehlonna… she bears a tablet with… the instructions.”
Wading through the water, which is about 3 feet deep, doesn't take long, but you can feel the dark magic seeping into your skin. (Unless you can jump, fly, or teleport the 10' to the island, you take 1 necrotic damage.)
On the island is a statue of the goddess Ehlonna, holding three stone tablets in her hands. Upon the tablets are written the following:
The three jugs are made of simple clay, but have somehow withstood the centuries. On the face of one is marked VIII, on the face of another is marked V, and on the face of the third is marked III. They seem to be of inconsistent size and weight, and have no measurement markings. Filling a jug from the pool, emptying a jug into the pool, or pouring water from one jug to another takes an action. Only one character can interact with a jug per round. If the unicorn was right, you have about 2 minutes to figure this out, purify the pool, and give some of the clean water to the unicorn. (Talking is a free action, but it does take some time...so we can't spend weeks talking through possible steps to solve this riddle =D
Love God. Love Others. Any Questions?
It's been almost 2 days...time for a penalty =) You now have 16 rounds left to save the unicorn.
Love God. Love Others. Any Questions?
Seraphina shakes her head at Cybele as she makes it across the pond to the island. She doesn't want to leave her new friend stranded, "Ready Meiki?" and she dashes across herself.
She reads the tablet and lets out an audible hmmm as she considers. "What do you think they mean by the manner of the eight druids? That the two larger ones should have 4 units of water in them?"
She picks up the jugs and looks them over a bit. "That ends like the story then, four in each house or jug and the last one abandoned?"
She looks to her two friends to see what they think.
"That is actually really smart! I was just thinking filling them all up with water while saying the name of Ehlonna as we do so. Your idea sounds much more intuitive," Cybele laughs shortly, reminding herself that time is of the essence. "Though I am curious about the numbers. Obviously V refers to the number of women, III to the number of men, and VIII to the number of all of them together, but how should this affect how we pour the water in?"
Cybele tightens her mouth and furrows her brow in frustration. Puzzles were never her strong suit.
"I think if we are to try your idea we should both fill a jug at the same time right? We should probably try different ways as we figure it out so to save time."
Cybele looked over to the unicorn in worry. If only she were a bit smarter! She could only hope her wit, or lack there of, wouldn't be the difference between life and death!
Meiki follows the girls to the island, reading the tablets over their shoulders. "I agree with Seraphina - we need to use these jugs to figure out how to get four 'units' of water in two of the jugs. Maybe the number on the jar represents 'units'? So the V jar holds five 'units' of water? So how do we get exactly four units in two jars if none of them hold four units on their own?"
Love God. Love Others. Any Questions?
"Well, we can fill the 5 jar and then pour from that to the 3 jar and that leaves 2 units in the 5 jar. We can pour that in the 8 jar and then repeat. Then the 8 jar has 4 units. Getting 4 units in the 5 jar is more tricky... We can pour 3 units in from the 3 jar and then slowly add a fourth unit saying the name as we get close? Not sure how else to do that one." Seraphina suggests.
"That's good for the first four units, but not exact enough for the second four. There must be another way to get the second four units..." Meiki opines.
Love God. Love Others. Any Questions?
Cybele seems at a lost for word, puzzles always left her head spinning.
"Sorry, I may be getting mixed up, but why dont we fill the 8 jar with 8 units then pour 4 units into the 5 jar, and leave the 3 jar empty? It's like the houses. One house has four, which could be the 8 jar, then the second house has 4, which could be the 5 jar, and then we leave the 3 jar empty to represent the 3rd house? I may be getting a bit lost though...."
"Well, that would be nice and easy, but there is no way to tell us what the 4 units are that we pour from the 8 jar. Unless I'm missing something?"