TIAMAT

[soulping]

[You suddenly find yourselves standing at the beginning of a large hedge maze, one with walls that extend so far above your head you're not quite certain where they end. There is no entrance behind you, and the bushes are so thick and full of thorns that attempting to crawl through them will result in numerous scratches]

[There is no way to go but forward]

Comments

ROUND ONE

[soulping]

[On your right you find a large, wooden shelf with twelve jars sitting on top of it]

- A jar of rat tails
- A jar of tiger eyes
- A jar of rabbit feet
- A jar of dragon hearts
- A jar of snake tongues
- A jar of horse stomachs
- A jar of goat horns
- A jar of monkey fingers
- A jar of rooster claws
- A jar of pig ears

[Each jar is clearly labeled, and the contents are exactly what the labels purport them to be. Choose three!]

DISCUSSION

[soulping]

Re: DISCUSSION

[clocksandroses]

[ hello Tiamat you have your very own SHAKING BALL OF FEATHERS ]

[ kinda literally because she's going to spend this whole game mostly hidden behind her wings ]

[ ... she's looking up ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[carptricks]

[. . .!]

Hey, Aoko--

[hovering close to her side :(]

Re: DISCUSSION

[carptricks]

Eugh. . .

[squints at the jars. it's hard to read his expression though because his entire face is shadows now]

This is gross.

[zeitnot]

[ and dragons here have your second ball of feathers except these feathers are... metal?! who brought in the heavy metal chicken, why. but here's a red-haired dude whose hair has literally turned to molten metal, along with all other parts of him, with large metal wings spread out behind him like swords.

he's not too worried though. huh. ]

Ah.

[ maybe he's always been a metal bird. it's a mystery. ... oh no some of those jars look tasty... ]

Re: DISCUSSION

[hyanaimne]

[what is this unbelievable bullshit]

Are we to be alchemists now?

DECISION

[soulping]

Re: DECISION

[fuhrinkaed]

Dragon hearts!
Ox teeth!
Tiger eyes!

ROUND TWO

[soulping]

[You move forward through the maze, the hedges looming ominously around you. And thankfully, it isn't long before you run into your first checkpoint]

[In front of you, and stretched across the path, is a large sphinx with a striped lioness' body. her wings are tucked at her sides, and she regards the group with a lazy, bored expression]

Mmmm. . . I would like something with rhythm that I can dance to the beat of. Do you have that for me, dears?

DISCUSSION

[soulping]

Re: DISCUSSION

[clocksandroses]

Dance to the ...?

[ furrows her eyebrows, looking uncertainly at Tiamat ]

... Hearts have beats.

DECISION

[soulping]

Re: DECISION

[fuhrinkaed]

Clearly, the answer to this one is a heart.

And we do in fact have a dragon heart! SO LETS DO THE THING.

ROUND THREE

[soulping]

[You walk through the maze's pathways for quite some time, taking sharp turns to the point of where you feel like you're going in circles. But eventually. . .]

[You stumble across another sphinx. Large, with blue fur and black hair, tiny wings protruding from his shoulders like stubs. he grumps at you all, chest puffed out formally.]

Give me something that amplifies the echoes you hear in a cavern.

DISCUSSION

[soulping]

Re: DISCUSSION

[clocksandroses]

[ WELP THAT SURE IS A THING THAT WE DON'T HAVE. ]

[ oh god maybe they can think of a way around this and still get it, maybe, maybe, maybe ... ]

DECISION

[soulping]

Re: DECISION

[zeitnot]

[ holding up two feathers! they make a clanging noise when they rub against each other. ]

Metal feathers that make loud echoes in caves even louder. Metal actually amplifies sound.

ROUND FOUR

[soulping]

[You walk, and walk, and walk some more, until your feet begin to hurt and you start to wonder. . . how long is this maze anyway?]

[Until you find them. The last phoenix, crouched low on all fours and watching you with golden eyes. its lips are curled back in a snarl, but it doesn't pounce]

Something pointed with a unique feature at the tip. They say this feature is one of a kind. Immediately!

DISCUSSION

[soulping]

Re: DISCUSSION

[carptricks]

[g. . . genuine surprise??]

It-- worked?

Re: DISCUSSION

[fuhrinkaed]

[Well... it worked, so...] Pointed... a unique feature...

What if we coat the tip of a sword in my glitterbreath?

DECISION

[soulping]

Re: DECISION

[fuhrinkaed]

'Something pointed with a unique feature at the tip. They say this feature is one of a kind.'

Here's a dagger, doesn't get much pointier than that. And at the tip, we've got a potent drug that makes you see everything as food and makes you super trippy--something that you don't see anywhere else since it's the breath of a dragon with butterfly wings. And since I've never even heard of one of those before today, that makes this item suuuper one of a kind.