Puzzling Easter Egg - RPLOG
Participants
Date
5/4/478
Log
It is a busy day in the market, the usual shoppers busy amid the hustle and bustle of mechants hawking their wares and carts of goods traveling to and fro. Amidst all of this hustle and bustle, there seems to be a swirl of interest around a new fixture in one of the busy plazas the dot the area. In the center of the little square of shops is a new statue or monument. It appears to be some kind of abstract piece, shaped like a five foot tall egg on a short pedestal, the thing is made of featureless stone. It is very clean and smooth, but otherwise uninteresting. Most people just pass it by, though a few stop long enough to read the plaque on the bottom before moving along.
Samson wanders through the market, clad in a heavy-looking coat that obscures much of his coarse fur. He hunts from stall to stall, staying far from the crowd as he examines the wares, the occasional rumble of his stomach promping him to search harder for anyone who might sell him snacks. His search brings him closer to the strange sculpture and he peeks over the heads of the crowd to see if there's anything important going on. Seeing as it's his first visit it doesn't seem out of the ordinary right away, simply a pretty sculpture to glance at.
A flick of Flora's tails, a soft rumble, and the heavily pregnant feline makes her way into the area, escorted by a duo of guards wearing the LongTech Industries uniform. Her ears flick momentarily, and she simply... Stares at the statue nearby. She looks rather confused, to be frank.
"Flora... Flora doesn't think that's supposed to be here, no."
In the very same square was a familiar plant being. Rokarion, clad in his usual body-covering heavy cloak, is busy inspecting some wares at one of the alchemist's stalls, shaking his head and bidding the merchant farewell as he fails to acquire what he wants. The youthful flower turns around and saunters across the plaza before noticing the unfamiliar sculpture. Interest piqued, even if his face kept that nonchalant look, he moved towards the sculpture to inspect it.
"Probably not, no," Lucasiel says in reply to Flora as she leans forward to read the inscription, herself. It's a warm, sunny day, and she was dressed accordingly. No armour today, just a breezy, shorty sleeved dress.
A food vendor with a little cart is set up near the new statue, the plump, smiling tanuki seems to be doing brisk business with the interesting new statue in the background.
The inscription on the statue reads
An Egg, Stone, Lifeless.
Rainbow waked, Opened to Life.
A Puzzle Unlocked.
-P
Samson scratches his head as he spots the inscription, trying to get close enough to make out the words. What he finds only perplexes him more though and the head scratching resumes. "What an odd thing to put on a sculpture." he muses to no one in particular as he looks around the crowd.
A soft rumble sounds, and the she-cat looks over the entire thing from all sides, her ears flicking lightly. The inscription examined, the cat watching the thing curiously as she pulls out a small, hexagonal crystal and holds it up in the air to create a very thin rainbow of colors, shining upon the stone.
"Flora figures there's something inside, yes. But it's not coming out by breaking it, no."
Rokarion kneeled down near the inscription and gave it a glance before standing back up, hand on hismouth as he stifled a yawn, "Looks like someone's attempt at a puzzle." He said in a bored tone to answer Smason, "I would bet it was a spirit that did this." The jasmine added as he moved a couple of steps away from the sculpture/
"Bah. I was never one for puzzles," Lucasiel says with a frown, instead wandering a few paces away to find that tanuki that was selling the food. She keeps her eyes on it, though, ready to offer input. "Probably just something involving... Water and light. Rainbows and all."
When Flora hold up her little crystal, sending a flickering little rainbow over the stone surface, there is a sound of stone grinding on stone! Beings step away from the statue in surprise as a seam appears in the center of the statue and the top rotates a slow quarter turn! Now the nindescript stone has drawn considerably more attention and a little crowd starts to gather. As the stone turns, a deep, crimson stripe appears on the gray surface. The inscription seems to have changed!
Crimson Red, Like Blood
One Color, Unlocked by Light.
The Next from Fire born.
Samson turns to face Rokarion, one eyebrow raised. "A spirit? Are such things common in public places like this?" The sudden movement from the stone has him taking a step back, reaching behind his back for a weapon he would normally have been carrying. He does relax when it eventually settles down, but still keeps his distance. "If this is routine enough that people aren't scared then this is a strange city indeed..."
Flora grins and purrs to herself, tails swaying behind her. "See? Flora was right, yes... Red... Yes. Red. Like a ruby," she mutters, even as she puts her crystal away again, tail swishing behind her. "Flora doens't have them with Flora, no... Any being that has a ruby inside a piece of jewelry?" the cat calls out after a moment of contemplation, curious to see if her idea works... Though that would of course still leave the fire part.
Rokarion shrugs as he eyes Samson, "Not really, but living in a maritime city tends to expose the average beings to many varied and exotic objects and cultures so people tend to be less weirded out by them." He answered back before eyeing the new inscription, "I wonder if they want the fire to be used on the ruby or on the stone itself. Anyway, anyone got a torch or a matchstick?" he said, voice dulled as always.
With her food gotten, Lucasiel approaches the statue once more, ears flicking as she listens to the others. "Hmmm. A ruby would make sense, I suppose. Or maybe... Hm."
Cara walks through the marketplace, carrying a bag of groceries among other things. Then, she notices a group of people surrounding a large stone. Some of them are rather noticeable, "Wait, that's the plant man from the wedding and that's Flora Lontail." She walks closer to the group and looks at the stone and its inscription. She proceeds to ask, "Why is there a statue in the middle of the marketplace?"
While the gathering crowd does not seem to be afraid of the strange stone, most of them are giving it wide berth anyway. The tanuki food vendor is still doing good business, though it has slowed a bit with this new development. He leans on his cart as he serves up food, trying to see through the crowd. Behind Rokarion, a huge bear being has just lit up a cigar that he is puffing at thoughtfully. He wordlessly taps the plant on the shoulder, eyes still on the odd statue as he passes over a small book of matches.
Samson shrugs noncomitially when asked about matches. "Well, fire's as good a guess as any. We aren't going to have to do this another seven times, are we?" Seeing as this might take a while, he takes another stroll away from the sculpture, spotting what looks and smells like a food vendor. "G'morning." he says gruffly, looking over the tanuki's wares.
Flora scoffs lightly, her tail twitching and her ears flicking... "Flora... Flora will think, yes," she mumbles, before looking towards a nearby alchemist amd moving over. Taking a moment to find a small flask of translucent, red dye, she drops a sum of money on the counter that is entirely too high, seemingly not even caring about the actual price right now.
Soon enough, the she-cat is repeating her earlier spiel, holding the glass flask up to the sunlight to illuminate the egg-shaped rock.
Rokarion turns around to eye the larger bear, taking the match box from him and turning around, "Thank you." He says before he moved closer towards the sculputer and seeing Flora's attempt, he decided to light a match and set the flame in the path of the light, if that does not work he would light another match and tag the sculpture with the flame before returning the matchbox to the bear.
Lucasiel's ears flick as she watches Flora with the dye, humming to herself over her food. That certainly wasn't a ruby, but she was curious if it'd do the trick! It'd be interesting to see, certainly, and even more interesting to see what the deal with the statue was.
Cara takes a step back from the crowd for a second, away from view, and reverses her soul gem order. After which, she walks back over to the crowd and carefully inspects the stone after hearing Samson's comment. The tigress sighs and speaks, "I'm not too sure what this whole puzzle is about." She continues looking at the inscription for three minutes before she turns back to the group, smiles, and says, "Okay, I might be missing something from this puzzle, but I do know that the colors born from fire are red, orange, and yellow."
The crowd looks on in interest as Flora experiments with colored light, but it is not until Rokarion touches flame to the stone that anything happens. At the touch of flame, another seam appears and the top of the stone egg grinds another quarter turn as two orange stripes appear on either side of the red one. The inscription has changed again!
Orange, Living Flame, A second hue from fire sprung. Next, a joyful sound.
The hefty tanuki turns a smile on Samson. "Welcome to the Tanuki Express!" he says, "Best dumplings and noodles outside the Jadelands!"
Samson rubs his hands together in delight. "Great, I've been starving all morning. How much would it be for a bowl?" The rock begins to turn just as he pulls a coin pouch from his belt, rousing his attention. The new inscription is far too distant for him to read, so instead he leans against the stand. "Is this a regular thing?" he asks the vendor, trying to start up a casual conversation.
A flick of the ears, a soft rumble, and a chearful clap. Flora figures that the sounds might just work... If not, well... It's a longshot, but after a moment of contemplation, the fiery orange-hued tigress places her paw upon the egg, waiting to see if something happens.
Rokarion turns off the match and hands the bear the matchbox back, turning around to look at the inscription. Well he certainly was not going to make any joyous noises any time soon.
Cara smiles from the sudden change of the stone's color. Then her mouth forms an o shape as she realizes something. Seven times, red and orange. This is a puzzle that uses the colors of the rainbow! The tigress backs away for a moment, and then immediately speaks, "Sweet!" Then, the tigress examines the inscription from a distance this time, "What makes a joyful sound?" The orange tigress thinks for a moment, until she hears the clap from Flora Longtail. "Well, it's either that or a shout from something yellow and it's not like we have a canary to handle that." Cara immediately starts clapping as he tail moves gently through the air. In the back of her mind, she feels like a fool for not knowing exactly what to do.
"Nah," the tanuki vendor says, "Weird fox carted the thing in here this morning and just left it. Didn't know it was anything special." He grins at Samson, "Noodles are two scepters, dumplings the same and three for spring rolls."
The clapping does not seem to cause any change in the stone. . .
Samson fishes out a pair of scepters and drops them onto the counter. "Dumplings, please." He waits around until his food is ready before taking his meal closer to the action.
Flora's tail swishes, a little agitatedly as she watches the stone thing for a response, and huffls lightly as nothing comes up. Her ears twitch, and after a moment, she releases her paw from the thing, rumbling softly to herself.
Looking just a tad defeated, the feline noble stands a moment back, before her paw moves to her belly with a soft cooing sound... One of the kittens must've kicked.
Lucasiel hums softly as the statue seems to fail to react, but her attention is soon pulled elsewhere is a much smaller, giggling panther runs up to her. "Look what I caught!" comes the cheery boast of Marianne, a still very much living fish clutched in her hands. Lucasiel pulls a face at that, but reaches down to pat her daughter on the head, offering a very... Parental sort of smile. "That's... Well. Good job! But you should probably put that back, and not go reaching into the canal."
Cara glares at the stone for a second and groans, "I should have known that clapping wouldn't work." The tigress grits her teeth as she begins to think of something else that might be joyful. She smiles as she gets an idea, "Maybe it involves a musical intrument that's normally yellow. After all, the last item had the color that was sought, so shouldn't this one be the same as we-. She stops short as she notices the daughter run up to the female panther. "Okay, that's rather odd, but it's nice to see that children can fish though."
As the child's laughter echoes around the square, the statue rumbles to life again! After turning another quarter turn, two yellow stripes have appeared above and below the current stripes! A rumble of interest rises from the crowd. The inscription has changed again!
Laughter, Yellow's sign,
Another taste of Rainbow.
Let Growing Life Touch.
A smile, a rumble, and a tailflick as Flora moves closer once more, her paw touching upon the egg momentarily, her tails swaying as she waits for the stone to do its thigs. Should it fail to activate by the mere touch, she'd pull out her crystal again, to add the thin rainbow previously shining upon the rock.
Rokarion looks at the new inscription and shrugs, well green was one of the rainbow's colors, might as well try even if he thought it was unlikely. With that, Rokarion took off the glove on one of his hands and pressed his hand on the sculpture for a number of seconds before pulling it back and putting his glove back on.
Lucasiel figured that Rokarion and Flora were 'growing life'-y enough, but another take on it couldn't hurt. After Marianne returns from putting the fish back in the canal, she directs the young panther to go touch the statue, herself.
Cara stares at the inscription and looks at the green plant man walk over to the sculpture and press his hand on the sculpture. The tigress smiles, "Well, I'm glad that he just touched the statue himself. It saves me time to ask him." She watches the young panther walk up to the statue and she sighs, "Okay, that's a strange guess. Well, since I'm waiting for the statue to work again." The fit tigress eyes the pregnant Flora for a moment.
The rumble of stone on stone heralds another shift of the statue as a stripe of green appears and the inscription changes again.
Verdant Life, Marked Green,
Grown by the sun's fiery touch,
And this flowing source.
A soft rumble, a flick of Flora's ears as the she-cat pulls out a flask, pouring its contents over the stone. Water, by the looks of things. She makes sure to pull her hand back before doing so, though the beings currently still touching the stone have to be quick to avoid getting their hands wet, since the cat acts, practically without warning.
The statue rotates again with that splash of water and a thick stripe of blue appears as the inscription warps and changes again.
Blue water, drink deep,
New life bringing, life's fountain.
Bring now Royal's sign.
Rokarion taps his chin as the new inscription comes along, well he sadly does not have any royal insignia with him, but he does have some coins. And with that Rokarion delves into one of his pouches and begins looking for any Sweetwater coin with the crown's picture on it. Having a crown at hand, Rokarion pressed it onto the sculpture.
Lucasiel rests her hands on Marianne's shoulders as the young feline returns from the statue, the pair looking on with interest to see how the statue reacts to Rokarion's gesture. If it didn't work, then she hadn't a clue. That was her idea, as well.
Cara watches the plant man press a crown onto the stone and shrugs while she looks at Flora once more. "Well, since he clearly has it handled. I'd might as well try to learn more about others while I'm here." She walks closer to Flora and casually speaks, "Um, hello there."
At the touch of the gold crown, there is a final grating of stone on stone and a purple cap appears on the now colorful statue before it twists aside and an explosion of fireworks and streamers fly from the top, festooning the square in confetti and streamers! Then, with an loud CRACK the egg swings open, spilling out thousands of glittering golden crowns! The crowd murmurs with surprise, then crowds forward to get at the suddenly revealed bounty!
"Yes? Anything Flora can do for miss tigress?" the she-cat rumbles after a moment of contemplation, making sure that there is ample distance between her and the other cat still, and glancing towards her duo of guards for a short moment. A paw held up, and the cat deftly catches four golden crown between her fingers, stowing them away before repeating the feat, once, before settling her attention upon Cara once more... It seems she much prefer the solving of conundrums over the reward actually gained from that... Most any other being would've scrambled to gather as many coins as they could...
Rokarion stands back as the final puzzle is finished. When the confetti starts flying around, Rokarion lets out a sigh and starts to move away of the sculpture, rather unamusedly trying to breathe on a piece of confetti before removing it with his hand. Rokarion then leans closer and grabs one of the coins that came out of the reward before moving away, taking a look at it, he did not believe that the spirits would just give out prizes like that...especially the puzzler since it was not everyone hwo solved his puzzle.
Lucasiel was content to watch, taking no interest in what was most likely fake coin, but the confetti was a nice touch. Marianne, however, is much more easily wrapped up in the excitement of it all and rushes forward to take part in the gathering of the shiny coin.
Cara looks at the large amount of crowns for a moment and just goes back to paying attention to Flora. The crowns are probably not worth it though if a large crowd of people start surging for them. The tigress clears her throat before continuing, "Well, sorry about taking your time." She continues to eye the pregnant cat before she blushes, "Okay, I-I need a little help. I'm trying to learn how I can become a better craftsperson, but I can't seem to find any anywhere that I can practice. Can you tell about a few places where I can get some practice?"
After a moment, the press of the crowd eases up as being after being starts to laugh and hand around handfulls of the glittering coin. Marianne comes running back to Lucasiel with a handful of crown. "Look! Look!" she cries with a happy smile, "It's candy!" And so it is! The glittering coins are small, chocolate candies wrapped in gold colored foil! A tall rabbit in a fine vest and bowtie ambles over and passes a small basket of the candies to the little panther. "There you go, sweet heart," he says, "You be sure to share now!" Then he moves along, helping to distribute the prize to others. He winks and waves at an oddly dressed fox who has stopped for some lunch at the little food cart.
"That is... A question miss tigress could've asked... Anyone, really, yes." the she-cat rumbles, before gesturing at a building to the east of the market. "Craft school is over there, yes," the cat rumbles, her ears flicking softly. "Anything else Flora can do for miss tigress?"
Rokarion eyes his 'corwn', and after quickly discovering that it was a piece of sweets, the youthful plant being simply takes off the cover and shoves the candy in his mouth. Noticing the fox standing in front of the tanuki's cart. . .Rokarion moves closer hand at the ready, before stopping in his tracks and tapping his chin. Deciding on another course of action, he moves to the side and takes out his notebook and pens, leaning on one of the walls and beginning to draw the puzzler buying from the tanuki. Quite the interesting piece if he would say so!
Lucasiel smiles warmly at Marianne, giving her daughter's hair a ruffle before settling down on a bench to watch the little event, the young panther settling next to her. "Not too many now. Don't spoil your dinner! You can have more later."
Cara just stares at the slightly shorter cat and answers nervously, "Well, I thought it would be best to ask a professional craftsperson for where to start and you were right here." The tigress takes a step back and continues, "T-thank you though." She instantly runs off toward the craft school, her long tail being quite evident during her dash.
A festive atmosphere permeates the place as beings of all shapes and sizes share the treat and talk about the interesting puzzle. At the food cart, the tall rabbit has joined the odd fox and is nibbling at a dumpling. "Thanks for the invite, Puzz," he says. The fox smiles back, "No trouble, E.B," he says, smiling over the crowd and giving the smiling tanuki vendor a punch on the shoulder for no apparent reason.
