Announce post #3309: City Riddle Contest Results!

Autoposter · January 2022

1/17/2022 at 7:46
Ictinus, the Architect
Everyone
City Riddle Contest Results!

Hi folks!

The city riddles contest is concluded in a much quicker time than we anticipated!

Coming in first was Bloodloch, in second was Duiran, third was Spinesreach, and Enorian took fourth place.

The collaborative effort that everyone put into this was really encouraging to see, and while some of them were obvious in hindsight, they weren't all easy!

I hope everyone who participated enjoyed themselves! For those interested, I'll be commenting on this post's forum thread with a full breakdown of the riddles and their answers.

As we now have an unexpected gap in the calendar, we've arranged an impromptu event which Ere will be posting about right after this!

Penned by my hand on Closday, the 23rd of Ios, in the year 500 MA.

Ictinus · January 2022

As promised, here's the outline of all the riddles and their solutions! There were 9 "neutral" riddles that everyone had to solve, and each city also had 1 riddle unique to them.

NEUTRALS
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Through the woods of poor sanctuary, where civilisation dwelt the most in, and the gates never open.
Answer: Before the gate to Dennel, in Ilhavon Forest.

Biggest clues:
* Illhavon = ill haven, rewritten could be poor sanctuary.
* Most in is a play on 'Mostyn'.
* Dennel was a village within Ilhavon.
* Gates never opened because the village was wiped out.

A storm of filth in citadel's wake, where cloth and bucket a home make - no hiding in here!
Answer: Within a cleaning supply closet, in the Squal.

Biggest clues:
* The citadel in question was Ciem, upon which the Squal was built.
* A squall is another word for storm.
* Squalor is another word for filth.
* Cloth and bucket can be found in supply closets, usually!

Where four five and six are the same as one two and three, chains break at the peak, go free.
Answer: A hilltop before a mansion, in the Atlatl Plantation.

Biggest clues:
* The numbers refer to the letters in the name ATLATL. First three letters are the same as the exact same as the last three letters.
* At the hilltop (peak), you can knock on the doors to escape the maze (go free).

All that's brittle is bone, in a drift but not adrift, frozen memory sequestered.
Answer: A massive, bone-littered chamber, in the Ankyrean Containment Laboratory.

Biggest clues:
* The entrance to the area is from a room described as a 'snowdrift' in the Tundra.
* The bone refers to the specific room.
* Frozen memory sequestered is a second clue pointing it towards the Tundra. Frozen memory can hint towards some sort of ruin or corpse.

The mighty hath fallen where the queen quoth no more - she won't be mist.
Answer: Before a massive fallen oak in Dromse.

Biggest clues:
* Oaks are often referred to as "mighty".
* Dromse is adjacent to Belladona's Keep - a place where the queen no longer speaks.
* The missed/mist pun refers to the mist enshrouding both the lake surrounding the keep and Dromse itself.
* Quoth is a reference to The Raven (though it was not intended to be the crux of the clue!)

My first is the mind, my second is blood, my third was a mixture, and my fourth a mystery. My fifth caught the sun and opened the door.
Answer: Outer sanctuary in Masilia.

Biggest clues:
* These were the five puzzles that had to be solved in order to open the door to the Aechros confluence.

From cattle neck to crier's palm to wedding's song to war's alarm - a tribute to these all in haunting darkness knell.
Answer: The Shrine of Bells in Sterion.

Biggest clues:
* All of these refer to bells (cowbell, crier's bell, wedding bell, alarm bell).
* A shrine is a monument or tribute to something.
* Sterion is heavily related to darkness.

Vassals to a broken lord, the dead walk but here they should rest in view of the light.
Answer: Graveyard with an eerie glow in Mor.

Biggest clues:
* The undead in Mor are loyal to Zsarachnor, a now-broken vampire lord.
* A graveyard is somewhere the dead should rest.
* This graveyard has an eerie glow (light).

My quarrying days are done - retired from use but not from service. Once there was blood in the stone below, but now forgotten.
Answer: The Broken Pick tavern in Khauskin.

Biggest clues:
* A broken pick isn't used anymore, but the tavern still offers service.
* There used to be vampires below Khauskin, and the area has a history with Bloodloch (blood in the stone below).
* The Forgotten Mausoleum is now under the village.

CITY UNIQUES
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Between life and death I dwell in shades of black, arms outstretched to shelter dark's gift and magic's legacy.
Answer: Beneath the laden boughs of a towering black oak in Abelaas.

Biggest clues:
* Abelaas is in the crater of Hashan, between a dead city and a living forest.
* The tree itself is black.
* In mythology, Hashan was a gift to Sapience from Severn (dark's gift)
* The blasted crater was left behind after the awakening of Odravh (the Albedi God of Magic and the Arcane).

Four sentinels turn away from the sea, staring inward at the heart of industry.
Answer: Village centre in Kornar.

Biggest clues:
* Four statues surround the central room, these are the sentinels in question.
* They look towards the market and not the sea, Kornar is a coastal town.
* The heart of industry and trade often tends to be the centre of a village market.

In a place of renewal where the old became new and the vile became whole - at the breach, a clash of twins broke me.
Answer: The west dock in Jaru.

Biggest clues:
* Jaru was healed from its plague of darkness and renewed.
* The Arqeshi found a home here, purified from their "vile" state of original Nazetu.
* At the edge of the water (where the sea is split from the land), Xaseira blew up the dock while Shadow and Spirit were fighting over the right to board her ship.

Neath endless dust did sixty percent gather ere defeat and here 'midst vile experiments make ends meat.
Answer: A clinical abbatoir in Tornos.

Biggest clues:
* Endless dust refers to the tundra and the vast snow covering the land above.
* Sixty percent refers to three of the five Ankyrean conclaves that worked in Tornos originally.
* An abbatoir is another term for a slaughterhouse - typically used to slaughter livestock for meat.

Illikaal · January 2022

Oh I was expecting blues clues but these were CLUES clues. Seeing the line of thinking in these is really helpful, and I think it's a really awesome event even though I didn't get to participate much!