RuneScape Forum Archive

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Chapter 5 Riddle Me This

After Ava dons her frog head with a sigh, Suspi (though he doesn’t help us) has us carry Hamlet all the way to Falador. By Falador, I mean the outskirts of the great white city where are there too many trees and too many footpaths for my liking. We take one path that seems to lead nowhere but deeper into the trees. Broken fencing lines the path. I haven’t been anywhere near here before, but at least, Dawn seems to be in tour guide mode.
“This is the road to the Crafting Guild. And the Makeover Mage,” she murmurs. “Down that road is Rimmington.”
Rimmington: near where the refuges from Crandor made camp and later got roasted by a very angry, ferocious dragon. I shiver, and Dawn takes my hand in hers. “Cold?” she asks me with a skeptical look.
I chuckle. “Nah. Just thinking.” She knows me too well. She knows I’m thinking about the dragon. Her grip on my hand gives me courage. I’ll take down that dragon…somehow. Uh…but maybe I should just worry about the map for now.
"Where are we going anyway?” I ask.
“The Makeover Mage,” Suspi says with a twinkle in his eyes. No one’s eyes have the right to be that twinkly…
Dawn glances down at Hamlet and considers for a moment. “He might make a pretty girl.”
Wait? What? Perhaps noticing my goggled-eye look, Dawn explains, “The Makeover Mage can switch your gender.”
But...but... "Then how do we know if someone is really a girl or a really a guy if you can switch at will?” I ask, flabbergasted.
Suspi’s lip curls upward with amusement. “Well, not quite at will. Usually one must pay a 3000gp fee, but the Mage will gladly to a favor on my behalf and help your friend.” He talks so fancy…I don’t like it for some reason.

“Does it matter if we know a person’s real gender?” Ava answers my question with her own.
I frown. “A little. Not really. Dawn…”
“We have met, so…” she interrupts dryly.
“I know,” I butt in. “Wait, you still remember there’s a world outside this one?”

16-Oct-2010 02:11:28

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Dawn lifts an eyebrow. “Yes.”
“Have you tried logging out?”
“Yes…”
“But you can’t!” I whip out my calculatormabob and point at it. Where the log out button should be there’s….a log out button. Now everyone is looking at me as if I’ve gone loco.
Dawn pats my head, and my skin goes hot at the touch. “Maybe you should take a break before taking on the rest of the quest.”
A sudden nagging suspicion makes me pause. The log out button had disappeared when I was with…Carrying Hamlet’s legs and stumbling at my sudden stop, Ava gives me a resentful look. Strangely enough, Suspi has taken no notice whatsoever of her scars. Then, when I give Ava an apologetic look, I see her face as it would be without scars. I nearly drop Hamlet’s upper half in shock.
Ava steps away, stretching poor Hamlet, as I gawk. “What?”
“Freak…” Dawn nudges me away and hooks her hands under Hamlet’s arms, so that half his entire weight is in her hands alone and out of my unreliable ones. “Head back to Falador and then towards the mountain. Go speak to the oracle. We’ll meet you at the Rising Sun Inn when you’re done.”
Suspi makes no comment as I stumble away. As they walk away, I hear him say, “Well, let’s hurry.” When my head turns to look at them, I catch Suspi smiling at me. You know, those warm, sunny smiles that are sickeningly sweet? Well, it’s one of those, except inverse, inverted and pure evil.
When I try to step towards them, I realize I’m frozen in place. No movement whatsoever. I command my legs, and they’re as still as posts. How could I have been stupid enough to suspect innocent Tigerstar? It’s Suspi who’s been messing with my mind.
“NOOOO! Come back!” I want to wail, but my throat is clogged too. I manage a squawk that sounds like a dying parrot. A few minutes pass until the tension in my legs passes. I run in the direction they had gone in, but they’re out of sight. Crap.

16-Oct-2010 02:12:53

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Well, Dawn can take care of herself. And the others. I hope. Maybe, I muse as I walk back towards Fally, I had imagined that evil smile. Hmm… When I dig out the calculatormabob again, the log out button is gone again. Maybe the missing log out button is part of this fantasy I’ve concocted for seemingly no apparent reason. Or perhaps a fantasy to cope with Dawn’s rejection of me. Maybe the bottom line is: I’m going crazy.
Well, crazy or not, I’m going to finish the quest. Thus feeling all determined and motivated, I stomp all the way to Falador. Okay, so the feeling isn’t determination. More like frustration.
By the time I pass by the dwarves, who seem strangely wary of me, I'm halfway to Ice Mountain, an my frustration fades to anxiety. What if Dawn and the others aren’t okay? What if Suspi…kills them? Yet somehow my mind can’t conjure the picture of that hunched, little man killing anyone. He seems too frail. Of course, that may be the very fatal mistake his last victims made before they were…
I let the thought trail away. I pass by another dwarf, and he flinches away, raising his steel pickaxe. “What is it?” I sound like a petulant little child who’s been deprived of cookies, but I can’t help it.
“We are not cute. Nor are we teddy bears,” the dwarf says with a serious face. Meanwhile, I can’t help laughing.
Teddy bears?! Okay, dwarves are cute but not that cute! Wait…did I just admit that teddy bears are cute? But not out loud at least. The hilarity of the situation eases the slight blow to my manly pride. The dwarf frowns. “It is no laughing matter. There was a lunatic who came around earlier and began hugging us all.”
“Well, I’m not that lunatic.” Just give me a few more days, and I’ll be like him, hugging dwarves left and right.
The dwarf prods me with the pickaxe, and I’m immediately sober. By the serious set of his little face, I can tell more laughter would possibly result in a beating with a pick-axe. “Anyway,” I say breezily, “where’s the Oracle?

16-Oct-2010 02:14:29

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Up the mountain,” the dwarf replies. So unhelpful and grumpy. But I suppose being hugged against your will is a form of mol3station.
I bow to him and grin as the paranoid dwarf lifts his pickaxe. “Thank you, sir dwarf.” Then I’m on my way to Ice Mountain again when I run straight into Dave. Yep. Green-hair guy. And he has a bone to pick with me. Well, maybe he just wants to make bones of me…
I dodge as he lunges for my throat. “Hey, I’m busy," I tell him. “No time for picking fights.”
Dave gives a great “hahahahahahahahahahaha.” No really. His laugh lasts for quite some time. The corner of his eye twitches as soon as he’s finished cackling. “No one makes a fool out of me. I am special. I was specially chosen.”
I back away. Special Boy is scaring me, but even so, I question, “Who chose you?”
“The master,” Dave says softly, taking a step forward for every step I take backward. And then, there are no more steps to take backward. My back has hit a dirt cliff.
“Who is your master?” A smart minion would not reveal his master’s name, but I ask anyway.
Dave smirks. “Blade. You already know him.”
“I do?” Blade? I ruminate for a moment, casually sidestepping as Dave runs at me. He really needs to try a new fighting method. My bruise throbs as a hammer hits my side. I stumble away and find a rune warhammer in my face. Crud.
Then Dave, with his mouth open in a surprised “o” shape, drops the warhammer, nearly on my foot. I have to withdraw my leg fast to avoid another unpleasant bruise. Behind Dave stands a man with a cool brown cavalier hat and blood-red chainmail. He considers the comatose Dave for a moment before bringing down his hand in a vicious karate-chop like motion to Dave’s neck. Broke the man’s spine, I’m guessing.
Right before my eyes, Dave dissipates, leaving behind a pile of bones instead of the cold corpse that I had anticipated. The assassin’s tawny eyes, which matches the hair grown slightly past the guy’s muscular shoulders, flick to me.

16-Oct-2010 02:16:37

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“I love assassins,” I say, my voice high-pitched with nervousness. “They are simply awesome.”
He raises an eyebrow at me. “I’m a mercenary.”
“My mistake.” So, if Dave was working for Blade, who is the source of all evil, does that mean the mercenary’s on my side? “So…”
“Well, that was easy,” the mercenary says with a smirk.
I blink. “Why did you kill him? I mean, you could have just taken that warhammer away and given him a scolding. Or something like that…”
He doesn’t even bother continuing the conversation. Instead, hefting a long bow with blackened, clawed ends to his hip, he starts walking away. Man, that’s a scary bow. I’ve never seen a bow like that before…then again, I’ve never seen a guy like him before. His armor seems so fancy, almost foreign.
“What’s your name?” I call after him.
He freezes, his shoulders rigid with annoyance. Then those shoulders relax, perhaps as he realizes that I could do no real harm with that information. “Reaver Coyot.”
“I’m Freak.” By the way he walks out of sight, I can tell that he could care less about my name.
Hmm. Reaver. Thinking back to my vocab lessons, I recognize the name as a verb meaning “to carry or tear away.” How appropriate for a mercenary. And this Blade fellow, who I apparently know but don’t recall meeting, has a similarly scary name.
When I finish my musings, my ribs scream in agony. Dave probably broke a few…The sooner I…I can’t even finish the thought as I collapse. No…can’t die now...I grasp at the grass tickling my nose until even my fingers grow still and numb.
---
I wake to the light brushing of fingers along my forehead. Gasping for breath, I open my eyes. “Tigerstar?”
She exhales in relief. Her dark eyes shimmer at me, and I blush like an idiot. “You were nearly…” She trails off and shows me a leftover quarter of cake. “A guy named Monty gave me a random cake in Barbarian Village. I was walking to Falador when I saw you…I forced some down your throat. I hope you don’t mind?”

16-Oct-2010 02:19:15

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“Mind?” I laugh. “You saved my life! Thank you.”
Tigerstar blushes. “Where were you going?”
“To the Oracle on top of Ice Mountain.” I stand and stretch, glad to feel my bruises gone. The cake is not a lie. The cake just saved me. “Want to come along?”
Looking distressed, Tigerstar turns away. What did I say this time? “Sorry,” I immediately apologize.
"It’s not you,” she replies. “I shouldn’t have acted so cold earlier. You’re such a nice person to still invite me along. Of course, you would help anyone, even that…Ava, is her name?”
I nod. That what? Uneasiness floods me as Tigerstar loops an arm around my waist. I have to wonder if Mordred would approve. Mordred isn’t here, the evil part of my mind argues.
She gives me a sweet smile. “Let’s go?”

“Sure.” We reach the mountain and pick a path through the snow to the top. By the time we see the lady with two broad streaks of red across each cheek and another red mark creeping up from between her eyebrows to her hairline, I’m too tired and cold to scream in terror.
Her eyes are black holes with pinpricks of yellow, an eerie sight against her slightly blue tinged skin. If she’s a Smurf, she’s the strangest one I’ve ever seen. Chances are, she’s not a Smurf. I suppose it would be impolite to ask.

"Hi there,” I offer. “Do you know—”
The Oracle widens her eyes and then snorts. "Hi there? I should be paid more for this…”
Paid? “It’s your job?”
“To aid clueless adventurers,” she returns.
Oooh, snap. Snippy, are we?
“I’m not telling you anything until I start getting paid more.” The Oracle crosses her arms.
I must admit her dried-blood-color top and skirt are rather ragged. Still, why now? "But…but,” I try my best, trembly innocent-child voice, “how can I possibly get a map piece if you don’t help me? Us adventurers need you.”

16-Oct-2010 02:21:16 - Last edited on 24-Oct-2010 18:30:32 by Fireheart449

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

“We adventurers need you,” the Oracle corrects my grammar with a shake of her head. “Please, don’t ever attempt to flatter someone. The next person may not be so merciful to you.”
I grin, and Tigerstar laughs. “You mean, you’ll tell me where the map piece is?”
The Oracle sighs. “Yes.” She lifts her arms and raises her eyes to the Heavens. “Listen to me well. You will find what you seek when you solve this riddle…”
Riddles! Tons of fun! Really…? Slaying a dragon is hard enough, but to add a riddle and a maze and torn maps into the bargain…
The oracle proclaims dramatically, so her voice echoes in my ears:
“The map’s behind a door below/
but entering is rather tough./
This is what you need to know:/
You must use the following stuff./
First, a drink used by a mage./
Next, some worm string, changed to sheet./
Then, a small crustacean cage./
Last, a bowl that’s not seen heat.”
Oh, it rhymed! I do love rhymes...but the contents of the riddle have already escaped my mind. “Could you repeat that? Slowly?” I say anxiously as I rummage in my pack for my map. At last, this useless piece of parchment will come in handy.
The Oracle gives me THE look. Tigerstar grips my arm and pulls me away. I’m too depressed to protest. When we’re off the mountain, Tigerstar cups my chin with her long, lovely fingers.
“No worries,” she says. “I memorized the riddle.”
I beam at her, and she waves at me like it’s nothing. “It’s the least I can do,” she adds. “Shall we go find the items in the riddle?”
Items? At my puzzled look, Tigerstar recites patiently (admirable that), “The map’s behind a door below/but entering is rather tough.”
She gives me a moment until I point excitedly at Ice Mountain. “There’s a door under the mountain! In the Dwarven Mines! That we have to unlock…somehow…”

16-Oct-2010 02:22:50

Fireheart449

Posts: 1,028 Mithril Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile

Tigerstar nods, making her pigtails fly up charmingly. Mental slap. Ow. I have to stop distracting myself… She continues coaching me through the riddle until I’ve got it all figured out. Why do you have to unlock a door with the most random array of stuff in all of Runescape?
“Shall we go get the items?” Tigerstar inquires, practically jogging in place with excitement. She reminds me for a moment of me as a noob, albeit prettier and less clumsy.
I take her hands. Perfectly innocently, by the way. “Sure, but first I have to meet Dawn, Ava and…” I can’t call the girl Hamlet by his real name. “And another friend at the Rising Sun,” I finish.
Looking apprehensive, Tigerstar tells me, “I’ll come with you, but I won’t talk to Ava.”
I pretend to give her a stern glower. Then the glower slips from my face as she gives me an innocent, wide-eyed expression. Not talking to people doesn’t solve problems, but maybe it’s better if Tigerstar keeps her mouth shut around Ava. Ah, crud, that’s assuming Ava and the others are still alive to meet me in Falador. Grr, Suspi better not have harmed a hair on their heads!
“Let’s go.” I feel guilty all of a sudden, especially since Tigerstar’s arm is around my waist again. But what else could I have done? Suspi made sure I couldn’t follow them. When I find them, that weird man is getting a serious beatdown. Well, maybe…if the pacifist in me will allow it.
~End of Chapter 5~
You guys can post now!