The door is there. It is real now that the spell revealed it. It is still a door with colored panels and iron hinges and scrollwork.


This message was last edited by the GM at 02:56, Tue 18 July 2017.

Leaning closer, but not too close, lilbug peered quizzically at the door.  It was an odd door, indeed, and he could see no clear indication of how it opened.  Since he could see the iron hinges, it should, he reasoned, open outwards, towards them, but where was the latch, the knob, pull ring or handle by which he could open this enchanted portal?

"It certainly is a colourful door, and the scroll work is unusual, but I don't understand, how do you open it?"

"It is a puzzle. These are mathematical symbols, see? The middle row is where we are to set numbers, and the top and bottom rows are equations. These equal signs indicate that the top and bottom row have the same numbers as the middle row. From these signs we see that the first and second number, added together, must equal the third and fourth multiplied, and vice-versa. Hmm."

She glances at the numbers. "No zero. That would have been easiest." She pauses. "Perhaps if we filled every slot with two? Two times two is two plus two. Hopefully it will let us duplicate numbers."

Crow shook his head slightly when Sparrow suggested they input all "2"s into the empty slots.  "That would be too easy.  Almost as easy as putting in wll zeroes.  No... I think we're expected to put in different numbers for each slot."

The young bard rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he studied the puzzle before them.  He traced the tip of his finger along the palm of his other hand as though he were writing on it.  He immediately decided to avoid the larger numbers for now and start with the smaller ones.  The larger the number, the less likely the multiplied result would equal the sum of two single digit numbers.

After thinking about it for a moment, he told Sparrow, "Try 1, 5, 2, and 3."

Peering at the unusual puzzle door, lilbug had to chuckle at Sparrow's suggestion.

"I do agree with Master Crow, Sparrow.  It most certainly was meant to be understood by the Mage alone, although it is undoubtedly solvable, like any riddle, given time."

Seeing the Master Bard tackling the problem, the slave boy stepped back to let him work.  Honestly, lilbug was not at all sure what the answer might be, although he was intrigued and started to think about the possibilities quietly.

"It looks like we need only four numbers, but that the total must read the same forwards and backwards" She looked at it carefully trying to figure it out, then gave a bit of a snorted snicker.  "You know if Stardancer was here she'd have already found the answer or a way around it.  Remember the stories Sparrow that you, your master, she and Rinaldo told us about the caverns?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 05:43, Fri 21 July 2017.

 Thee door waits with endless patience since it wasn't going anywhere anytime soon.

[*]x[*]=[*]+[*]
 "    "    "    "
[*] [*] [*] [*]
 "    "    "    "
[*]+[*]=[*]x[*]


1 2 3 4 5 6
  7 8 9
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 05:59, Fri 21 July 2017.

"Master Crow...If you would do the honors then?" she gestured.  Not exactly a master banker Xi would rely on Crows talents to make a suitable judgement.

"Eh?  Okay... sure," Crow shrugged in response before stepping up to the door.  He glanced at the puzzle on more time before inputting what he believed to be the correct answer.

[*]x[*]=[*]+[*]
 "   "   "   "
[1] [5] [2] [3]
 "   "   "   "
[*]+[*]=[*]x[*]


1 2 3 4 5 6
  7 8 9

Crow tries to solve the puzzle. While the numbers seem to work right, the door doesn't open. Perhaps the numbers are in the wrong order.


[1]x[5]=[2]+[3]
 "   "   "   "
[1] [5] [2] [3]
 "   "   "   "
[1]+[5]=[2]x[3]

"Huh... didn't work... why is that?" Crow muttered mostly to himself as he stared at the numbers.  He recalculated the numbers 1, 5, 2, and 3 in his head, making sure that he had done the math correctly.  "The math is right.  I'm sure of it, which means those arrows next to the empty slots must mean something."

He tapped his head for a moment and ran through all of the possibilities.

"If it's a matter of what order they're put in, then... there are eight possibilities:
[1] [5] [2] [3]
[1] [5] [3] [2]
[5] [1] [2] [3]
[5] [1] [3] [2]
[2] [3] [1] [5]
[2] [3] [5] [1]
[3] [2] [1] [5]
[3] [2] [5] [1]
Of course, we already tried [1] [5] [2] [3], so that leaves seven left that hasn't been tried yet.  So... if no one else has any ideas, shall I try them all?"

Xi stared at it a moment or so "Crow?...What about the arrows in the middle row?  Look they all are pointing leftward" she gave a hand gesture for it "Try the last combo..but put the blocks in starting on the right" she then shrugged.  Better than standing about doing nothing.

"Alright, lets give it a try, then," Crow replied nonchalantly as he input the numbers in the order that Xi suggested.

No change.

Scratching his head, lilbug peered quizzically at the number puzzle and the strange door.  He shook his head as thinking too hard about the numbers began to give him a head ache.

"I think the numbers you tried at first are correct, Master Crow, although my knowledge of them is undoubtedly inferior to your own.  Perhaps if we switched the order around?"

[5]x[1]=[3]+[2]
 "   "   "   "
[5] [1] [3] [2]
 "   "   "   "
[5]+[1]=[3]x[2]

No change

"Perhaps we should simply try all the combinations with these numbers? There seems to be no ill effect from a mistake", Sparrow offered.

"Eh... these arrows have to mean something... maybe they're greater than or equal signs, in which case, Sparrow's initial solution would be right," Crow said as his finger hovered over the number '2'.  "Before we try every combination, let's see if she was right all along."

[2]x[2]=[2]+[2]
 "   "   "   "
[2] [2] [2] [2]
 "   "   "   "
[2]+[2]=[2]x[2]

If still no change occured, then Crow would proceed to enter every combination of [1], [5], [2], and [3] that fit the equations.

Frowning, lilbug watched Crow manipulate the numbers.  He was becoming more and more nervous with each attempt.  It seemed VERY unlikely the door would simply allow someone to input numbers as much as they wanted until they cracked the code.

"We do need to be careful, I think," the slave boy asserted, uncharacteristically for him.  "It only makes sense that there would be a consequence to failing, perhaps a certain number of attempts is allowed."

No change... except for a sound deep inside the door. "CLUNK!" The lock still stays locked.

"Um, chunk?  Is that a good sound?  I am sure I heard it make a sound!"  The slave didn't know whether to be hopeful or scared .

"Uh... you know what?  Maybe we should be careful with this, after all," Crow chuckled nervously as he slowly backed away from the door.  He had no idea what he just did, but he certainly didn't like the sound of that loud CLUNK!  "So... anyone have any ideas about what those arrows might mean?  Pretty sure that's the last piece of this puzzle before we find the answer we were looking for.  Assuming we still have another chance to solve it, of course."

"Well...How about we ask the cat?" She asked..who knows ...It might work.  Perhaps it was intelligent enough to have seen its master choose the numbers.

 "Meow Meow."

The slave boy blinked, looking at the numbers.  He scratched his head trying to understand what the right answer could be.  Finally a thought came to him.  He was nervous to try anything, after the door had made such an ominous sound, but they couldn't just stand there all day either.


"I think the numbers you tried at first are correct, Master Crow, let me try them this way...and cross your fingers and toes while you're at it, please.  If I'm wrong and get us all killed, Mistress will be mad at me!

[3]x[2]=[5]+[1]
 "   "   "   "
[3] [2] [5] [1]
 "   "   "   "
[3]+[2]=[5]x[1]