Oh. I thought we had established that we were going one move at a time?

To my mind the idea was to see whether the first move fixed the reflections of the demon, and proceed along the words of the saying from there if it did -- or try something else if it didn't. But Brimir is not the most coordinated of individuals, so I'm happy to say he knocked over the demon or otherwise dislodged it. In the name of drama and suspense.

Anyone think we should stick the unicorn medallion in the woodland figure now that it's set? That's about the only idea I have, since I'm still stumped about the medallion-statuette combinations and my theory about placements has fallen over and sunk into the swamp. I'm dreadful under perceived time-critical situations; I always prefer turn-based over real-time strategy.

Okay, I thought you were going to move them in turn when nothing happened. I misunderstood what was going on.

Also, the woodland figure denormallizes when the knight is moved away from it.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:24, Thu 18 May 2017.

So, before Brimir moved anything the knight and the woodland figure were opposite each other?  I'm still confused as to whether that was or was not the case, sorry.

If so and if we put everything back as it was then, perhaps it is having the correct opposite figures that causes them to 'normalise' rather than the mirrors they stand between?  We could try moving both the knight and the woodland figure to other positions on the table, but making sure they they are still opposite each other.  Or we could try putting other assumed opposite statues across from each other?  Like this:

1: Moving knight and Woodland Figure:

                                     Knight
                          Elf                  Mage
                          Demon                Ogre
                          Angel                Priest
                                Woodland Figure



or

2: Placing opposites:

1st move:
                                      Mage
                          Woodland             Knight
                          Demon                Angel
                          Ogre                 Priest
                                      Elf

If the Demon and Angel, 'normalise' we could then try setting this up:

                                      Ogre
                          Woodland             Knight
                          Demon                Angel
                          Mage*                Priest*
                                      Elf

*Divine Magic vs Holy, maybe?  Education/Knowledge vs Blind Faith?

So, did Brimir's moves happen or not? I think it's fair to have had it happen, since you've already showed us the result, and we could gain quite some information out of those moves.

The layout in msg 192 was how it started.

The knight was moved opposite the woodland figure, at which point the woodland figure normalized.

The knight was moved back to its original position and you started talking about what to do next.

Brimir stated that he planned to rotate the knight around to see if any other statues normalized.

He was given the go ahead and stated that he started. Since he was only moving one figure at a time, he continued the action.

The timer started when he picked up the demon statue.

I had said not to spam a wall of text, so I can understand why only one action was assumed. At the time of the post, you had not yet activated the timer. You now have a countdown, though you haven't figured out how long it is yet.

I am ruling right now that Brimir has the demon statue in hand.

So we're at step 5 of Brimir's moves now? That's the step where the demon got moved.

Correct

Simple enough miscommunication, prompted by my over-enthusiastic discussion in the OOC here.  I think I may have misunderstood the placements, and definitely didn't put in an accurate enough description of the single move (I probably should have just posted the layout, but I didn't want to make the IC thread untidy), or checking to see that there was a change before continuing on. I didn't realise that the Knight had been moved back to its original position either, not that it makes a great deal of difference to the initial move.

I do apologise for the lack of clarity. Thank you for your patience, GM.

As Kharash has observed, we now have information we didn't previously -- that which is seen cannot be un-seen. So I had no intention of asking for a retcon regardless.

To the task at hand: I like Griswold's proposed opposition pairings. 'Faith vs Formula' is a solid juxtaposition. I guess we should try that in as few moves as possible, unless there are other suggestions that everyone things are worth trying first?

So we're currently at:

Demon - Brimir's Hand

                                   Statuettes
                                      Woodland
                          Knight               Ogre
                                               Mage
                          Angel                Priest
                                      Elf


So... Put the Demon back in its spot? Then if we swap Ogre and Woodland we can see if the opposition of Ogre and Elf normalises the two (and that puts Knight back opposite Woodland).


                                   Statuettes
                                      Ogre
                          Knight               Woodland
                          Demon                Mage
                          Angel                Priest
                                      Elf


IF that works, we can swap Angel and Mage.

Feel free to prompt Brimir in the IC when we've agreed on the next move.

That seems fine to me :)

Sure, go ahead Brimir.

Although I suspect there is a different pattern behind this, at least this move will give us some insight.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:04, Thu 18 May 2017.

I'm eager to hear more of these suspicions. Am at work so will post when able.

The woodland figure normalized even though it wasn't opposite of the knight, it was 2 steps counter-clockwise. Also the saying on the mirror basically says to lead and the rest will follow. To me this suggests that we have to find the next statue to normalize one at a time, continuously adding to what we already have.


                     [ Kingdom ]
                         mage

         [ Lead ]                 [ Example ]
         woodland                   knight


   [ By ]                                    [ To ]
    demon                                      ogre


          [ The ]                  [ Entire ]
            angel                     priest

                     [ Inspire ]
                         elf

This was the situation where the woodland figure normalized, it also denormalized upon removal of the knight, so the woodland figure is dependent on the knight. This could be the case for the next statue as well, it may be dependent on the normalized woodland figure.

We don't know yet to what extent the position on the table/in front of the mirror matters. What we do know is that even if it does (if the woodland figure is in the right spot) it still needs the knight to be in position.

I think we should work with what we already have, which are two correct positions. However, we have to find out if the normalization is dependent on only the location between statues, or if it also depends on the mirrors.

What I would therefore suggest it to put the woodland figure on the [ The] mirror spot, switching the woodland and angel to create this:

                   Statuettes
                     Angel
              Knight         Ogre
        Demon                      Mage
             Woodland       Priest
                      Elf               

I think its a good idea to test whether moving the knight and woodland figure pairing to another place opposite each other cause the woodland figure to unfreeze or not  However, I think you are moving far too many statues.  If you wanted to get the knight directly above the woodland, this would require less moves:

                   Statuettes
                     Mage
              Knight         Angel
        Demon                      Ogre
             Woodland       Priest
                      Elf

Sorry, if I am missing something behind your moves.

That said, I am still confused about the position of things.  GM, please could you confirm which statues are currently opposite each other, assuming the current layout is:

                     Mage
             Woodland       Knight
        Demon                      Ogre
             Angel          Priest
                      Elf

Are the opposites:
a)Mage & Elf, Woodland & Knight, Demon & Ogre, Angel & Priest
or
b)Mage & Elf,Knight & Angel, Ogre & Demon, Priest & Woodland

Btw Kharash - I hope your theory about having to find the next statue to freeze is wrong. If we have to find the correct statue 'freezing' order, then this puzzle cannot be solved logically.  It can only be solved by trial and error, which means it isn't really a puzzle at all.  Just a task to see how quickly we can move statues around the table.

You are correct on the A layout.

We're currently at:



Though it seems I had different opposites in mind. In that case the knight and woodland figure were indeed opposite of each other, and it would then be a good idea to follow through with Brimir's original plan to do this:

Many thanks ^^

I just realised that I was -- somehow -- completely failing to visualise an octagon correctly.

Not my finest hour. But accurate role-playing of disadvantage on Intelligence rolls. :)

Happy to go with any suggestion, once there's a narrative prompt in the IC thread.

Since Brimir is still holding the Demon, it would be quicker to do this:

                                   Statuettes
                                    Woodland
                          Knight               Ogre
                          Priest               Mage
                          Angel                Demon
                                      Elf

We can then see if we are correct about the Priest & Mage + Angel and Demon pairings.  And, if we are, we know that the Elf and Ogre will also pair up.

Go ahead Griswold :)

Sorry everyone; ran into some issues with extra work and medical stuff. Back on deck now.

@GM - presumably there is currently no readily apparent lock to use the key on? (I am assuming one or more doors/whatevers will appear once we have the medallions correct).

@Everyone - I think we were all pretty much agreed on trying the rose medallion with the knight.  Should we try that next?

You are correct. No apparent door or keyhole.

Kharash placed the rose medallion in the base of the knight statuette in post #204 of the IC thread. From that, it's probably still in there. No change noted from book or rose medallions in knight statuette.

Concerning the medallions, is there any place for them to fit in that we've seen so far? Are they just sitting on the table, or is there a small nook or indentation that each of them sits in?

Right. I had forgotten.  Sorry and thanks. :)



There is a place on the statues where they fit.