Kyngdom Survival Guide
Labyrinth Tunnels End?
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Labyrinth Tunnels End?
Labyrinth Tunnels End?
If you're new here, start at the first labyrinth post. All the labyrinth posts live on the Power of Claw page.
Four of us stand at the four corners of the chamber. We count down, 1, 2, 3, and click our combination locks into place at the same time:
C-R-Y.
L-I-N-E.
J-U-P-I-T-E-R.
Z-E-N-I-T-H.
The door rumbles and then shifts a little bit inward, giving way. We've solved the last riddles! We've finally earned whatever is behind this heavy wooden door. I'm standing right in front of it, and I push, putting the whole weight of my body into it—and the door gives way...
...to an empty room with no exit? Everyone stands in the doorway, looking blankly around at the room. Have we just traveled three weeks, solving puzzle after puzzle, for this? I mean, it's a beautiful chamber, with a little bit of sunlight trickling down. It could use a little less drill noise—the drills just won't let up. But otherwise, I could imagine camping here quite happily, I guess?
The old badger seems to be the only one excited about this development. He trots past me, dumping the rest of his green stones into his mouth and swallowing. "THE FINAL ROOM! THE BARK! THE LETTERS ON THE BARK!"
He snatches it away from me, crosses off four more letters, and hands it back.
I look down at it. Seventeen letters are crossed off. Eleven letters remain. Uhh...
"Don't you see?" the old badger says, pointing at the bark.
"No," I say, "and while we're talking about confusing things, how come you can suddenly talk?"
"Those Vailiria stones, the little green ones, they're the only things that restore my power of speech. Each stone only gives me one minute of speech. I've been saving them for this last chamber, so I couldn't be much help to you earlier. I just swallowed the last of them, so we should be able to talk for another...fifteen minutes at best."
"How did you lose your power of speech?" Silverpaw chimes in.
"It was taken from me by a...powerful...creature long ago, when I was the Guardian of the Power of Claw."
We look around at each other. Of course! We had wondered about this, but it didn't seem possible for a retired Guardian to outlive his successor. But I suppose the most recent Guardian died so young, and this badger was very, very old...
"So...is this where the Power of Claw was originally kept?"
"Of course. This was the Claw Outpost, built around the same time as all the other outposts. Except I was much more ambitious than your average guardian. I wasn't satisfied with building a crummy little shack on top of a mountain or something. I wanted a truly secure Outpost."
"You built this?" I asked.
"Well, I had help. This was back when humans and animals had treaties and alliances. You might've read about those times in your Sprocketville textbooks, unless B.I.G. has started censoring them. It actually brought a tear to my dry old badger eye when I saw you with Little Crow for the first time—it's not often that you see animals and humans working together anymore." He sighs.
I'm touched but unsure how to respond. Like an idiot, I bite my lip.
"Anyway, I got human engineers, beavers, moles, and all sorts of diggers and builders to help me build these tunnels and their gates and doors and locks. The animals didn't need much convincing. The humans did. I told them we'd use the area as a bunker in case of war or natural disaster. No matter what treaties we had signed, a human couldn't know about the Powers. But of course that's gone out the proverbial window now."
"I can't believe you built all this..."
"Believe it! Well, I didn't engineer those locks, and I didn't carve those riddles. That's why I couldn't help you with them. They were done by a human—a prodigy named Martin Sheepshank. He was only twelve at the time, and he was already light years ahead of the other humans. He could actually speak to the animals, you know, long before anyone else could."
"Martin Sheepshank? Do you mean Dr. Sheepshank?"
"Ha! I'd be shocked if he hadn't earned a PhD by now."
"I studied under him at a place called Cypher Labs! And if you're saying he could talk to animals all those years ago, he must've invented the Cyph..."
"You're distracting yourself from the point, Charlene! You're distracting EVERYONE!"
"It's Charlie."
"I'm sorry, my throat is getting a bit *cough* rusty. Now look at the letters that remain—the nine letters that remain."
"No, silly, there are eleven letters left," Little Crow says, fluttering onto my shoulder.
"Little Crow?! You're back! Where did you..."
"NO TIME FOR THE BIRD!" the old badger interrupted. "The BARK. The nine letters—nine unique letters, two repeated. Seventeen have left. Nine remain. *cough* *cough* The LETTERS!"
I don't really appreciate this badger's tone, but I was taught to respect my elders, so I just nod and look back at the bark. Everyone else crowds around, puzzling. Little Crow feels heavier on my shoulder. He must be eating well. He also smells a little funny, and not like a damp cave...
"Can you give us a hint, old badger?" Silverpaw ventures.
"I don't have much spee let," the old badger says, looking frustrated. "Peech lef. *cough* Speek laft."
"I hear what you're saying, badger. Don't worry. We've figured out all the puzzles to this point...we can figure out whatever this means..."
I didn't put an overwhelming amount of confidence behind those words. But since I got everyone into this mess, well, since Little Crow and I got everyone into this mess, I figure it's our responsibility to get everyone out.
Now, what could these eleven, er, nine letters mean?
submitted by Charlie W., Labyrinth Lands
(June 18, 2016 - 3:29 pm)
(June 18, 2016 - 3:29 pm)
I'm glowing blue again! Yes!
Words I see-
Meager, I am....
I'm still looking.
(June 18, 2016 - 10:35 am)
That's a hard one
(June 18, 2016 - 7:02 pm)
RANDOM WORD OF THE DAY IS OLIGOPOLY!!!! CONGRADULATIONS AUTOCORRECT!!!!!!!
E-em. Sorry about that. Maybe if I embarrass my autocorrect enough it will go away. Noon even agrees that they are annoying. Oh, don't you worry Noon. I would never drive you away on porpoise. You would never leave me would you?! Oh that's good. Well you did leave me before. Hey what happened to Huuver the hovering robot? Oh really? Which one of you has Huuver?
(Sorry again for the one-sided conversations. I'm extremely board and hyper, as I have been drugged when they put the braces on and its still here)
ADMINS! I HAVE THE GREATEST IDEA EVER! WHAT IF THERE ARE NINE MORE TUNNLES LEADING TO A SECERRECT MAP OF LUNEE?! WOULDN'T THAT BE GREAT????!!!! OR MAYBE THEY WERE IN THE TUNNLES WE ALREADY EXPLORED AND THE MAP IS THERE?????
*e-em, Noon says please excuse my owners behaviour BRACES arnt quite working out. AND THIS AUTOCORRET ISN'T HELPING ITHER!!
Haha *awkward laughing.
She's talking about me isn't she?
I'm gonna look back on this tomorrow and have the facepalm of my life!!!! So if this is weird in any way. I gust got BRACES ON!!!!
And FYI, the colours are neon green and teal.
:):):) :) :) :) :/ just kidding that last one is a :) tooooooooooooo!!!!!!
(June 18, 2016 - 11:06 pm)
Nice color combo!
Inner Moonshadow: eeeeeeehhhhhhh........crazy Claaws.......
(June 19, 2016 - 7:46 am)
The old badger begins a coughing fit. I walk over and place a wing on his shoulder. He seems so, helpless. Old, fragile. I feel bad for him, down here, all these years. Alone. But when he looks up, there's a strange glimmer in his eyes. Images forming out of the clouded pupils. And his eyes are bright blue. Could this be a clue as to what the nine letters mean? Or not.
(June 19, 2016 - 7:50 am)
I don't think the two letters that are repeated (m and e) mean anything. That leaves nine letters: i, a, g, h, r, t, and u. Is anyone here good at crossword puzzles?
(June 19, 2016 - 8:44 am)
I see hurt.....OW! NO! OW!!!! Jaaws is c-o-mi--....
(June 19, 2016 - 6:56 pm)
I think m and e should be in there, because there is no word in the English language using those.. :P
Sorry..
(June 19, 2016 - 7:50 pm)
I'm back! And this room is creepy. But I'm not in it yet so. See y'all soon!!
(June 19, 2016 - 11:07 pm)
I really need to post something. So why not right now?
Jaaws~(Uhh...If I mess up tell me please, but I'm confused on the whole 'starting over' thing...So I'm probably doing something wrong...)
The darkness of the cave presses into my mind, chasing away Elliot's lingering influence.
I breath deeply, letting the stale cave air enter my lungs. I think it's time to finish what I've started...
I turn invisible; becoming a mere shadow on the walls. I bound through the tunnels to find Charlie's group. I can smell their diverse scents, and my eyes narrow as I sweep the darkness for my quarry.
The sounds of drilling are growing deafening. I can also hear voices--animal voices and human voices. I travel through the last two caverns and into the final ending cave.
My heart skips a beat--I can feel a tug from above. I swivel my head up, to where the drills are...BIG. BIG, my greatest feat of evil. A reunion is in order! But I hiss in frustration despite my happy tidings. I need to find an alternate way to get the Brazen Goo. Now that BIG is almost here, it would be better to wait and see if they knew anything about it. But I'd rather spend my time in activity. Such as causing chaos...I'll get around to probing for the Brazen Goo in just a moment. I think I have at least a half hour before BIG gets here.
I swoop to the top of the dimly lit cavern, still invisible. Scanning the area, I see Charlie and the badger having a coughing fit together. More animals and others crowd around, seemingly interested in what this badger has to cough about. I could care less.
Other animals haven't noticed the commotion, and are observing the strangely smooth, curved walls. I believe I shall start over there.
There's a chicken, and an owl, a mouse, and some sort of falcon whispering to each other. I tap the chicken on her head. Remember Eli, I breathe. She glares behind her, and slowly turns her head back to the conversation. She will need a bit more help...Don't you remember what she did? How you had to save Icy from her? What do these three care about that? They could care less about Eli. And the spy...I've--You've been talking of a spy...Why, the owl here could be a spy. You shouldn't be talking to her!
-----------------
Thimble~
"And look at the letters! E and M are both repeated," I finish. Scarlet starts as if something's bumped her, and she glares behind her. "Anyway, obviously some of them aren't really letters."
"Yeah..." Scarlet mumbles. She's looking really angry now; I wonder if she's feeling okay?
Suddenly I close my eyes. Arra has begun talking really really loudly, right in my ear. I'm trying to ignore it, but then I think I hear her mention the bald spot on my head from that electric enchantment thing.
"Arra!" I begin, super angry.
Wiseowl interrupts me. "Thimble! Lower your voice! We're in a cave, you know."
I'm about to make a sharp retort when Scarlet butts in. "Quiet!" She clucks. "You're all making my head hurt."
Arra glares at me now. Why are we so mad at each other? "Guys! Don't you want to hear my idea?" she shrieks in her shrill raptor's voice.
"She's spying on--"
"She's yelling in my ear--"
"I AM NOT SPY--"
"You're all being too loud!"
By now the entire cave is looking at us. The angry feeling passes, and I'm embarassed for exploding over such a small detail. What had that scroll said? Oh no. Had Jaaws just passed us by? Because I'm beginning to think that she isn't sleeping in here. We...I dunno. It's just that Wiseowl might've woken her up. I shiver.
"Uh...We're good!" Scarlet breaks the tension. Everybody goes back to their chatter.
"I think that was Jaaws," I whisper, surprising the others.
"You do?" Arra asks.
"Well, it was strange that we all got really mad at once and we're not angry anymore. Right?"
The others shiver, creeped out. The thought that Jaaws might be right here, invisible. In fact, she actually might be. I can almost see a wave of annoyed faces appear, and then see them become happy and excited all over again. But the wave continues through the cavern. That is so wrong. I actually feel really scared now.
----------------
Sorry if I controled someone's charrie too much!
(June 19, 2016 - 5:43 pm)
Do the letters have to turn into an actual word? Could we try running a computer program to determine all possible answers?
(June 19, 2016 - 6:45 pm)
Thisleclaw~
"ANAGRAM ANAGRAM AN-A-GRAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!! AND I'M NOT SPEAKING GIBBERISH!" I yelled loudly. "An anagram is a word, phrase, or name formed by rearranging the letters of another, such as cinema, formed from iceman. We need to rearange the letters!" I explained. "M-E-I-A-G-H-R-T-U...What can that make?"
(June 19, 2016 - 8:43 pm)
I'm talking with the others about the code, when i feel something. I whirl around, but then I realize that that feeling could never come from a bump. And I remember Eli. The dark first of my soul begin to brew up again, stronger and more difficult to control. "Stop! You're all making my head hurt!" I'm sorry as soon as I say it. I'm never this snappy. It must be Jaaws. She has to be close. This is stronger than ever before. The Fire Inside. The words echo through my brain. I try to shut it out. Voices begin to invade my head, I clutch it between my wings. The Fire Inside. Unleash your fury. It's time to know the strength of your wrath. Is this happening to everyone?
(June 20, 2016 - 7:47 am)
17 will leave 9 left over. This is it! There are 9 uncrossed letters and 17 crossed out letters!!!!! But what does it mean? Okay I looked back at code 13, and here are the letters that were not crossed.
J-M-E-M-I-A-Z-G-E-H-W-R-C-T-L that's 15. Plus 12 crossed out letters.
Now J-K-Z-F-P-Q-X-S-B-Y-W-C-O-N-V-D-L are crossed out.
Sorry if this isn't any help it's mostly for me. So don't criticize!
But there isn't another door. Not one we can see or feel. So it isn't a code for something material. So what is this code for? And I just realized something. How are you guys gonna get food and water!!! I can't get in to bring anything.............
(June 20, 2016 - 10:46 am)
Good idea, Thisleclaw. An anagram....hmm....nope still no idea. XD
Trill kept mostly to herself, thinking about the puzzle. Suddenly, yelling came from in the corner where Scarlet and some other animals were.
"Just shut up!" Scarlet was yelling. Trill felt some th ing....something weird....
tHe FiRe WiThIn.....UnLeAsH iT.....
What? She thought.
"That voice!" She cried inadvertently. Everyone turned to look at her. Trill grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. Everyone just calm down. I don't think we are meaning to yell at each other. Just...take a breath."
(June 20, 2016 - 1:36 pm)