The Oracle's Labyrinth-2
You walk forward down the dark hallway and come to a door. It opens automatically as you approach.
The room ahead is well lit and large. About twenty feet in, there is a semicircle pit about twenty feet wide that goes from the back wall, around toward you, and then back to the other side of the wall. The pit is deep and dark, and you cannot tell how far down it goes, but some sort of vapor or smoke is wafting up from it.
What the semicircle pit surrounds is a dais against the far wall. As you watch a portion of that wall swivels in a half circle until the wall is flush again. What was on the back side of the wall is what catches your attention.
From the waist up, what stands atop the dais appears to be a pleasant old woman with long silvery hair. From the waist down, you see a three-legged robot-like connection. The three legs, like spider legs, move awkwardly and jerkily as she takes a step forward.
From her hair are attached wires and tiny tubes. They form an outgrowth bulging primarily in the back of her head and connect down to her waist where the robot body is attached to her.
She speaks, her voice soft and pleasant. "Do not be afraid of my appearance. I am neither a subject of the computer that dominates the programming you call the Matrix, nor am I part of your human world. You may call me Pythia. I represent the Oracle collective mind which you previously met. It is unfortunate that a life sacrifice has always been required to facilitate prediction, yet I hope you never forget your companions called Dracos and X."
She takes another spidery step forward, descending the dais, and with her arms she pulls in the mist and vapors and breathes them in.
"I am pleased to inform you that you have almost passed the test Zero-One has created, the obstacle that ancient treaties require before I can divulge my secrets. The final test is a riddle. You must each answer a riddle with a difficulty tied in to the path and pill you have chosen. The time limit Zero-One has imposed is one minute each, although you may assist each other.
"First, for Jade, a simple one:
The Matrix is not my master;
To me its rules do not apply.
From me it ebbed forth,
Though from there has gone awry.
I stand outside it,
Not within its confines;
I watch from without,
Though always intertwined.
"As soon as you have the answer, let me know." She continues to breathe in the vapors. "Please keep in mind that every wrong answer in those 60 seconds will result in something Zero-One has designed to be...unpleasant."
60...59...58...57...
OOC: The riddles I use will be original (so sorry if they're not great). We will count each actual day as 15 seconds of thought, so you get four days per riddle.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:51, Wed 07 Nov 2007.