Let's write some riddles!

[Quickleaf]

Wow! I can't believe it's been so long since we had some riddles!

I'd like to open it back up with something different: the behind-the-scenes creation of a riddle.

The scenario: At dawn, a wounded female high elven White Knight is brought in on a gurney by three battle scarred cavaliers who claim she saved their lives from an ambush. When the PCs go to check on the unconscious White Knight, she awakens in a trance only
briefly to utter a riddle. What does she say?

Some other relevant details:

• The White Knight is actually a ghost (not the incorporeal kind, so maybe spirit is a better word) cursed by a hag. She couldn't save her beloved from the hag, and so she attacked the hag.
• The 3 cavaliers actually died. The White Knight's curse has made them appear alive by capturing their souls in a sort of time loop. Once they arrive at the castle the characters are at, however, the time loop begins to spread with supernatural weirdness.
• The answer to the riddle should provide PCs with what they need to know to counter the time loop effect.
• The encounter is meant to feel spooky and fey. The White Knight is meant to test how the characters honor the fallen and deal with bereavement.

The Riddle (rough draft): Someone wanders in the fane, twist the nothing and the twain, an honest man sometimes true, ever carrying me to you.

Right now it's a bunch of jibber-jabber, but I just wanted to get a feel for the paradoxes it alludes to, establish a rhyming/syllable scheme, and the faerie tone of the riddle. As I work on it, I'll get something that makes sense...

Any ideas so far?

 

[Quickleaf]

Let's revive this thread with some riddles!

1st Riddle
Long and thick my hair grows,
And when wet tis heavy.
Each morn I dunk my head,
In the bucket till water’s grimy,
Yet whether up or down I goes,
Ground-ward my hair hangs pretty.

2nd Riddle
I am weighed before the liar’s tongue,
But only trusted after an honest man’s palm.
I am best served before a platter of fish,
Or on a cloudy day when I’m a welcome balm.

These are from a hag in an adventure I'm working on. I'm curious how challenging you found them (easy/medium/hard)? And how they struck you "aesthetically" in terms of how they sound/rhyme?

 

[Rune]

Let's revive this thread with some riddles!

1st Riddle
Long and thick my hair grows,
And when wet tis heavy.
Each morn I dunk my head,
In the bucket till water’s grimy,
Yet whether up or down I goes,
Ground-ward my hair hangs pretty.

2nd Riddle
I am weighed before the liar’s tongue,
But only trusted after an honest man’s palm.
I am best served before a platter of fish,
Or on a cloudy day when I’m a welcome balm.

These are from a hag in an adventure I'm working on. I'm curious how challenging you found them (easy/medium/hard)? And how they struck you "aesthetically" in terms of how they sound/rhyme?

No answers yet, but I like the flow of the first one. The second comma in that one doesn't fit, though, and the third works better as a period.

The second might work better if restructured as such:

"Weighed before the liar's tongue,
Trusted after honest palm,
Best served before fishy platter,
On clouded day, a welcome balm."

 

[TheCosmicKid]

Let's revive this thread with some riddles!

1st Riddle
Long and thick my hair grows,
And when wet tis heavy.
Each morn I dunk my head,
In the bucket till water’s grimy,
Yet whether up or down I goes,
Ground-ward my hair hangs pretty.

2nd Riddle
I am weighed before the liar’s tongue,
But only trusted after an honest man’s palm.
I am best served before a platter of fish,
Or on a cloudy day when I’m a welcome balm.

These are from a hag in an adventure I'm working on. I'm curious how challenging you found them (easy/medium/hard)? And how they struck you "aesthetically" in terms of how they sound/rhyme?

[sblock]If the answer to the first riddle is "mop", then it's very easy, but the phrase "each morn" is bothering me a bit. Do you mop every day? Should I be mopping every day? Am I just a pig?

Still pondering the second one.[/sblock]
The first riddle has a simple, rustic air that, combined with its difficulty level and subject matter, gives it a natural home among peasant folk riddles.

The second riddle's meter is tripping me up a bit. I concur with [MENTION=67]Rune[/MENTION]'s suggested revision.

 

[Quickleaf]

[sblock]If the answer to the first riddle is "mop", then it's very easy, but the phrase "each morn" is bothering me a bit. Do you mop every day? Should I be mopping every day? Am I just a pig?

Still pondering the second one.[/sblock]
The first riddle has a simple, rustic air that, combined with its difficulty level and subject matter, gives it a natural home among peasant folk riddles.

The second riddle's meter is tripping me up a bit. I concur with [MENTION=67]Rune[/MENTION]'s suggested revision.

You nailed the first one.

I'm putting together a series of 6 riddles that I'm trying to arrange in order of escalating difficulty reflecting riddling with a hag (a black annis, in this case). So the first one is meant to be easier, but I don't want it to be ridiculously easy... Any suggestions on how to toughen it up slightly to make it less obvious?

And I could change it from "each morn" to "at morn."

I agree about [MENTION=67]Rune[/MENTION]'s revisions to the second one, way better meter and sound.

 

[Quickleaf]

Twenty-four soldiers with curved swords,
Stand facing half and half in symmetry,
One by one, broken are their lords,
And beasts feasted on their chivalry.
Hound ate the hindquarters,
Mouse got the toes,
Ravens ate the entrails,
And worms the nose.

What was left for me?

 

[TheCosmicKid]

I don my cloak in the summer sun.
I doff my cloak in the winter wind.
I speak with a voice like thunder,
But am silent as long as I live.

 

[pemerton]

Now that I've used it in my game, I can post the riddle I came up with for my most recent 4e session:

In the green garden, a sapling grows,
In time the tree dies, a seed remains.
In the grim garden shall that seed be sown,
Among the black poplars a new tree, a new name:

Shade shall it cast,
Frost endure,
Dooms outlast,
Pride cure.​

Answer here.