Help me Make a Riddle

[ender_wiggin]

I need a riddle involving the following question:

"How many petals are there on the Sayira? [a flower popular throughout elven literature]"

The PC (in a pbp game) has been tasked with finding the answer to this question as proof that he is loyal to an pureblood elven cause (he is half-elf). He has been pointed to a library to begin -- the answer, of course, should be much more difficult to find than a simple gather information check.

Help me be creative, but of course, don't make it too difficult or obscure... I'm open to a lot of ideas.

I'm looking for a combination of poetry and logic, ideally.

 

[Samuel Leming]

"How many petals are there on the Sayira? [a flower popular throughout elven literature]"

I'm looking for a combination of poetry and logic, ideally.

42



Sam

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

Find a book titled "Sayira". The hidden yet obvious answer is the number of pages in the book.

If you are going for elvish unity, all the petals on the bush, for all are connected to one another.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

That is not so much a riddle as simply a question, with an answer that can be researched.

It might be better to have the flower allegorical, there is no actual Sayira flower, but rather it refers to the elfish race themselves. So the Drow would be the roots, the wood elfs the stems, the wild elfs the leaves, and the grey the flower itself, so the answer would be 'as many as the grey elf maidens'. (The males being the stamen.)

Or-

'It matters not, those who pluck a flower to count the petals do not see the rose.' making it a koan.

The trick to making a good riddle is to make the answer first!

The Auld Grump

 

[ender_wiggin]

The trick to making a good riddle is to make the answer first!

Yeah, I know, but I acted too fast and already posted.

A little more information:

The PC is a in a very large city, with access to a number of libraries, etc. He's a wizard -- by his nature, simple research of this sort comes easily. The balance, then, is making the answer difficult to come by without making him feel "lost".

Hmm. Here's an idea:

The answer can be simple enough. "5 petals". The hard part is finding someone who knows it -- obviously, it can't be located in any books, the Sayira is commonly referenced as a symbol in olden elven literature for a number of different things; love, not surprisingly, seems to be the most common. Researching elven literature would reveal that.

Perhaps an elven begger on the streets could know. But how would the PC be clued into that without making it *obvious*.

Just brainstorming.. any thoughts?

 

[DonTadow]

The answer... 0

Perhaps in his research or questioning he talks to someone whom scowels at the editions of the elven language and how tainted the elven language has become with the common tounge

This may lead to reasearch regaruding words that are pure elven. Petals are not an elven word.

The Sayira is a popular elven flower and even a school child knows it has 6 sides (hypotheitically) but are these sides called petals no. He doesn't find this out until he finds the true elven word for a petal which "can be anything you want".

Thus you reverse the puzzle. HE's not looking for how many petals but the true elven name for petal.

 

[ender_wiggin]

Hmm. I really like that -- specifically because of the "tainting of the elven language with common". IMW elves are a slowly dying race, a victim of longevity and its silent partner, stagnation and entropy. The organization that the PC wants to get into is one devoted to the welfare and survival of the elven race. They employ a variety of races, but the vast majority are pureblood elven.

If there's one thing I want to underline in this quest, its the tragedy of the dying race.

 

[DonTadow]

Hmm. I really like that -- specifically because of the "tainting of the elven language with common". IMW elves are a slowly dying race, a victim of longevity and its silent partner, stagnation and entropy. The organization that the PC wants to get into is one devoted to the welfare and survival of the elven race. They employ a variety of races, but the vast majority are pureblood elven.

If there's one thing I want to underline in this quest, its the tragedy of the dying race.

Glad i can help. When i read your paragraph i felt tht that was where you were going, at least the fact that the elves really wanted to stress how important their culture is. This soulnds like a good test for someone trying to prove themselves to a dying race.

 

[ender_wiggin]

Hmm, I've another idea.

IMW, there's a myth of a style of fighting that uses two identical straight swords kept in the same scabbard. Now, if the style exists, it does in secret. The curious thing is that although these weapons are called moonblades in common, each civilization or race has a different name for them. The orcs, for example, call them the mai kaduna (death bringer). These names are all etymologically unique -- that is, no one name can be traced to an older language. Moreover, old texts of most of the races claim to be the first to build the weapon.

My idea is that Sayira Flower is the ancient elven name for the blade (they may or may not be the original creaters, that's a secret the PC will eventually find at a much later time).

How should I tie this truth with (a) an answer, and (b) my original plan of revealing the tragedy of elven stagnation to the PC?

 

[Wystan]

The true answer is that Legends have the original Sayira Flower be a sword of Artifact power that was designed for a master of that style. The Flower was engraved onto the blade and had one leaf for every opponent of Elven Society that the blade has slain, and thus the answer is "As many as the enemies of our future, and as few as those we can destroy"...