[PRP] Over the river and through the woods... {Pony}

[Lunadriel]

The last thing you remember is…Well, you don’t remember. Strange?

Where is this place? It looks like you’re in the middle of dark forest. Was it even dark the last time you were….coherent? Just as you’re about to ask yourself what is going on, you hear what you will later start calling The Voice.

“Hello, fool.” The voice is terrifying with how normal it sounds. There’s a slight lilt to it, but that’s it. It seems to come from everywhere or nowhere at once.

“Let’s play a game. Right now you’re in the middle of a forest and all you have to do is find your way out. Simple? Yes, truly, just like your mind.” The airy laugh echoes on. “You have two hours.”

You shout at the voice asking how you get here, along with a bunch of other questions, but the only answer is–

“Tick, tock. Time’s running out little fool. This time we’ll play for a prize and if you fail, well, I won’t take it out on your utter incompetence. But next time…the stakes will be higher.”

You spend the next five minutes trying to talk with the voice or reason with, but it refuses to say another thing.

Really, whether you like it or not, you’ve only got one choice—GET OUT!

Prompt: You wake up in the forest. How you got there isn’t important right now. But the thing is that you’ve been given a time limit by a sinister voice who acts like this is just the first round in some demented game. Whether or not you really want to play, you do know that you don’t want to stay here.

What you need to do:
Write out facing 2-3 obstacles/riddles to overcome before you make it out of the forest. Your prompt should end with you making it past the edge of the woods. At the end of the month the mysterious voice will let you know whether you made it out in time. Who made it out on time will be chosen by rolling a few from the list of those who entered. Those rolled will also get ONE ticket for the end of the year raffle.

This is the first time you have heard this voice, but it won’t be the last. Everyone gets a prize this month so post your prize preference.


Wait what? Having problems coming up with obstacles/riddles? Lorekeepers will do you a favour, this once. Here are 2 vague ideas to work with. Use them if you want or not. Your choice. There are NO perks of using the ideas.
Again, you can use neither of these prompts, one of them, or both..

You come upon a river and the only way to cross is either to wade in or jump across on stones and logs. Well, it doesn’t look that dee-! Wait, was that a crocodile or a piranha in that water? Whatever it was, you sure aren’t swimming now. Time to play Soquili frogger. (Google the SNES game if you need inspo).

There’s a huge wall in front of you and the only way through is what looks like a cave. But it’s dark. No amount of glowing eyes or lanterns will work in here. So feel your way through. OH GOSH! What did you just touch? OH HECK NO! Did you just slide into something goopy at the bottom of a long hill? Ugh.  

[Lunadriel]

 

[Lunadriel]

Kazamir bristled at the voice from beyond, pivoting an ear and listening to the words. His eyebrows lifted, noticeable only by the shift of his bangs. A fool he was not, though sometimes with foolish actions mayhaps. Even with his silly antics, KC is not one to be trifled with. He didn't like that, but realized it was merely "namecaling" a way to provoke another. Being in a dark forest, or not remembering how he got there, didn't even phase him. He was about to ignore The Voice, and his whereabouts. Debating going back to sleep a bit longer. The next four words had his mindset change. Let's play a game. It's as if every molecule of KC shifted gears. He full focused on every word spoken after, repeating each word in the echo of his mind. Storing the instructions. A game is just the way to catch his attention. Snapping to, he begins to ask questions to gather more information, shouting only because he hadn't any clue where the voice was, and wanted to be heard. His questions cut off by more riddle.

Middle of the forest. Two hours. Tick, tock, beat the clock. Prize

KC gave a little prance of excitement. The game was afoot! Giddy, he assessed his location, and just chose the direction that looked most like the way The Voice wanted him to go. All games had a path to get to them.

He must of choose his direction correctly, because the way lit up. Kazamir stopped in his tracks as soon as his eyes adjusted. His neck snapped back, looking up at a wall of thorns. His grin widened. No way through the wall. So the biggest question? Left? Or right? Looking both ways, he didn't see an opening within sight, either directions. Right was never left, and sometimes right isn't right. But left could be right. His mind didn't wander on the thought long, before he simply turned to the right. Tick-tock, beat the clock. No time to loose. Doing a fast shuffle, he paced along the wall. Observing for any openings. He almost passed it by! The brambles and vines so thick, the opening could go unnoticed. Tricky, tricky. Turning to the side, he side stepped through the narrow crack. Snicker Snack, his plant friend, came out of his hiding, to snick a branch that near caught on one of his vines. It huffed and puffed at the branch, as it grew back behind them.

KC didn't stop, though he did note the wall growing back. So they couldn't cut their way through. Good to know, though he wouldn't try. Where's the fun in that if you cheat your way out of the game?

As he stepped through, the area opened up to a square clearing, with a twisted sign in the middle. It said "This way" or "The easy way" and "But never this way" with signs pointing in different directions. 3 openings in the walls to match where each gnarled would end of the sign rudely pointed.  

[Lunadriel]

KC knew that part of a good puzzle, is never making the answers to easy. A good riddle helped. Obviously, the easy way wouldn't be easy, it never was in his experience! Sometimes that made it more fun, but tick tock, tick tock, got to beat the clock! The easy way, though not that way, is the way he wants to go! After assessing the other two directions, his decided that perhaps they were opposites of what they say and chose to go the "But Never This Way" direction. Navigating through the maze, he made a few wrong turns, and quickly back tracked his steps. The part of the maze widened, but, something didn't look right. While there appeared to be another turn up ahead, the are looked too...tidy and untraversed. This was very suspicious.  

[Lunadriel]

Looking down at the ground, that looked the most suspicious, with leaves almost strategically placed. Looking up, KC then noted, no trees above. VERY suspicious indeed. A trap, waiting to spring, for those that would continue this way. Never this way, a very literal title it would seem. The puzzle did mention something about it being simple, and future puzzles being more challenging. TICK TOCK! he thought, as he back traced his steps, at a lightening speed, having remembered which turns would lead him back to the entrance. Hopefully, he hadn't lost too much time! Finding the entrance much faster than he had gone the other way, he didn't even think twice before going the "easy way" to make up for lost time. If things went well. As he came into a new hallway, there were lots of open doors along the way, too many to have time to check them all. KC panicked a moment, then Snicker Snack pinched him, brining him back to focus. He would thank him with a snack later. As he was about to just start checking all the directions, he recalled the previous maze direction, with the obvious floor clues. Right! Looking down, he is relived to see another clue, as he scans his surroundings. There seems to be a break in the pattern of the path, with well worn stones. Testing it, he turns down one of the other directions, and quickly finds a dead end. This gave him hope! Turning back, he followed the smooth stones trough many winding twists and turns. If someone hadn't noticed the stones, this direction would of been very challenging too! Maybe more than trying to dodge a trap with a pit, or perhaps a net. Before too long though, he saw a light up ahead, and broke through the mazes exit without breaking a sweat. Woo! On to the next challenge! He thought to himself as he barreled down the path to whatever lay ahead.  

[Lunadriel]

Kazamir made a mental note to come back after the game was over, and see what was in the other direction in the maze. Curious and curiouser. He walked for a few minutes, long enough to wonder if he had missed another puzzle, or if that was it? As he thought and walked, he came to the edge of an area that seemingly opened up, to the end of the forest. An eyebrow raised, and his glowing grin stretched. This is not the end, not yet. As far as he could see, till the other side of more trees, there lay an expanse bog of mud. Puzzle two it would seem? He leaned his head down, then went stiff from the stench that invaded his senses. Gross! KC had smelled some pretty terrible things, including the marsh on their lands. This seemed extra smelly though! Enough to make his eyes haze for a moment. He snorted, as if to expel the smell, taking one step back.

He did his best to ignore the smell and focus for a way across, or around. The bubbling, popping mud, called to him, letting him know he could not make it around. That would take to long! Tick tock, beat the clock! He knew to well to try and walk across wouldn't work either. Although the ground looked solid, he would be up to his chest in mud in no time, and be covered in that horrid smell! A few rocks off to the side, caught his eye. Had those been there before? It mattered not. This is his ticket to cross! He followed the path, that seemingly cut short at the start. No good. Walking over, he debated if he could jump to the first rock. He likely could, but it had a treacours sheen to the stone. He could just as easily slip and take a dip in the nasty smelling brown go! Then his sisters would ban him from tea time and naps for the foreseeable future, till his coat grew out, or the smell finally faded. It didn't smell like the kind of mud to just wash away after! Too skunky. KC whimpered a little at the thought of no tea. Problem solving, he turned back to the trees, and looked for a solution. There at the edge, was a cleverly placed log. That would work! Walking over to the log, He noticed that it was covered in itchy-vine. Guess it couldn't of been too easy, even though crossing the rocks would be hard enough! He thought maybe Snicker Snack could clear the vines, but because he was symbiotic to KC, he likely would still get the itchy-itch poison himself! Foraging around, he found a rather large stick. Standing strategically on the other side of the log, he used the stick to clear away as much of the vine as he could, then gave it a swift kick! The force caused the log to roll away, and the vines to snap, releasing their hold on it. The log rolled, then slid to the side half way down the bank, towards the mud. Success! Leaping further than the needed, he cleared the area with the ivy and went towards the log. The log a little worse for wear from the kick, gave him a hard time when he tried to roll it. It more, slid towards it's destination. There it thumped into the mud from the edge of the bank, and gave a muffled sploot. KC waited for it to settle. It looked like it would hold! Gaging the distance ahead, he nimbly jumped to the log, then to the first rock before pause. Jumping games were something he had played before! Though having a hat he never removed, and long insufferable bangs, still made it difficult. Snicker Snack flailed around, to help balance him. KC jumped to the next rock, and the one after, and the one after that! Halfway across, he got confident. Looking ahead though, he realized there was two paths ahead of him. One rock looked like it was about to crumble, but the rocks after close together, and easy to cross potentially. The other, larger rocks, but more spread out. He had already taken the easy path once and it worked out, and didn't trust this to work in his favor twice, when tea-time was on the line. Decision made, he revved up his front legs, like he was charging power, then leapt to the furthest rock. Barely finding his footing, but the foundation solid, and not slippery like some of the other rocks. Having made that jump, he paced himself, at a moderate, but steady speed, and continued across the other rocks. On the last rock, he did loose a hoof, but luckily the grass had grown close to that stones edge, and his hoof did not touch mud. "PHEW!" he exclaimed quite loudly, and trotted back to land. Snicker Snack, waiving back and forth, side to side, equally glad they made it across. This time, when he entered the forest on the other side of the bog, it was a very normal looking forest. He filled his lungs with the fresh air, that didn't stink of dead fish and old stale mud. The trees opened out, and the sun shined bright. He had made it out of the forest for sure this time! He could see others stepping out of the forest too. This made him grin with glee. So it was not a game just for him, but others as well!

Tick tock, tock tock, had KC beat the clock? He shivered with anticipation to find out!

~Fin.