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"When is a door-"

"Ajar," the cat interrupts. He swishes his tail madly. "If you won't even TRY, I won't play with you any more!"

He's had a while to think about this now, and Dreadpirate has come to the conclusion that the Cat has surely heard all the 'traditional' riddles by now. If he wants to catch the Cat offguard, he needs something new. Something a talking cat in a fantasyland isn't all that familiar with.

It's not cheating, he tells himself. It's a legitimate riddle. (And much more fair than 'why have I got in my pockets?', which was his first thought.)

When he speaks, it's not a simple question, but a full rhyme.

"I used to fill rooms but now I'm a tower,
I can stay put or I can travel far.
I can live on a sill,
I can be a tasty fruit.
If I get injured,
I'll need a good boot.
What am I?"

He can feel Azrael perk up in his head. He wonders if he has also managed to stump his weapon.

The Cat hmm's. It ahhhhhs. It ever mrrrrrrrrrs for good measure. Then it concedes defeat with relatively good grace.

"A computer," Dreadpirate explains.

The cat doesn't seem to get it (explaining Windows and Apple would take too long, he thinks), but it doesn't press, either. Dreadpirate thinks that's a fair exchange for refusing to explain the death riddle earlier.

He walks away with some useful loot and a new hatred of riddles.

+1 level
+ 1 loot card

"Uh sure," He answered when the feline seemed giddy to offer him a riddle. After all he wasn't going to eat him (apparently) and he said he'd give him treasure. He could do that. He grinned, "Go ahead and shoot."

"What can I hide but always find?" The cat asked.

Willard wasn't so sure he knew much about riddles now. But he did at least think about it for a good while He sank down into the grass and glanced around. "Money?" He asked as it made sense to him.

Legolas stopped to see the odd tree only to have it smile at him... Crap. He hated these weird smiling trees. Only it dawned on him that the smile was not on the tree so much as above it.

"Oh!" He knew this! He knew what this was! The Cheshire Cat! "I'm not real good at riddles so... maybe a story?"

"Ok!" Legolas clapped his hands and rubbed them. "Riddle riddle riddle.." He was thinking aloud. The only riddles he knew were from The Hobbit but perhaps this cat didn't read that book!

"It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes out first and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter."

He stared expectantly at the cat, his arms wide like a showman.

The cat takes a long, long time, and finally chances a guess. They are wrong, and their tail curls a little more. "A surprising twist, but I love surprises. You are quite the clever one, and for that, you deserve a small prize. Just this time, of course, just once."

"Sweet!" He must not have read that book! "It's Dark by the way. The answer." And then looted his spoils.


+1 level
+ 1 loot card

"A riddle? Alright." [second] paused and mulled things over.
'I can't use any of the ones that are well known-heck, her probably even knows the obscured ones, he is a Cheshire Cat after all. No, it has to be something entirely new...'

Then it hit her. Ah. This one. It will do.

[second] spoke again,
"Loud and clear-
yet I am unheard.
I am everywhere-
yet I am ignored.
Disaster follows me
and strikes when I depart.
What am I?"



"Of course you wouldn't know, I haven't met one person that ever acknowledged its presence." [second] picked up the dropped treasure and started to leave.

The cat's disembodied voice called out to her again, "A riddle should always have an answer, don't you think?"

[second] tilted her head back at the direction of the voice, and smiled a bitter sweet smile, "It's a warning, a quickly forgotten warning- given with fear and hope that they'll listen. But it's simply brushed off, as easy and insignificant as dust."

[Exit]
+ 1 level
+ 1 card

VOID