Conquering the Fifth Hall [Solo]

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

The first thing the Swashbuckler noticed when he entered the Hall of the Fifth Twilight was the obvious lack of glittery gold. Having been in the Hall of the Fourth Twilight for a while, he had somewhat grown accustomed to the glittery nature of his surroundings. To be suddenly thrust into this after going through a glittery hall filled with much pain for the eyes...

Unlike the other halls, however, all was quiet in this hall. Simply put, there was no other creature around other than himself, Skuggi and Pocky. A strange thing indeed, though he was not complaining about the lack of monsters. Fortunately, with the jacks gone, the place was lit by a huge crystal chandelier. At least the master did not neglect to put up lights, and for that, he was grateful.

Now on to the Hall itself. Unlike the other Halls, this one had no rooms, and was simply a huge hall. A set of wooden doors decorated with silver threads stood at the other end, and he knew that was where all this would come to an end. That is, if he could successfully solve the thing the master of the Mansion saw fit to throw at him.

This thing he was talking about, it was standing between him and the door to the master of the Mansion. His first impression of it was a massive chessboard. It was, in fact, the only thing of note in the room, apart from the chandelier. On the chessboard were eight chess pieces which he recognized as queens. Strange, why were there eight queens on one chessboard? He would probably not be able to understand until he saw the instructions.

Stepping forward, he stopped at the base of the chessboard, which seemed to dwarf him as the pieces towered over him. As he stopped, a flame suddenly burst into existence in front of him, causing him to take a step back and look around in alarm. Skuggi however, merely chuckled.

The flame lasted for only a second, then vanished, leaving behind a single parchment floating downwards. The Swashbuckler caught it, and read its contents.

"Dearest Sir,

My heartfelt congratulations on making it thus far!

If you are reading this letter, you are one door away from meeting myself, the master of this Mansion you have been traversing through. Fret not, for I am not angered by your trespassing.

To proceed, you need only do one thing. The eight queens are jealous of each other's beauty and wish to be separated. You have approximately one hour before the queens turn against you and call their Servants to kill you. I wish you the best of luck.

Warmest Regards,
The Master of the Mansion of the Purple Mirror"

As he read the last syllable, the letter burst into flames once more, causing him to drop the parchment. But before it hit the ground, it vanished, leaving no trace that it was ever there in the first place.

"I could do without the flaming exit, thank you very much," said the Swashbuckler to no one in particular.

~

Word count: 516
Total word count (Pharmacist): 516

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

So, eight queens on an eight by eight board. Would have been nice if it was sixteen by sixteen. In any case, this was the hand he had been dealt by the master of the Mansion, and if it was something given by this person, then it was likely solvable, though at the present moment, he saw no indication of the solution. He tried to visualize the board in his mind, placing queens here and there, but to no avail. He was no genius tactician: spatial management was simply not something he practiced for.

He supposed he should meet the queens first. As mentioned earlier, there were eight queens, four black, four white. To him, they looked just like ordinary chess pieces. In fact, apart from color, all of them looked the same to him. What did the letter say? Jealous of each others' beauty. They were the same, could they not tell this fact?

Also, each queen piece was far too huge, and looked particularly heavy. Unless one could count marble as light. Even if it was hollow, he doubted he could have lifted it unless he brought a party of Adventurers along with him. So basically, he could not move it, nor did he even know why they were arguing over their looks.

Fortunately for him, these questions were cleared away one by one once he approached the eight queen pieces in question. To answer the question of how he was going to lift the pieces, eight spirits, each one popping into existence next to each queen. Upon seeing this manifestation, it was clear that he was going to have to negotiate with the queens to get them to move to the position they required. To answer the question of why they were arguing over beauty, the form each spirit took was enough for him to figure it out. He felt that there was no need to describe each and every queen spirit: They were all visages of beauty, the pinnacles of the female form. Or perhaps this was some enchantment on the spirits' part.

"So you are the one the master of the Mansion sends to rid us of our problem?" The spirit closest to him spoke for the others, who simply glared at her in jealously. "You don't look like the smart type to me. Can you even do anything?"

Well, duh. If he were the smart type, he would have gotten here a long time ago. Nevertheless, this was where he needed to move forward from. Taking in a deep breath, he spoke the next few words in a loud voice.

"Queens, regardless of what you think of me, the master of the Mansion has given me instructions, and it will be by my command you move. Am I clear?"

A few scrowls appeared on their faces. Just as they were about to make a retort, they arched back, as though in pain. They thrashed about for a few moments, then calmed. "Curse you, why must I listen to this child!" One of them shouted to seemingly no one at all. It was probably the master of the Mansion, giving him a little help to start the last test. He silently thanked the person for this sign of goodwill.

"As you can see, defiance will be punished. Now, will you hear me out or not?" Grudgingly, they had no choice but to agree, for fear of getting hurt again.

"I see I have everyone's attention. Good. Now, let me make this clear: I am not here to settle this dispute. As per the instructions of the master of this Mansion, I have been told to separate all of you on the board, nothing more. If you want to find out who is the most beautiful, then you've come to the wrong person."

He heard one of them muttering under her breath, but did not act upon it. Sometimes it was better to let the little things go, for all it would do is cause more tension and would not work in his favor.

"Since I have just arrived, I will likely need a few minutes to draw up the positions. In the meantime, I do not want to hear any of you quarrelling. If you think you're beautiful enough, convince Pocky over here of your beauty." Without meaning to, he somehow ended up dragging an innocent little pumpkin which did not even know what it was doing there into the conflict. He actually felt kind of bad for doing so, but he had his hopes that the pumpkin could stall for time, enough for him to come up with the solution. I'm counting on you, buddy.

~

Word count: 781
Total word count (Pharmacist): 516 + 781 = 1297

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

To the side of the massive chessboard was a small rest area. A table made of a dark, chocolate-colored wood was surrounded by numerous cushioned stools, the wood of the stools made of the same material and the cushions pure white. Upon the table, to one side, a stack of blank parchments was conveniently present, weighed down by a stone weight of a strange shape which he made no comment of. Next to it was a marble container which held several quills, and beside that was a porcelain inkwell. On the other end was a single cup filled with a transparent liquid which he believed to be water.

It was interesting, to say the least, that the master of the Mansion thought to provide aid for those who felt the need to physcially draw out something and plan. Perhaps it might be safe to assume that the man, woman, or thing bore them no ill will, and actually wanted Adventurers to make it past all of the trials and meet face to face. "Very well then, since it has been provided, I will use it to the best of my abilities." This, he said to no one in particular, for none was there to listen.

Glancing over to the eight queen spirits, he saw them cornering the frightened Pocky, each trying to convince the being which understood nothing of physical beauty that it had the most pleasing form. Skuggi stood to the side, a hand on each weapon as it watched the situation unfold in front of it, prepared to step in to stop violence at a moment's notice. So far, so good.

Taking a sheet of parchment from under the weight, he selected a quill from the few in the container, dipped it in the inkwell, and hastily sketched an eight by eight square table to one side of the parchment. Spatial management. Considering the movement capabilities of a Queen, the most mobile chess piece in the game of chess, some parts were obvious. Using a cross shape to mark out where he would put one annoying queen, he quickly filled in the first four. The next four proved to be a harder challenge, though. Wherever he placed them, he could only find three spots, missing one last spot for the eighth and final queen. I must be doing something wrong. Let me start over from the beginning.

Re-drawing the same eight and eight square table, he restarted the process. And repeat, and repeat, and repeat.

After a few tries, he stumbled upon the answer. Or at least, he thought he did. Excitement filled his veins as he quickly re-examined his answer, drawing arrows from each queen's location to make sure it did not hit any of the other queens. He did so, and found that none would hit another. Hopefully, he was right in this regard.

He looked back to where the queens were still desperately trying to convince the insensitive Jack of each of their great, unparalleled beauty, while the Jack was having none of it, with nothing to compare to. He supposed Pocky may have been a sheltered Jack since birth. Speaking of which, how are monsters born anyway? What are their natural lifespans? Questions for another time. Fortunately, while the argument was bordering on violence, it had not yet come to that. Maybe the spirits thought violence would affect their beauty? That might have worked to his adventage. In any case, he did not even know if they could harm sentient beings. Hopefully he would have no need to find out. Stepping towards them, he spoke in a loud, and hopefully confident and commanding voice. "Thank you for waiting. I have discovered the conditions in which you will be unable to see the other, and live knowing that you are the most beautiful in all that you see."

One might ask why he chose the word, "see". This was because upon closer inspection of the chess pieces the queens resided in, there were eight bars cut into the material, each of equal distance from the other. It was likely that they saw out of these bars, he reasoned.

His remark was spot on.

Instantly, the queen spirits became very attentive, eager to have the 'nuisances whose claims mean nothing' out of the way. Instructing them to return to their respective pieces, he began to direct them, carefully following his plan to the letter. Loud grinding could be heard as the queens toiled to move their fortresses to the locations he had set for them, and he hoped this would be enough to satisfy the requirements.

~

Word count: 770
Total word count (Pharmacist): 516 + 781 | 770 = 1297 + 770

[Icyferno]

Status: Healthy / Rested

~

As soon the last queen moved into place, there was utter silence for a moment. Then came the first of many wails of delight.

"The other queens are gone! The other queens are gone! Finally, I am the most beautiful!"

Um, technically, they were only gone from your vision. If one stopped to listen, would they not be able to hear the joyous cries of the other queen spirits? Oh well, in the end, whatever works for them should be enough. Actually, the amount of concern he had for the queen spirits was zero. Beautiful though their visage may be, in the end they were simply a means to an end to move the chess pieces for him, as a master would command the bickering servants serving him. Of course, he would not know if the master of the Mansion saw them as such. For all he knew, it was because the master of the Mansion ran out of ideas. If he was given the opportunity to ask the person questions, such would not be what he would ask though. There were far more important answers to be sought, and this was one of the many that made up the questions of little importance, only existing for his musings.

In any case, over the ecstatic squeals of utter delight from the queen spirits, a low grinding sound could be heard. Past the chessboard, the final barrier between him and the next room dissolved as the door opened inward to admit him. Circumventing the chessboard, he motioned for Pocky and Skuggi to follow as he made his way over to the next area. Whether or not it was where he would meet the person behind all this or a trap, he would find out when he passed those doors. Now that completion was at hand, he found himself reviewing his entire journey throughout the Mansion. This particular dungeon was in line with the theme of Halloween, and from a game perspective, it would have likely been an event dungeon. The thing is, he could not recall a particularly fun moment when traversing the Mansion, unless getting a headache from the lying Jacks counted. Was this a design fault, or was this simply a change caused by the Catastrophe? The questions never ceased, but no answers found its way towards him. This would likely be something he would ask if presented with an opportunity. Was this an event dungeon created before or after the Catastrophe?

His thought process ceased to function as he stopped in front of the opened doors to recollect himself, to snatch a bite from his stockpile of chocolate eclairs. The time had come to end all of this. The time had come for some questions to find their respective answers. The time for puzzles, monsters, riddles and whatever the master could think of was over.

The master of the Mansion should be in the next room, and it was finally time to meet the person behind all of this.

~

Word count: 501
Total word count (Pharmacist): 516 + 781 | 770 + 501 = 1297 + 1271