A Cartographer's Dream: Initiation Quest for Lucht du Sol

[A Nony Mouse]

As the pair stepped through the crack into the unknown heart of the ancient temple, Travis felt a strange sense of foreboding growing in his chest. The shadow realm had fled, shedding light upon the hallway once more. However, the red-haired explorer knew that this was not the same reality he had left minutes earlier. Something was drastically different.

Pushing the thought aside, he followed the machine through the crack and into a whirlwind of sensation. Time seemed to mean nothing in this room; indeed Travis felt as though years were being lifted away from him even as he gained wisdom far beyond his true age. The Thaynes, or whatever ethereal beings held sway over this temple, certainly enjoyed their fun.

The high priest of the temple announced his presence before them in a burning blaze of light, entering their field of vision on the far side of the room. After he posed his riddle, the Scison’s charge turned to him to see if he had questions. Did he ever.

“Chains, rope, cut, die,” Travis summed the riddle into its keywords and shook his head vigorously from side to side. “Yeah, I think I’ll be fine.” As the machine turned back to look at the network of cords and chains, Travis muttered to himself, “No idea where to start though.” With her ‘superior’ logic processes, the red-haired explorer hoped his companion would be better suited to solve the problem posed to them.

[Esmerelda]

"I've thought of something, what do the different Materials mean?" Esmerelda asked.
"Different materials hold different strengths." The spirit said.
"I thought so. Prevalida does have more tensile strength than any of the other materials present. Why, chains like these I estimate could support roughly eighty-thousand metric tons before snapping, apiece. Now then, what are they connected to?" Esmerelda asked.
"Weights, of course, which are in turn connected to traps. Once they reach a certain depth, they spring. However, if they all spring at once, you've won." The spirit replied.
"And how much do they weigh, these weights?" She asked.
"Enough." The spirit said in a tone that indicated he was done helping.
"Right, okay then, Let the floor be F, let wall be W, the pillar be P, and the ceiling, C.
Aditionally, we shall declassify the ropes and chains as such, and re-classify them as anchors. Let the common flax ropes be one, the silk two, the vlince three, the steel four, the delyn five, the mythril six, and the prevalida, seven. As has been stated, prevalida holds more than anything else, and thus seven shall be the heavy end of the spectrum, whilst one shall remain the light end. It is reasonable to assume that these traps are all on the floor, for the otherside of the ceiling above as is surely a floor of it's own, though in this case I assume the trap is the weight itself for that. Further, there must be some method by which certain anchors lower all traps, as there must be some method by which to activate them all simultainiously unless we are caught in a solutionless trap which hardly seems fair considering.

So, with that in mind, we first need to decide which anchors affect which traps." Esmerelda said, and she began looking at the anchors. She began to melt, but the spirit spoke.
"Uh, no. If you pass beyond this room, you will be destroyed instantly. I will tell you that you are right, but there is only one anchor that affects all traps at once. However, other anchors effect two traps, but most effect only one." the spirit said.
Esmerelda reformed and looked long and hard at the spirit. If looks could kill, but how does one kill a spirit? She stalked around the room looking at each of the anchors, pulling and pushing on some, to no effect, for all were tightly stretched.

She climbed the anchors, liquifying partially to peer into the next rooms.
"Too dark to see." she said climbing back down.
She stared hard at the spirit and the central pillar, then she stared hard at the wall, ceiling, and floor.

"I've got it. Remember when I said that prevalida has the most tensile strength? I knew more than I was saying. Behold how they are all attached to the central pillar, but nothing else is. cut one, and all the other anchors snap, killing us. Yet all others are unattached to anything in this room. Some run through the floor, some run through the walls, and some run run through the ceiling, yet none are attached to the pillar. Behold also how one rope seems attached three ways.

Thus then is the answer. That rope must not be cut, for it is the one that affects all three pillars. The fewest anchors go through the ceiling. Most interlace between the floor and wall. Each mythril chain only appears once, and even though they are the most numerous, I bet they are the ones that affect only one trap.

Now it would seem further that we don't need to sever the prevalida chains, as due to their propeties, I'm betting their perfectly counter balanced to the great weights and are infact part of getting the treasure AFTER we solve the puzzle so we definatly need to leave them be.

So leave all type seven anchors alone, and the one three way rope anchor I mentioned.
We HAVE to do this in pairs, or we will fail without question. One step off in our intricate dance, and we both die. Sometimes we will cut a six, sometimes we won't, but all combinations will equal seven, that is a prevalida anchor, but not that they will neccessarily match it's strength.

You need only cut an anchor of the number I specify, at the exact same time I cut an anchor of a number I need to cut. It matters not which anchor you cut, so long as it is of the proper number, and not a prevalida or the three-way rope. There are thiry-two anchors that need to be severed, so that's sixteen pairs. For example it'll be me one, you six, sever now! and we sever as I say now." Esmerelda said.
She walked around and looked at the anchors one last time. It seemed throughout that she had been half speaking to herself, as though complex mathmatical formulas were running through her mind, which they were, and she somehow needed to speak about them to solve them, which was utterly false. She was merely trying to keep travis informed.

"me four, you three, sever now." she said, pointing at a steel chain and making it snap with will power as she said now. A loud creaking groan could be heard from faraway places as great ponderous weights slowly lowered. Tension on all remaining anchors picked up ever so slightly.

"If we die, it's all your fault." she said to the spirit. She seemed to be in thought for a few minutes more.
"Right, fifteen more to go. Me one you six sever now. Me five you two sever now. me three you four sever now." she said, severing each anchor she assigned herself on cue each time. The stress on all remaining anchors had increased more. Then the three-way rope snapped and Esmerelda nearly shut down permanently on the spot. Cracks appeared in the pillar, wall, floor, and ceiling.
"Now more than ever we need to cooperate." she said in a hushed tone.
She eyed the spirit, and continued.
"Twelve more. Me six you one sever now. Me two you five sever now. Me three you four sever now. Me one you six sever now." She said and as anchors snapped the cracks increased, and bits of debris began to crumble to the ground.
"Eight more, Me two you five sever now. Me one you six sever now. Me six you one sever now. Me four you three sever now." Esmerelda said and as these chains were snapped the room began to shake dangerously, the ceiling threatening to fall on them, even as a great wind pushed at the wall, and spikes could be seen glinting through the floor. Energy ran throughout the central pillar, and Esmerelda shrank back almost expecting something to leap out and attack them.
"Last four, if we die, it's all my fault. I'm sorry. Once more, me six you one sever now. me four you three sever now. Me two you five sever now, me six you one sever now." Esmerelda said, calling out the last pairs to be snapped. She braced herself expecting the worst but hoping for the best.

[A Nony Mouse]

His mind raced to keep up with the mechanical woman blurting out orders as quickly as she could. The moment was surreal; snapping cords with only a thought as the room shifted and settled around them. Travis knew he would likely die unless he did exactly what his companion said; so much work for a simple initiation. The floating sphere in the center of the room glowed ever brighter as they continued their mad race to sever all the cords. The red-haired Scison felt as though the spirit was getting more anxious the closer they got to their goal. Did spirits of priests preserved for centuries feel things like anxiety? The idle thought nearly cost Travis dearly as he broke a chain at the last possible second. With the room tilting and lurching uncomfortably, he turned his full attention back to the last pair of chains.

“Are you sure about this?” he muttered under his breath. No sense in questioning her after she’d done do well this far, but the warrior couldn’t ignore his natural instinct. Everything in him screaming not to sever the last pair, Travis gulped and nearly choked on his nerves. Ignoring all the feelings telling him to act otherwise, the redhead thought about the final cord snapping; willing his thought into the physical world.

And as the world exploded in a brilliant ball of light, the explorer thought he heard the high priest sigh.

[Esmerelda]

As the traps activated simultaneously, their effects caused one another to react differently. First came the walls falling, and with the room designed as it was, it caused the wind to come roaring in, and truly it was as thousands of swords flying through the room, yet energy from the central pillar caused the room to become as a tomb, and in the process, inadvertently shielded the pair from anything that might happen. At about that same moment, the ceiling and floor gave way, as the energy of the pillar curled around them in their descent, causing the whole affair to become as a platform being lowered by ropes. The pair landed safely between the spikes, which soared over their heads. The ceiling fell upon them, pushing the lower floor the spikes were in downward, as it fell, it began to fall apart, and the two fell forward in time, watching the monks abandon the temple, and it slowly falling into disrepair.

With a flash, the pair landed right back in the main room, back at the present, and on either side of the small pillar upon which rested the silver orb, the energy that had shot down with them shot into the orb, changing it, making it glow brightly. Esmerelda picked it up, and it bonded with her nanites, making her it’s master. Neither had been harmed in the whole process.

“I have but one request, after you get my last treasure, hurl this orb back into the temple after you leave it’s grounds, causing the orb to shatter. I wish to take my temple and at last be with my children in the anti-firmament.” The ancient spirit said.
“I think that’s doable.” Esmerelda said.
“Good, see that wall where there once stood a goddesses statue? There’s a secret basement beneath the one below us.” The ancient spirit said.
“Then what’s below us?” Esmerelda said.
“A false trail. We could go through there, bypass all the magic barriers and at the end you’ll trigger a spell that automatically resets all events that have transpired in this temple in the past 24 hours, making it seem as though it never happened. I don’t want to do that, I want to finally be finished with my last task, so I’m letting the cat out of the bag.” The spirit said.
“Ahh, resetting without saving one’s progress is never pleasant.” Esmerelda said.
She looked at Travis, and then walked over to where the earlier trap had been deactivated, and held out the orb. The wall turned into sand, and fell down. Beyond, in the room where Esmerelda had shattered an energy crystal, were hordes of them.
“One wrong step trips off a domino, so make the right decision.” The spirit said.
There were two paths on the floor, one to the left, one to the right.
“One wrong step? Right decision? Your not even trying anymore, are you?” Esmerelda asked accusationaly.
“It’s been centuries, can you blame me if I wish to move on finally?” the spirit asked.
Esmerelda stepped onto the right path, as it curled around and around the room, and finished at a central staircase. She stepped onto it, and it suddenly became a slide, making Esmerelda slide all the way down to the crypt at the bottom.
“Yiii” Esmerelda screamed all the way down.

If and when Travis joined her, he would find her looking at two floor switches, both of which needed pressing, which was fairly obvious.
“12, 52? Although greater in size, their equivalent is the same in time.” An inscription on the wall said.
Stepping on the switches would reveal another set of knobs that needed the answer twisted into them.
“Seems fairly straight forward and simple. The answer’s so obvious I expect anyone would figure it out almost immediately upon reading it.” Esmerelda said.