Puzzler's Space

Puzzler's Space
#47
RE: Puzzler's Space
At this time, Ban Songqi and Liu Kui had walked down into the bowels of the chasm. Stony walls rose up from all sides and encased them: Ashen surfaces covered all directions of sight. The keening wails of the boar from above had faded away hours before, lost to the distance. There was no sound that would reach into this forsaken crevice.

Liu Kui reached for a torch that was hidden in the bundled robes, but when taking it out, it would not light. Despite covering it with oil, no ember would set it aflame, no friction would ignite it. Setting the useless torch aside with mumbled frustration, as the worked torch-head could no longer comfortably be held within the ribes, Liu Kui continued downward, now consigned to awkwardly carrying this torch.

Now, they had reached a part of the path where a cave could be spotted in the left face of the grey-stone wall. Laying down the extra robes, the pair sat down to briefly rest.

Ban Songqi took this opportunity to take the torch from Liu Kui's pile, and cast it into the ravine.

Puzzle 4: For eleven days, a painter-sorcerer sat on the street outside the Summer Villa of the Regent. Each day, she produced an image of one object from the Villa, each lifelike beyond measure. On the twelvth day, she was finally arrested, whereupon she was sentenced to exile. What were the three of the eleven images that survive to this day, and the cause of their survival?

Liu Kui looked on with a stricken face. When no more than nine seconds had passed, a deep echo returned from the darkness where Ban Songqi had thrown the torch.

First, the scrolls were lost. Earlier, the sandals were lost. Then, as they had learned, the boar's children were lost. Finally now, Liu Kui's torch, though useless, was also lost.

Liu Kui angrily struck the ground. "I have had enough of this misery. Fortune has given me to loss. There must be something which is plaguing me which we must be rid of."

"None of that," said Ban Songqi, who instead knelt down to console Liu Kui. "Those having true need of supplies would consume them when they are needed."

At this statement, Liu Kui was puzzled, and boggled at Ban Songqi. "That is absurd. What of the excesses of rules in their opulent palaces? You cannot pass this to the dominion of Fate, for all of us who are enacted within it."

Still, Ban only replied: "I will correct this, as you say. The consumption is by the mandate of Fate."

Puzzle 5: A ruler summoned a astrologer to divide the governing regions of the realm. When presented with the map, the astrologer fainted and immediately died. "So this is how I will determine the regions," thought the ruler, who then immediately composed a will and fled from the realm to the great northeastern desert. By the time the next ruler ascended to the position, the map of the realm had been long since lost. Yet, the realm had grown, and thrived and prospered all the same. How could this be so?
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Messages In This Thread
Puzzler's Space - by Kaynato - 09-07-2017, 07:33 PM
RE: Puzzler's Space - by Kaynato - 11-19-2019, 05:47 AM
RE: Puzzler's Space - Interlude? - by Kaynato - 01-10-2019, 02:15 PM
RE: Puzzler's Space - by a52 - 11-19-2019, 08:52 AM
RE: Puzzler's Space - by Our Lady of Lampreys - 12-10-2019, 02:05 AM
RE: Puzzler's Space - by Kaynato - 07-06-2020, 04:44 AM