The Jungle of Horrors – Attempt 1, Part 2

Aside : I’ve greatly appreciated the numerous comments on this blog over the last couple of weeks. Keep up the great discussions!

When we left our intrepid hero, he was interrupting his vital quest to indulge in a boozing session with two guys who you’d think would be his best friends after about, say, seven drinks.

Fenrir can vouch for the truth of my above comments.

As the first round comes, and we drink to the health of Queen Evaine (and Australia’s chances in the deciding Test against India), the soldier introduces himself as Trost.

Presumably, by the third drink he’ll probably start talking about how much we can ‘Trost’ him.

[…..]

[………………………….]

Ahem.

Now a clever shyster calling himself Count Conundrum, the ‘prince of puzzles’, enters the room and offers 20 Lune (1 Gold Crown = 4 Lune) to anyone who can answer his riddle.

There is no consequence if I am wrong, so I assume this dude, like trivia nights, is paid by the bar to keep the patrons here drinking steadily.

The puzzle :

If 1.5 geese lay 1.5 eggs in 1.5 days, how many eggs will three geese lay in 8 days?

Fairly basic maths (apart from the unspoken REAL conundrum of how 0.5 geese can do much of anything beside laying there bleeding).

Given the above information, we can deduce that  3 geese lay 3 eggs in 1.5 days.

Therefore 3 geese lay 2 eggs in 1 day.

Therefore 3 gees lay 16 eggs in 8 days.

After pretending not to hear my correct answer (a doomed tactic if ever I saw one), the ‘Count’ reluctantly parts with 20 Lune, which I am pleased to note take up the same space in my coin purse as 5 Gold Crowns.

A glutton for punishment, the Count (offering 40 Lune to a correct answer) then asks an even easier question : If ice freezing over a lake doubles in size every day, and it covers the lake after sixty days, after how many days will the lake be half-covered?

Dude, if it DOUBLES every day, then obviously it will be HALF covered on the penultimate day.

The answer is therefore 59.

Duh.

Just to really rub it in, I get to then tell the erstwhile quizmaster that I don’t need his prize money, what with my purse being full and everything.

This guy just won’t quit.

Now he offers a silver box inlaid with pearls as his final prize.

This is the riddle :

An egg trader had three customers in one day.  One after another, they each bought an amount equal to half of the remaining eggs plus half an egg.  There were no eggs left at the end of the day.  How many in total were sold?

OK, this one might actually take me longer than thirty seconds.

But not a whole lot more.

The key is to work backwards.

The third customer, to leave the trader with nothing, must have bought half an egg + half an egg, meaning there was one egg left before the third customer came along.

The second customer, to leave the trader with one egg, must have bought 1.5 + half an egg, meaning there were three eggs left before the second customer came along.

The first customer, to leave the trader with three eggs, must have bought 3.5 + half an egg, meaning there were seven eggs before the first customer came along.

So the answer is seven.

The crestfallen (and now, presumably, broke) quizmaster hands over the Silver Box, which I keep as a Backpack Item.

As I count my loot, it is announced that we are stopping at ‘Honey Lodge’ (?).  Some farmers prepare to disembark, and I cleverly dodge the need to buy a round of drinks by heading up to the top deck to watch the farmers disembark.

 

One new passenger comes on board, and you just know that this dude is going to be bad news.  He has ‘hard grey eyes’, a ‘narrow sword’ and some kind of ominous black book.  I don’t have Psi-Screen, but the mere fact that this Discipline is ‘checked’ has me on my guard.

As the newcomer returns my stare, I ‘feel a chill’ and lose 3 (!!) Endurance points.  That’s a heck of a chill!

Aside : I’m not addicted to gifs.  I CAN QUIT ANY TIME I WANT.

At any rate, this suspicious dude parks himself in a corner of the bar, reading his creepy book.

Trost notices the object of my attention, and excitedly mentions that he is a wanted villain named ‘Kezoor the Necromancer’ and has a price on his head of ten THOUSAND Lune (!!)

Trost excitedly tries to draft us into his attempt to apprehend the Necromancer and to claim the reward.

I agree to help, mainly because I don’t want this dangerous dude sharing a barge with us.

Its not because of the money.

[Remember : full coin purse]

Trost and Paido approach the necromancer while I guard the stairs (!)

Well played, Kai Lord.

The evil wizard casts a diabolical plague / curse which takes poor Trost out straight away.

Project Aon link – Dying Trost

Paido and Kezoor cross swords, and I start to hope that the issue will be resolved without me risking life and limb, but then…..

Base Stats : CS : 19, E : 25, GC 45 Lune : 20

Current Stats : CS : 34, E : 30

Weapons : Sword, Dagger

Weapon-Like Special Items : Silver Bow of Duadon (+3), Sommerswerd (+8 CS),

Backpack :Potion of Laumspur (+4E) (2), Meal, Rope, Lantern, Silver Box

Special Items : 1. Sommerswerd 2. Platinum Amulet, 3. Crystal Star, 4. Shield (+2 CS),           5. Padded Waistcoat (+2 E), 6. Chainmail Waistcoat (+4 E) 7. Blue Stone Triangle Pendant, 8. Diamond, 9. Quiver (6 arrows), 10 Fireseeds (5), 11. Pass, 12. Silver Bow of Duadon.

Kai Monastery storage :

• Backpack Items :
• Special Items : Mao of Tekaro, Diamonds (2), Boat Ticket, Power Key, Copper Key, Ornate Silver Key, Jewelled Mace, Dagger of Vashna, Brass Whistle.

Magnakai Rank : Tutelary

Magnakai Disciplines : Weaponmastery (+3 CS in Sword, Bow, Mace, Dagger, Spear), Pathmanship, Huntmastery, Divination, Invisibility

Lore-Circles : Fire (+1 CS, +2 E), Solaris (+1 CS, +3 E)

Kai Disciplines : Camouflage, Animal Kinship, Tracking, Hunting, Sixth Sense, Healing, Mind Over Matter, Mindblast (+2CS), Mindshield, Weaponskill (+2 CS in Short Sword)

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