The Drowned Palace Group 11

English | Français
interacting: everyone in the group, especially @Linda Ramirez

A year had elapsed since the chaotic incident in Hogsmeade, and Quentin finally felt secure about returning to Hogwarts. He was even ready for a little merriment. From his Valentine's Day kiss to his summer tunnel ride and Quidditch win, a certain confidence had returned to him. He and his date, his petite amie girlfriend, had agreed to meet at the Drowned Palace. He did have a haunting flashback to getting trapped in that room with Linda where they had to figure out the combination to a lock. He had toiled away, at least fifty combinations starting with 1234, to no avail. Hopefully this game would be a bit smoother. Hogwarts sure had a funny way of having fun.

Living up to its name, the Drowned Palace was eerie and dark. And full of stinky kelp. Not that Paris or the swamps of Louisiana smelled much better, but Quentin wasn't really a boat guy, you know? Low voices were singing a little poem, possibly a puzzle poem. And the algae looked like writing. Quentin was starting to put it all together. The voices and the room wanted them to—

"I see—'come seek us' and 'where shadows feast'—it's simple. We must eat the algae." He immediately moves to pluck a strand of the green slippery things off the wall.

action: attempting to eat some algae I guess
calming presence applies to everyone in the group

A year. That's what was surprising to Linda. Just a year since that unfortunate day and now only shattered pieces of memories were left. However today she felt happy. She would meet him again!

Valentine's Day went quite special, with a kiss that finally carried some answers instead of questions. Summer and his quidditch game were also great time for her. Good memories filled her mind and she walked to the small hall abscent-minded.

Will this adventure turn out to be the same experience as previous year? She hoped they won't get stuck in this maze. But more than that she wished that neither of them would get in danger. Safety was the most important.

She smiled when she saw him and came closer to hug him before taking hi hand if he wished to hold hands. Voices in the room reminded her that they had to solve some puzzle, however she couldn't focus with thinking about the answer.

Is it safe to eat? A single thought crossed her mind when he decided to eat algae. Let it be not poisonous. Quentin, are you sure it is okay to eat it? Her voice was so soft and caring, her eyes full of worry, care and something else that was hard to read. It's unusual to be met by voices. Let's see if this could help us with anything.

Action: talking to Quentin, feeling worried about him eating algae
Items with Linda: enchanted satchel, calming draught, antidote to common poisons and antidote to uncommon poisons, wand

MOD POST - GROUP 11

Only about a third of the group had managed to find their way to the room, it seemed. Odd, but there was always the potential that they had gotten lost along the way. If they were to come, the door would open to them from the outside, then close back up once they had entered the room, allowing no one out.

For those in the room, however, there was no way out, even if they tried to trace their steps back to where they came through. The door was either "gone" or it was hidden somehow now. There was no leaving for now. After all, this was an escape room; all that they had to do could be found here. It would just take a few trial and error and a bit of luck as well, it seemed. So going to the dungeons (or anywhere else for that matter) was not really an option anymore.

@Quentin Gagné, rather than figuring out clues, decided rather to destroy them and began to eat the algae. Because nothing says eat me like strange glowing plants. Certainly, oddly growing things couldn't possibly be dangerous. Thankfully for Quentin, however, this algae was not. Maybe it was the Siren's main food source? Nonetheless, Quentin began to glow, a similar colour to the algae as it made its way through his system.

@Linda Ramirez also decided not to look for clues, although it was admittedly for a good reason. Detecting still no light, the algae seemed to thrive. Whatever semblance of "words" that were not even clear as to what they were before (more like blanks), barely visible before, almost seemed petrified now, taking clearer shapes. It was still hard to distinguish much, only about 3 words could be made out and even that with quite a bit of difficulty because of how they "revealed" themselves.

and xxxxxxxxxxxxx search, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx through xxxxxx

This was still something, 3 out of 14 words were at least "distinguishable" in the otherwise mass of "unknown".

The algae continued to give off the same eerie light, and the song kept on playing, on repeat, as if tempting them to find a way to either continue this "riddle" and figure out the next steps, or plainly taunting them to make it stop at some point, since it was getting quite draining to hear it over and over again.

No mod rolls happened this round!

English | Français
interacting: everyone in the group, especially @Linda Ramirez

So the algae wasn't that bad, really. It reminded Quentin of those Japanese seaweed snacks, but instead of being crispy and salty, it was wet and chewy. It took him a second to get only a few pieces down. In a fit of terror, Quentin realized his breath would probably now smell like fish. How unpleasant. And he was looking forward to there being more kissing tonight. In quick motion, he brought his palm to his forehead in a defeated posture, but he caught a flash of light coming for him. He sprung backward on his heels, prepared to fight the source of light.

But the source of light was him. He was glowing.

"Linda, Linda, I'm light. I'm light! What does this mean? Am I the answer?"

Not waiting for her response, propelled by pure fishy excitement, he flung himself at the wall with the "blank" and tried to stick himself to it. "I, Quentin, offer myself as sacrifice to the great wall, so that Linda and all others may escape the room."

He did not stick, but he would keep trying. Before Quentin jumped at the wall again, he realized new algae had appeared. They were on the right track!

"And … search … through. And search through? Search through what? If I am the answer, I must search through myself?" Quentin began frantically emptying his pockets, while also trying to stick himself to the wall. Maybe the other students could use his glowing body to see clues around the room.

action: he threw everything out of his pockets on the ground, including his wand, his beater club (how did that fit in there), a wrestling mask (why did he carry that around), four chocolate wrappers, and rose (somehow in mint condition, meant for Linda); and he is throwing himself at the fill-in-the-blank wall, hoping to stick
calming presence applies to everyone in the group

Linda stood as if in awe from what Quentin was doing. His sudden excitement made her confused, but jumps at the wall made her forget completely of searching for any clues. Who cared about that anyway when someone you love is glowing and jumping as if trying to glue himself to the wall?

Quentin. She spoke softly, noticing a rose and returning her eyes to look at him. Dear, I don't think this would work. You are glowing, let's see what we can find else here. Her voice was soft and kind. It was unclear what exactly she thought about this situation, but there certainly was no negativity.

She didn't have any ideas with the riddle, neither she had any idea what to do at all. So she took her wand and decided to cast a spell. Revelio. Her first thought was to make this room bright light, but then she thought maybe this would reveal anything more than this useless riddle.

Let's look around. I still need you, so I don't agree with your sacrifice. She smiled and looked around, trying to understand what to do or at least how to make this voice shut up. It offered little to no help for Linda. But this time with Quentin definitely wasn't going to be boring. This was already guaranteed. A rose was in her thoughts as well. A flower was more interesting than the riddle. Funny to think about it here though.
@Quentin Gagné

Actions: doesn't know what to feel about what Quentin is doing, is using his glowing to light the place, attempts to cast Revelio

As a rule, Rafal Devereux liked to be punctual. It was more out of convenience than principle, since one would always be more well-informed, if they were amongst the first to arrive to a particular function or event. It just made sense. However, it seemed that he had breached his own philosophy this day, for the Slytherin was wholly, utterly and completely late.

Wrenching open the door, Rafal stumbled into the small room marked with his hastily checked number, where the second year was promptly engulfed into darkness. He took a moment to catch his breath (yes, he had run all the way here from the dance), leaning back against the spot where the door had seemingly disappeared into nothingness - which wasn’t concerning at all. Then he raised his head, surveying the surroundings.

Funnily enough, it appeared he was only the third person to arrive at this room. A small frown creasing his brows, Rafal tried to recall the details of the large whiteboard he had taken only a courteous glance at. Weren’t there meant to be six participants in all?

Eh, what the hell. Maybe they were late too. It was certainly understandable, Hogwarts balls tended to be ones you got caught up in. He pushed up from the wall, plastered a polite smile on and approached his fellow teammates. A boy and a girl, neither of whom he was familiar with, gathered in front of a piece of clobbered stone wall. Or he could just be tripping, as the only proper source of light around was his male comrade, who was most delightfully and unquestionably, glowing. How fun.

"Uh, hello." He gave an awkward wave, accompanied by a hesitant smile. "I’m Rafal, nice to meet you guys. Sorry for being so late..?" The sentence ended in a questioning tone, his voice trailing off, silence falling for a moment. Ought he mention the fact that most of their group appeared to have gotten lost somewhere within the bowels of the castle?

Better gloss past it. Adjusting his satchel, the Slytherin shot them a quick grin. "But, anyways, I’m here now! And ready to help." He paused for a second. "And uh, what are your names?" Turning to the algae-covered walls, Rafal noted that there were words formed, barely distinguishable, but there. Squinting, he could make out three separate words, all arranged to look like pieces of a riddle.

It had not been evident when Rafal was yapping about, but a soft, ponderous voice could be heard from every corner of the room, singing -- a song? It was the strangest thing. As he listened, Rafal could feel the most peculiar sensation deep within his stomach, eyelids growing heavy. He snapped out of the haze as the song ended.

Silence fell. Was the voice listening for something? Rafal tried to think back to the specific words of the melody, pulling them apart for clues. Far below, where shadows feast… He spun to his comrades. "Well, it’s talking about the dungeons, right?"

Though that didn’t exactly give them too much to work with. It wasn’t like they could get to the dungeons at the moment, what with the disappearing door trick and all. Rafal pulled out his wand. Better try something. "Revelio!" Then immediately stepped back, looking to the patterned algae hopefully.

"By the way," he added casually, directed to the dark-haired boy. "Are you glowing?"

Action: Casting Revelio on the algae

Interacting with @Quentin Gagné | @Linda Ramirez

Abilities: Dhampir I
Inventory: Wand, Black Fire Potion, Anti Paralysis Potion
Stamina: 5 | Evasion: 8 | Strength: 2 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane power: 3 | Accuracy: 10

MOD POST - GROUP 11

Two Revelios were cast, what would normally be an unnecessary amount would turn out to be a desicion worth making as Fourth year @Linda Ramirez's brain seemed to be so full of high-level spells she had forgotten the basics. Thankfully, second year @Rafal Devereux would save her, casting a well-timed second revelio; maybe this would help? And so it did. The algae seemed to grow brighter and sharper, allowing her to read the words blending into the foliage.

your xxxxxxxxx treasure xxx Fail xxxxxxxxxxxx stays xxxxxx do xxxxxxx the xxxxxxxxxx The and xxxxxxxxxxxxx search, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx through xxxxxx is xxxxxxxxxxx so xxx timexxx you

The words were scrambled, they needed to be rearranged, though that was a much easier task now that they could actually see them properly too.

@Quentin Gagné would choose, rather than handing his flower to his girl, to chuck it on the ground. Really, she didn't deserve it anyway. His beater club followed; it seemed his pocket was bottomless. He flung himself at the wall. What he would realise quickly thereafter was that the wall was simply that - a wall. A fun fact about walls is that they do not have eyes, nor ears, and so the wall was unable to accept his offering, if it had even wanted to in the first place.

The rest of the room remained almost untouched though there was dim glowing from the algae still, slightly enhanced now because of the revelio for however long the spell lasted, while only the words remained almost permanently visible now.

Rolls

Interacting with: Reducio @Quentin Gagné, @Linda Ramirez, @Rafal Devereux

Notes: Sorry for my lateness! Reducio Speech: #3CB371 Thoughts: italics

With her heart pounding against her chest and into her throat, Kaitlyn had a piece of paper crumbled in her hand as she made it to the door leading to the escape room, called the Drowned Palace. The sound of her heeled sandals echoed in her hurried movements. She wasn’t a fan of being late. Whenever she had something to do, she vastly preferred to be on time, or even early. Late was an exception. A very rare exception, except for tonight. Right now, she was late, and really had no excuse … and arguably took way too long applying some makeup to her face to accentuate her freckles.

Opening the door and stepping inside, Kaitlyn was immediately disoriented by the darkness. It took her a few, embarrassingly, trials to identify where to go. But, thankfully, she found the vast open room. Three students were already there, thankfully. It appeared that they were still missing two. Her blue eyes immediately recognized a certain Gryffindor girl, Linda. She smiled at the older girl as she joined the small group.

“Sorry for my lateness,” Kaitlyn apologized with a blush, her freckles popping even more. “I’m Kaitlyn,” she said to those in the room with her that she didn’t know. She heard the low humming voice in its unknown song, along with the words formed on the algae. The older boy appeared to be … glowing? That was strange, but then again, everything about Hogwarts was strange.

Kaitlyn tilted her head to the side. “A riddle? Or maybe we need to rearrange the words to form a sentence?” She suggested, her brow furrowed in concentration. Her eyes glanced around the remainder of the room, hoping there wasn't something else important.

Word Count:

Reducio

Note: 287 words

As it turns out, experience does not necessarily equal skill. Certainly not a fact that Rafal would be awfully confounded by, but it is nice to be corroborated, all the same. The incantation dies on his tongue, a flash of blue light signifying his success. The redheaded girl’s wand-tip remains dull and unresponsive, and the Slytherin tries to pretend that this development does not please him substantially, struggles to retain an impassive countenance. Yes, they are technically on the same team, but still - point one, Rafal. And the efforts of their last comrade are even more substandard, if possible.

And now, by way of his solitary adroitness (though the second year will assuredly never voice these notions out loud), the entirety of the algae-comprised riddle can be plainly discerned amongst dense foliage, and Rafal pounces upon the opportunity to at last untangle this one mystery. But as his eyes scan through the words in a haste, he feels the high from preceding happenings drop, metaphorically descending down and down, to the darkest pits of hell.

It is gibberish. That much is plain, and Rafal does not have time to dwell much beyond this simple facet before his rumination is interrupted by the arrival of a fourth member of their party - frankly long overdue, though he supposes he is not much one to talk. The creaking of door hinges and accompanying footsteps, promoting Rafal to tear his gaze away from the treacherous greens and turn his head slightly to glance behind, where a single girl is approaching, dark hair pulled back and clad in a pale embellished frock. Rafal offers a polite wave and smile.

"Ah, don’t worry about it." he states, dismissing her apologies with a casual gesture. "I was late too, those Hogwarts balls are really something, eh? You never know how they’re going to end up. Rafal, charmed to meet you." Kaitlyn… The name sounds vaguely familiar, and the Slytherin briefly struggles to place it. He peers closer at her freckle-splattered face, cerebrating. Huh. Kaitlyn wouldn’t happen to be a Prefect, would she?

Unwilling to appear nescient amongst strangers, Rafal opts not to inquire further on his speculation. Instead spins back to the clobbered stone wall, engrosses himself once more in the enigma. "Probably, yes," he responds to the inquiry, head unturned. "We did a few spells - " - well, some of them did - " - and this is what came up. Seems pretty valid that it’s an unscrambling deal." He takes a step back so as to take in the entire section better, brows furrowed. Abruptly swivels to face his teammates. It’s a bit of a long shot, considering their current whereabouts, but - "Did any of you guys happen to bring a notebook with you, by any chance?"

Slowly, some semblance of a concept grows in his mind. The process is more laborious than would be with proper utensils, but what’s done is done and there is no use engaging in pointless self-castigation for his oversight. He stares hard at the script, cogs whirring. He mulls over each word, placing them piece by piece in each spot of his mental space, trying each possible combination. Rafal is so close. He can taste it.

"Fail the search, your time is through. The treasure stays and so do you." he states, tone steely, imperative. He looks to his associates, willing them to cognisance. "That’s what the words spell out. That’s the answer to the puzzle. It’s gotta be." Right?

Action: Solving the riddle

Interacting with @Quentin Gagné | @Linda Ramirez | @Kaitlyn Connor

Abilities: Dhampir I
Inventory: Wand, Black Fire Potion, Anti Paralysis Potion
Stamina: 5 | Evasion: 8 | Strength: 2 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane power: 3 | Accuracy: 10