The Red Queen's Labyrinth
THE RED QUEEN'S LABYRINTH
(Group Eight)
Whimsy was in the air, for it was the morning of the Wonderland Waltz at last! Many attendees shuffled and skipped around in their rooms, preparing their finest robes and accessories for the occasion. Though, not all were still sewing the last pearls onto their gowns or choosing their cufflinks.
Brave souls who have taken up the challenge of The Red Queen's Labyrinth have all gathered today in the Small Hall. Each possessed a key that had been delivered to them by an owl, each customised in pattern and shape to match only one door.
Players would feel as if they had entered a life-sized rabbit’s burrow upon entering the Small Hall. Numerous doors spanned the seemingly endless corridor, lying in wait for their chosen group of challengers. Some doors were round, others triangular. The possibilities seemed endless as colours and patterns blurred together from a birdseye view.
Upon fitting one's key into the correct door, the door will swing open to reveal an elegant European garden. Jade green hedges adorned with ruby red roses towered over the players, winding in all sorts of odd angles and curves. It was a maze, and players were faced with the mouth of the beast.
Obstacle 1
Upon taking your first steps into the maze, players will be led down a colourful checker-patterned path. Approaching the end of this path, it became narrow, looping once to reveal the first challenge in their way.
Upon stepping to the end of the path, the leaves of the hedge walls would begin to rustle violently. The ground trembled a little as the once singular hedge wall ripped itself apart, revealing THREE PATHWAYS.
Popping colours, vivid shades: The first path was colourful in many ways. Fungi of all colours and varieties were richly scattered across the path, making the dirt look more like a fruit cake from afar. If you lean too close, some might get mischievous and start to spit rainbow spore clouds at you!
The saying goes, “No journey is taken alone!” Come forth, social butterflies, for on the second path lies countless eyes. Beady-eyed garden gnomes danced in arrow formations in the centre of the path, as if inviting the players in. Even from the entrance, the faintest giggling and a peculiar song of gibberish filled the air.
Elegant, refined, a royal’s heart must never be satisfied. The third path was tailored fit for royalty. The golden arch at the entrance glimmered in the sunlight, and beyond it, beautiful ruby roses were intertwined into the emerald hedges. Opulence was in the air, and the gentle flow of a fountain could be heard down the perfect path.
A riddle is written on an oval sign in loopy letters:
Before you lay a path split in three,
But only one will be a breeze!
Will you go down the first path where life's abundant,
And flourishing nature is the ruler incumbent?
Or prepare for a party,
For the company of critters on the second path is nothing short of hearty.
Opulence, oh, a dream of many.
On the third path where riches a-plenty await,
It is up to you to seize your fate.
One last advice.
Heed it, it shall suffice:
To brave the jungle
is to have a knowing local in the bundle.
To go without, you'd best have an out!
Choices, choices, three too many choices! Which one will you take, brave challengers?
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OOC InstructionsReducioRulesROUND 1 SPECIAL INSTRUCTION:
- To participate, you must have signed up and allocated a group. If this is not your group thread, please do not post here.
- Moderation will occur once a week, if at least HALF of the members in the group posted an action.
- If one or no members post an action that round, moderation will happen only the next week to give more time for members to post. This is for the sake of game progression.
- If there are any special circumstances (eg, members are ill), please owl us. We will consider making exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
- Each participant is allowed one moderated action per round. Please include your abilities and stats in your post.
- Please specify your character's action(s) in your post (as an OOC note).
- This includes moderated actions, which are actions that require dice rolls to determine their outcome, like casting a spell.
- Please follow all usual HIO rules.
- This includes 200 IC word requirements.
- Hold onto your heads, wandering travellers. Have fun!
Each group is only allowed to choose one pathway. Posted actions should say the same pathway.
Group 8
- @Jada Blake
- @Tina Carille
- @Tes Cadell
- @Angel Dayes
- @Felix Hawthorne
- @Laurie Holmes
- @Dido Bleaklane
DEADLINE: 1 week from time of posting
The Red Queen's Labyrinth
Evasion: 6
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 8
Arcane Power: 5
Accuracy: 7
@Tina Carille
@Tes Cadell
@Angel Dayes
@Felix Hawthorne
@Laurie Holmes
Dido stepped through the door, grinning as she did so, both in excitement and utter fear (of course, she tried to pass it off to her teammates that it was nothing to do with the latter).
She glanced at said teammates as they went through. She had at least heard of all of them, perhaps owing to the vast majority being Slytherins too. Jada was on the Slytherin Quidditch team so, despite herself, Dido had always paid attention to her with the slight hope that a mysterious illness could leave an empty spot on the team. Tina, the only non-Slytherin, had been on the train with Dido and had seemed perfectly lovely. Tes still terrified her. Angel and Laurie were the students that Dido had spent the least time with. And Felix had, kindly, come to her Boardgames night!
Having “assessed” them, Dido smiled, more genuinely this time. All in all, things could be worse.
So she, finally, looked at the three paths before them. The first was full of plants and fungi, which were spewing out spores. The second was plainly creepy, with garden gnomes dancing around like little monsters. The third was, frankly, beautiful but that immediately made Dido nervous, waiting for a trap. She looked again at the riddle, determined to “get it” before the Ravenclaw… but nope. Not a clue. She looked again at the paths, coming to a conclusion seemingly based on vibes alone, all while feeling around in her satchel for one of the two potions she had brought with her.
“If it’s worth anything, my gut says the mushroom route. And I brought a herbicide potion, so we could always chuck it to make a path.”
Last edited by Dido Bleaklane on 12 Apr 2026, 01:01, edited 4 times in total.
-Dido Bleaklane |
The Red Queen's Labyrinth
|Outfit|
Reducio
Note: Tina’s hair will get frazzled and frizzy and messed up as maze progresses due to stress. So her hair will like puff up.
|Mentions|
Reducio
@Jada Blake @Tes Cadell @Angel Dayes @Felix Hawthorne @Laurie Holmes @Dido Bleaklane
Action: Over analyzing the riddle
Aww shoot your the only Ravenclaw here. I thought when I got with my group for the labyrinth. Well at least Angel is here. And Dido... I had been on the train with Dido. Angel and I were just friends. But my jaw really dropped when I saw Tes and Jada walk down. My face dropped. I stared daggers hoping that they were in another group but no they were in my group. There were two Slytherins I didn't know the name of. Oh yeah your roommates get placed in one group and your with 2 people you hate and 2 people you don't even know the names of. Well that's what's done you can't change. Well let us hope you don’t go insane like Alice does. Soon we entered the maze. ” Down the Rabbit hole…Don’t go insane like Alice does in Alice in Wonderland… I muttered to myself. There was a split and a riddle. I tried to analyze the riddle when Dido said. “If it’s worth anything, my gut says the mushroom route. And I brought a herbicide potion, so we could always chuck it to make a path.” I giggled and smirked. "Well, that's an idea..." I said. Then I remembered "Oh what are you twos names? I'm Tina Carille and I'm a first year Ravenclaw. I said, turning to the boy and the girl I didn't know. Then I went back to the riddle. "Well if we take the FIRST path. It will be difficult to see. The second path well are we willing to face the animals. It may look the easiest from here but there could be some dangerous animals later in the maze. The third MIGHT be a trap. Because they might be useing reverse reverse psychology. So it might be safe. But I don’t think we should take that path. It’s too risky. I would say take path 2 because the gnomes are like the locals in a way. So they could guide us. If we ask nicely that is. My conclusion is take path two. Who agrees? I said. I watched the faces of my teammates. Would they listen to me?
Last edited by Tina Carilla on 18 Apr 2026, 18:26, edited 4 times in total.
"A wise girl knows her limits; A smart girl knows she has none."
The Red Queen's Labyrinth
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ANGEL DAYES
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Reducio
dialogue: lightSlateGray and bold
character: Angel Dayes
date: 11/4/26
word count:347
Stamina: 8
Evasion: 6
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 7
ArcPower: 3
Accuracy: 1
Abilities: Dhampiar
dialogue: lightSlateGray and bold
character: Angel Dayes
date: 11/4/26
word count:347
Stamina: 8
Evasion: 6
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 7
ArcPower: 3
Accuracy: 1
Abilities: Dhampiar
Angel with excitement and mischief in her mind but along with caution she crept up slowly to the checkered ground. As she hold on to her light sky dress with her fancy ghost heels. Angel took a deep breath and took a step back. In awe like Alice. The room filled with things other than normal she chuckled. Angel looked to her teammates. Funny how everyone was Slytherin except for Tina who she met beforehand was a Ravenclaw. Tes and Jada the only Slytherins from this group that she knew right away. Dido, her roomate, and a girl who was Slytherin as well and around the same height. She smiled slightly but yet again she does not know how well they will work together, but time will tell.
Moving forward she took a greater look at the three paths ahead. One was filled with spores and life, second was with gnomes dancing strangely, now the third one looked awfully suspicious almost too easy. Disappointed she grabbed her wand and decided to light up the space. Reading the oval frame with writing she read it allowed.
"Riddles huh? How fun." she said under her breathe.
""Lumos!" Angel said with her wand making a circle. The wand showed light and brighten the area. She went closer to the three paths and stopped in her tracks. Her heels made clicks and thumps, she turned around to the rest of the group.
"I believe Tina is, well correct." she replied smiling
Angel wanted to reason with the others as to why.
"Using herbicide potions to ward off the flowers from spewing color spores will not do us any good, it will waste our potions. The third one seems suspicious too. So the second path it is, the gnomes they're friendly creatures if we respect them! What do you guys think?" Angel asked with a low tone wondering what the rest thought. Either her own house raises eyebrows or everyone gets what she's saying no in between. Angel has always loved riddles "having a known local" was a good information for sure.
INPC: Chelsea Mitzchel
"That cloud, what's it called again?"
"That cloud, what's it called again?"
The Red Queen's Labyrinth
.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.*+:｡.｡ ｡.｡:+*
mentions-word count-ooc note-date-outfit-hex
outfit✧.*
Reducio
speech✧.* Sissy -, Tina - Felix-Jada-Dido-Angel-Laurie
code by ara villa
Action: N/A
Stamina: 5 | Evasion: 4 | Strength: 2 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane Power: 9 | Accuracy: 3
Abilities: Parselmouth
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S I S S Y |
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C A D E L L |
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Last edited by Tes Cadell on 13 Apr 2026, 19:56, edited 1 time in total.
"That's crap-puccino" Sta 5 | Eva 6 | Str 2 | Wis 7 | Arc 9 | Acc 6 |
ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀᴅ ʜᴀᴛᴛᴇʀ’ꜱ
The Red Queen's Labyrinth
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~This was it. Red queen’s Labyrinth. She honestly couldn’t believe she had gotten a group to go with. Oh well, there was bound to be at least one useful person there. But ughh. Cadell. She was there, that little nuisance. Well, she would somehow find a way to babysit deal with her without upsetting her so-called feelings. Easier said than done.
Who else was there? Angel….Dayes. Well, she did match her name, as far as Laurie knew. Or maybe she was as useless as Tes. Which was definitely saying something.
Jada. She was sensible, and Laurie could work with her. She hoped.
Felix….something. He was a third year, the only one older than her. Judging by his red hair, he seemed to be a weirdo, but Laurie wouldn’t judge him too soon.
Dido. The name reminded her of a parrot. But the girl seemed eager, and that was good. For her. For Laurie, it was excruciating.
And Tina. A beacon of happiness to some, but to Laurie, just abnormal.
Ok, maybe she was being a bit mean. So what? That was just her nature.
She observed the riddle carefully, already making up her mind. The second path, duh.
It was all too easy. The third route was obviously a trick, and the first one…yeah no. If there were mushrooms, she wasn’t even going close to them.
“If it’s worth anything, my gut says the mushroom route.”
Really? That was the best thing you could think of? Her gut? She expected better from Dido.
“Well if we take the FIRST path. It will be difficult to see. The second path well are we willing to face the animals. It may look the easiest from here but there could be some dangerous animals later in the maze. The third MIGHT be a trap. Because they might be useing reverse reverse psychology. So it might be safe. But I don’t think we should take that path. It’s too risky. I would say take path 2 because the gnomes are like the locals in a way. So they could guide us. If we ask nicely that is.”
That was, undeniably, a very good paragraph, which just happened to be useless. Kind of like Tes.
Whenever she heard the name, ‘Tes’, she instantly thought of TERRIBLE ENGINE SERVICE.
Yup, she was definitely going insane.
“So unless someone’s particularly eager to get poisoned or walk into a pretty little trap, we're going that way.”
That was the best she could do?
“Hey, Cadell. You thought about the last four lines in the riddle or did your cracked up mind miss that as well?”
Last edited by Laurie Holmes on 14 Apr 2026, 09:38, edited 1 time in total.
The Red Queen's Labyrinth
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ANGEL DAYES
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Reducio
dialogue: lightSlateGray and bold
others: italic
character: Angel Dayes
date: 12/4/26
word count:244
Stamina: 8
Evasion: 6
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 7
ArcPower: 3
Accuracy: 1
Abilities: Dhampiar
dialogue: lightSlateGray and bold
others: italic
character: Angel Dayes
date: 12/4/26
word count:244
Stamina: 8
Evasion: 6
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 7
ArcPower: 3
Accuracy: 1
Abilities: Dhampiar
Well the easy part was everyone did not fight. But things can change and the group is already on edge. The rest of the group seems to be analyzing each other almost skeptical, if someone can do this or that if they're useful or not. Like Angel always said to herself time will tell, she hated assumptions.
“Hey, Cadell. You thought about the last four lines in the riddle or did your cracked up mind miss that as well?” the girl made a shot of a smirk with a remark uh oh this won't be good. She's Slytherin as well. Angel felt bad for Tina right now. Slytherins tend to be hot headed, not sure about herself, atleast she's not making remarks 24/7 that was for sure.
Angel sighed, did she even want to know her name? She's probably like Tes, either for worse or for the bad.
Angel cleared her throat "Right, well since everyone is on board let's go straight to the middle." she with with her heels went towards the center and went inside. Angel hated fights and if a time comes where she has to break one up she's probably the only one to do it, if lucky maybe the others.
She looked at the gnomes who were still having their little party. Angel liked the gnomes already but she can't lie their dances were uncanny but she took a deep breath because it did not bother her that much.
INPC: Chelsea Mitzchel
"That cloud, what's it called again?"
"That cloud, what's it called again?"
The Red Queen's Labyrinth
Evasion: 6
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 8
Arcane Power: 5
Accuracy: 7
@Tina Carille
@Tes Cadell
@Angel Dayes
@Felix Hawthorne
@Laurie Holmes
Dido shuddered at the thought of the beady-eyed little gnomes as Tina quickly dismissed her suggestion to take the mushroom path. Well, quickly wasn’t exactly the word… drawn out and lengthy was more probably suitable so, despite Dido’s best efforts to support this girl, who was possibly the only relief from the hostilities from her fellow Slytherins, she had to grit her teeth from making a bitter retort in response. Which probably was only partly fuelled by Tina’s actual statement and more from the house the girl was a part of.
So, after Dido managed to dispel her urges to throttle the Ravenclaw, which, realistically, were completely undeserved, she managed to listen to her other teammates’ suggestions. This was, apparently, a waste of time though as both Angel and Tes seemed to echo Tina’s conclusion seeming to Dido as if they just wanted to state that their reasoning was superior, no matter the identical outcome. Unfortunately, what each girl did agree on was that they would have to take the second path. With the gnomes. As each spoke, Dido’s face went paler and paler as she began to ignore them and stare past the group at the path ahead, filled with the little gremlins themselves, almost taunting her with their smiles.
After Tes concluded her argument, Laurie, the second-year, spoke up, replying, “ Hey, Cadell. You thought about the last four lines in the riddle or did your cracked up mind miss that as well?”
While Angel responded, Dido took this moment to distract herself from thoughts of those demonic monstrosities and turned to the group, still somewhat green. Still nervous and unsure after her comment had been fruitless, she said, “I… um. For the last lines… the gnome are the ‘knowing’- maybe… well it does sound like ‘gnomes’. And-Well, this could be really stupid- but like- well… we could,” she took a deep breath, squeezed her eyes shut and finished, “whatifwetakeagnomewithus?”
She looked around the group, smiling nervously before pulling out her wand, pointing it at the gnomes and squeaking, “Wingardium Leviosa!”, lifting a gnome in the air and holding it steady several feet from herself.
Last edited by Dido Bleaklane on 12 Apr 2026, 22:55, edited 2 times in total.
-Dido Bleaklane |
The Red Queen's Labyrinth
.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.*+:｡.｡ ｡.｡:+*
mentions-word count-ooc note-date-outfit-hex
outfit✧.*
Reducio
speech✧.* Sissy -, Tina - Felix-Jada-Dido-Angel-Laurie
code by ara villa
Action: Taking path 2
Stamina: 5 | Evasion: 4 | Strength: 2 | Wisdom: 7 | Arcane Power: 9 | Accuracy: 3
Abilities: Parselmouth
_____________________________________
S I S S Y |
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C A D E L L |
_____________________________________
Last edited by Tes Cadell on 13 Apr 2026, 19:56, edited 2 times in total.
"That's crap-puccino" Sta 5 | Eva 6 | Str 2 | Wis 7 | Arc 9 | Acc 6 |
The Red Queen's Labyrinth
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ANGEL DAYES
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|
Reducio
dialogue: lightSlateGray and bold
others: italic
character: Angel Dayes
date: 12/4/26
word count:357
Stamina: 8
Evasion: 6
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 7
ArcPower: 3
Accuracy: 1
Abilities: Dhampiar
dialogue: lightSlateGray and bold
others: italic
character: Angel Dayes
date: 12/4/26
word count:357
Stamina: 8
Evasion: 6
Strength: 5
Wisdom: 7
ArcPower: 3
Accuracy: 1
Abilities: Dhampiar
She looked over at Dido she seemed a bit pale too much almost like her it she looked scared but Angel did not want everyone to be uncomfortable and obviously sometimes the things we want won't really be in favor with the majority, although Angel wishes to accommodate everyone she knows she can't and in a perfect world she'd do it in a heart beat.
"You know you're not the only one going to here Dido, so just breathe!" Angel reassuring her
Now because the majority seemed in favour of the second path it was time that they actually went in there. Dido seemed to gain an idea. But she went back towards the two edgy Slytherins back and forth, no they were not going to fight especially not right now.
"Hey you two!" Angel whistled as I roll my eyes before
"Save it when we are out of this maze. We don't have time for fights." she says bluntly although she knew too well that they were going to retaliate from those thick heads of theirs. Noticing how lighting bolts were sticking out of their eyes, Tes always seems angry but the other girl seems to be more annoying to her.
"Prepare for trouble! And make it double!" she whispered looking over towards them before walking again.
"You guys are very compatible you know? Both with sharp tongues and eyes full of red because that's what you guys only see." she laughed, again Angel was the first to always lighten up, taking a dig at how both the Slytherin girl and Tes always see red significance of their anger
But before she can walk again, Dido used a spell to get a gnome. Quickly with haste Angel went to Dido to get a closer look at the gnome.
Right now the gnome seemed to be screeching wondering what just happened, Angel wanted to be on the good side of the gnomes, once their angry it's over.
"Hey sorry about this but we need to get through this maze. We need someone who knows the parts so we need your help!" she asked to the confused gnome.
INPC: Chelsea Mitzchel
"That cloud, what's it called again?"
"That cloud, what's it called again?"