[Riddle] Answer: the Mountain

[fissionessence]

But what's the question?

I have a cult with several mini-boss type leaders. Each one is entrusted with a short phrase. Together, the phrases comprise a riddle; the answer is 'the mountain'. (Or 'A mountain'.)

'The mountain' is where the cult's base is, but none of the mini-bosses knows this. They were instructed that if worst comes to worst, they all get together with their phrases and find the base. They can only do this if they all agree, and thus can't scheme against each other; they must truly be acting in the best interests of the cult.

Anyway, of course the PCs need to find this cult base, so they go kill all the leaders and extract the phrases to find out the riddle.

But I need a riddle in sixteen hours (then it's game time!)

I thought I could come up with or find one, but I'm really bad at riddles (coming up with them, solving them), so I could use the help of anyone with riddle expertise

~

 

[tanj]

What has roots as nobody sees,
Is taller than trees
Up, up it goes,
And yet never grows?

- The Hobbit

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well there is always the one from The Hobbit:

What has roots as nobody sees,
Is taller than trees,
Up, up it goes
And yet never grows?

 

[Dioltach]

Here's something I put together. It doesn't scan entirely, but hey, I'm not hoping to get the Nobel Prize for it.

It should be easy to break up into separate lines for the bosses. The last line is the answer, obviously.

I watch the birth and death of kings
I last beyond all living things
I am the oldest in the land
I am the greatest boulder, the finest sand
I stand on the deepest rock below
I touch the skies where the winds blow
I am where the rivers fountain
(I am the mountain)

 

[wedgeski]

I watch the birth and death of kings
I last beyond all living things
I am the oldest in the land
I am the greatest boulder, the finest sand
I stand on the deepest rock below
I touch the skies where the winds blow
I am where the rivers fountain
(I am the mountain)

Awesome, although I think it becomes clear what the answer is a little early.

 

[Klaus]

I withstand the mightiest strike
But the softest breath wears me down.
Men search what I have in my heart
But it is never love they have found.
You drink my tears, which I gladly give
For I watch the birth and life and death of you all.
Some call me mother, even if my embrace can kill
Some don't call me anything, but live with me still.
What do you call me?

 

[Zerakon]

I don't think you want any one miniboss's clue/line to point to 'mountain' otherwise it undermines the objective. What I'd suggest is that the minibosses have "nonsense phrases" that only make sense when they come together. To do this, I might come up with a riddle that has the same number of words in each line, then each miniboss's nonsense phrase is composed of the Nth word in each phrase, perhaps prefixed by a number indicating N.

For example, if the riddle is (borrowing from Klaus's post):

I watch the birth and life and death of all.
Some call me mother, even if my embrace can kill
Some don't call me anything, but live with me still.

That sets up 10 minibosses (or 5 minibosses if you give 2 columns to each miniboss). Here's the nonsense phrases you'd find on the minibosses:

One I some some
Two watch call don't
Three the me call

You could be even sneakier and (a) never use a number in the riddle and (b) imbed the number key inside the nonsense phrase, such as:

I some one some
Watch call don't two
The three me call

I wouldn't recommend that last part unless your party has some really sharp people, because you then need to figure out to remove the numbers to line up the columns correctly.

 

[fissionessence]

Thanks for all the riddles, guys And thanks, Zerakon for the inspiration to do more than just a riddle and to mix up the phrases.

I ended up making my own riddle by stealing lines from all of yours Actually I have two riddles; the first has the answer of 'the mountain' and the second gives clues on where to find the entrance at the mountain, and what to do once there. (Kind of.)

I took Zerakon's idea and made separate pieces for each boss. Each paper reads as its own clue, but is really nonsense. The papers are torn in a way as to fit into a single sheet so the puzzle can be solved.

Take a look. Thanks again for the help; I'm cutting out the pieces right now

~