The chapter is a multi-part one. First we have to solve a puzzle (see the other link), but then we'll have to ask Tamara some bonus questions, and decide which of the places we want to visit in the next chapter. This board is to discuss our questions and places. Our choices. :)

Puzzle, Part 2 (Fortune Teller's Cards)

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<p>Djoni and Tanaka arrive back with disgusted looks on their faces. &quot;I hate politics,&quot; Djoni observes. &quot;Factions killing factions and for what?&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;Bludgeoning with a wooden leg over a border dispute,&quot; Tanaka agrees. &quot;Does seem such a waste.</p>
<p>&quot;Let&;s change the subject,&quot; Djoni offers. &quot;What are you up to now, Madcap Madi?&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;Puzzles and clues,&quot; she replies happily. &quot;I&;m going to help them figure out what to do next.</p>
<p>&quot;Oh, that should be a great help,&quot; Djoni says sarcastically.</p>
<p>Madi bristles. &quot;It will be! You&;re just mean because you&;re almost old enough to be my father. I was born too late! And you!&quot; she turns on Tanaka and stares at his left hand, which is holding Larianne&;s right. &quot;I was going to marry you, and now, there&;s nobody for me. All because of her!&quot; She points at Larianna and stomps her foot.</p>
<p>&quot;Tamara! That&;s enough!&quot; Djoni fires back. &quot;I apologize for bullying you. You&;re right, I old and stodgy!&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;And I know at least one who&;d adore you,&quot; Larianne offers. &quot;Of course, he&;s a chipmunk...&quot;</p>
<p>Despite herself. Madi giggles. &quot;So I have at least one fan? I&;d like to meet him. But, in the meantime, I&;m taking everyone here to the Singari wagons.&quot;</p>
<p>She heads off with everyone in tow. Djoni shrugs and follows her. &quot;She does make life an adventure.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;She&;s cute,&quot; says Larianne, &quot;and Chester really would love her.&quot;</p>
<p>&quot;Let&;s go see what she&;s up to,&quot; Tanaka adds. &quot;Should be interesting.&quot;</p>
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<p>&quot;I never break a promise,&quot; Madi, as Tamara prefers to be called, says cheerfully as she guides all of you to a colorful wagon decorated with symbols.</p>
<p>It seems to be larger inside than out, but how that EVER be possible? Anyway, the woman inside gives you at look which is both judgemental and somewhat amused. Her fondness for Tamara is obvious, though, and she gestures to you to sit down.</p>
<p>&quot;This is Irella. She&;s my friend, and she&;s the best Teller of all the Singari. These are the Protectors of the Squirrel. They want to solve this whole mess and end all our fears,&quot; Madi explains.</p>
<p>&quot;All these for one squirrel?&quot; Irella laughs. &quot;And who can ever end all fears? Still, you cannot afford to waste your time by running to places which will not help, so let us consult the cards.&quot;</p>
<p>She quickly deals out fifty cards face up onto the table in front of you. They seem to make no sense by themselves.</p>
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"These speak in five distinct voices, with exactly ten fitting together through a common thread. There are Suns for those who would lead a rich life surronded by light and wealth; Moons, for those who live to love and value happiness most; Staffs are for those who seek adventure, friendship, and action; Blades for those who live below the surface, with much intrigue and possible danger; and Gears, for those whose lives are bound by the workings of time, both harsh and joyous, and the eternal gears of the universe.

"You have five places to choose from. You are here by Princess Tamara's grace, since she knew well where to start, and this place is bound right now by one of the symbols, althogh locations are mutable and may change with events.

"Two of the other places will tell you much if you visit them, and the other two will yield nothing useful. Each place is bound by another of the voices, but it is up to you to decide how the cards fit together. Make them into sets correctly, and then match the voice symbols to your destinations.

"Be wary, though, for if you choose to visit the wrong locations, you will lose valuable time. I sense little will be gained by from Sun or Staff this time, and that is all I have to tell you. Still, I wish you well on your journey, for all that live in Falcor or Crystania need your help!"

(OOC: This is the last half of Chapter 4. It is a mystery solving and RP challenge. Further explanation and due date is in the first post on the OOC thread.)

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First of all, I&;d like to extend my thanks to for the terrifically diabolical &quot;cards&quot; for the current challenge. These &quot;cards&quot; divide up through a coomon factor into five sets of ten each. Your task is to separate and catalog them correctly, then decide which set fits the &quot;Voice&quot; given, and which &quot;Voice&quot; is best suited to the pictures lit by the spotlights. Finally, choose which two of the locations spotlighted you think have the clues. You do NOT have to actually visit, just choose. RP the sorting, decisions, and your reasons/arguments, etc.</p>
<p>Smail the sorting, your reasons why, and the matching of &quot;cards&quot; to &quot;Voices&quot; by 11:59 pm on Friday, July 14th. (Appropriately Bastille Day.)</p>
<p>If you do everything right, your team will get lots of points.

My first thought was the balcony... but I wonder if that one is kind of obvious? hmm... I'm also wondering about the forest by night because of the werewolves but once again I'm not sure if that seems like the obvious go-to choice?

Yeah, I was inclined towards the forest at night. During the day, I don't think there will be much to see. But of course, that could also be very dangerous.

I was kind of wondering about the Singari camp. I mean, if they are gypsies living in the forest, they should know an awful lot about what's going on, right? Theoretically? But I wonder how much information you'd get from them. Sometimes groups of people like that aren't very accepting of strangers, so I don't know if they'd answer questions...

Okay, turns out there is a possible involved in choosing the locations, and it's a doozy...

I've added the puzzle and new info to the first post.

We have until the 14th to solve this puzzle, and we must do it in the form of a role play...

both the zepplins- Staffs: Adventure Muumuu- Staff: Friendship/adventure. Leftover Sugared Almonds- Moon: Love Daisey Jumper Skirt- Sun: Bright Eye of the Tigrean- Blades: Danger Passing of Time: Gears: Time RReign Eye- Blades: Intrigue?

Hooded Gear Cloak might be Blades since its an assassins cloak...

Cool. Can you add those into your roleplay, a bit? Your thinking and such? So you think the cloak is NOT from the gear group? Hmm...

It could be either/or maybe. Save that one for the end? See what's short in which category.

Yeah, sounds good. Though we can certainly mention it in the roleplay before we decide!!! I added a bunch more commentary. Feel free to add bits of the roleplay that you would like to put in between my comments, or after them...

Hopefully you guys can all get some done tonight? I'm headed to bed pretty quick here, but I'll try to check it after my morning class tomorrow...

Okay actually, the hubby wants to watch the King Kong Skull Island movie... So it looks like I'll be up for about 2 more hours...

Right, now I'm really going to bed...

And guys, you can feel free to disagree with anything sorting-wise that has happened so far... The sorting is just according to what we've said so far... No guarantees on if any of it is right or not... :O

Only now getting caught up. My schedule is all wonk but I'll look at what we've figured with the sorting some before I sleep. Going to read what we have in the RP as well and try to contribute something there either before or after sleeping/napping...

question though... would we rule out the wagon completely since we're already there? I'm a little confused still.

EDIT:

Some possibilites going off their descriptions:

Staffs - Experiment 164 Plushie (reason given in my rp post... he wants friendship?) Blades - Flufferkins (reason given in my rp post... they murder people!)

Maybe some of the rift themed items belong in gears? Because of rifts in time? We had a masquerade plot involving the rift a few years ago and I think that year also involved a lot of time meddling. I'll have to try and dig through old plot news posts...

I wish I could figure out what picture is on the darkside bookmark... I might add a bit in the rp of Dahlia trying to figure it out... if it's darkside it might have to do with night/moon but it could also fit blades? hmm...

Yes, I think that's the point... That if you choose the "voice" that brings us back to the wagon, we'll have lost out on some possible points...

Hmm, rifts in time... That might be...

I think you're right about the time rifts... DId you look at the item description for the Erista?

Description: Born in the chaotic depths of a time rift, this delicate minion has a particularly interesting talent; the ability to create miniature rifts just large enough for it to slip through and escape a predator. Only the nomads know the secrets of how to capture this highly prized minion without frightening it into using its peculiar skill.

Description: Can't get enough of frogs croaking and crickets chirping at night? Just give these plushies a squeeze, and enjoy the songs whenever you'd like!

So the frog plushie might be a moon item, as well...

At this time, the Darkside is sparsely populated. Those that choose to make a home there are usually refinery workers, or those that have special interest in the magical properties of the area.

So maybe that darkside bookmark goes with the other magical items? Still haven't placed them in a major category, though...

Don't know if this helps with the Amy sticker or not, but her subetapedia entry says: Sarah’s little sister Was successfully sacrificed to the sea witch Merana for looking like Shinwa ((((might mean she goes with the other sea items?)))) NOT ELSIE Loved the outdoors and was a very free spirit; Sarah could never seem to keep an eye on her no matter how hard she tried Had a tendency to always bring home frogs and lizards and beg Sarah to be allowed to keep them; Sarah had to try very hard to convince Amy that the creatures would be happier if they were put back outside While her friends have stopped giving gifts in her honor in recent years, they do still miss her and think about her often; Ricardo in particular tells Raffles stories about his adventures with Amy quite often ((((might mean she goes with the adventure items? or friends/staff? Or harsh workings of time??))))

I've been looking over the items, and I think I might have some that are different. I'll finish going through them and post again later (tonight hopefully). I'll also try to get some rp in tonight (since it's evening already here).

Okay... The sooner we can come up with a final answer, the better... I'm in the Frankfurt airport for another hour or two... Then I'm offline over the Atlantic. I'll have internet through my phone, but only that for the rest of the weekend. If need be, I'll do my best to put things together tomorrow evening, but I know family will be keeping me quite busy... So yeah, the sooner the better... Luckily my hubby was willing to let us spring for the 50 bucks worth of phone internet in the States... Don't know if it'll be very fast, though...

I don't think the picture on the bookmark is anything we need to worry about. Plus I'm pretty sure it's just some lava..?

Okay guys, I WAS working on this last night, aaand kinda dozed off... =_=' then was working today. I've been working over the items the last couple hours because I think I've got something. If I'm right, it might change somethings a bit..

..Yeah, it's almost 1:20 am here, so I'll post my thoughts. I noticed, looking on subetalodge, that all of the items have something in common. They all came from 5 different shops. By sorting into which shops they came from, there are exactly 10 items in each section.

(The 'sun/staff/moon after each item was my ideas of what they were. You may ignore if you like.)

Granted, I may be chasing after will 'o wisps. (And I'm getting de'ja vue about what I'm saying, but that might be the hour..)

Now, I can get on in the morning (hopefully, if family matters don't guilt me away again..) and write some rp leading into this..? Or I can just add a bit here and there and put the last few items you have into spaces. I really think there's something to this, but I also realize ....this is not only the 11th hour, it's 1:52 now.. I am sorry I haven't contributed as much this chapter. Signing off..zzzzzzz...

Hmm, I think you're on to something there!! Then I'd say you have gear, moon,blade, staff, then sun for the categories... That's a really good catch! And while some bits are a bit different from what we found earlier, a lot is actually quite close!