Opinions guys? I mean the shipping is interesting but theres a bit more to the options than aesthetics
Well, I guess I'll throw my two cents in.
[] A corridor seemingly composed wholly of roses and thorny vines, that split and twisted into the distance, forming a great labyrinth
Labyrinths are kind of hard to judge the difficulty of. Is the purpose to figure a way through the labyrinth or to find something in the labyrinth? It gives us some measure of direction by implicitly asking us to solve the labyrinth, and (with OOC knowledge) we can infer that it is likely asking us to find the exit given the second option has qi barriers blocking the way to the rear.
With that being said, I'm not entirely sure where the difficulty of the maze comes from. Is it going to be shifting paths? Are there going to be attacks by creatures of the woods? Whatever the case may be, there is simply very little actual information to go on regarding what the challenges will be in the Labyrinth.
[] A softly lit temple, with sparking qi barriers blocking the way toward its rear. Behind them, you can see the looming shadow of a great statue of some forgotten great spirit.
This option immediately presents a directed goal with some context clues regarding how to solve it. The goal will be to get to the back of the temple, hence why it is blocked off by qi barriers. The subgoal will likely to resolve challenges or puzzles in order to turn off the qi which is powering the barriers.
Then we have some information regarding what those challenges and puzzles might be. Behind us is a statue of a forgotten Great Spirit, which implies that this a temple dedicated to said Great Spirit. Which means that it will be themed around that great spirit. While the great spirit is forgotten, there will be some clues to pick up from the statue regarding the possible deposition of the great spirit as well as what aspect it held dominion over.
I'll admit, Ling Qi isn't the most intelligent of the bunch (given her poor intelligence score) and will unlikely be able to piece together the abstract clues and subtle hints that we find on the statue to form a coherent idea of who the great spirit was. However, she does have some pretty good preception with CDE and she can relay what she sees to Xuan Shi who is much more capable of piecing together clues and ideas.
I find this option much more appealing because we start with two pieces of information to solve whatever puzzles come along whereas the first one there is really only one clue (its a labyrinth which implies the goal is to solve it) and the third one has no clues other than a boat.
[] A pier and a little boat tied to it, floating on a river that flows into the yawning mouth of an ominous cave.
I don't particularly like this one because there is simply no information on what challenges it will have or puzzles we will encounter. It is a leap of faith that the information will be provided later, or the challenges will be less subtle.
We have perfect night vision, so there is that at least, but there is little in this option to entice me to vote for it. No information, no context clues, just a boat in the water with a yawning cave begging to be entered. It's just not for me.