Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
We don't know about Heklr enough to Flything him, and also, if it goes to a roll-off, we lose horribly.
NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)
- Thread starter I.F. Ister
- Start date
- Original Fantasy Action
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- Tags
- norse mythology (mythology) original xianxia cultivation western cultivation ask sirihand did your mother tell you anything? discussion pleases yggdrasil farming gloating gets people killed granary management hubris is a coward's word you will die norsemen do not die when they are killed the qm has a bad memory the qm is bad at math viking courtroom drama (legal drama) vikings
well it will be quite unfair too. its not creativity like riddles, so without computer it just comes down to who is more skilled at math. and its unfair, since a crowd of 20 has a good chance to have some people who use it in their profession and are likely just better
as for how, you just do problems OOC, but not simple calculations(ie, proving something or that sort of thing). its an actual thing that existed. you might be able to google it if people use famous problems, but thats why you don't
Good points, i wonder if we could do a Flything in the future. Are there competitions held somewere?
Another thing i just remembered, weren't we trying to recruit other members of our crew beside Vagn?
With them we just talked abaout Kennings, but not tried to recruit them.
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I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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- He/They
Also, I have serious problems with math and a math contest would be literal torture for me
Same there, i feel you.
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This guy probably knows more about us than we know about him and seems specifically focused on giving people shit...I think he's likely better at flyting than we are.
Oh, I know how you would do it if you were in person with somebody. I just think doing it over the internet is not logistically viable since you can find other people's proofs, use a computer, and otherwise not actually do the problem yourself. Which is not to necessarily say people would cheat, but it still gets weird.
I'm pretty sure nobody actually wants to do this.
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For the "touch the sun" challenge people proposed, wouldn't the obvious thing just be for Halla to summon her sunball?
I was thinking we'd just set up an online game at a pre-determined time from the site that I and Fister linked, and SELECT A CHAMPION from amongst the players to fight him. It could be fun!
I've never played Tafl, but I've played a very amateur bit of chess, at roughly a ~1400 rating against engines when I played more regularly? I don't imagine anyone here regularly plays Tafl, but the strongest chess player here would probably be our best bet?
I was thinking we'd just set up an online game at a pre-determined time from the site that I and Fister linked, and SELECT A CHAMPION from amongst the players to fight him. It could be fun!
I've never played Tafl, but I've played a very amateur bit of chess, at roughly a ~1400 rating against engines when I played more regularly? I don't imagine anyone here regularly plays Tafl, but the strongest chess player here would probably be our best bet?
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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Hilariously, I have actually played tafl once
Players: "We're bound to beat him, he's one guy, we've got a really strong chess player -"
Players, ten minutes later: "Fister got hands."
Players, ten minutes later: "Fister got hands."
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Yes, but he might easily have the same spell, or might consider that cheating. Big risks.
I personally feel like this is actually not a great idea. Firstly, unlike with riddles (which have always been crowdsourced to the thread), Halla's tafl proficiency is something we could use stats for...not doing so when we usually would just for a challenge like this seems off to me.
But more importantly, it also eliminates the ability of anyone other than our chosen player to actually make a difference in whether we win or lose, which sucks. I'm not a good chess player so I'm definitely out, but more importantly so is literally everyone else other than one person, which feels bad, at least to me.
With riddles, we can collectively brainstorm, and then vote for the one we want to use. We have agency. With a tafl game? Most of us do not.
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Yeah I was thinking about this I was going upstairs to get ready to go out and I agree with you. I think we should do riddles because you're right, we can crowdsource it and it's a way for everyone to get involved. Maybe we should make a channel on the Discord for the players to coordinate?
Also, probably we don't need to sweat it tooo much on our first riddle. If this is like the riddle game from The Hobbit, then it's okay for our first riddle to be an easier one, then he'll respond, and we'll respond, and so on. The riddle game with Odin and King Heidrik in the sagas also works this way, although it's only Odin giving the riddles.
That kinda back-and-forth structure, with quite short updates as we do our back-and-forth for a few rounds, seems like a more fun way to structure a riddle-duel to me than something where we tear our hair out trying to decide on the Best Unbeatable Perfect Riddle.
@Imperial Fister, does this sound right to you?
- Location
- In the oldest city on the oldest land
I have a trustworthy friend
I trust it to destroy
I trust it to be greedy
I trust it to live long in places it is forgotten
I trust that it is dangerous
I trust that it will help me
Who is my trustworthy friend?
Answer: Fire
I trust it to destroy
I trust it to be greedy
I trust it to live long in places it is forgotten
I trust that it is dangerous
I trust that it will help me
Who is my trustworthy friend?
Answer: Fire
Anyway, I've got to go out, but my riddle submission:
I grow a fluffy beard but have no mouth,
No shield but stand in a phalanx with my kin,
Guarding the road of roads,
I am so weak a child can slay me,
Yet I can lift men and heavy stones,
Who am I?
Answer: A reed.
Note on clues:
Line 1: Reeds have little hairs that grow to disperse their seeds through wind. Quite distinctive when you've seen them, like a less extreme version of cattails.
Line 2: Reeds grow in thick clumps all standing straight, pretty self-explanatory.
Line 3: "The Road of Roads" is a kenning for river which is in the riddles Odin gives to King Heidrik.
Line 4: A reed can be broken by a child.
Line 5: Reed baskets and reed boats go back centuries and would be known to the Norse as they were to most Eurasian cultures.
No shield but stand in a phalanx with my kin,
Guarding the road of roads,
I am so weak a child can slay me,
Yet I can lift men and heavy stones,
Who am I?
Answer: A reed.
Note on clues:
Line 1: Reeds have little hairs that grow to disperse their seeds through wind. Quite distinctive when you've seen them, like a less extreme version of cattails.
Line 2: Reeds grow in thick clumps all standing straight, pretty self-explanatory.
Line 3: "The Road of Roads" is a kenning for river which is in the riddles Odin gives to King Heidrik.
Line 4: A reed can be broken by a child.
Line 5: Reed baskets and reed boats go back centuries and would be known to the Norse as they were to most Eurasian cultures.
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We've just been doing it in spoiler tags in the thread so far. We could certainly also do a Discord channel, but not everyone is on Discord.
On one level, yes, on another level, we definitely want to win and I think we can come up with a number of actually good riddles. We should maybe not go with our absolute strongest, but we'll eventually fail one of his and lose if it goes too long, so it should definitely be top 5, probably top 3.
One way we could do it, for dramatic effect, is to start OOC with the good stuff on both sides, but IC extend the riddle contest with a couple of gimmes on both sides right at the beginning if that doesn't wind up with enough to be dramatically satisfying.
Nice, I like that one.
I.F. Ister
Fortifying The Thread
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- He/They
Yeah, I was hoping you folks would do something like this as it's what I was doing
I'm not that smart, folks
- Location
- Hell
Little red thing on the hill
Give it hay, it will live
Give it water, it will die
Those who know it, do not want it
those who have it give it away
those who take it do not know it
What is nowhere,
yet everywhere,
except where something is?
and then the classic
what walks on four legs in the morning,
two legs in the day
and three legs at night?
we could take advantage that Jotun are native to Scandinavia and use the fact that her father travelled to the Mediterranean to use the Sphinx riddle. In
Give it hay, it will live
Give it water, it will die
Those who know it, do not want it
those who have it give it away
those who take it do not know it
What is nowhere,
yet everywhere,
except where something is?
and then the classic
what walks on four legs in the morning,
two legs in the day
and three legs at night?
we could take advantage that Jotun are native to Scandinavia and use the fact that her father travelled to the Mediterranean to use the Sphinx riddle. In
I'm not saying we deliberately go with easy gotchas, just more like, I think this is probably going to be a multi-round thing, so let's come up with a few we think are decent, which we're nearly there on, and then get the ball rolling.
Honestly on consideration I half suspect this is uncle Loki fucking with us. That doesn't really effect how we should play this though, I think, beyond trying to be sportswomanlike.
Cheers!
Okay, well feel free to use it where you feel is appropriate, I've got to head out for a bit.
Okay, well feel free to use it where you feel is appropriate, I've got to head out for a bit.
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I think we've got some good ones, yeah.
That's plausible, but yeah, I don't think it changes anything. Probably not even the consequences of failure.
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I totally missed this! This seems good but may go a little too far in the other direction...that's real long for a riddle.
on the one hand, yeah. on the other hand, for an epic riddle its pretty good. like, you have some of those. if it manages to finally get him, then it makes sense in the saga. if not, its just a long story-riddle
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
Collecting the riddles I wrote into one post for ease of access:
Looking at them I think Numbers 5 and 6 are on the easier side and also pretty cool, so they can go well as opener (from an OOC standpoint) although IC they work better as the final one win or lose. Number 1-4 are of variable difficulty, I can't really judge them either way since, well, I wrote them.
"This binding was forged by man to bind down man, it's form shifting as needed to man's will. It can be wielded as a weapon against those held by it, yet those bound by it refuse to slip it's shackles."
The Law
What is that which is born of light, yet flees from it's embrace, which is cast by men living and dead, that we seek to step out of yet in doing so we make another?
"Shadows"
(Literally and metaphorically)
(Literally and metaphorically)
It dies every Yule,
Yet we find it living still when the day comes,
We can't see it yet we can name it,
What is it?
Yet we find it living still when the day comes,
We can't see it yet we can name it,
What is it?
Year
It can be anything or everything
We all know it's name and nature
Anyone can evoke it with words
Yet us here disdain what it is
What is it?
We all know it's name and nature
Anyone can evoke it with words
Yet us here disdain what it is
What is it?
Lies
Woven every moment
All-Knowing
More Final than Fated Days
Unchanging
Herald of Glory and Shame
All-Seeing
It was there when Askr and Embla were given life,
It will be there when Ragnarok has come and gone.
We chart our path through it's tempestuous tides,
We take their words as guide to speech and deed.
What is it, I speak of?
All-Knowing
More Final than Fated Days
Unchanging
Herald of Glory and Shame
All-Seeing
It was there when Askr and Embla were given life,
It will be there when Ragnarok has come and gone.
We chart our path through it's tempestuous tides,
We take their words as guide to speech and deed.
What is it, I speak of?
History
Restless and relentless,
Repays lifedebts patient.
Gives gifts generously
Graces all Dreng's faces
Unwanted and unasked,
Unseen treads uncaring.
Clears blear to fear drear cheer.
Change comes where it ranges.
---
This one is done in Skaldic Poetry.
Repays lifedebts patient.
Gives gifts generously
Graces all Dreng's faces
Unwanted and unasked,
Unseen treads uncaring.
Clears blear to fear drear cheer.
Change comes where it ranges.
---
This one is done in Skaldic Poetry.
Death
Looking at them I think Numbers 5 and 6 are on the easier side and also pretty cool, so they can go well as opener (from an OOC standpoint) although IC they work better as the final one win or lose. Number 1-4 are of variable difficulty, I can't really judge them either way since, well, I wrote them.
We could give IF multiple ones and then he picks the ones he can solve?
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Hmmm. How about this:
Brave Sven was cursed to be forgotten
for he was the brother of three mighty warriors
the first was powerful and wrestled giants, trolls and men,
the second was nimble, quick with grace like no other,
the third was clever, with tongue and wits to charm the very birds,
so in their shadow Sven the brave has ever dwelled, unspoken
so when the warriors were away Sven rose and told them
I have no brother, swear by Odin and he was right, he did not lie.
how can this be?
This admittedly ditches a lot of the poetry, which is sad, but it gives the gist?
Brave Sven was cursed to be forgotten
for he was the brother of three mighty warriors
the first was powerful and wrestled giants, trolls and men,
the second was nimble, quick with grace like no other,
the third was clever, with tongue and wits to charm the very birds,
so in their shadow Sven the brave has ever dwelled, unspoken
so when the warriors were away Sven rose and told them
I have no brother, swear by Odin and he was right, he did not lie.
how can this be?
This admittedly ditches a lot of the poetry, which is sad, but it gives the gist?
I think #4 is your best work of those. I'm inclined to vote for that one, Skippy's, and my favorite of my own which is this one:
I can take all a man has, or grant him all he desires
I can end feuds or start them, make paupers of the rich or a rich man of a pauper
Yet men are my hands and my will, and my word is done only by them
Few want to have me yet all fear to lose me once they do
Who am I?
I can take all a man has, or grant him all he desires
I can end feuds or start them, make paupers of the rich or a rich man of a pauper
Yet men are my hands and my will, and my word is done only by them
Few want to have me yet all fear to lose me once they do
Who am I?
A Lawsuit
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I really like this one!
Also thought of another whilst I was out shopping:
Beginning as a foundling in the muck,
Trained in the school of hard knocks,
Plying my trade diving into the salt sea,
I can earn my weight in gold,
Yet few men wish to receive me as a gift,
What am I?
Trained in the school of hard knocks,
Plying my trade diving into the salt sea,
I can earn my weight in gold,
Yet few men wish to receive me as a gift,
What am I?
Iron, or a sword/spearhead.
Line 1: A foundling in the muck = Bog Iron
Line 2: The school of hard knocks = The hammer of the smith
Line 3: The Salt Sea = Blood
Line 4: Worth my weight in gold = A sword can win gold and fame.
Line 5: Few men which to "receive" a sword or a spear in the guts.
Line 2: The school of hard knocks = The hammer of the smith
Line 3: The Salt Sea = Blood
Line 4: Worth my weight in gold = A sword can win gold and fame.
Line 5: Few men which to "receive" a sword or a spear in the guts.
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