NPF Avatars IV, Chapter II: The Doom That Came to Earth Temple

[PyrosNine]

Pyros's eyes glowed red at Garud, then patted him on the shoulder and made a small prayer for his soul. When Dragonsbane rubbed his bloodied hands upon Pyros's clothes, the blood immediately burst into flame and dirtied the fine thread of his armor no more.

"Ing, I shall definitely call thee."

Originally Posted by Sphinx

What may be born from a fiery womb or have a thousand, thousand parents? What may find new form in the burning, crushing depths? What may be the sound of awesome?" The words rolled off the sphinx's tongue as she sat there reciting her puzzle, tawny eyes half closed. Finished, she blinked, yawned and added, "You can discuss your answer amongst yourselves. If you get it wrong, I eat you."

"Beware. I know not the rules of this world, but in all things there is a force known as 'the narrative' that gives these creatures special powers. While it may not seem to pose a threat, usually the laws of the world make it so that if one were to fail the riddle, for some reason or another he loses the will or the ability to fight in the face of the sphinx."

Pyros's hand twitched as caught a glance of Dragonsbane's wicked smile, and momentarily rubbed against the hilt of his sword before he continued.

"While the 'phoenix' answer seems right, however, I have heard tales of another method in which one avoids answering the question entirely, and tricks the Sphinx. There once was a pharaoh by the name of Teppic you see, who managed to use the fact that the Sphinx is, by nature, not very social and therefore not so skilled at dealing with people and their lies. The sphinx itself is an overendowed creature anyway to do much damage or put up much of a chase. Also, as Teppic put it, it's bosom will get in the way, even if it's brain doesn't."

At that last comment Pyros blushed. "Notably, Teppic was a chauvanistic pharaoh with 130 wives, and was around before Sexism was invented..." He apologized to the female party members.

[Rhiya Ravenwing]

Rhiya was pissed. She was quietly fuming on her way to the temple doors, and when the sphinx appeared, she wasn't in any better of a mood. She was mad that Arhra destroyed her Cookies of Pain. So mad in fact....

RFS: 79.... 80..... 85.... 84.... 85.... 86.... 86..... 86.....

When the sphinx gave the riddle, she fixated it with a wrathful glare of doom. Even if the sphinx barely flinched from the heated gaze, Rhiya's anger abated.... slightly sliding down to 85.

"I know what we can do," Rhiya said at one point. The hiss of her chaos claws unsheathing was barely audible in the hubbub, but still managed to make itself heard above all else - such is the power of narrative.

"I've relied on violence from the very start and it still hasn't let me down yet."

[Bailey]

Syttulg jumped up and down, waving his hand.

"Oh! Oh! Is it explosions!?"

[Arhra]

The sphinx sighed, running a paw softly over her face. "You're standing on it!"

Arhra gazed down, looking at her feet. No, it couldn't be...

[Raiden]

A large fist came from the side, connecting with Newb's temple and sending the man flying away. Raiden stepped in his place.

"No, it's not explosions. I know the answer."

He pulled a detective hat from behind his back, putting it on his head. He then pulled out a large pipe, giving it a puff.

"The answer, my good Sphinx...is Rock."

[PhoenixFlame]

"Oh! Oh!" Phoenix yelled, having finally tossed off her cultist-snack and waved her hand like a schoolgirl, "I've got it! It's a Gamma Photon Pluse Packet!" she says.

"It's obvious really. You see, the GPPC's firing packet is first energised within a triflagurized nylionated tube heated to approximately 900 kelvin, or, as the Sphinx would call it, a womb of fire. THEN, the packet is infused with exactly one million plasma injector tubules to actually FORM the packet, and is finally changed within the burning, crushing depths of the accellerator core into a superheated photon pulse."

Phoenix smiled wryly as if she knew all the answers.

"And the sound of awesome, my dear sphinx, is when said packet impacts the hull of the opposing vessel. I just can't get enough of that sound..."

[Toastburner B]

TB looked at Pyros, confused.

"You know," Toastburner said, "Most of the time, I would be thrilled to have someone less homicidal towards me...but this just seems wrong, somehow. So, I just have to ask: What the heck did you guys do to Pryos on the last little outting?"

He then watched the flying Newb, and observed Raiden. "Ah, the Thunder God is here...my life span just got cut in half."

[GARUD]

"Is it plants?"

Garud looked around.

"It makes sense. In Australia, we have bushfires. There are plants that rely on these fires to open their pods so they can distribute the seeds. Those seeds have natural resistances to fire. Anyway, plants can find form in the crushing depths. That, and plants are awesome. However, Raiden's answer makes sense. After all, we are going to an earth temple."

[Arhra]

The sphinx seemed to have fallen into a light daze while the NPF'ers argued. She suddenly blinked back to attention. "Correct!" she said, "The answer is rock (you retards)." She stretched, catlike, before standing and adding offhandedly, "I'm surprised you didn't try 'teeth'."

Looking at Phoenix and Newb she scrapped a claw on a rock to test its sharpness and added, "Now, by addressing me with your answers to the riddle, you entered a binding legal contract. Two of your number have forfeited their lives with their incorrect answers. I'm feeling lenient though. I'll just maul you two a little," the sphinx languidly pointed out Newb and Phoenix with a claw, "and then you all can go in." What the sphinx didn't admit was that this 'leniency' was due to a paranoid fear that eating them would make her stupider.

[mauve]

Mauve tapped her fingertip against her lower lip, contemplating this sudden turn of events.

"You could probably try to maul them," Mauve commented blandly, her eyes rolling upwards to examine the clouds as if nothing else really concerned her. "But considering that one is a vampire and the other is a..." -Her eyes flicked over to Syttulg for a moment, trying to discern his species- "...thing... I don't think you'll have that much success."

She paused for a moment to dig through her Pockets of Near Limitless Holding, until she found a package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. She unwrapped one and chewed it thoughtfully, eyeing the nutrition statement.

"O' Course," she continued, her mouth somewhat full of peanut butter and chocolate, "Most of us don't take kindly to being mauled... Rather inconvenient, you know. And we really don't like being pushed around. It irritates us. And when we're irritated, we have the unfortunate tendency to destroy things. Ask Santa Claus, and Posiedon, and probably half of Gaia."

She tossed the wrapper back in her pocket, her MP levels refreshed. She swallowed and dusted her hands on her cape.

"Seriously, madam, I'm trying to help you out here. This is about as diplomatic as we get. You could try and maul them, but I'm telling you it'll be the last thing you ever do. But y'know. Your funeral, your choice, and all that."