Author: Yari
Date:Nov 2 1995
"Argh!" Rez whined, "It's impossible!"
I chuckled. "Impossible, you say? I think not. In fact, I had
rather thought that I gave too many hints!" It was weeks later and
not a soul had even really gotten close to the end of the maze.
"Too many possibilities, too many rooms! How on earth did you
expect me to find my way?" Rez was clearly upset, he had tried his
best.
I pondered. "Well, I solved it. Then again, I designed it too,
so I suppose I am no kind of example." I stopped and thought a
moment, taking the opportunity to check the position of the sun.
Night time soon, I would need a source of light soon. Rez, no doubt
would be pleased to see me fumble around in the dark at this point,
after having made him fumble so much. Damn trolls and their night
vision anyway.
I continued. "So, you are asking for something, or just blindly
complaining?"
"No, no, not asking anything! I do not wish to be disqualified!"
Rez looked about, panic in his eyes.
I held up a hand to stop him. "Rez, Rez. Relax, old man. It's
past the two week limit, my little competition is over. I am now
going to tell you a bit about how to navigate my maze, so that you
might be able to solve it a bit more easily." I sat down, resigned
to my fate of ending up in darkness, night was coming too swiftly to
avoid it. "You see, you have to realize that the maze is not, in
fact, many levels, like it seems, but actually a series of small
mazes, each of which is totally independent from the other, but when
taken together, will point you to the prize.
"You see, You navigate small sections, and when at the end of
those sections, you activate a teleportation mechanism(it's
different each time) and begin the next section."
Rez interrupted. "So that would explain why I could never
backtrack, since it was separate sections!" His eyes narrowed in
thought.
"Yeah, that would explain it, huh?" I snickered, pleased with the
deviousness of my maze. "So, once you complete the sections of
maze(there are 4) and teleport out of the last one, you have a
random chance to teleport back to the first one."
Again, Rez interrupted. "YES! I was RIGHT! It DOES repeat!
Ha! I knew I wasn't crazy, but when I tracked it with coins, they
were gone! Murrr, I should have known."
"Ahh, so you did get to all four sections of the maze? OK, well,
the coin thing, I made it so the rooms ate stuff in them, because I
didn't want people to drop coins and track progress. If you are so
good, tell me, how do you navigate the mazes?"
Rez quickly turned and started going through his things. After a
moment of rummaging, he brought out an antique bone map case(A gift
from Anaconda, it had magical powers that Rez hadn't guessed yet.)
and brought out a beat-up piece of leather, on which were four small
notes. He handed it to me.
Heh, Troll handwriting. I may not be the brightest Cyclops ever
to walk the world, but, at least I wasn't so damn dirty as a Troll,
at least. It was getting VERY dark now, and I had to squint to see
clearly(I could see Rez obviously enjoying this out of the corner of
my eye(Cyclopses have superb peripheral vision) and decided I would
play it up a little, to make him happy) I squinted, I strained, I
turned the paper this way and that. Rez was beside himself holding
the laughter in. "Bah. It's too dark! Read this to me please."
"With pleasure..." Rez took the grubby leather and read aloud.
"First section was simple. from entry, go south, south, south,
northeast, southeast, north, north, north. There you activate the
teleporter by 'wiggle torch'.
I smiled and nodded, that much was true.
"Second, you proceed north, north, northeast, southeast, south,
south, northwest. There you 'activate machine'." I nodded again.
Rez gave his impish grin. "Next! Northwest, northeast,
northwest, west, south, south, south. Here, you simply 'rest', and
get teleported automatically.
"After that, it's north, north, north, east, southeast,
southwest. Then you 'pull lever', and are back at the beginning of
maze #1." Rez finished and looked over at me.
"Well, you did navigate the mazes correctly, yes, but you are
incorrect in saying that you always go back to the beginning, as I
said, it's a random chance. As for what's past that maze, you must
look a little deeper, beyond what I have said so far.
"It is a poor chance that you will proceed past the maze. The
last time I did it, I decided to take an average, and found that
after I navigate the maze, it takes me ten or twenty times to
succeed. The second time I tried it was the worst! That time, I
had to do it twenty or twenty-one times, I didn't count too clearly.
You can bet I wish I had brought some good luck charms with me on
that trip!"
Rez grinned. "I can just see it. 'Yari exclaims 'Horseshoe,
rabbit's foot, clover! Help help help!'" In the gloom, I could
barely make out Rez doing a parody of me running around in little
circles. Murr, I would have to get him back for this one...
"Well, Rez. It would seem that you now have all the information
you need to continue this little puzzle I set upon you. It's
actually very simple, if you remember to look at the big picture.
Go ahead and work on it some more, you are a clever Troll, I have
faith in you."
With that, I could hear Rez standing, stuffing his things back
into his pack. "OK, Yari, I will talk to you later. Thanks for the
hint, I will try to figure more out, when I look at your original
puzzle. See you!" I heard him tread away, down the path.
I waited a moment, the timing was important. "Rez, Rez! Wait up,
I can't see! I called after him. I heard his footsteps stop.
A pause...then, through the darkness "You are a clever Cyclops, I
have faith in you, find your own way home!" And, with that, I heard
him turn and walk away, chuckling his deep Trollish laughter.
This has been a hint to the book titled "A Grand Mystery, The
First of The Puzzles.". There are two major major veiled hints in
this book, be the first to point them out to me, and receive a prize
of 15,000 gold coins. There are 3 minor hints too, that are a bit
difficult to decipher, because they are somewhat obscure. For
these, I will reward 20,000 gold coins. Be the first to solve the
Grand Mystery, and receive a prize of 100,000 gold coins.
As before, all answers must be mailed to be official, and of
course, don't ask me for any sort of information, or you will be
immediately disqualified. I do, however, enjoy hearing from you,
about what you are trying. When this is all over with(or when I
decide that no one will ever solve it) I will make a book explaining
the solution and also containing the mails I have gotten that
pertain to it.
Enjoy!
-Yari
Addendum:
I have gotten quite a lot of feedback from this new hint
book! Great, keep up the good work! Some have been very
good, othes have been really way off, but they are all way
too cool! I forgot to think of this: if I tell you you
won a prize for a mini-hint, it gives U an advantage, which
is not fair. So, at the end of 2 weeks after the book's
publication, I will award all cash. I can tell you that
one hint has already been found by a few different people,
so you will find that you may have gotten part right but no
cash. Oh well, you got beat to it...
Bottom line: No rewards for another week and hmm, 6 days
from this addition.
Thanks for playing my game!
Yari