A New Room has been found in Sage's Keep

[Steno]

 "A recent tour of the Sage's Keep has discovered a new room! While walking around, Chewett2 discovered a new room within the building. How could a new room in a building that has been occupied for 15 years just now been found, you ask? Especially when this building is so big on the outside, yet so small on the inside! Who knows, the obviously original wookiee (chewett2) must have found a hidden gem! Your quest is to describe this new room. Contestants should find ways to describe its layout, its content, its appearance, and even where it is with the route to get there. Players should focus on quality in this contest,  not the speed with which they submit their efforts. Artwork is suggested, it is not required, but it will add points to your score. Artwork will not be graded on talent, but if you draw 4 lines and a stickfigure, it will be graded on effort (to the best of the judges' abilities). This quest has the potential to shape or mold the world around it, thus its rewards have the potential to shape the world of its winner. Remember the context of the sage's keep: who calls this building home? What function has it served? What could be hidden for 15 years? These are all questions that you could strive to answer in your description (they are not necessary to answer, however, nor will answering them impact judging in any way). Good luck!

 

Rewards:WP for best one. Unique item for first as well.

Anni for first, second, third if (2, 4, and 6+ players attempt it). Plushies for all.

Players shall have 2 week to send, via forum PM their submissions to me. They will be submitted to judges in a single-blind fashion.

Starts on 4/17- ends on 5/5."

 

If you are looking for some inspiration, check out a similar quest. However, the judges have reviewed all of these entries and will there discard your entry if it can arguably be considered a copy of one of these.

I will post submissions here when judging is completed. 
 

Edited April 25, 2020 by Steno

[Steno]

Any insinuation that it is will result in you being disqualified. There I said it!

[Steno]

LAST 8 DAYS of ENTRIES-Remember this goes until MAY 1st, not the end of the anniversary.

 

[Tissy]

My lesson from the anniversary is I will put the quests in a planner next year. 

[Steno]

Extended until May 5th. Just like all of my quests. So it will be easier to remember to do them and to remember their deadlines @Tissy

Edited April 25, 2020 by Steno

[Tissy]

you're adorable!

[Chewett]

Im going to enter this one  

[Tissy]

you see nothing!

Edited May 2, 2020 by Tissy

[Steno]

5 hours left before submissions will no longer be included in judging and thus, no plushies or other rewards given

[Chewett]

Rapidly working on it!

[Steno]

Just ask Chewett2 what he saw! It should be easy!

[Steno]

This quest is still in judging, based largely on the fact that I sent a jumbled mess of a scoring formula that resulted in non-statistically significant different scores between participants. (well based on what I eye-balled, I didn't actually export to Excel to find out)

So keep an eye out for results to come soon (it shouldn't be too much longer)

Edited May 13, 2020 by Steno

[Steno]

Alright! Winner's are announced!

In 3rd place we have... Ailith! She wins an anniversary crit!

In 2nd place we have... Tissy! He wins an anniversary crit + 2 random RP items from my inventory.

In 1st place we have... Lazarus! He wins a WP+1 unique item+1 anniversary creature!

Congratulations to all our contestants (Tissy, Ailith, Ungod, lashtal, Aia, Chewett, MRF, and Lazarus)! You can see their efforts below!

Spoiler

it's purely dark, with a halo of light following you on your back.

what is light and darkness

• light reveals if darkness conceals
• light deceives if darkness holds the truth
• light invades if darkness protects
• and vice versa

The Seekers of Enlightenment

the crest consist of light and dardness, but they are not equal. the light seems to penetrate the darkness, but more fire is on the dark side, and a star is in the dark side.

truth relies on the light for us to discover from what we see. truth also hides behind many unseens. If we put the focus on what we see only, we might be misled or stay with partial truth.

What is in Sage's Keep

It's divine and joyful in a place full of everlasting light. It helps us to be penerating to find every detail.

But the lights are from everywhere any direction. It expels every bit of darkness and leaves no shadow. The light is STATIC and dominant here without its variety. I cannot say it's illusion. But in an all light room one receives more might-be unnecessary information while loses some other information.

Cut the light off and you will see a glowing brick. stand on it for a while will trigger its elevation to the 2nd floor.

It's empty. anything would be symbolic and give you some hint or connection to enhance your existing concept.

it's dark. without seeing things one turns to other senses, mind power, or introspection. After absorbing all the information one could in the light, one starts to exclude irrelevant or distractive information in the darkness.

A halo of light on one's back. One is still aware of himself and won't get lost or sleep in the darkness. Note that it's not the light following you. It's the darkness surrounds you like liquid flows.

And it's vast.

It's the way one seeks truth.

Spoiler

Chewett found a new room. It is a secret room for citizens of Marind Bell and Lands of the East to meet and speak without fear of being heard by others.

There have been rumours of plots and whispers, of potential trickery and deception, which is reflected in the dark aspect of the room and the statues of the faceless ones holding swords. This is an homage to the faceless ones guarding the tunnel of war at the gate down from Wind's sanctuary. As deception, plotting and trickery are traits of necrovion rather than Marind Bell or the East, I found this quite fitting

There is a long table where all may sits equally to sit and discuss. As there are many exuberant characters in both lands, this will alleviate any scope for arguments over who sits where.

On the back wall is a large tapestry of deep red and gold with frill at the bottom. It depicts a rudimentary drawing of Sage's Keep and the initials of the two lands governed by Chewett. Over Sage's Keep is a Dome (Marind's Bell) in tribute of the land that the building itself sits in.

Here is a simple sketch of what I imagine:

Spoiler

If you walk around the Sage's Keep, you will eventually see a ''Staff only'' small panel hanging on a wall. There is no door there, though. If you own curiosity and attention to detail, you will notice the square panel is actually a puzzle with sliding squares. Solving it will make apparent a hidden door.

Inside, the quiet study is well lit. It becomes apparent why such a big window is needed - there is a huge telescope in the center of the room. Is it there to study the movements of the sun? Or is it to spy on other lands? There is a big desk on the right side of the study, filled with various items, among which an hourglass, a lamp, a compass, notebooks filled with secret observations. The bookshelves above the desk are supporting old books, and on the wall there is a clock. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

The room is holding many items that have to do with the measurement of time, it seems someone here is obsessed with it. For what reason?

(I cheated with the drawing - because I can't draw from imagination, I basically drew an image that was similar to what I had in mind)

Spoiler

Sage’s crypt

The hidden scene is just that: a crypt hidden below the floor.
A complex mechanism placed on the book’s pedestal might reveal it, but only under peculiar circumstances.

As you may have noticed, the light plays strange tricks inside Sage’s Keep.
It seems to reverberate, as if coming from many directions at once.
That’s because its stained glass windows are built with a very slight warp, allowing lights to be bent.

The pedestal under the book possess an antique mechanism which reacts to the incident light.
Some call it optic sensor, I guess because it’s eye-shaped…
Long story short, the mechanism can be activated both naturally and artificially (even by accident!).

Naturally: it requires the lights to have the right angles and converge exactly on the eye-shaped mechanism (it’s said to happen only once in 15 years).
Artificially: it’s possible to use mirror shards to deflect light beams and have them all focused on said mechanism.
By accident: this might happen during the clandestine parties Seekers of Enlightment throw from time to time. During those occasions they attach mirror balls to the ceiling and the situation can get very wild…

In any case, if the lights converge on the eye-shaped mechanism, the pedestal shifts from its position, revealing a descending ladder…

The crypt is a large underground hall, built to welcome the corpses of all the kings of Marind Bell.
Oddly, there are no coffins down there… One mystery revealed, many more to solve…

Spoiler

Within the room in Sage's Keep one finds a pattern of tiles
   ten symbols representing the ten principles of magic
      balance in the centre that keeps all in equilibrium
        surrounded by cyclicity in endless continuum
          elements that comprise creation's majesty
             transposition to gather us among them
                darkness beneath cloaking secrets
                    light above to reveal meaning
                     entropy to change the world
                         syntropy to make it new
                             time's flowing river
                               and imagination
                                  the door that 
                                     opens the 
                                         mind
                                           for
                                        which
                                     the room
                                   all emptied
                                is representing
                            the mind equipotent
                        one that is unburdened
                    which pursues of pure desire
                 that lives only in the present time
               and finds everlasting enlightenment
             for this truly is the goal of the Seekers
        and as one enters the sanctuary of the mind
     she is enraptured by the wisdom of those before
  that she is part of a greater power abiding within her
 and that her desires align with all the good of creation

Spoiler

Chewett2 found himself dragged the the building of sages Keep. For an unknown reason the usurper had decided to drag him around again. While sitting in the hall of Sages Keep he decided to draw out the initial building.

Walking outside he observed sages Keep. It is made of four circular turrets with a central circular building housing the main hall. Thinking about the turrents more he realised he had never actually seen the inside of them. In his long time in MagicDuel he had never actually heard someone talk about them. Let alone go inside of the dome capped buildings. While the two front towers had doors in the bottom the back ones had no means to enter. While wandering around he also noticed that unlike the front, the back of the circular central room has been flattened off, joining both towers. Carefully sketching this he named each tower, and the mysterious "back room" he wandered around to the front again.

The front left tower was the first to be investigated. The door was relatively obvious to find but looked stuck fast. He pushed against it and felt it move slightly. After several minutes of "accidentally" falling against the door to the front left tower door, the door gave way. "It would be rude not to ensure nothing of valuable has been stolen" Chewett2 said to himself. So as a good citizen he makes his way into the front left tower.

The first thing he noticed was a curved mirror directly opposite the door he came through. While exceptionally dirty he could still see his face in the bright room. Although there was no lights in the room it was was somewhat bright. Looking up he saw two more levels with the strange curved mirrors around the walls. Each level had an floor that included a balcony that let you look down to the bottom of the tower.

Musing to himself he wondered whether anyone had been here for a while. The door was stuck fast when he had his "accident" and the layers of dust on the confirmed the lack of visitors. The bottom floor of the tower held some chairs arranged around a stage with a piano and space for an orchestra of some kind. Chewett2 could not remember anyone being entertained here but it may have been before his time.

Going up to the upper levels he saw books and tables. This looked like a study or some kind or public library. Nothing of interest to him was on the shelves so he decided to head back downstairs. Just before he went he noticed that the mirrors were angled down slightly. Looking up at the higher levels he could see the windows letting in light perfectly lined up with the mirrors. Each mirror angled to project light further down into the tower. Chewett2 smiled at the engineering involved to light the room with no candles. Possibly hundreds of years since someone had been here and the mechanism worked. Amazing.

As he was leaving he noticed the trail of dust that he had left. Turning back he noticed the mirror and had an idea. Walking over to it he drew the words "Ledah Woz Ere" in the filth of the mirror. "That should keep me safe from suspicion" Chewett2 thought, just before turning and leaving the room he added to his masterpiece "MaGoHi smells bad".

After circling the right front tower twice Chewett2 could not find an entrance however on the third attempt he located a door hidden behind trailing ivy. This door did not need any accidental maintenance and opened quite easily which took him by surprise. His "accidental" shoulder to the door meant he went into the room much faster than intended and nearly lost his footing.

Similar to the first tower the levels were lit well from the upper floor by the complex mirror arrangement. The ground floor of the building was relatively similar to the first however a large amount of loungers had been placed in the room in stark comparison to the hard wooden chairs in the first tower. Feeling a little tired with all his exploring he sat down and survey the room. For the most part it was identical to the first with mirrors lining walls however looking to the upper levels red drapes hid parts of the upper levels. His interest sparked he got up from the lounger with a faint "squelch" as his flesh parted company from the fabric. Slightly uncomfortably he walked up the spiral stairs to the second floor.

However arriving at the second floor his uncomfortable feelings was washed aside by the tsunami of confusion that set in. While torture mostly known about, it had not been known to have been occurring in Marind Bell for a very long time. Previous rulers, who were generally uncomplicated people, tended towards the much swifter punishment of separating the head from the body of any enemies. This form of punishment was generally agreed to be a deterrent from causing problems a second time.

On this second floor, on the walls and in cupboards along them was various chains and ropes presumably to tie up a victim. Obviously they had to match with the red drapes, so all of these items were sheathed in red cloth or dyed red. To Chewett2 it seemed that either an interior decorator with a fetish for red velvet had decided a dungeon should be colourful or a foolish past Monarch was tricked into buying their entire stock of red and decided they must use it. After opening some of the cupboards and finding some rather odd torture items, including some rubber implements, presumably for causing pain to others, he continued upwards.

The third floor piled confusion on further confusion like further bacon being added to an already full bacon roll. It wasn't necessary to add more but that was clearly the world Chewett2 was living in at the moment. In the center of the floor was an exceptionally large four poster bed. Again the red velvet material had been draped all over the centrepiece. On the four corners of the bed was again manacles and various lengths of rope sheathed in more red cloth.

Suddenly Proclamation 1260 came to mind and all sorts of reasons for the chains and other... implements...  flooded his mind. Chewett2 heard of a tale where once Ailith brought a young to one of the rooms inside Sages Keep to help them with some problems and... interrupted... some people... Chewett2 shivered and left quickly after that. No more was needed to be learnt about the room with the silk bed.

After sketching further he created a second page with the upper levels. Now time to move inside the building and see what we find find there.

Moving towards the back of Sages Keep main hall Chewett2 noticed something a little different about the room. While pacing front to back he was able to reach the back half of the room much faster than the front. Slowing his walk down and counting he found that from the center to the back was a much shorter journey than the comparative opposite.

Moving to the back Chewett2 stared quite hard at the wall. Between the two windows the flat wall was mostly uneventful white stone. Slowly moving across the wall at the back there was a small crack in the wall on the right hand side. By slowly applying that "accidental" shoulder to the wall it moved a little opening a crack in the wall gaping like the mouth of the fearsome Chewett.

Similar to the towers the room was surprisingly bright although considerably smaller and offered two options, left and right. Here was the openings to the two towers that were missing from the exterior.

Carefully pushing the door this time, and fearing more velvet covered implements Chewett2 peered into the room. This tower was somewhat similar to the second, but clearly designed as bedrooms for the staff. Each room included plainer beds but the rooms seemed quite comfortable. The south side of this tower included a kitchen with heaps of cutlery and dishes waiting to be cleaned. Clearly Chewett was not someone to wash his own cutlery up!

Moving to the second floor there were more rooms, although this time they were slightly more luxurious. Luckily no trace of red velvet was found.

The third floor was clearly designed to be living quarters of someone far richer, probably Chewett. Wandering through the rooms Chewett2 found a dressing room, featuring a shocking secret at the back! While Chewett may claim to have all his own hair, a selection of WIGS were hidden at the back of his dressing room! Clearly the scandal of the century that the luxurious mane of hair Chewett sported was actually a Wig!

Moving around the other rooms in this tower Chewett2 found nothing interesting of node so decided to move to the next tower.

The fourth and final tower was considerable more dull. Again the door gave way to the slight pressure placed on the door, clearly this room tower has been used much more frequently.

The appeared to be a more personal library than the one in the first tower. Here books sat on shelves with various bookshelves labelled "Angiens", "Shades", and "The duality of man". While Chewett2 had heard many of these words they did not make much sense to him. He had heard rumours of the Seekers of Enlightment's personal library however he did not expect it to be so expansive. Glancing through some of these books he could see many of them were in the handwriting of Chewett. Again memory reminded him that Chewett originally founded the Seekers so this would make some sense.

After being bored by the first floor, the second floor again attempted to finish Chewett2 off and send him to sleep. Quickly moving to the third floor he found something slightly more interesting than books, writing desks, including a well worn exquisitely inlaid one at the back of the room. This was clearly the room that the Seekers used to write up their various documents, with the head desk paired with a rather comfy looking knator fur chair.

Deciding that he would try out that chair, after a long day of exploring Chewett2 sat down and placed his feet on the desk.  After a little while he rocked the chair furhter back to lie in a more prone position and relaxed... a little too much as it turned out.

The chair tipped back and Chewett2 threw his hands back trying to catch himself from falling back. As he did so his hands caught against the bookshelves behind him and... click... crunch.....

After managing to push himself back into a sitting position and getting over the life ending shock of falling he tentatively felt both arms. Such a loud click and crunch with no broken bones or pain was somewhat surprising.

After feeling he had mapped out the Keep as far as he could he decided to leave heading down from this final tower. However when he got back to the back room it was different...

The back room was darker towards the back than it had been before. Moving towards it he found that a small flight of stairs downwards towards, what he presumed was the basement.

Making his way down the stairs the room was clearly a mirror of the Sakes Keep main hall, however inset at the walls was various holes. In the dark he couldnt see well into them so after drawing the shape of the room he felt determined to come back with a torch.

After coming back down the stairs with his lit torch the alcoves were slightly clearer. Moving over to the first he noticed there were bars across it. Something inside the first he viewed moved. Startled he nearly fell backwards but he noticed it was just a small mouse.

Moving onto the second one he truely got his first shock as he saw a skeleton... Compared to the velvet room this was the true dungeons and he didnt think he was going to find any additional rubber items here. This alcove looked very final.

Moving onto the third he noticed a pattern, a chained skeleton, with some scraps of clothing and a strange hat.

After a while he noticed that each skeletons hat was somewhat shiny, and pointed. Moving much closer to the most recent skeleton he noticed that actually it looked somewhat... crown like...

Chewett2 knew like everyone did that many of the MB monarchs just disappeared, never really passing on their crown. Many said that this was just them drifting off towards their own goals but no one had ever spoken with these gone Marind Bell Monarchs. Chewett had often joked that he placed monarchs on the Marind Bell thrown, but did he place them here too?

Shivering chewett2 dropped the torch and it went out. Having nothing to light it he scrabbled around attempting to find the exit. Finding a doorway he moved towards it and seeing light up ahead he kept running... and running... and running.

After running for what seemed like an age he passed came to a heavy wooden door that he hadnt seen before. This had a complex locking mechanism on the back but frightened he pushed through and it clicked behind him. Seeing sunlight at the end of the tunnel he came out to find... Angiens Island.

Feeling so tired he went to sleep and later found himself at GoE.

He never spoke to anyone else about his day on the island. The only living record was this diary that I stole from him and burnt. The truth should never come out. Chewett does not wear wigs!

Spoiler

since sage keep holds knowlege and there is only one book i imagine the 2nd room filled with an orb or crystal that has to be activated to access the knowledge. insert heat and permantly lose ve to access said knowledge. the orb is medium size {think of the place you get water beings from} there is art of an angien on the wall to hint at ve and heat with a poem under it that is the clue to activating the orb. the rest of the room is utterly barren

Since sage keep holds knowledge and there is only one book you think to yourself "this cant be it" so you wander around and accidentally find another room. upon entering it you see barren walls devoid of windows and decorations until you walk to the very center of the room and look around to your surprise there is a picture of an angien floating above the angien shrine with its hand extended almost as if it is holding its hand out for something, hanging on the wall from which you entered. getting closer you notice writing on the bottom of the picture, "True knowledge always has a cost, to some its worth more then life itself" as you finish reading your eyes are drawn back to the angiens hand you unconsciously reach out and grasp the hand IT BURNS for a second that feels like a life time and leaves you weaker permanently draining some of your VE. You back up still shaken and bump into something that definitely wasnt there before. there is now a medium sized orb (similar to the ones from where you get water beings in size) floating and cold so cold you feel it through your clothes. you release heat to try and warm yourself and it gets absorbed by the orb. Curious you release more until you have none left to give each eorlin causing the orb to grow brighter, after your last erolin goes empty the orb beings to show you things about the past narrating the scene in a monotone voice

Spoiler

 

Start here

P.S. I have learned from this quest that whenever artworks or anything creative be submitted to ask people to refrain from putting their names on their submissions to make judging easier ????

P.P.S. Chew, I might need more forum storage space again XD

Edited May 15, 2020 by Steno
updates-broken link

[Ungod]

Great ideas here.

[Tissy]

Thanks  Steno. It was so much fun and motivating. 
I planned some symbols like Taichi Ying-Yang at the very beginning. 
but the more I thought about it, I felt they are less necessary. 
almost all the symbols are similar to what we’ve seen or just another form.
So it turned out to be a void in the end. 

[Steno]

Thanks everyone for participating!

The rewards should have been sent out!

Thank you Chewett for providing the rewards and making a unique item!

 

If people had ideas for a new room in Sage's Keep, you can post them here. I might even give you a plushie or two, or something else , though obviously the quest is over, I will still reward creativity for a month or two.

Edited May 25, 2020 by Steno