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[Skyrunner]

The cave wall was blocked off by a slab of stone.

On the stone was carved the words:

There was a god named Hephaestus. He made a pair of artifacts, one the Spear of the Gods and the other the Shield of the Gods.
The Spear was made to pierce any armor, and thus had infinite attack bonus. The Shield was made to block all attacks, and was made with infinite Shield Bonus to AC. However,  Hephaestus was not the most careful god, and a party of mortals Plane Shifted into his palace and stole the items. Hephaestus discovered this fact as the party was preparing to plane shift. Angrily, he smote the wizard, but it was a second too late. The party escaped, but the concentration was thrown off and the artifacts were lost.
One day, a man and a woman with equal training in martial arts, childhood friend, stumbled across the pair of weapons. They picked them up, and marveled at the intricate etchings and masterful crafting. They decided to test the two. The man held the shield, and the woman used the spear. The woman attacked the man repeatedly.

Now, the question stands. Would the Shield withstand the attack, or will the Spear pierce the Shield? What is the logic behind this conclusion?
Answer correctly, and you shall be admitted. Speak wrong, and you shall be smitten as Hephaestus smote the wizard.


((I hope it's not too easy...))

[Araph]

Vulsano paused for a moment, thinking about the riddle.

"I would think the Shield would win. I mean, when the attack roll is the same as the enemy's AC, the attack fails. Given how they've reached having an infinite attack roll and an infinite AC, it should act the same way, right?"

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Sounds right to me," Toman said. "Of course... It might depend on their training. If the woman doesn't have any skill with a spear, that's a -4 to her to-hit roll. Infinity-4 will always lose to infinity. Or if the man has Shield Mastery or Shield Expertise, then again, she can't win." He shrugged. "In fact I don't really see any way for the spear to beat the shield."

(Of course Toman would say that, he's the AC-pumping tank of the two. )

[Araph]

A thought comes to Vulsano's mind.

"But! It says that she attacked him repeatedly. Now we have the possibility of a natural 20, which would mean an automatic hit. Also, we could be looking at this the wrong way. It says "or will the Spear pierce the Shield". It doesn't say "or will that man have a sharp piece of metal lodged in his lungs"; I doubt the work of a god would fall with even a multitude of strikes. There could even be other ways of approaching this conundrum. When the query "would the Shield withstand the attack" is presented, should we factor into our mental activities the possibility of the woman Bull-Rushing the man and his arm being knocked back? Thus, the Shield has not withstood the attack, but neither was it smote by the spear. Could these be mutually contradictory? Suppose the Shield was not, in fact, pierced, yet the man is sent sprawling on the ground after being Overrun; we have a paradox in our quandary. Oh, the possibilities..."

((Of course Vulsano would say this, as well; he's a wizard, after all. ))

[Dwarmin]

Sometime Later... (canon time, after the riddle cave)

Riawilde the Elven Spirit Shaman, surveyed the Drow Wizard Vulsano with a wary eye. To say their people had a difficult history would be an amazing understatement. She had not been with the group when they had met him-and had been quite alarmed when he joined the crew.

Now she spoke to him, trying to remain polite, but it probably came off as icy.

"...Sir Vulsano. A pleasure to meet you.

I noticed among your arcane implements, you have many items used for magical item creation. I was wondering if you might help me create something? Granted, it's probably not your usual work-it's a Druidic artifact, more spiritual than arcane-and I will have to provide the spells for you. I will need your technical skills to complete it, though. I will, of course, be able to afford your wages

Surely, I hope we can work together on this? It is a good start as any..."

If not outright rejected, she would show him the plans she had brought with her...

Summoner's Totem
Body Slot: Held
CL: 3rd
Aura: Faint (Dc16) Transmutation
Weight: 2 lb

This crudely carved, foot long wooden rod bears a vaguely animal visage on it's head

When you summon a single Animal using a Summon Nature's Ally Spell, you can cast another spell targeting the summoned creature as a swift action. The second spell must be no higher than 3rd level, it must target the summoned creature, and it expends the spell slot as normal.

Prereq: Craft Wonderous Item
Speak with Animals, Summon Nature's Ally II

Cost to create: 1,550 GP, 124 XP, 4 days

(Source: MiC pg 187)

[Skyrunner]

((@ SerCon, Araph - your final answer to the door is...?))

[SeriousConcentrate]

"I'll stick with my original stance. The woman may trip the man, or disarm him, or use spells or such to take him down, but none of these would actually ever pierce the shield. Even on a natural 20, it is safer to assume she struck too quickly for him to block than to think the spear went through the shield. Therefore, the shield will always withstand; whether or not the man is capable of using it correctly is irrelevant." Toman nodded sagely. It was a matter of semantics, that was all, in his opinion.

[Dwarmin]

Sometime? (canon hthk)

Riawilde smiled, and hefted her battered +1 Studded Leather Armor of Displacement to the marketplace. Her recent training in Clerical duties would require her to fashion heavier armor. She already had the Ironwood prepared, back at the ship...

Action: Sell old Studded Leather

...

Riawilde then spent [5] days woodshaping and enchanting a +3 Ironwood Breastplate armor. It cost her 4200 Gold and 200 XP...

She couldn't wait to see the look on her Raes face when she saw her in this!

[Araph]

"Eh, shield it is, then."


Sometime later... (Whenever Riawilde talked to Vulsano.)

"Pleasure to meet you, too! I'd be happy to help you make whatever magical doohickey's you need. I'm not accustomed to druidic magic, but I'm sure I can make what it is you need, unless I can't make it, in which case no, I'm not sure I can make it."

Vulsano was pretty sure this person harbored a variety of negative emotions in regard to him. Must be due to his particular elvish lineage, because he was reasonably sure he hadn't made an ass of himself yet.

((Does Riawilde have the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat?))

[SeriousConcentrate]

"Eh, shield it is, then."

(Word of God: We got smote. >.>)

[Araph]

(Word of God: We got smote. >.>)

((Wait, what? When did this happen?  ))

[SeriousConcentrate]

(A few hours earlier, on IRC. Sky asked me if that was my final decision and I said yeah, then about ten minutes later she said it was the wrong one.)

[Skyrunner]

The slab shook. The words shimmered and flowed. The old text was erased. In its place was a single word.

No.

Four white orbs appeared at the corners of the slab. They hummed and shot out a giant bolt of lightning. Toman was struck. Rudra identified the spell as shadow evocation, multiplied by four. Toman was dealt 87 damage.

Smoking, he stumbled backwards. Wheatly caught him and gave him four CLW potions.

Spoiler: Roll info (click to show/hide)

Spell - Greater Shadow Evocation / Lightning Bolt
Save DC = 10(base) + 8 (spell level) + 11(modifier) + 2 (feat) = 31
Roll = 1 + 13(Will) = 14

((Edited in))With a clang, a heavily damaged shield fell from the ceiling of the cave.
The stone slab's text shifted back into the original form. It swung open. On the back side, these words were engraved:

It seems that you are not one who depends on his intelligence to get through things... Despite legend always wanting a 'perfect hero' to swoop in, solve the riddles, kill the guardians and somehow not get morality in the way, I do not advocate the delusion the creators of said tales seemed to have supported.
Therefore, the path beyond is a path for brawn and might, instead of riddles and logic. Still, you will be punished if you exhibit more qualities that through the observations of the system are deemed to be about or are less than a monkey of intelligence 5.

Beyond the stone was a round portal. It had a glassy surface. The other side was whitish and seemed to be some sort of town.

Enter?

[SeriousConcentrate]

Toman shrugged. "Whatever." He picked up the shield and in a bit of spite threw it as far away as possible before proceeding onward.

[Skyrunner]

(( ^^^ ?? ))