TWT - Task 2 :: Monique Bernard
 

As is always the case during the Triwizard Tournament, the Hogwarts Quidditch championship has been canceled for the term. But while some players are upset that jaws remain unbroken and brooms unmounted, there is a good reason for this. The Quidditch Pitch, generally speaking, is not available. Large parts of it have now been incorporated into the second task of the Tournament, the maze. All that is left for use are the stands, which are now facing the entrance of the maze rather than the oval of the Pitch.

There is just enough room for a small starting area where the champions assemble. Beyond that point lies the maze, dark and imposing. The boundaries are made up of hedges reaching up into the air several metres. The one entrance is just wide enough for two people to walk side by side, but as you will discover, the passageways will become narrower and narrower as you proceed onwards.

After a few cautious steps you can see a pale light up ahead. In your current state of mind, you might imagine all kinds of strange creatures waiting for you, but the four-legged thing in the middle of a small, overgrown clearing of sorts is comfortingly mundane and ordinary: a sturdy wooden table. The clearing itself doesn't appear to have another exit. That's odd, but something to worry about later.

On the table, in a row neat as you please, stand five potions. They each emit a faint glow, bathing the clearing in multi-coloured light. In front of them, there is a small piece of parchment. Directly past the table; a tiny door.


http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9315/18924365.png

You must be tiny for this trip... It's a Shrinking Potion! And a strong one, too. You become smaller and smaller until the phial itself is taller than you are and the table looms over you like a mountain. Now the overgrown grass has replaced the hedges as an obstacle to struggle through.

But what trip? Which direction? There was no obvious way to the clearing earlier...


To move onward through the maze, answer the following riddle:

I have many feathers to help me fly. I have a body and head, but I'm not alive. It is your strength which determines how far I go. You can hold me in your hand, but I'm never thrown. What am I?

The grass is difficult to get through, It's highlands grass, very tough and entangled all over. The hedges high above you are silent now as you creep onwards, but that's no great consolation. Sure, a Blast-Ended Skrewt might not be able to find you, but what if there's an ant colony somewhere behind the next patch of grass?

Somewhere off to your right side, something titters. Oh, that little chuckle is worse than clicking mandibles. It implies intelligence. You whirl around, wand out, just as you hear the unmistakable sound of little footsteps, but there are just more blades of grass in front of you. You begin struggling forward blindly, trying to get to the end of the clearing.

A door appears! This is a second clearing, with mercifully trimmed grass. It's lit well, too – there's a fire ahead. Standing on top of it is a large soot-stained cauldron. Next to it stands a small table. Both are regular sized, but someone has considerately placed a small ladder next to the table that you can climb to get on top of it.

On the table are a number of phials and boxes - Peppermint, Moonstone, Fluxweed, Pomegranate, Doxy Eggs, Frozen Chizpurfles, Hellebore, Ginger Roots, Spine of a Lionfish, Lacewing Flies, Puffer-Fish Eyes - all carefully labeled. Potion ingredients. The one closest to the ladder has a second piece of parchment attached to it.

It's another riddle. Even if you can solve it, though, how will the ingredients get into the cauldron? The ladder seems to be just a little bit too short. Levitating something into it could work – if nothing gets spilled – but what if the potion needs stirring?

Your well-aimed spell produces no change whatsoever. It seems the cauldron and it's contents are protected by powerful magic.

Even someone not afraid of bugs might not like the look of the Chizpurfles much. They're not alive, of course, tumbled on top of each other in a tightly corked phial.

But they're also much larger than usual in comparison, and there's something in that glassy, dead stare of theirs that just, well, creeps you out. And now that you're this small, you can study their bodies much more closely. They certainly look fearsome, and one can only imagine how much worse it would be if they suddenly sprang to life again, all scurrying legs and clicking chitin and... Shudder.

After successfully levitating the chizpurfles into the cauldron, a small scrap of parchment, almost hidden completely underneath the phial, catches your eye. Glad for the distraction, you retrieve it.

Like the creature that lays them, the Doxy eggs aren't really bad as such, just... Well. If the grown Doxy is a pest, then its egg is pestilential. In its smell. It would make a compost heap pinch its nose shut. A troll's eyes would water.

Funny how these things don't get noticed until one is the size of a normal-sized goblet. Gives you a new perspective on everything. Perhaps the smell is some sort of defence mechanism or something?

In any case, just as before, there is another hint hidden underneath the box of eggs. Here's what it says:

The potion tastes terrible. Did you mix it wrong? But even as you fret, you start to grow again. Careful not to bump your head on the table.

As you regain your regular height, the hedges in front of you change as well, pushing themselves apart to reveal a narrow opening. Which way will you go?

To move forward along the path, answer the following riddle:

All about the house, with his lady he dances. Yet he always works, and never romances. What is he?

Eek. This potion was horrible. But Monique didn't doubt it. It was made with icky bugs and putrid doxy eggs.

But, it did work, so that was worth it. Soon Monique found herself normal sized. Thank goodness! She was beginning to worry that she'd stay small forever.

Now, to start forward down the new path.

A broom

Left, right, left again... The maze seems to stretch out forever. The rustling hedges are with you once more, closing in on all sides. Suddenly you see another flickering light source up ahead. Another potion to brew, perhaps?

No. The next clearing (there are numerous paths leading to it, so any initial spark of pride of having reached this part of the maze before anyone else is quickly extinguished) houses several burning torches, two doors, and, in front of them, a Sphinx. A living Sphinx. Very large, too.

Quick, what did you learn about them in Care of Magical Creatures... Are they aggressive? Are they even carnivorous? The Sphinx is sitting there utterly impassive, watching you calmly. She seems to know exactly what you're thinking – the intelligence in her eyes is almost unsettling – but she remains silent. Waiting.

The Sphinx continues to simply regard the young woman. Even though, she practically radiates calmness, the way her eyes are always fixated on the Champion makes it quite obvious that she is ready to defend whatever she is protecting. Ready to attack. Ready to kill, should there be the need to.

After another moment of complete silence has passed, the creature finally shows some kind of reaction to the woman approaching her. Her human lips slowly curl into a small smirk, her dark eyes still locked on the girl. "You may pass." And then with a rather intimidating raise of her eyebrows she added, "Or you may not. It all depends on you." A small pause ensued during which she regarded the girl once again, as if figuring out whether she was worth it.

In the end it seems she has proven herself worthy, as the Sphinx raises her head briefly and finally addresses the champion again,

"Deep in the wood in an orchard of old,
An apple tree grows, a sight to behold.
The branches are full and the limbs hand down.
It must be magic, there's none on the ground.

From the twisted old trunk, four branches sprout.
And from each long branch, fifteen twigs stick out.
From each of these, three ripe fruit dangle free.
Tell me the number of pears in the tree."

For a few minutes there is no visible reaction from the Sphinx as the champion finally attempts to answer the riddle. No reaction. Neither positive, nor negative. She is just regarding her with unreadable dark eyes, her head slightly cocked to one side, considering her answer.

Then, all of a sudden, the Sphinx bows her head gracefully before taking a step back. However not to get ready to attack but rather to move out of the way, allowing the champion to pass.

The Sphinx was watching the Champion's tentative steps towards the two doors impassively. However, after a few moments of indecision on your part, she inclines her head ever so slightly towards the door on the right.

Upon contact with the girl's fingers the door swings open to reveal...yet another path, framed with more high hedges. Tentatively stepping over the threshold, you follow the path ahead slowly. A few minutes and several corners later, there is no doubt about it. The hedges are retreating. Where before you were shut in almost completely, with each branch pawing at you, it's now possible to stride forward without being forced to untangle some part of the cloak or other.

Then your foot bumps against something heavy on the ground. The light of the wand reveals not, luckily, an old coffin or something similarly creepy, but the top part of what appears to be a small treasure chest.

As you start to kick, you can see the chest is only partially covered with earth.

Once you've unearthed it, you open it carefully. Sudden brightness illuminates the ground around you. True, the light coming from the chest isn't actually all that bright, but after wandering around in the dark for hours, it completely messes up your vision.

The chest is filled with golden runes, glowing faintly. Take them with you; you've earn them. Oh and know this... Decoding their secret message just might prove helpful.

http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w...fs/Runes-2.gif
Just a little further now...

With the runes in your hand, the path opens before you. The way out is clear. As you move forward, the cheers from the stands start to cut through the eerie landscape, replacing the silence.

You've made it!

Monique kept moving forward as the hedges in front of her kept moving apart to make room for her. She did find it a little unsettling that nothing dangerous happened to her. She figured that this task must have just been meant to test her intellectual strength, whereas the first one tested her physical strength.

Suddenly Monique heard cheers. Cheers? But the hedges cut out all the sound... which meant.

SHE MADE IT! She was out of the maze!

As you make your way past the last hedge, your field of vision widens. At last you can see the crowd-filled stands.

Yay! She was really out. She could see the stands. She made it!

Which meant... she was clever and good enough to avoid death twice. Oh yeah, whoever thought that she was just another pretty face was gravely mistaken. With runes jiggling in her pocket she headed to the stands to greet her fans everyone.