TRILEMMA GAME

The village is on the side of the lake that has half-day and night. The sun is on the edge of zenith and about to be eclipsed by the magic of the area.

" you got about another 20 minutes and then it's gonna be dark for 18 hours" answers the boy. " it doesn't rain much here but if it starts you come indoors. The rain raises the curses from the soil and makes your eyes go dark."

Just to illuminate the sitch a little, the bluff where the lynx is rumored is in the dark part of the land. You don't have any choice but to go there in the dark. It's never daylight there.

The people in the tavern look at Dahlia in a puzzled way. Then an old woman scoffs at her. "We all know what poisons the lake. It's the curse on the land, when the rain falls it rises from the soil and flows into the lake. You think you'll solve that by rowing a boat out on the lake?" She laughs bitterly, and turns her attention back to her handleless porcelain mug.

The old woman squints at Dahlia "Since the time of the Martoi and their wars, the land has been dark," she answers. "Some say it's from a foolish effort to conceal the movement of troops in darkness. Anyway, to the west it's always dark; here it just gets dark when it rains. But the runoff makes the fish and water bad." She shakes her head slowly. "People try to move away but no land will accept our refugees. They're worried that the darkness is contagious."

The old woman looks blankly at Myrven. "Maybe … in Once Martol." (You recognize the name: the former capital of the Martoi kingdom, long since fallen to ruins through their ancient internecine strife.) "You think you can reverse the curse?" She scoffs again. "You'd be the first to try. That I know of."

"It's … that way? Time is weird in the darkness. And I don't know anyone who's been there. So I can't really guess how far, how many hours."

Montage

The villagers are hospitable, and let you stay overnight (all 18 hours) in the tavern for free. The fish and the water do taste strange, and make your stomachs hurt.

Morning comes way too long after "sunset" and you already are restlessly awake when the sun rises. Equipped with a single torch, you set your backs to the village and step toward the vertical veil of darkness, beyond which are the bluffs where the lynx is rumored. You've been told it will take 2 torches to get there …

The journey in darkness seems interminable. The gloom, which seems more palpable than ordinary light, strangely attenuates and swallows the light of your torch. You can barely make out a ten foot distance around the path you tread. You light the second torch from the first and plod onward, uphill along the edge of a strange-smelling stream that glimmers in the torchlight with strangely fluorescent pastel colors. There seems a good likelihood that ancient Martoi pigments are indeed in them thar hills, given the rainbow appearance of the stream.

Near the haft of the second torch, you reach the base of a steep incline. Above, you see a glowing opening in the face of the bluff. Firelight flickers there but casts little illumination into the damping darkness all around.

You hear a strange airy howling noise, like wind blowing around a corner. It comes from somewhere nearby — you think.

You then hear a rasping snarl from the same direction. Looking that way, you see two round golden glowing eyes. In the darkness it is hard to tell the size of the creature that has those eyes. But it has a voice: "Welcome to the place of the Ricalu," it says in a meowing tone. "Do you bring gifts?"