Night 59: The Sphinx's Chamber

[lovecrafty]

> Rose: ExploreThe purpose of this room went without saying. Its mythological inspiration was evident in every minute detail, from the smallest carving to its denizen, who sat imperiously on what passed for a throne for a quadrupedalian creature

Comments

[avengingfists]

Rose was right. They needed to continue forward. Ilia just didn't like having a dead end at their back. If things got messy from here on out their only escape route would be time. Ilia didn't want to become prey for any sea serpents they might find themselves battling down here.

Following Rose into the next room, Ilia stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing the creature sitting regally before them. In heaven's name... She had thought she would be prepared for anything after her adventures on Roak. Apparently that was not the case. A Sphinx was here. A Sphinx! And if it followed the same principles of the Earth mythology that Ilia was aware of then they could be in some serious trouble.

".... Rose." Ilia's long-suffering whisper was a uttered through clenched teeth. Really, the girl was always so quick to jump into danger. Ilia probably would do the same thing if she still felt the foolhardy immortality that went hand-in-hand with adolescence but it didn't make swallowing it any easier

[mirthfulness]

"Whoa." They'd already fought some monsters tonight, but Gamzee hadn't seen anything as big as this human-purrbeast combination any time recently. This was a whole new level of monster. While he'd taken on plenty of them in the medium, he apparently didn't have his full strength at his disposal here.

Though as the creature wasn't immediately attacking, he wasn't immediately worried. He'd shared plenty of his pies with the imps back before they'd been in the Veil. Maybe this beast could be pacified with food too? The troll looked at the bit of ham he was still taking bites from, then back to the Sphinx, then back and forth a couple more times.

Then he held out his arm with the ham in it, offering it to the creature. There might have been some danger in this should she decide to bite off half his arm along with the meat, but that thought hadn't appeared to have crossed his mind, as most didn't.

[damned_monsters]

The sound of the door opening stirred the beast that rested within. One emerald eye opened, and immediately located the three who had disturbed his sleep. With the patients in sight, the second eye opened as well, and the group was greeted with a dispassionate stare

[lovecrafty]

"I expected as much. Let me confer with my compatriots." Rose nodded to the Sphinx, and then turned to her companions.

"Well? I think we should enter this little contest of wits." She flicked a glance at Gamzee, whose contributions would hopefully not be needed, as she had to assume he was a better fighter than strategist. Or merely lucky, in a game where luck was a thing that could be earned.

"If we decline, we'll just end up back here on another night. But that doesn't decrease the possibility of the threat." The Sphinx was large, and while Rose's confidence in her intelligence was a defining character trait, so too was the recognition that it was not infinite.

They could procure -- or manufacture -- a compendium of riddles, and return, but Rose doubted the wisdom of such an endeavor. The contents, after all, would be readable, and thus evadable. Foresight and quasi-omniscience always had loopholes.