Roslin Waits: Another Clue to the Chalice?

“The Holy Grail neath ancient Roslin Waits.
The blade and chalice guarding o’er gates.
Adorned in masters loving art, She lies.
She rests at least beneath the starry skies stacked.”

The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon

Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon is an adaptation of The Adventure of the Dancing Men by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The story takes place in WWII England and features a cypher, Professor James Moriarty and the usual assortment of henchmen.

Amarantha’s Riddle

“There are those who seek me a lifetime but never we meet,
And those I kiss but who tremble me beneath ungrateful feet.

At times I seem to favor the clever and the fair,
But I bless all those who are brave enough to dare.

By large, my ministrations are soft-handed and sweet,
But scorned, I become a difficult beast to defeat.

For through each of my strikes land a powerful blow,
When I kill, I do it slow.”

What is the aswer to this riddle?

---

.

..

...

....

Love

A Court of Thorns and Roses, Sarah J. Maas

---

A Court of Thorns and Roses Summary and Study Guide

Tale of Beasts: A Modern Retelling of Beauty & The Beast

A Court of Thorns and Roses: Summary

You might want to take a look at the map inside the book

This post was updated on 2/21/22 & 2/24/22

An Encrypted Message for Lord Grandrith

“The goblin has gone mad, and he is our enemy and the enemy of our enemies, his former friend. The goblin is holed up, but we are digging him out.”

Brass Bwona (Doc Caliban)

The Goblin probably refers to Iwaldi, the ancient dwarf and one of the nine. Iwaldi was at least ten thousand years old and possible could even be thirty thousand years old.

Lord of the Trees, Philip Jose Farmer

Riddles from a Fairy

“Who are you? Who is me?
Answer my riddle and come and see.”

“I milk blue ewes; I reap red flowers,
I weave the story of dead hours”

“What is it that’s a tree, and yet not a tree, a man and yet not a man, who is dumb and yet can tell secrets, who has no arms and yet can strike?”

“Dig and delve, delve and dig, harness the mare to the farmers gig.”

Riddles as spoken to Master Nathaniel by the fairy, Polumus.

Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees

A Cryptic Memorandum

Chapter II: The Secret of The Silent Submarine, Spies of the Kaiser, Plotting the Downfall of England, William Le Queux

The story portrays an alternative history of England. The year is 1909. Authors like Le Queux were writing these pieces of fiction to try to get the public and government officials to see menace of Kaisers Germany. This story’s message is similar to a few others that I have read. One in particular, The Riddle of the Sands, by Erskine Childers is of, about the same time period.

---

Other Titles by William Le Queux

When is a Cipher a Cipher?

Again Holmes flattened out the paper upon his unused plate. I rose and, leaning over him, stared down at the curious inscription, which ran as follows:

"What do you make of it, Holmes?"

"It is obviously an attempt to convey secret information."

"But what is the use of a cipher message without the cipher?"

"In this instance, none at all."

"Why do you say 'in this instance'?"

"Because there are many ciphers which I would read as easily as I do the apocrypha of the agony column: such crude devices amuse the intelligence without fatiguing it. But this is different. It is clearly a reference to the words in a page of some book. Until I am told which page and which book I am powerless."

The Tragedy of Birlstone, The Valley Of Fear, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A Riddle

'Q. has had to go and see his friends in Paris,' it began. 'Traverse Handle S. "Once around the grass, and twice around the lass, and thrice around the maple tree."'

The Inmost Light, The House of Souls, Arthur Machen

The Preamble to the Raid on Spurhaven RPG and Board Game

Last month I made a post on the Draken Games Catalogue # 8 and the two free mini-games that were included in this issue. I have read through the Raid on Spurhaven rules and have found what you might call the back story of the game. Here are some excerpts:

---

"Many years ago, during the Second Orc War, a renowned local magic user called Abramor poured much of his powers into a magical artefact to help halt the Malthian invasion: a spyglass that allowed him to direct battle magic. Using it from atop his tower on the heights, he helped the Free Peoples defeat the invaders. Abramor was left drained: his School of Magic broke up and his last act was to create six runes that would allow a magic user to recreate his battle magic, so long as they have his spyglass.

Abramor told people of his legacy, but by then his mind was failing and few took him seriously. He died alone in his tower in poverty. Though the heights do at least bear his name, the tower is now in ruin. His spyglass and runes were remembered only as folklore, repeated as a rhyme by local children:

‘If orcish evil comes to pass
Then find again the eye of glass,
That’s hidden in Abramor’s Tower
Along with words of magic power,
Magic user heed this verse
To stop orcs with a deadly curse’

---

‘Aldus,

The orcs have found proof that the old rhyme about Abramor is true. You must stop them finding what they seek! We shall march south at double speed to try and assist in the defense of Spurhaven against the main war party.’ “

---

Raid on Spurhaven

A Foot Note

"The fire in the sea: It happens sometimes that sea waves have such a luminous appearance, as if the whole sea were full of fire. If you cast any thing into the sea, it becomes luminous like a star; but you do not see this during moonlight. Wood having in itself no fire, receives a fiery appearance, after having been passed through the water."

From the notes of History of the Pirates Who Infested the China Sea From 1807 to 1810; [79]

The Unraveling of the Riddle

“B, B, O, O, C, T, A, P, W, E, R, Y, twelve letters in all”

---

The residents of Redwall sat together and tried to make sense of the random twelve letters. The prize for coming up with a likely answer would win one of Father Abbot’s pink iced woodland plum and spice cake.

---

Some of the words and phrases that the woodlanders came-up with:

• “Baby power to be.”
• “Coop Water Byb”
• “Cot Abbey prow”

And the winner is;” Abbey top crow.”

---

The creatures of Redwaller had cracked the cipher. The answer alluded to a stone crow that stood on the roof of the Abbey. There are more clues to come.

Mattimeo

A Riddle of Loamscript

Along with the inscription found on the abbey foundation stone, the residents of the Abbey, found this riddle. The riddle was written in a long forgotten script called Loamscript, a script used by residents of the now defunct Loamhedge Abbey.

The script was primarily used to communicate with those who were in leadership, namely among the Abbess Germaine and her cohorts. Abbess Germaine had long since passed on and there were only a few that could still decipher this script. Most notably was John Churchmouse who was still in residence at the Redwall Abbey.

Not having used the script for some time, and after a few false starts, John Church mouse was able to decipher the script into the following riddle.

A Riddle in Loamscript

“Through the seasons here I lie,
‘neath this Redwall that we made.
Solve the mystery, you must try,
Graven deep in will not fade.
Somewhere ‘twixt our earth and sky,
Birds and gentle breezes roam.
There a key you might espy,
To that place I once called home.
Take this graven page and seek
What my words in stone mean.
What can’t fly, yet has a beak,
Mixed up letters evergreen.
Two Bees, two Ohs
One Sea, one tap,
And weary with A.
Leave me now to my long rest,
Good fortune on y our way.”

(Mattimeo, Chapter 22, pg. 158)

The Little People

The little people are the ants of Redwall. The little people as they are called by the residents of the Redwall Abbey were watched as they made their way through a long disused tunnel. The tunnel led to a room that has long been forgotten. In the room was laid the foundation stone. The residents of the Abbey were one step closer to solving the riddle.

Inscription Found the Abbey Foundation Stone

“Upon this stone rests all our hopes and efforts. Let Redwall Abbey stand for ever as a home for peaceful and a haven for woodlanders. In the spring of the Late Snowdrops this stone was laid in its place by our Champion, Martin the Warrior, and our Founder, Abbess Germaine. May our winters be short, the spring-times green, our summers long and the autumn’s fruitful.”

(Mattimeo, Chapter 18, pg. 135)

Quote From Chapter 16, Mattimeo

“Seek the Founder in the stones where the little folk go.”
(Mattimeo, 122)

Quote #3 from The Black Arrow

“I had four black arrows under my belt,
four for the grief’s that I have felt,

Four for the number of ill mine that have oppressed me now and then.

One is gone; one is well sped;

Old Applegard is dead.

One is for Master Bennet Hatch that burned Brimstone, walls and thatch.

One is for Sir Oliver Oates that cut Sir Harry Shelton’s throat.

Sir Daniel, you will have the fourth, we think it’s fair sport.

You shall each have your own part, a black arrow in each of your black hearts

Get to your knees to pray: You are dead thieves’, by yea and nay!

Jon Amend-All of Green Wood, and his jolly fellowship.

‘Item, we have more arrows and good hemp cord for others of your following’ “

Prologue-John Amand-All, The Black Arrow-A Tale of Two Roses, Robert Louis Stevenson

Chapter 11 The Sea-Cave

The dull loneness, the black shade,

That these hanging vaults have made:

The strange music of the waves

Beating on these hollow caves

Wither

"I (John Trenchard) grew timid, and fearful of the wild night, and the loneliness, and the darkness. And all sorts of evil tales came to mind, and I thought much of balefuo heathen gods that St. Aldhelm had banished to these underground cellars, and of the Mandrive who leapt on people in the dark and strangled them. ‘Abite a me in ignem etenum qui paratus est diabolo at angelis ejus’-‘Depart from me into internal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’. "

The displacement cipher is cracked: fourscore-feet-deep-well-north. A simple, but effective cipher was used to hide the location of a fabulous diamond. The references to the scripture verses in the cipher were misplaced by one or more places. The number of the displacement represented a word in each verse that was to be highlighted.

Chapter 4-In the Vault

Let us hob and nob with Death—Tennyson

A Lost Treasure

The following inscription was found in a golden locket that was around the neck of Black Beard. Once the cipher was broken the instructions tell of the location of a fabulous diamond.

“ The paper was yellow, and showed a lattice of folds where it had been pressed into the locket; but the handwriting, though small, was clear and neat, and there was no mistaking a word of what was there set down. 'Twas so short, I could read it at once:

The days of our age are threescore years and ten;

And though men be so strong that they come

To fourscore years, yet is their strength then

But labour and sorrow, so soon passeth it

Away, and we are gone.

—Psalm 90, 21

And as for me, my feet are almost gone; My treadings are wellnigh slipped. —73, 6

But let not the waterflood drown me; neither let The deep swallow me up. —69, 11

So, going through the vale of misery, I shall

Use it for a well, till the pools are filled

With water.

—84, 14

For thou hast made the North and the South: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name. —89, 6”

Another Clue as to the Location of Salamanastron (2nd preamble)

The second riddle pointed to a table in Brockhall, actually under the table. Directions to Salamanastron as seen by a goose while in flight can be found under the table where “ale, bread, and cheese” are consumed.

“Boar is badger, named after wood,

Not after forest, but trees.

Where did you play on a rainy day?

Where did I eat bread and cheese?

Search inside, stay indoors.

Look up and find the secret is yours.

Your castle, your fort,

Or so you thought.

The way is in four trees.

The way is in Boar in Brockhall.

Under ale, under bread, under cheese.”

(Mossflower, 135)

The Quest of Salamanastron-A Clue

Looking for clues that might have been left behind by Bella’s father, Bella, Martin, Gonff, and Dinny took to ransacking Bella’s study. The party was looking through stacks of dusty scrolls that littered the desk and room.

Becoming frustrated, Martin bangs his paw on the desk and out pops a secret drawer. Inside the drawer sits a single sheet of parchment with the following words being written on it in the hand of Boar the Fighter.

This is the first clue, a preamble to the location of Salamanastron.

“To the mountain of fire where badgers go,

The path is fraught with danger,

The way is long and hard and slow,

Through foe and hostile stranger,

The warrior’s heart must never fail,

Or falter on his quest.

Those who live to tell the tale,

First must turn he crest.”

(Mossflower, 132)

A Ritual of Villains

“Shake paws, count your claws,
You steal mine, I’ll borrow yours.
Watch my whiskers, check both ears.
Robber foxes have no fears”

(Mossflower, 201)

This oath was taken between two like minded Fox, except one wasn’t. Patchcoat was actually a weasel, that was dressed like a fox, from Mossflower who was sent to intercept Fortunata, which was out by the orders of the queen “thousand eyes” to look for clues as to the where-about’s of the creatures of Mossflower. The creatures of Mossflower had been waging war against the forces of Kotir and had proved they could fight an effective guerilla war against the superior forces of Kotir.