The Mage and Slime Girl, and the Riddles of the Obelisk

Molsalkisa approached the obelisk, her book floating behind her; she could barely hold her composure to hold in her excitement at getting to be able to study something like this. As she got closer, she could make out the writing on the obelisk; it was ancient Suarian, something her people had moved past ages ago, often categorized as a subset of the Draconic language grouping. It had been ages since she had encountered the language, so she was a little rusty with it.

It took Molsalkisa a bit longer than she would have liked to make out the translation of the writing on the obelisk, and she was still trying to make sense of quite a bit of it. She needed something to fully make sense of it, or at least enough to get out of this chamber and to the next one. All she could make out so far was a fragmented riddle.

“So,” came the voice of the slime woman; a quick glance back at her showed she was a bit more cohesive now and seemed to at least have some semblance of attire on herself, “what have you gotten so far?”

“Just some riddle about blood that isn’t blood nourishing the next generation,” said Molsalkisa, “and another one saying something about guides in the sky that…well, the rest seems to have been broken off here,” she said as she indicated to a section of the obelisk that had a small crater in it.

“No surprise you wouldn’t get that riddle, given how your species operates with its young and their nurturing period,” said Oriana, “that first riddle is pretty simple for any mammalian species to solve if they think about it for more than five seconds, and I know that because I seem to have pieces of memories from different individuals floating around in my head, probably some odd mix of what I used to be and whatever caused my awakening to this new state.”

“I suppose that makes some sense,” said Molsalkisa, “we’ll try studying that in more detail after we’ve evacuated this dungeon. Now then, what is the answer to the first riddle you have reasoned out?”

“Milk,” said Oriana with confidence, “it’s often considered a transient state of blood, and it is used to nourish the young of mammals.”

“I’ve been so much looking at the history of past cultures I didn’t even consider to take a closer look at their anatomy and history of offspring raising,” said the Ceratopsian mage, “to be fair, there has been very little research into that subject that I have encountered; someone should probably remedy that. If we assume the riddles have some sort of connection, then the next one is probably talking about constellations, and trying to reference the constellation most closely associated with maternity or offspring. The concept of constellations does exist in ancient records, but no records of how they were implemented. They were brought in around two decades ago when Yuri Althaus expanded his influence beyond the community he manifested near when he transitioned to this world. He held council with the temple, and the priestess sent to be his companion for several weeks, deciding on the constellations for their section of the globe, and sent a message along that breaking the globe up into sections would help formalize these constellations and where in the world they can be observed. He also mentioned a set of twelve he referred to as the ‘Zodiac’ that can be seen in all parts of the globe, but they tend to rise and set with different periods within the timekeeping cycles. Last I heard, only nine of the twelve for the Zodiac were officially recognized and codified.”

“Did any of them have to do with a matron or maternal figure?”

“Yes, one was actually called the ‘Mother of Waters’ and is said to represent both the goddess of the sea herself and powerful maternal mortal figures as well.”

“Looks like we have a theme going on here! A mother’s first offering to her offspring, a powerful maternal figure, and if we can piece together more, chances are they will all have a theme of motherhood in some way. Which means…”

“The challenge of this chamber has to do with motherhood,” said Molsalkisa with dawning realization. “But how will the challenge manifest itself? That’s the biggest question. Look around; once we entered the entrance disappeared behind us, and no pathways out were made obvious.”

“That’s just the sides we’ve looked at currently; how about we see if anything changes on the opposite sides of the object?” The two made their way around to the other side of the obelisk.

It took Molsalkisa a few minutes to make sense of what she was reading and get a coherent translation. “This riddle makes reference to wands and bags; it looks like it’s probably using them as a euphemism, which means this side is making reference to males, if I recall my impromptu lesson on euphemisms regarding male features we all had earlier in the dungeon, before meeting you, Oriana. That said, the choice of wording seems to suggest something to do with magic. There’s another fragmented riddle that is making reference to rising male anatomy and a release of liquid.”

“What does the riddle say exactly?” Asked Oriana, “or at least your best translation, at least.”

Molsalkisa took in a deep breath and breathed out slowly before saying, “It says something like, ‘the spired scpepters rise up with tiered basins about them and release the liquid of life unto them.”

“Strange turn of phrase,” said Oriana as she scanned the room; then she noticed something she hadn’t before. In three of the corners of the room were impressions that looked as if they were sunk into the floor but could rise out of it. “I think I get it,” she said with sudden realization, “there are hidden fountains in the floor of the chamber; we have to probably find the panels or hidden levers to make them rise up out of the floor, much like how a certain piece of male anatomy rises up for sexual activities…”

“And then the milk-producing individuals are supposed to release a sample of their own lactations into the fountains to trigger the magic that fills them and makes the liquid flow,” finished Molsalkisa.

“Great,” said the twins in a unified deadpan voice, “those of us with mammary glands need to just lactate on command; easier said than done.”