Solving the Puzzle: Part 2

Molsalkisa approached the next pile and went through the same ritual she had done with the prior statue, the first piece she restored was the head of some kind of wolf, the rest of the work revealed it was indeed a humanoid figure; this figure was also a well-developed female, the attire seemed to be a hentai parody of a monk outfit. “Well,” said Marsha, “that’s different, where do you think she goes.”

“I’ve seen wolves used a symbol of leadership in a few settings,” said Jonah, “although, I have also seen a bit of trend in some settings of displaying monks as a healer archetype as well.”

“How about we put her over between the two positions in the meantime,” said Ariana, “after we get a few more back to proper shape, we’ll have a better idea of where the beastkin fits the arrangement.”

“I didn’t think it could get this confusing like this before now,” said Molsalkisa as she headed over to another pile of pieces near her. After going through the arcane ritual again, Molsalkisa had the head of some kind of otter next to her, and a few minutes later she had the rest of the statue segments, which seemed to be a well-endowed priestess with vestments, which had an oceanic iconography, that looked more like lingerie than anything else.

“Huh, now we have a busty priestess,” said Trisha, “I’m guessing she belongs on the healer pedestal, which means the other one is probably supposed to go hero’s stand.”

“Hmmh,” said Jonah, “you usually see some kind of Warrior as a ‘Hero’ archetype, but it’s not too unusual for a caster archetype to be in the role.” He began moving the priestess’s pieces to the platform that they thought would be the right fit.

Meanwhile, Ulnarka was moving the pieces of the Druid to the central platform, “With these two,” said Ulnarka as she started stacking the pieces from base to crown, “it looks like we’ll be almost done.” She took a quick look around, “only two more statues to go.”

After giving Trisha a few pointers, Molsalkisa moved over to the next of the two remaining piles and performed the mending ritual again, a humanoid hand with shield formed from the pieces, and a few minutes later the rest of the arm followed along with the rest of the body, which turned out to be an ankylosaur-like dino-kin; she wasn’t as well-developed as the others, up top she was, at best, an upper C-Cup, but she did seem to have a well-portioned ass that seemed almost as toned as the legs it was attached to. The whole figure had an attractively buff build to her. In addition to the shield that was in the hand that was first formed, she had what looked like a war hammer with an end spike on the side opposing the hammer’s head that resembled one of the spikes on her own figure.

“Well,” said Ulnarka, “I didn’t expect a shell-back to make an appearance here, she definitely seems to be a warrior of some kind. I’ll start getting her placed on the proper pedestal.”

“I really don’t want to jinx anything,” said Trisha, “but things seem to be going remarkably smooth now; which begs the question, how did the statue puzzles have their pieces broken up further before we got here? The breaking suggests someone was indeed in this chamber before us. And considering this dungeon has been supposedly unknown for ages…” she left the rest for the others to fill in on.

“There is a theory,” said Molsalkisa as she made her way over to the remaining statue pieces, “that some of the dungeons are connected via some sort of mystic network, it’s been proposed due to quite a few adventurers starting out in one dungeon and mysteriously appearing in the chambers of a seemingly unrelated dungeon at what appears to be random. From what I can tell, there is quite a deal of magic coursing through this dungeon. My guess, it’s newly formed, as in only appeared within the past thirty years or so, and is made up of chambers from other dungeons that were the worst performing of their parent dungeon, thus scrapped and sent into the ether by whatever power dictates how dungeons operate, and it all started in that puzzle room we got here from. My hypothesis is that the riddle was so obscure that no one really got it before we came along, and for whatever reason the mind that dictated that dungeons didn’t want to replace or edit the riddle and decided to just scrap the whole thing instead.”

“Where it ended up here,” said Ariana as she finished putting the rest of the Druid’s pieces on the pedestal, she had insisted that Jonah only be place the base while she handled the rest. “My guess, whoever last was in this room got so frustrated by the puzzle’s clues on which set goes where that they just decided to make it more difficult for the next person to come down the line, and the mind behind that dungeon didn’t appreciate all their work ruined like that and decided to just trash the whole room to avoid frustrating the next party down the line and probably replace the room with a similar setup that’s a bit more simplified.”

“If that’s true,” said Marsha as she watched the ceratopsian mage perform the repairing ritual on the last pile, “then that would mean every chamber we encounter as we move through this dungeon will consist of rooms and chambers that were junked and trashed from other dungeons; which would mean that this dungeon wouldn’t even have a proper name integrated into its identity, like the more official dungeons that are recognized in this world, and the total number of rooms and floors could be subject to change, possibly even the layout changes for each party that enters or depending on the time of day you enter, or possibly even both.”

“I see what you mean,” said Molsalkisa after she finished forming the arm of the last of the statues, which was holding some kind of dagger. A few moments later, an orc woman with toned, yet flat, features was lying in a few pieces around the ceratopsian mage, each hand held a dagger, and the pieces indicated the woman was in a cloak.

“And the last one looks the part of one who practices the subtle arts,” said Marsha as she moved to begin placing the pieces, “although, I didn’t expect her to be an orc, those are usually seen being placed in some kind of warrior archetype, at least in all the settings I’ve seen.”

A few minutes later, all the statues were completed, and in the places they all guessed were the best place for them. After a few moments of waiting to see what would happen, the statues all had their eyes glow blue and turned to face the door leading out, a moment later the door opened to reveal a hallway that extended at least a dozen feet or so, and was just wide and enough for the dino-kin ladies to walk comfortably, even if everyone did technically have to go in a single file line; the ceiling seemed to also be designed similarly to the walls. Two doors could be seen a few feet down on either side of the hall and a third door was at the end of the hall, they all seemed to be sturdy wooden doors.