Clip's Notes: Arisetsu and the Puzzle Box of Ormorek
Clip’s Note: “Frequently, stories about the Gods of Alharth are highly conjectural and apocryphal. However, in this case the story comes from an unusually well-placed source, and might be given more credence.”
Arisetsu and the Puzzle Box of Ormorek, Part 1
Deep in a cave, lit just enough to emphasize the lack of lighting, Ormorek, God of Bitterness, formerly God of Dwarves, grudgingly worked at his task of creating undead monstrosities. “Why do these dwarves keep coming?” he muttered to himself. “At this rate, it’ll take days to replace the mummies they destroy.”
As he finished wrapping a corpse in dried and brittle bandages, he reached again for the power gleaned from Zek’s chalice and intoned “Arise, slave, and serve me.” Immediately, the newly created mummy gasped and sat up.
“Auugaahhh,” coughed the mummy and looked directly at his God and master. “Sure. Fine. Whatever.”
“Yes, my slave, remember your mortal life and despair! Remember your mortal name and your lost existence. What was your name, slave?”
The mummy stared blearily at Ormorek before croaking, “Phil.”
“Well... Phil. Some dwarves are coming. Go kill them before they try to lecture me about making undead. Things are bad and getting worse.”
Worse, from Ormorek’s perspective, was that dwarves killed by his mummies had developed an obnoxious tendency to come back from the dead, healthy and whole, and charge back into the fight, requiring even more mummified effort to kill again. He continued to grumble, “since when do mortals decide to not stay dead? Whose bright idea was that?”
At that moment, warmth and light suddenly flooded the dingy cave. Ormorek turned, squinting resentfully at the glowing form that had appeared.
“Oh. Of course. Who else? That’s just great.” Ormorek moaned.
Arisetsu, Goddess of Hope, Light, Warmth, and Setting Undead on Fire, had arrived.
Phil, the newly made mummy, fidgeted nervously with his dry wrappings.
Arisetsu and the Puzzle Box of Ormorek, Part 2
Arisetsu and the Puzzle Box of Ormorek, Part 2
In a cave that would otherwise have been dreary and dark, Arisetsu, Goddess of Hope and Warmth, faced Ormorek, once God of Dwarves, now God of Bitterness and Giving Up. Phil, newly minted mummy and highly flammable abomination, continued to slowly edge away from a goddess renowned for her fiery dislike of undead.
Arisetsu swept her hand toward the cave wall and spoke sternly, “Watch! Watch and see what befalls these undead perversions.” Ormorek wearily obeyed, knowing what would come next.
The wall of the cave flickered and became a view of a mummy, hurriedly shambling through a similarly dreary section of cave, midway through an angry moan “-ill all die! There, I said it.”
An instant later, an amber bottle shattered on the mummy’s head, dousing it in liquid. The view shifted to a reveal a dwarf, rapidly backing away from the mummy and throwing another bottle of liquor, laughing and yelling, “Ha! That’ll do it!”
The dwarf’s retreat brought him nearly abreast with two wolves, one of whom gave a coughing bark that somehow sounded like two words. “Flame Strike.” In an blinding instant, the mummy vanished in a gout of fire and the picture faded back to a featureless cave wall.
Slightly farther away, Phil the mummy continued to do his best to look non-threatening.
Arisetsu turned the searing light of her eyes back to Ormorek and advanced. Ormorek, for his part, slumped against a rock. “See?” she continued, “See how little that dark power avails you? Give up the-” She paused as her foot bumped a small object, almost completely hidden in the dust.
Arisetsu leaned down and lifted the object, revealing it to be a perfect cube. “What is this?”
“Don’t touch tha- …. oh never mind.” said Ormorek from his morose slouching position.
Arisetsu gently blew the dust off the cube, revealing deep incisions on all sides, and that each side of the cube had been painted in a grid of brightly colored squares. She held it in both hands, and was startled to see that the cube was made of smaller stone cubes, ingeniously held together by some hidden pivoting mechanism.
“This is fascinating. It seem so …. different than mummies and death. What is it?” Arisetsu said, fiddling with the cube, twisting it so the pattern of colored squares changed.
“Nothing. Just a stupid puzzle box. The dwarves make them. It’s worthless.” muttered Ormorek, still glowering at the wall.
“It’s wonderful! How does it work?”
“I don’t know!” Ormorek shouted. “I don’t know! I taught them how to make the damn things and I can’t remember how to solve them anymore.”
Aristestu paused, regarding the broken God before her and the intact toy in her hands, simply listening.
Ormorek turned back to the wall. “Feh. Keep it. I don’t remember anything about it.”
From not far away came the sound of breaking glass, a loud, dull foomp, and a gleeful cackle.
Phil the mummy was nowhere to be seen.
Arisetsu looked at Ormorek thoughtfully. “Some dwarves are coming now. It sounds like they haven’t forgotten you. Maybe you should ask them.”
Clip’s Note: “Truly obsessed scholars of Dwarven lore will note the connection between the puzzle box and the profession of cheesemaking. Could this history have something to do with why cheesemaking is so powerful a skill in Alharth?”