rhawn
Emperor
You won one of my votes, Bret Pellenon should scout ahead and see if the nasty gnome chanter laid a trap.
Game Thread: The Life and Times of Atto Ngoogol
- Thread starter Earthling
- Start date
You won one of my votes, Bret Pellenon should scout ahead and see if the nasty gnome chanter laid a trap.
Sprig
めんどくさい
Oh, ummm.... I don't think I am up for the task. Others are better prepared for that kinda stuff. You know like the ones that have been nominated already.
rhawn
Emperor
Come on friend, don't be modest. Your reputation for gnome slaying has far preceeded your arrival. I know you can be very sneaky, just hide in the shadows and jump him from behind. This should be no problem with The Battler creating a diversion for you.
mgsmuhammad
Resident Stalker
With the benefit of Hindsight, it seems Arminius is going out there anyway, so, in the interests of tie-breaking:
I remove my nomination of Arminius and place it upon Borin the Plunderer.
I remove my nomination of Arminius and place it upon Borin the Plunderer.
TheLastOne36
Deity
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2007
- Messages
- 14,045
By can't hurt, I meant it's the first day, better atleast see how the puzzles are like. The odds are unlikely someone would attack me with my strength lowered due to failing a puzzle.
What do you mean by that? I do nothing?
Sprig
めんどくさい
As much as i love gnome slaying and to be fair i love it lots. In fact I have come up with several genius and unique ways of killing gnomes but it doesn't disguise the fact that I am just not sure the Battler will be up for this.
We will need someone with more cunning. How about yourself?
rhawn
Emperor
I see you have recognised me, the cunning runt. I do have skills that require a more subtle touch. But thrust me into combat and you'll see my alter ego the running... well let's say it is a quite unflattering exclamation. Hey, one such as I dies a thousand deaths, be a hero and you'll only suffer the agony but once.
Midday One
The party was digging through a few crates of scant supplies they’d been given as they set out after the battle; it was almost not worth carrying anything but food. Inside one they found a note from one of the High Priests of the Sun, from the King’s Court.
Puzzle One
Success Bonus: +3 strength for this Day phase
Partial Credit: +1 strength for this Day phase
Failure Penalty: -2 strength for this Day phase
Success Bonus: +3 strength for this Day phase
Partial Credit: +1 strength for this Day phase
Failure Penalty: -2 strength for this Day phase
“At the last minute we came up with an idea that might help you in your quest. It’s a protective spell that calls upon the powers of the gods and strengthens the body and spirit. The scroll included here will guide you through this enchantment one time, with the help of a focus, which hopefully you can find among the many small carved tokens we’ve included, used in daily prayers by some of the clerics. The problem is, most of these are old or shoddy, really nothing more than good luck charms now. You’d be lucky if there were more than a couple with enough magic left in them to serve as a proper focus for this spell. “
There are 200 tokens in total, all with somewhat different levels of magic power, but there is nothing that would really distinguish them visually, by touch, etc... Your aim to find the most powerful one amongst them, and use it and only it to cast the spell. You can determine through magical means how powerful a token is one token at a time, but once you do so with a token, the magic begins to leak out, and the token must immediately be used to attempt the one-time spell, or discarded and you’ll have to use a different token.
Explain what you would do to have the best chance to cast the protective spell.
Example of an obvious failure: “Just pick up the first token you find and cast the spell.” This would have a very low probability of success; you would almost certainly pick up a worthless, not powerful enough token.
If you wish to not share your thoughts or solutions with others, you can send me answers in PM/in private, or again anyone can feel free to discuss the puzzle in thread or with each other in private too. Once more I request that really lengthy discussion of a puzzle, in this game thread, gets spoilered.
The following must attempt to solve the puzzle:
Spoiler :
In the meantime, the party was worried about being attacked at any time, and was nominating the day's champions.
Nomination Vote Tally
Spoiler :
Day One ends in ~24 hours.
Oh, and extra note, Night One will probably be 22 or 23 hours, just a headsup, shouldn't
really make a difference and you get the full time to vote today
but the update schedule needs to shift a little for me
Oh, and extra note, Night One will probably be 22 or 23 hours, just a headsup, shouldn't
really make a difference and you get the full time to vote today
but the update schedule needs to shift a little for me
Seon
Not An Evil Liar
All too easy, Earth 
Seon
Not An Evil Liar
Alright people, so here's how to solve this riddle.
So what do we do? Do we just blindedly go through the puzzle like some barbarian? Just check every coin until we find the one that knocks us all flat?
Of course not! That would be an insult to all the riddles in the word!
What we must do... is to establish a base for the other tokens to be measured by.
I suggest that we pick out the first 20 coins and then try to find the best next token compared to the best in the first 20.
So what do we do? Do we just blindedly go through the puzzle like some barbarian? Just check every coin until we find the one that knocks us all flat?
Of course not! That would be an insult to all the riddles in the word!
What we must do... is to establish a base for the other tokens to be measured by.
I suggest that we pick out the first 20 coins and then try to find the best next token compared to the best in the first 20.
dcmort93
The Stig
But we need to take into account the constant decrease in power of that top coin in the first 20 and all other coins after
classical_hero
In whom I trust
I will unvote: vote:Anna, Honorius Cummerbund
Seon
Not An Evil Liar
Top 20 coins will be rejected, there will be no need of that
.The other coins will not suffer from constant decay. That's in the premise of the riddle. Read it carefully
Of course, alternative simple solution is that we take a handful of coins each and use it to cast our protective spells. Although a single individual coin may not do its job, a handful will do.
Sprig
めんどくさい
You make a fair point, it would be unwise to nominate you. You had better tell me your name in the interests of making sure that you are not nominated.
Seon
Not An Evil Liar
No, I should have clarified this and have done so now, the answer is no, that would dilute the magical focus and hinder the spell. You can't use multiple tokens.
Also, since I have a feeling how crafty/out-of-the-box thinking some of you can be: No, you don't have to worry about other people taking/stealing/using your tokens or something. The point isn't to "prevent character x from stealing and wasting some of the tokens" or anything like that - it's assumed that nobody is messing with the tokens or anything until the group gets together to attempt the spell, you're not competing with other players to get the right token or anything like that.
Would not it be better to use one half of the coins (100) and then compare another coins with them? That way we will know power distribution in the random half of the coins.
Generally I think your solution is the correct one, I am only thinking what number of 'wasted', 'refferential' coins would be the best: 20? 50? 100? How big our initial sample should be in order to be sufficient?
mgsmuhammad
Resident Stalker
How about 200?
That's a big enough sample to knock out all the anomalous results.
Then you'll know the average power for sure.
That's a big enough sample to knock out all the anomalous results.
Then you'll know the average power for sure.
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