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The last thing you remember is…Well, you don’t remember. Strange?

Where is this place? It looks like you’re in the middle of dark forest. Was it even dark the last time you were….coherent? Just as you’re about to ask yourself what is going on, you hear what you will later start calling The Voice.

“Hello, fool.” The voice is terrifying with how normal it sounds. There’s a slight lilt to it, but that’s it. It seems to come from everywhere or nowhere at once.

“Let’s play a game. Right now you’re in the middle of a forest and all you have to do is find your way out. Simple? Yes, truly, just like your mind.” The airy laugh echoes on. “You have two hours.”

You shout at the voice asking how you get here, along with a bunch of other questions, but the only answer is–

“Tick, tock. Time’s running out little fool. This time we’ll play for a prize and if you fail, well, I won’t take it out on your utter incompetence. But next time…the stakes will be higher.”

You spend the next five minutes trying to talk with the voice or reason with, but it refuses to say another thing.

Really, whether you like it or not, you’ve only got one choice—GET OUT!

Prompt: You wake up in the forest. How you got there isn’t important right now. But the thing is that you’ve been given a time limit by a sinister voice who acts like this is just the first round in some demented game. Whether or not you really want to play, you do know that you don’t want to stay here.

What you need to do:
Write out facing 2-3 obstacles/riddles to overcome before you make it out of the forest. Your prompt should end with you making it past the edge of the woods. At the end of the month the mysterious voice will let you know whether you made it out in time. Who made it out on time will be chosen by rolling a few from the list of those who entered. Those rolled will also get ONE ticket for the end of the year raffle.

This is the first time you have heard this voice, but it won’t be the last. Everyone gets a prize this month so post your prize preference.


Wait what? Having problems coming up with obstacles/riddles? Lorekeepers will do you a favour, this once. Here are 2 vague ideas to work with. Use them if you want or not. Your choice. There are NO perks of using the ideas.
Again, you can use neither of these prompts, one of them, or both..

You come upon a river and the only way to cross is either to wade in or jump across on stones and logs. Well, it doesn’t look that dee-! Wait, was that a crocodile or a piranha in that water? Whatever it was, you sure aren’t swimming now. Time to play Soquili frogger. (Google the SNES game if you need inspo).

There’s a huge wall in front of you and the only way through is what looks like a cave. But it’s dark. No amount of glowing eyes or lanterns will work in here. So feel your way through. OH GOSH! What did you just touch? OH HECK NO! Did you just slide into something goopy at the bottom of a long hill? Ugh.

Kazamir bristled at the voice from beyond, pivoting an ear and listening to the words. His eyebrows lifted, noticeable only by the shift of his bangs. A fool he was not, though sometimes with foolish actions mayhaps. Even with his silly antics, KC is not one to be trifled with. He didn't like that, but realized it was merely "namecaling" a way to provoke another. Being in a dark forest, or not remembering how he got there, didn't even phase him. He was about to ignore The Voice, and his whereabouts. Debating going back to sleep a bit longer. The next four words had his mindset change. Let's play a game. It's as if every molecule of KC shifted gears. He full focused on every word spoken after, repeating each word in the echo of his mind. Storing the instructions. A game is just the way to catch his attention. Snapping to, he begins to ask questions to gather more information, shouting only because he hadn't any clue where the voice was, and wanted to be heard. His questions cut off by more riddle.

Middle of the forest. Two hours. Tick, tock, beat the clock. Prize

KC gave a little prance of excitement. The game was afoot! Giddy, he assessed his location, and just chose the direction that looked most like the way The Voice wanted him to go. All games had a path to get to them.

He must of choose his direction correctly, because the way lit up. Kazamir stopped in his tracks as soon as his eyes adjusted. His neck snapped back, looking up at a wall of thorns. His grin widened. No way through the wall. So the biggest question? Left? Or right? Looking both ways, he didn't see an opening within sight, either directions. Right was never left, and sometimes right isn't right. But left could be right. His mind didn't wander on the thought long, before he simply turned to the right. Tick-tock, beat the clock. No time to loose. Doing a fast shuffle, he paced along the wall. Observing for any openings. He almost passed it by! The brambles and vines so thick, the opening could go unnoticed. Tricky, tricky. Turning to the side, he side stepped through the narrow crack. Snicker Snack, his plant friend, came out of his hiding, to snick a branch that near caught on one of his vines. It huffed and puffed at the branch, as it grew back behind them.

KC didn't stop, though he did note the wall growing back. So they couldn't cut their way through. Good to know, though he wouldn't try. Where's the fun in that if you cheat your way out of the game?

As he stepped through, the area opened up to a square clearing, with a twisted sign in the middle. It said "This way" or "The easy way" and "But never this way" with signs pointing in different directions. 3 openings in the walls to match where each gnarled would end of the sign rudely pointed.

Looking down at the ground, that looked the most suspicious, with leaves almost strategically placed. Looking up, KC then noted, no trees above. VERY suspicious indeed. A trap, waiting to spring, for those that would continue this way. Never this way, a very literal title it would seem. The puzzle did mention something about it being simple, and future puzzles being more challenging. TICK TOCK! he thought, as he back traced his steps, at a lightening speed, having remembered which turns would lead him back to the entrance. Hopefully, he hadn't lost too much time! Finding the entrance much faster than he had gone the other way, he didn't even think twice before going the "easy way" to make up for lost time. If things went well. As he came into a new hallway, there were lots of open doors along the way, too many to have time to check them all. KC panicked a moment, then Snicker Snack pinched him, brining him back to focus. He would thank him with a snack later. As he was about to just start checking all the directions, he recalled the previous maze direction, with the obvious floor clues. Right! Looking down, he is relived to see another clue, as he scans his surroundings. There seems to be a break in the pattern of the path, with well worn stones. Testing it, he turns down one of the other directions, and quickly finds a dead end. This gave him hope! Turning back, he followed the smooth stones trough many winding twists and turns. If someone hadn't noticed the stones, this direction would of been very challenging too! Maybe more than trying to dodge a trap with a pit, or perhaps a net. Before too long though, he saw a light up ahead, and broke through the mazes exit without breaking a sweat. Woo! On to the next challenge! He thought to himself as he barreled down the path to whatever lay ahead.