Of Boys and Chocolate

September 24th, 2020

The mysterious missive was read and a new purpose gained: "Now to understand what all this means!", he joyously said, going through it all again in his head. "The trouble is clear: my presents are near but well hidden, I fear. There are clues and a key so I really can't see what big trouble might be to figure it out in time for my tea. And if it takes the whole day, it's even better, I'd say, since a difficult quest is really the best. In practice I'm told, it's good to be bold but asking as well those who know to "please, tell" yields advice one can take to get faster to cake":

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At a later time, on the lookout for more (of everything really: more missives, more mysteries, more cake, more enemies, just... MORE):
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Since I've been asked, here's the text of the missive in full (and yes, I got a bit carried away with it since it was a welcome break from coding and more)
:

The word has spread throughout the realm that you may be looking for brave defenders for your castle! If that is so, we hope you'll find us to your liking and we pledge our brave hearts, trusty arms and mighty weapons to your service.

We've heard the special day was set to be this Tuesday and so we traveled from far away and spared no effort to make it to your sight on time but here, so close to your castle, something terrible has happened to us: we got lost from one another and found ourselves in the most unsettling of places that we couldn't even begin to describe! Will you come to our rescue as this realm of yours is unknown to us and we are afraid we'd be too late if we have to make our own way without any of your gracious help?

We are three brothers in arms: an archer, a swordsman and a halberdier. We know not how it came to be that we got separated but here's what we know of our current surroundings, in the hope that some of it might hold a clue for you to find us soon:

- the archer found himself in a terribly, terribly cold place where there's nothing to hunt, it's mostly dark and only at times a ray of light shines blindingly through for a moment and then vanishes again before the eyes could even get used to it at all.

- the swordsman got trapped unexpectedly in a sort of traveling dark place, between a plastic wall and a white paper roll of something that seemed peaceful enough when left alone but who knows what it might do if poked with a sword!

- the halberdier is in an even worse predicament as it seems to him that a whole continent fell on top of him, almost squashing his entire breath out – the only chance he had was that this continent or whatever it is turns out to be relatively soft when prodded with the halberd but it's still way too big to be moved out of the way.

Finally, there's also a rumor going about that your castle has attracted a lot of interest, being as it is, a special kind of castle, as it befits your Highness surely. Unfortunately, some very interested party seems to be trying to snatch the castle for themselves and so you'll have to find the place where they hid it! I'm told that the castle is big enough though (way bigger than us, of course!) and so it shouldn't be all that difficult to find. Only remember the clue we've heard from an old woman that lived a long life and learnt a lot through all that living: all is not what it seems and the easiest place to hide something is in plain sight, among others of its kind.

We are eagerly awaiting you and hope you'll find us all soon enough!

Your faithful servants to be,
Archer, Swordsman and Halberdier.