#sphinx riddles

[multi-baker]

Dragon's Dogma 2 Sphinx Guide

Here is the easiest way to do the Sphinx in DD2 with minimum hassle. spoilers for the Game of Wits quest beneath

So before you go to the first location, you're gonna need a few things. Bring a port crystal to make things easier and set it down near her.

1. Sphinx Mother OR Sphinx Father pawn in your party (if you're unsure it's the correct ones, their Arisen will be listed as CAPCOM)

2. an item you want to duplicate (i recommend a portcrystal, you get one as a reward)

3. any NPC who you have max affinity with (your main pawn can also work for this one)

4. the location of the first Seeker Token you picked up

anyway, onto the riddles.

Mountain Shrine:

Riddle of Eyes:

step through the door and turn to your right, go up the small path and open the chest to get the Sealing Phial (DO NOT USE IT). You can do the full dungeon if you want, it's just some Hobgoblins and an Ogre in the basement, not much in the way of loot. present the Sealing Phial to the sphinx, and claim your reward.

REWARD: Wakestone

Riddle of Madness:

pick up your max affinity NPC or main pawn and set them on the pedestal with you, then talk to the sphinx.

REWARD: Portcrystal

Riddle of Wisdom:

pick up your Sphinx Mother or Sphinx Father pawn and set them on the pedestal with you, then talk to the sphinx.

REWARD: 1200 Rift Crystals

Riddle of Conviction:

hand over any item in your inventory that you want duplicated, again i'd recommend the portcrystal.

REWARD: Duplicate of your item

Riddle of Rumination:

now for the hard one. the sphinx will give you 7 in game days to return to where you found your first Seeker Token, and pick up the Finder Token to return to her. There is no way to check where the first you found was, you just have to remember.

Mine was in a harpy nest somewhere around the Borderwatch Outpost

Once you find the token, return it to the sphinx and she'll move to the Frontier Shrine. REWARD: 3 Ferrystones

Important info for the next shrine:

You're going to want a portcrystal in Bakbattahl before starting the next shrine, and one in the border town if you're lazy like me

Grab a handful of ferrystones because you're gonna need them

Switch your vocation to Archer BEFORE the final riddle i cannot stress how important this part is to getting the final reward

I would highly recommend sleeping at an inn or your home before starting the Frontier Shrine as a backup

Frontier Shrine:

Riddle of Reunion:

finding her was the riddle, so claim your prize from the first chest

REWARD: 100,000 Gold

Riddle of Futility:

WARNING: FAILING THIS PART WILL BAR YOU FROM THE REST OF THE QUEST. REST AT AN INN OR YOUR HOUSE (NOT A CAMP) BEFORE BEGINNING THIS RIDDLE

the sphinx will ask you to carry a pot from the Frontier Shrine to a man named Maurits in Bakbattahl, if it breaks you fail the quest. THE JAR DOES NOT RESPAWN, YOU WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL NEW GAME+ TO FINISH THIS QUEST. the easy way to do this is to go to Bakbattahl, find Maurits in the Mural Byway, pick him up and use a ferrystone to transport you two to the Frontier Shrine portcrystal. set him down near the pot to complete the riddle.

behold. Maurits.

REWARD: Eternal Bond

Riddle of Differentiation:

the sphinx will show you an NPC, immediately screenshot what they look like just in case. the NPC always looks the same EXCEPT FOR THE HAIR.

if their hair is straight, it's Dante on the Vermund side of the border gate in the checkpoint town. (i do not have a picture of Dante, unfortunately)

if their hair is curly, it's Vergil on the Battahl side of the border gate (the log entry for Vergil says he is in Bakbattahl, he is not)

so, grab your twin and ferrystone them back to the Frontier Shrine, bring them onto the pedestal with you and talk to the sphinx

REWARD: Whimsical Daydream

Riddle of Contest:

the sphinx gives you a ring that lowers your damage to the minimum and challenges you to fight a guard. pick up the guard and throw him off the cliff, she'll laugh and grant you your reward.

REWARD: Ring of Ambition

Riddle of Recollection:

the sphinx asks you to pile stone statues in front of her equal to the number of riddles she has asked you. just add 5 + number of chests you have open in the Frontier Shrine. pile them around the pedestal and talk to her.

REWARD: Arrow of Unmaking

immediately after answering the final riddle, she will begin to fly away to leave, and this is where being an archer comes in. equip the Arrow of Unmaking and shoot the sphinx with it. she will die immediately and thank you for the game and drop the key to the large golden chest. pick it up and claim your final reward.

REWARD: Eternal Wakestone

[ai-yo]

How the fuck am I supposed to remember where I found my first seeker token?

[demiurgentg]

I run a Pathfinder game and tomorrow they're meeting a sphinx. They won't fight it, but there are hazards to get to it. I haven't figured the hazards out yet, but they're only encountered on the bad paths.

This is awesome because I suddenly realized I get to write riddles! If they guess correctly they get a good path. Wrongly and they get a hazard.

And the riddles? Oh my, I'm so giggly....

First

Second

Third

(I giggled so much writing this one)

Fourth

(Honestly don't know how hard other people will consider this)

Fifth

At the end of this they meet the sphinx and get an info dump.

[nuka-zero]

I really don't remember where I found my first seekers token and I've already been running around everywhere I can think of for 7 in game days. Goodbye Trophy 🏆

[olessan]

ma'am

(Dragon's Dogma 2: Get to Know the Sphinx - IGN First)

[spacerockband]

Legend tells of the carp that leapt over the Dragon Gate at the crest of a river and became a stand up comedian.

[eldritchdilf]

I better not get fucking flagged for this

[pencilsponyforge]

[nyloww]

Greetings Traveler, for you to gain entrance, you must correctly answer three riddles of my choosing

[aiiidoneus]

NO OEDIPUS WATCH OUT !! YOURE NOT AN ORPHAN AND YOU SHOULDNT MARRY THAT WOMAN OHHH MY GOD HE HAS AIRPODS IN HE CANT HEAR ME OHH MY GOD WATCH OUT OEDIPUS !!!!

[starry-bi-sky]

finally giving fem danyal her own au and fulfilling my 'danny is an animal whisperer' agenda at the same time: mother of monsters danyal 2.0

i say "2.0" because TECHNICALLY 'mother of monsters danyal' is an au I made back in June for Dark fem!Danyal (who I promptly named Layal). However, I haven't posted much for her yet, and I like the "mother of monsters" premise too much to leave it only to Layal. Plus Danyal in that au was going to become the mother of monsters anyway, just with significantly less world domination and mass extinction.

'Animal whisperer' Danny has been something I've been thinking about since my latest DP 'wolfpack au' post and it's! So fun to think about, and who no better to assign the idea to than Danyal Al Ghul? Who comes from a family infamously known for their love of animals and nature?

Fem Danyal is just purely self-indulgent. *gestures wildly at her* i just lomvb,,, her,,,, I've only really mentioned her in context of the 'Things in Threes' au/my first Danyal al Ghul au with the facial scar, but she's!!! I love her. She deserves her own au <33

So kill three birds with one stone! Make a post about it.

Anyways, Danny has a large lair. Similar to cult leader danyal, her lair is a giant mountain region resembling nanda parbat with a big temple/palace-like area built into the mountain. It's large, it's overflowing with natural flora, with its own mini-floating islands hovering over some areas, and it's also completely empty.

Danny takes one look at her lair upon first meeting, -- noting that it looked relatively smaller from the outside -- and promptly, with the elegance of an Al Ghul, goes "What the hell??" Because yes, while she does enjoy her own solitude and privacy, this is a bit ridiculous.

For heaven's sake, there's even a massive lake in there! What's she going to do with all this space? Can she make it any smaller? Why is it so big in the first place? This looks borderline like one of the mega-islands!

She finds out later that apparently, the amount of ectoplasm a ghost has can have an effect on the size of their lair. And since she has such a large core, her lair reflects that. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, it's bigger on the inside so it doesn't take up "too much space" on the outside. Don't worry about it too much.

Danyal isn't totally opposed to having such a large lair, she's just... a bit baffled by it. It feels like so much wasted space is all. All this flora and no fauna to enjoy it with. It's practically eerie.

She decorates her temple-palace area, transforming rooms to match her needs as she sees fit. In the center of the inner gardens is a massive tree that she likes to climb, with twisting, winding branches. Sam and Tucker have honorary rooms, even if they can't safely leave the specter speeder for long periods of time, even with proper safety equipment. So does Jazz. Ali (Dani) has one too, but he can actually use that one, and Danny brought him to her lair so he could decorate it himself.

She has a personal garden, but for the most part she lets the flora exist as it is. Too much space to cultivate it en masse anyways.

Skip to a few weeks later, on her next visit to Clockwork. She developed a habit of going to see him semi-regularly just because. She enjoys his wisdom, and he has a lot of stories to tell, and when he's not being the cryptic and esoteric timekeeper, he's a bit goofy.

(pushing my dadwork agenda here,,, i think Danny deserves to go 'hey, Lord Clockwork, do you want me to buy you something' while she's at walmart, only to receive a singular glowing sticky note that says 'cucumber gatorade'.)

(She insists on referring to him with his proper titles even for the most mundane of things because it's proper, but Clockwork sees a future where she eventually calls him "Cee" and by all things in existence is he determined to get there. Anyways,,,)

On her next visit to Clockwork, just as she is about to leave, Clockwork stops her and goes; "Ah, I have something for you. Hold out your hands."

Danny does as such, and Clockwork doesn't give out things often, so her curiosity has spiked to the highest levels. He turns away from her for a moment, using his staff to summon whatever it is he needs, and when he turns around.

He drops a fish into her hands. Granted, a fish in a small glass tank. But a fish nonetheless. A small one, roughly about the size of her finger, with a blue-black, eel-shaped body and four sets of glowing eyes. She can see thin, almost translucent, but spiny fins down its back and the start of bioluminescent markings. It's swimming around in circles in its small container.

"Lord Clockwork." Danyal says all too calmly.

"Yes, Danyal?"

"What is this?"

"That is an adolescent leviathan, Danyal." She’s transfixed onto the tank, but she doesn’t need to see Clockwork’s face to hear the smile he’s stifling.

The myriad of emotions that runs through her all at once threatens to overwhelm her, and she can’t tell if the feelings are negative or positive. So she carefully closes her eyes to breathe in through her nose.

“Clockwork.”

“Ah, I see you’ve dropped formalities.”

She ignores that.

“Why have you given me an adolescent leviathan?”

She's expecting the trickster to look amused when she opens her eyes. Instead, he just looks endeared. "I know you're fond of animals," he says, "and you always look amazed when you come across an animal of the realms. So I thought you might enjoy taking care of the young beast, it's mother is dead so it has no one to care for it."

Oh.

"But, if you don't like it," Clockwork's hands reach out for the tank, "I can simply take it back--"

Danyal shifts the tank out from his reach and hugs it possessively. "I never said that. How do I care for it?"

And so clockwork gives her a list, and when Danyal returns to her lair, she sets up a large tank in her room for the leviathan to swim in -- it's much too small for the lake right now, she thinks. She'll feel better if it's somewhere she can find it. She names him Suh��.

Suhā grows quickly, and by the end of the mortal month she transforms one of the rooms into a large pond for him to swim around in. He's a very loyal beast, recognizing her as it's mother of some kind. Danyal takes great care ensuring that her beastie gets quality care, and Suhā swims to the surface to see her when he senses her in the room.

It spirals from there. Somehow, Pandora catches wind that Clockwork gave her a leviathan, and so the next time Danyal visits the Greater Athens, she gives her a baby chimera. It's eyes are still sealed shut, Danyal can't bring herself to say no. She names the little beastie Firas.

Frostbite hears about it too, and not to be outdone, gives her an animal she's never even heard of. Infinite-realms born, apparently. A fox-like creature with two small horns like an impala, four eyes, and tall legs. The name isn't something she's quite sure how to write down, and she's positive that her friends won't be able to comprehend it. She names her Eira.

Getting the three of them used to each other was... interesting. Suhā tried to eat Firas when Danyal first introduced the two, and they've hated each other ever since. Firas and Eira are seemingly getting along. Her island already feels full enough with the three of them on it.

Of course, that's not the end of it. With her luck, she begins stumbling across other monsters. Realms-borne or otherwise. An injured hydra in the Grecian islands that, through lots of trial and error, Danyal is able to rehabilitate and heal. It routinely comes to visit her afterwards.

A griffin with a broken wing that she moves permanently to the island that likes to keep to itself, but tends to come down when she's near. It gets along best with Firas.

A panther-like monster from the Shades Woods that had six legs and three tails, with ends that reminded her of a venus flytrap. It stuck around the heavy foliage and she can only make out where it was when she saw its golden eyes reflect.

She befriends a young indrik with its leg injured, and much like the hydra it follows her back to her island, and stays there in the mountains. It comes out when she's alone, much like her other beasts.

She receives two more leviathan -- one from clockwork, and one she finds herself while exploring the deeper and darker recesses of the Ghost Zone. It was huddled against the carcass of its mother, and she managed to befriend and get close enough to it to bring it back to her island. Suhā is fully grown by then, with a head bigger than Danyal herself and he still likes to stick her head out of the water for nuzzles when she's near.

He's not very happy with his new siblings, but he's not trying to eat them when she's not looking. So she calls it a win in her book.

And it's not just large beasts either; smaller animals begin popping up when she's not looking. Bird-like creatures and small mammals, and she swears she saw a doe (or something resembling a doe) grazing in the forest while she was walking by.

She takes back with her a lone snake egg once, and it grows so big it wraps around her island and sleeps with its massive head on the mountain beside the temple, like some smaller breed of Jörmungandr.

And on and on it goes. Some of the beasts she comes across never step foot onto her island, some of them follow her back, while others she has to carry back. Not all of the ones that follow her stay, and Danny rehabilitates the injured and releases them when they're fully healed.

It's hectic, and busy, and frankly she loves it. Some of her rehabilitated beasts return to visit her, or to have their children somewhere on the island, or whatever it is they need to do.

She becomes a bit infamous for it. She goes to visit Dorathea once, and as she's walking through the streets she can hear some of the denizens whispering while she walks past.

"Is that her?"

"Her highness' friend? Yes--"

"--that's the one--"

"--Mother of monsters--"

Danny's not sure how to feel about that.

Although, she can't say she's opposed.

Danyal Al Ghul, Mother of monsters, raiser of beasts. It has a nice ring to it.

[ranticore]

a pair of werewolves set out to remove a manticore from their territory. the manticore represents a massive threat to them and their cubs if left to its own devices, but a direct confrontation will cause it to flee.

a bit of barking and growling is enough to frighten one away, but that's not the hard part. finding one is the major challenge. a manticore will only emerge to hunt once a month and will make an easy meal of a werewolf cub, but actually discovering the identity and location of the killer is quite difficult. the manticore is 90% arboreal, and werewolves aren't climbers. it takes a string of repeated attacks before a manticore is suspected and then, they must find it and hunt it out from the canopy overhead. because it can usually see them coming it's a simple matter to climb higher or temporarily relocate.

werewolves are very thorough with their pest control, and established territories often have no other monster inhabitants other than those which cooperate with the local pack. therefore humans often choose to settle relatively close to where a werewolf pack is known to reside, for the additional peace of mind

[blairtrabbit]

It's fucken WIMDY

Shetland Sphinx

[doitforstamets]

Kiss of the Sphinx

Inspired by Moorishflower's gorgeous fic The Riddle of The Sphinx Reference Christian Behrens' "The Kiss of the Sphinx"

[unreesonable]

Credit: Chipmae on Xwitter

Cheeky plug for my Riddle of the Sphinx fic: One Down

[sparrow-in-boots]