Morrowind talk:Pilgrimage to Mount Kand

The riddle I get from the Flame Atronach is:

 [The Daedra speaks slowly in words it obviously memorized.]
 A metal neither black nor red
 As hheavy as man's golden greed
 What you do to ssstay ahead
 With fffriend or arrow or sssteed

It seems that either I have added a patch (not a mod) that alters the dialogue or the page is incorrect; possibly for clarity. Can anyone comment? PReDiToR 01:05, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

The riddle is given as it appears in The Yellow Book of Riddles. The Atronach's slurring of speech has been omitted for readability. And the first line isn't actually part of the riddle. --TheRealLurlock ^Talk 02:45, 7 August 2012 (UTC)

Storm Atronach riddle

My fellow Atronach, Zedias-soko, was slain. The Altmer claims the Dunmer is guilty. The Dunmer says the Khajiit did it. The Orc swears he didn't kill Zedias-soko. The Khajiit says the Dunmer is lying. If only one of these speaks the truth, who killed Zedias-soko?

If the Altmer is telling the truth, then that means the Dunmer is guilty, but it also means the Orc is lying, in which case the Orc is also guilty. Since there can be only one murderer, the Altmer is confirmed to be lying.

If the Dunmer is telling the truth, then the Khajiit is guilty. Again, since the Orc is lying, and there can be only one murderer, the Dunmer is also confirmed to be lying.

If the Orc is telling the truth, everyone else is lying, therefore all accusations are false and nobody being accused is guilty. However, this leaves a paradox between the Dunmer and Khajiit. If the Orc is the one telling the truth, then the Dunmer is lying, in which case the Khajiit is also telling the truth by accusing the Dunmer of being a liar. Similarly, if the Orc is telling the truth, then the Khajiit is lying, and the Dunmer must be telling the truth. Since there can only be one person who speaks the truth, and since the Dunmer and Khajiit assertions contradict each other, the Orc is confirmed to be lying. Because the Orc is confirmed to be lying, he is the murderer.

If the Khajiit is telling the truth, then the Dunmer is lying (doubly confirmed), in which case the Khajiit is innocent. This also means that the Altmer is lying, in which case the Dunmer is still a liar, but not guilty of the murder. Finally, the Orc is also lying, indicating that he is the murderer.

The logical conclusions following both the Orc and Khajiit paths indicate that the Orc is the murderer. Trippy. -Deltahost (talk) 02:48, 19 January 2014 (GMT)