In exploring Brimloch Roon using a wacky swimming methodology (no ship!) by following the shoreline in a westerly direction, I eventually encountered the Sphinx just two days ago.
I found the riddles a little bit easy to be honest, comparitively speaking at least to other older RPGS. One would have to have taken an inexplicable nap from the plot of the game to miss the answers!
Having said that, my first answer was "grave" and haven't heard or read the alternatives. [img]smile.gif[/img]
If I may be permitted to ramble critically a little, the motives on the part of the creators to reward the party (under the Oath of the Mavin) so much XP for destroying both Oakenmir and the Sphinx left me scratching my chin somewhat. Unless I am mistaken, the net gain for destroying both these creatures seems to outweigh any gains at all for letting them live. Also, compared to the pitiful xp gained for the majority of the quests I've done for the Town Halls, the xp gain from doing this is almost unforgivable.
However, this is a very cold-hearted XP-centric way of thinking.
I'm sure the lands of Gael Serran shall benefit in the long term under the flourishing wisdom of both Oakenmir and the Sphinx. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Yet, to conclude, perhaps some more thinking was needed on ways to encourage "good" behaviour throughout the game...a couple of other questions:
1) I never noticed any XP gain from answering the riddles correctly...can anyone else confirm this?
2) Are there any other events in the game which punish the player for a particular decision to balance these aspersions of moral ambivalence?
Well, I'll hopefully jump back into Gael Serran sometime later on...I've been replaying Champions of Krynn on the ol' Commodore 64 lately, so I've been a bit distracted!
Cheers,
Cerebrodragon