[Ask Royals] The Haunting Contest

[Justin, easier to just swim down]

If you solve the puzzle and send in a correct answer earlier than the due date, you will move up on the score board. If you solve it and send in a correct answer between 8 pm and 12 pm US Eastern Time on the final day, you will stay in place on the scoreboard. If you don't send in an answer, send in an answer too late, or send in three wrong answers, you will be moved down on the scoreboard.
SCOREBOARD
1- Lily
2- Jenny
3- Audra
4- Eve
5- Jacob
6- Meiyu
7- Kate
8- Alex

[Justin, easier to just swim down]

Darkness. That's all you can see, for a long, long time. Then, a high pitched ringing fills your ears. You don't know where you are. You were in the middle of doing whatever you were doing, and suddenly, darkness.
Then, you can see. You're walking, though involuntarily. You're in a hallway. The chandeliers shake on the ceiling, and the sickly orange colored wallpaper is torn on the edges and in the middle. Shadows of figures that can't be seen lie on the walls, watching you.
You keep walking. You can feel your heart beating up and down inside your chest, your ears still ringing.
Then the ringing stops, and you stop walking too.
Dr. Facilier materializes in front of you, a grin spread across his face. You expect him to utter some arrogant comment about how dumb or foolish you are, but instead he starts spurting in some strange words. As he goes on, you realize it's the first of the curses he was talking about.

Good becomes evil,
Bad becomes kind.
Your past traits have
Been left behind…

Villain to princess,
Hero to witch.
Your personality’s
Been switched.

Then, he begins to laugh. His laughter fills the hallway, bouncing off the orange walls, coming from every direction. The shadows join him, cackling at you, tearing away at your soul. Their laughs turn to shrieks, piercing through the musty air, rattling the chandeliers. You cover your ears to block the sound and close your eyes.
--
When you open them, you’re surrounded by darkness. Again.
A small spotlight shines on something in front of you: a dark purple door. It just stands there, with no wall surrounding it, as if it's straight from a scene in Monsters Inc. There is a key in the door, and you test it, but it doesn’t work. You take out the key and examine it more closely; embroidered in the metal, in tiny letters, it says the words “speak password to open”. Then, out of nowhere, a glowing piece of paper floats down from above. You catch it and are able to read it, despite the pitch black around you.

Let’s start with a puzzle
That can’t be solved.
One hard to get
Slow to dissolve.

Find the dark plant
That does the trick,
From Collins' games,
Will kill you quick.

Then take off the start
Of true love’s Kiss
Replace it with E;
You cannot miss.

Remove the knight
Without a K.
Get rid of O,
And use an A.

You’ll find the result
On a curtain, or dress.
You have 3 days,
Take your best guess.

Once you have solved the puzzle, send your answer to me in a DM. If you get it wrong, you have two more tries. If you fail all three, you will drop a spot on the scoreboard.
Puzzle Due Date: Oct. 13th, by midnight, US Eastern Time
Curse Rules: Your character on Ask Royals must act the opposite of how they usually would

[Justin, easier to just swim down]

The curse ^^^ above ^^^ has been lifted

You speak the password, "Lace," and the door creaks open. When you walk in, you see blood being written in the air in front of you without a writer. When you walk closer, you see it's not being written in the air, but on a clear glass wall in front of you. You look beside you and there's another wall on your left… and behind you… and to your right. You're trapped.
You look back in front of you and try to focus on the words being written. When more words come, you realize this must be the next curse.

I curse your name,
But now you will too.
Now Rapunzel can’t say
An A, E or U.

The vowels determine
The way you can speak.
Beware, beware!
And don’t make a peep.

Once the whole curse is written out, the blood starts oozing down the wall so that the words are unreadable. You watch the blood until it has dripped down to the bottom and onto your feet. When you look back up, you jump halfway out of your skin.
There, in front of you, is the glowing green face of Dr. Facilier. He grins at your little scare. Then, he speaks.

A simple riddle, now
Then pass, I will allow

To solve, you have one day
Or else, the price you’ll pay

Not demon or a ghost;
Something you fear the most

I’ve been under the bed;
I’m just inside your head.

Once you have solved the puzzle, send your answer to me in a DM. If you get it wrong, you have two more tries. If you fail all three, you will drop a spot on the scoreboard.
Puzzle Due Date: Oct. 16th, by midnight, US Eastern Time
Curse Rules: Your character may not speak using any of the vowels that are in his or her name

[Justin, easier to just swim down]

The curse ^^^ above ^^^ has been lifted.

You speak the answer, "Monster," and immediately the glass shatters. The green glowing face becomes a huge monster, with wicked claws and glowing red eyes. It lunges at you, and you’re pinned to the floor, helpless. The monster growls at you, like a wolf. Then, it begins to speak.

This will make it hard to talk
For 7 more days on the clock
Everything backwards, you must say.
Ten becomes net, yak becomes kay.

Suddenly, the floor starts turning to liquid. You’re sinking slowly, then faster, until you feel like you’re falling. Everything is completely dark.
Then, you slam against cold metal.
You can see again; you’re in a shiny metal room. You sit up and see that the monster is here, but it’s not acting wild. It’s sitting, calmly, like a dog. A satchel has been swung around your shoulder. You open it to find that it’s empty. You notice, too, that there are objects arrayed around the room; twelve of them, to be exact. An apple, a dagger, a diamond, a key, a ring, a mirror, a teacup, a candle, a watch, a rope, a rose and a feather. The monster breaths fire onto the wall behind you, and you look back. On the wall are some confusing words.

A week you have to solve this one
But hurry now, or it can’t be done

The bite will burn, the sip will kill
But burn and kill, you’ll need them still

Please keep the natural things in life
But time and money bring you strife

A thing to wear will wear you down
Seeing yourself will make you drown

And for the future, you must know
Sweet smell will kill the darkest foe

The monster then motions to the objects and says “Choose six. Choose wisely.”

Once you solve this puzzle, send your answer to me in a DM. If you get it wrong, you have two more tries. If you fail all three, you will drop a spot on the scoreboard.
Puzzle Due Date: Oct. 23rd, by midnight, US Eastern Time
Curse Rules: Your character must spell all of their words backwards

[Justin, easier to just swim down]

The curse ^^^ above ^^^ has been lifted.
You choose six items: the candle, the dagger, the rose, the feather, the key, and the rope. The monster grins at you, showing off its jagged teeth. “You are correct. I will not curse you this time, but send you with luck. For though I terrify you, what is yet to come is of greater terror than I will ever be. Use your objects well." And with that, the monster gallops into nothingness and disappears. You walk forward and come to a green door. On it, you make out the words:
"TERROR ZONE
You must use your objects, or you won’t make it through your next tasks alive. You have 1 Week.”
You try to open the door, but it’s locked. You reach into your satchel, which have you put your objects into, and grab one of the items. Which do you grab?
-
You open the door, and find yourself in pitch darkness. The door closes behind you, and suddenly you can’t see anything at all. You rummage around for your satchel, do your best you can to open it, and feel around for the object you need. Which one do you need?
-
You didn’t think it would work, without the right materials, but it does. Your surroundings are lit up, and you can see again. You are back in the mansion, where you started, but in a different hallway. You hear a high pitched squeaking noise in your ear, coming from above you. You look around, paranoid. Bats. Hundreds of them. They start raining down from above you; none hit you, thankfully. They all swarm into one spot, until finally they form a figure. They transform, and you are certain of what they have created. Before you now stands a vampire. His pale skin sags on his face, his cape is hanging by his feet, and his fangs are dripping with blood. You know you must kill it, so you reach inside your satchel again to find something. What should you grab?
-
You use your object and the vampire is killed. It collapses below you, dead, motionless. You feel bad for being a murderer, but know you must move on. You continue down the hallway for what seems like ten minutes, until you hear something. Then it comes again, but louder. The wheels in your brain turn, until you realize that it’s laughter. High pitched cackles now fill the air, until their source is standing right in front of you.
A clown. Although, its mouth isn’t laughing, only smiling. You can just tell that the laughter is coming from it, as if it has its own jar of laughter and it's opening it right now. You jump when it begins to speak. “Hello friend.” It smiles bigger and cocks its head. “You want to kill me? Well, the only thing that can kill me will kill you first!” Laughter comes again, but not from it’s mouth. But then it stops grinning. The laughter becomes silent. It just stands there, glaring at you. You can’t take it anymore; the urge is too strong. You have to laugh. And you do. You laugh hard, although nothing’s funny. Tears start coming from your eyes, and you’re brought to your knees. You can’t breathe.
Then you realize what it’s doing to you. You resist the best you can, but it’s hard. You know what you have to do. You struggle to stand up, then reach into your satchel. What should you grab?
-
You use your object, and it works. As soon as the clown laughs, it bursts into flames. You continue through the endless hallways. They seem endless, anyway. You walk for what seems like an hour, maybe two, until you start running. You sweat from anticipation and exhaustion. You just want to escape. You start running faster, and faster. Your run so fast, you almost don’t notice when you nearly fall to your death. Now, before you, lies a huge chasm. You can’t see the bottom, nor can you see this other side. You look over at the walls that are lined with picture frames and walk up to one of the pictures. You take it off carefully, then throw it down into the pit. Not one second later, you hear it hit the ground. You notice that there is a small peg next to you. You reach into your satchel again. You only have two things left to use. Which should you take?
-
You use the object and reach the bottom of the chasm safely. You’re not inside the mansion anymore. You’re in an open field. No trees, no nothing. Just grass, as far as the eye can see. Then suddenly, you see a dark figure, far in the distance. You dread its coming, but know you must face it. Hopefully, it’s the last thing you’ll have to face. It draws nearer and nearer until it floats face to face with you. It’s a shadowy ghost. It speaks in a low, metallic, rumbling voice. “I am the Dark Phantom. Defeat me, and your troubles are over. Don’t, and you’re doomed for eternity.”
You think back to the words of the monster, and act quickly. You know that if you don’t hurry, you could be trapped forever. You reach into your satchel for your last item and thrust it in front of the ghost. It evaporates with the words “Now you must sleep!”
What was the object that made him disappear?
-
Sleep sounds like a great idea. You can’t remember the last time you slept, but you know it was probably a long time ago. You find a comfortable spot on the grass, lay down, and close your eyes.

Once you solve this puzzle, send your answer to me in a DM. If you get it wrong, you have two more tries. If you fail all three, you will drop a spot on the scoreboard.
Puzzle Due Date: October 30th, by midnight, US Eastern Time

[Justin, easier to just swim down]

You awake in different place than when you went to sleep. You are in the mansion again, in a back hallway. You stand up. Dr. Facilier is sitting across from you. “Sit,” he says. You do as he says, and he nods, smiling slightly.
“I think we both know you did very well, considering your circumstances. It is Halloween night, my favorite of all holidays. I want you to be able to relax. I’ve had my fun. The door to leave is right over there.” He motions to the door, and you stand up, starting to leave. He quickly stops you. “Before you can leave, answer this simple ancient riddle, told by many, solved by few. Then, you are free to go.”
"What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?"
Puzzle Due Date: October 31st, by midnight, US Eastern Time

[Justin, easier to just swim down]

The winner is……. LILY!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS!

The curse has been lifted! Ask Royals is saved!

[Justin, easier to just swim down]

People who escaped the maze: Lily, Eve, Audra
First Place: Lily
Second Place: Jenny
Third Place: Audra

Lily, you may make a second character, if you wish. This offer expires December 31st, 2014.