Phantasie: Illogical dungeon of the hued bleebies

The sweatier my puns, the fewer hits my posts generally get. I estimate that close to zero people will actually read this one. Possibly negative.

Which is too bad, because this is one of the most unusual dungeons yet, for reasons that will soon become clear. And it has nothing to do with monster encounters, which were annoyingly frequent, but not challenging.

There was a time I found you guys slightly intimidating.

Soon, I encountered the first bleeb in a bright blue room.

Oh boy, logic puzzles! Unfortunately, as I'd soon discover, the puzzle is rendered nonsense by ambiguously worded clues, and not actually solvable with logic.

Nearby rooms had blue, green, and red pools, and I figured it would be wiser not to step into them for now.

 

As I explored and found more bleebs in different rooms, I took note of their claims:

• Red: "Green bleebs always lie."
• Green: 
• "Red bleebs sometimes lie." 
• "Green pools teleport."
• Blue: 
• "Green bleebs tell lies and truths."
  
• "Blue pools are harmful."
  

 

This isn't really enough to establish anyone's truth value just yet, so I tried plunging into a green pool to see what would happen.

I tried entering the blue pool. What's the worst that could happen?

That wasn't so bad, and it proves blue bleebs at least sometimes tell the truth.

I tried another green pool. This one teleported me!

Now I'm not even sure how to interpret the green bleeb's claim about the pool. Truth, lie, or half-truth?

Another green pool was in the room - I left it alone and explored.

 

This series of corridors and rooms had three more pools - one of each color (plus the green one I emerged from), and three more bleebs.

I went back to the first green pool to return to the starting area, and tried the red one there.

After circumferencing the initial room and determining that no new doors opened, I tried the inert green pool - it teleported my party this time.

This new area contained:

• A green pool to teleport back where I came from.
• A red pool that made another noise in the distance.
• A damaging blue pool.
• A locked, unpickable door.
  

 

Eventually I wound up in a room with six doors, three of them colored red, blue, and green.

I checked the non-colored ones first. Each one led to a small, colored room, where a bleeb gave advice:

• Red: "Use the green door."
• Green: "Avoid the red door."
• Blue: "Avoid the blue door."
  

Time to solve this knights and knaves puzzle. All of the bleebs' clues given so far:

• Red: 
• "Green bleebs always lie."
• "Red pools sometimes teleport."
• "Use the green door."
  
• Green: 
• "Red bleebs sometimes lie."
• "Green pools teleport."
• "Blue bleebs tell lies and truths."
• "Avoid the red door."
  
• Blue: 
• "Green bleebs tell lies and truths."
  
• "Blue pools are harmful."
• "Always listen to red bleebs but don't trust them."
• "Avoid the blue door."
  

 

Red #2 is false, so red bleebs do not always tell the truth. Green #1 is therefore true, which makes Red #1 a false statement. Blue #2 is true, and Blue #3 is a bit fuzzy but I decided to assume it counts as true.

Even with this assumption, the solution isn't clear at all.

 

If we presume the green door is safe, and that the other two are bad, then the bleebs' statements can be evaluated like so:

• Red: 
• F: "Green bleebs always lie."
• F: "Red pools sometimes teleport."
• T: "Use the green door."
  
• Green: 
• T: "Red bleebs sometimes lie."
• T: "Green pools teleport."
• ?: "Blue bleebs tell lies and truths."
• T: "Avoid the red door."
  
• Blue: 
• ?: "Green bleebs tell lies and truths."
  
• T: "Blue pools are harmful."
• T: "Always listen to red bleebs but don't trust them."
• T: "Avoid the blue door."

I see no contradictions! Green and Blue's unresolved statements are mutually exclusive - one must be true and the other false, but either way works. But perhaps we are meant to assume - we aren't told this - that one color always lies, one color always tells the truth, and another does both.

If we assume the red door is safe, then I interpret the statements like this:

• Red: 
• F: "Green bleebs always lie."
• F: "Red pools sometimes teleport."
• F: "Use the green door."
  
• Green: 
• T: "Red bleebs sometimes lie."
• T: "Green pools teleport."
• F: "Blue bleebs tell lies and truths."
• F: "Avoid the red door."
  
• Blue: 
• T: "Green bleebs tell lies and truths."
  
• T: "Blue pools are harmful."
• T: "Always listen to red bleebs but don't trust them."
• T: "Avoid the blue door."

No contradictions here either, and the truth-type assumption is satisfied.

And if we assume the blue door is safe, then the statements look like this:

• Red: 
• F: "Green bleebs always lie."
• F: "Red pools sometimes teleport."
• F: "Use the green door."
  
• Green: 
• T: "Red bleebs sometimes lie."
• T: "Green pools teleport."
• T: "Blue bleebs tell lies and truths."
• T: "Avoid the red door."
  
• Blue: 
• F: "Green bleebs tell lies and truths."
  
• T: "Blue pools are harmful."
• T: "Always listen to red bleebs but don't trust them."
• F: "Avoid the blue door."

Yet again, this works, and gives us green as truth-tellers, red as liars, and blue as moderates.

I tried green first.

 

A long, trap-filled passage leading to a dead-end. Guess that was wrong.

Next I tried blue:

This one teleported me outside! Dumped me in the lake near Northford too. Oh well, I needed a rest. I took one, and went right back in, fighting my way back to the junction and taking the red door to the next challenge.

How do you know they're different colors?

The bleebs spoke:

1. "Push the button with my color, which is red.
   
2. "If I were red I would tell you to push the blue button."
   

 

Now we know that red bleebs always lie, and blue bleebs always tell the truth. Neither would ever say they were red, therefore bleeb #1 is a lying green, and we should not push the button with his color.

But the second bleeb is a problem. If the correct button is blue, then a red bleeb would not tell you to push it, making his statement a lie, and his color red. But if the correct button is red, then a red bleeb might tell you to push the blue button, making his statement plausible, and his color possibly blue. Neither one can be ruled out!

Turns out, you are supposed to hit the green button after all, and I only learned that through process of elimination after hitting both wrong buttons, which teleport you outside. Aaagh!

 

Here's what I think is going on. I had interpreted the first bleeb's statement as "I'm red. Push my color [actually green]." But it is meant to be interpreted as "I'm red. Push red." This reading identifies the bleeb as green, and proves you should not push the red button.

The second bleeb's statement is meant to parallel the solution to the classic fork-in-the-road riddle ("the other guard would tell you to push blue"), proving you should not push blue. But this is not the same riddle, and the solution to that one just doesn't work here. The possibility of the second bleeb being red makes his recursive claim a double negation, rather than a single one.

No matter how you justify it, this is a terrible puzzle and D.W. Wood should feel bad for wasting the time of everyone who tried to solve it honestly. I propose this revision:

1. "Push the red button. That's my color!"
2. The bleeb does not speak.
3. "If the other guy could speak, he'd tell you to push blue."
   

The green button let me enter the throne room.

Knowing that red bleebs lie, blue bleeds tell the truth, and green bleebs do both, the questions were straightforward to answer, and actually logically consistent.

The color of the bleeb asking does not matter.

What a waste. I like a good logic puzzle, but these were not good logic puzzles. The real puzzle is trying to figure out the rules that Wood forgot to tell you!

The Bleebs' treasure was three more rings of power. And nothing else worthwhile. We also gained some levels, and Claude hit the jackpot, with his magic pool-boosted brain capable of learning 13 new spells - far more than what was actually available.

My party:

• Mystic-rated party score of 67 - "You are ready to visit the gods."
• Air rune, earth rune, and fire rune
• Seven rings of power
• Lenny - Level 13 dwarf fighter
• Needs 290,000xp to level
• 220 HP, 5 MP
  
• 22/10/20 combat stats (God knife, plate mail, god shield)
• Slash can hit up to four times per round without magic buffs
  
• Knows one spell - Monster Evaluation.
  
• Lambert - Level 12 dwarf ranger
• Needs 445,000xp to level
• 169 HP, 18MP
• 19/9/18 combat stats (Halberd +4, banded mail, giant shield +2)
  
• Useful spells include Quadruple Healing and Awaken
  
• Claude - Level 13 human priest
• Needs 321,000xp to level
• 154 HP, 20 MP
• 19/8/16 combat stats (Sword +10, splint mail, giant shield)
  
• Useful spells include Quadruple Healing, Quadruple Fireflash, and Awaken.
• Untested spells include Triple Protection, Quadruple Confusion, Triple Weakness, Quadruple Binding, Triple flamebolt, Teleportation, and Resurrection.
  
• Rasputin - Level 12 halfling monk
• Needs 391,000xp to level
• 144 HP, 13 MP
  
• 19/6/13 combat stats (Sword +10, ring mail +1, large shield +1)
  
• Useful spells include Quadruple Fireflash, Double Ninja, and Transportation
  
• One untested spell - summon elemental
• Dennis - Level 14 sprite thief
• Needs 451,000xp to level
• 138 HP, 8 MP
• 18/6/12 combat stats (Halberd +3, ring mail +1, large shield)
  
• Generally excellent thieving skills, with a so far 100% success rate at lockpicking and trap disarmament
  
• Knows three spells, but none of them have been useful lately (and two of them never were).
• Age 33, which is starting to push it for an exotic race.
  
• Minmax - Level 12 elf wizard
• Needs 205,000xp to level
• 92 HP, 17 MP
• 8/3/2 combat stats (Flail +1, Robes +1, wood shield)
  
• Useful spells include Quadruple Fireflash, Triple Quickness, Quadruple Mindblast, Double Ninja, Awaken, and Transportation.
• Untested spells include Triple Strength, Triple Flamebolt, Fear, and Summon Elemental.