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        riddles >> what happened >> Tower: Dread
        
(Message started by: alien2 on Sep 3^rd, 2013, 8:43am)

Title: Tower: Dread
Post by alien2 on Sep 3^rd, 2013, 8:43am

Tower

A man is searching for his identical twin. He has the feeling throughout the whole morning that someone is following him. He decides to enter a square and 50 m tall tower, thinking view from the tower might tell him in which direction he should go. He climbs up the staircase, disregards the locked window in the middle of the tower and arrives to the roof. There he sees his brother lying dead. He can't tell the cause of death. He kisses his dead twin and starts to mourn over his loss. While he is bitterly crying, someone closes and locks the trapdoor. Scared, he wipes his tears and tries to open the trapdoor, to no avail. His dead twin is wearing clothes and boots. He takes a thin, long and sturdy rope from the corpse, thinking it might be of use to him. The rope is a few meters longer than the height of the tower, but he has no place to tie the end since the roof isn't crenellated and the trapdoor is evenly leveled with the flat roof. He then calms down and tries to come up with a solution to his predicament. He manages to leave the tower w/o physical injury. How did he do it?

Title: Re: Vertex tower
Post by Grimbal on Sep 3^rd, 2013, 9:43am

How heavy is a dead elf?

Title: Re: Vertex tower
Post by pex on Sep 3^rd, 2013, 9:57am

The rope is very long. He ties it to the heavy door, drags the other end up the stairs, and finds that the remaining length is still long enough to safely climb down.

Title: Re: Vertex tower
Post by 0.999... on Sep 4^th, 2013, 4:55pm

The elf also has in his pocket a manual on [hide]making doorknobs[/hide]. The man, having never learned how to use a [hide]doorknob[/hide] to [hide]open a door[/hide], realizes that he should [hide]turn the knob and then pull inward to get the door open[/hide]. And, of course, that works.

Title: Re: Vertex tower
Post by pex on Sep 4^th, 2013, 11:00pm

The man drags the elf's corpse up the stairs and throws it off the tower. He then jumps down himself, landing safely on the corpse.

Alternatively: he examines the corpse and finally discovers that what enables elves to fly is not their wings or some mystical power, but their jetpacks. He "borrows" it.

Title: Re: Vertex tower
Post by Grimbal on Sep 7^th, 2013, 4:19pm

It is a lighthouse. He jumps in the water.

Title: Re: Vertex tower
Post by Grimbal on Sep 7^th, 2013, 4:23pm

on 09/04/13 at 12:43:13, alien2 wrote:

Nope. The rope isn't long enough to safely climb down that way, as he would most certainly die.

How long is an elf's intestine?

Title: Re: Vertex tower
Post by Grimbal on Sep 8^th, 2013, 5:37am

OK, my idea is:
[hide]He ties the elf at one end of the rope, pulls the other end to the top over the parapet, ties himself at the other end and let himself slide down as the dead elf is pulled up and slows the descent.

It assumes there is an open shaft in the middle of the stair case. If the elf is too heavy, remove his clothes and boots.[/hide]

Title: Re: Tower
Post by alien2 on Sep 12^th, 2013, 2:05am

on 09/08/13 at 05:37:43, Grimbal wrote:

Yes! :D Neat trick, eh? I’m not sure about[hide] friction [/hide]though. [hide]Acceleration[/hide] is very gentle indeed.

I modified the riddle several times. Are you annoyed yet? ::)

Title: Re: Tower
Post by Grimbal on Sep 15^th, 2013, 1:22pm

if it's his identical brother, he must also be dead...

Title: Re: Tower
Post by alien2 on Sep 16^th, 2013, 5:26am

If you want the riddle to be perfect, feel free to revise it.

Title: Re: Tower
Post by Grimbal on Sep 16^th, 2013, 2:48pm

Why? He is searching for his identical twin, and he finds his dead brother. It doesn't have to be the same person.