OOC: Nicely done everyone. Koodoos to Link909, Cloud, Victor, Arco, Grenada and Blank for their riddle-solving skills, and to everyone else who participated in the Puzzling Prelude. This is the final part. Here we go...

IC:
The group rushes into the Temple of Nayru and immediately begin scouring the area for the tenth clue. Enthusiasm runs high, but for some time they fail to locate the riddle.

At last Alpha sighs, annoyed. "It must be here somewhere!" He whips out the ninth clue, and reads the whole thing again:

'Holy shrine glowing from Goddess’ gaze,
The light shining forth through both nights and days.
All creatures sing praises to she who is wise,
Her light shines on that which now must arise.'

"Something's supposed to 'arise', it says. But what is Nayru's light shining on? What the heck is that even supposed to mean?"

Shada snaps her fingers. "I got it! The first line says that the Shrine glows from the Goddess' gaze, so we should go wherever the statue of Nayru is looking!" The group turns and looks at her, dumbfounded. "What?" she says, silently pleased with her deductive skills. "I'm not just a pretty face, you know."

Alpha turns to where the statue of Nayru stands, and follows its line of sight to behind a pillar near the entrance to the temple. There sits a small, inconspicuous box. Alpha picks it up, and raises the lid to find the tenth riddle staring up at him. He reads it quickly to himself...and then stops. "What?" His voice comes out hoarse, shocked even. "There's no possible way...the only person who knows about that is..."

His eyes shoot upward. 'It was never Shodak at all...there's only one person on the face of the planet who could know that.' Without even showing the paper to the others, he charges straight out of the temple.

"Keyru, wait!" Shada cries. He turns back to her and throws her the box. She catches it easily, and reads the clue aloud:

'My muse runs low; end soon your journey should.
Head to a home with a door lacking wood.
A mighty being lives inside, or, he did;
On this take your time, one named for Morrid.'

" 'One named for Morrid'?" Shada asks as everyone clusters around her to get another look at the riddle. "Who's that supposed to be?"

"That's me," replies Alpha, the only one not to crowd around the note. Everyone turns to face him as he explains, a disturbed expression on his face. "Alpha Morrid was a Sheikah that lived centuries ago. The most powerful Sheikah of his time."

"I've never heard of him," someone says, and everyone else is forced to agree.

"You shouldn't - actually, you couldn't have." Alpha turns to continue his march out of the area. "Alpha Morrid kept to himself, and stayed in hiding. In fact, other than myself, only one person who still lives today could have possibly heard of him. He's the one who wrote these riddles." Without stopping to explain himself, he storms out of the North Castle, heading for an encounter without even knowing why he's facing it.

OOC: Yeah, you guys could've figured that out, eventually, but I already had planned for Alpha to succeed in this one. So who is the person behind all of these riddles?

Why not follow Alpha?

Blank had not intended to follow the party to this place; he had his own business to attend to when he had collided with Alpha's riddle troupe. Deciding that he may as well help out, the nomad had reluctantly followed. Here in Nayru's temple, he was truly amazed. Searching every nook and cranny of the Temple had shown him how beautiful the Temple truly was. Not that he cared right now. He was riddle hunting!

When Alpha found the note, Blank listened intently, and was as confused as any when Shada brought to light her idea. She had been correct, and Blank was amazed by the Sheikah's deep thinking. Far more surprising was Alpha's startled exit, leaving behind the last note and systematically dumbfounding the nomad. He gazed at the last clue, and pondered the meaning. Who is Morrid? thought Blank, having never heard of the character. He followed his Sheikah friend inquisitively at a seemingly slower pace, but this was just his fatigue expressing himself. He was just as eager as the others to understand Alpha's odd dash from the Temple.

OOC: HOLY GUACAMOLE! Again with the solving riddles without me! Sigh...

IC: Victor had been left in the group's dust yet again. It seemed that everyone was always a step ahead of him, and he never even got a chance to try and decipher most of the riddles before the crowd was on the move again. Luckily he had stayed close enough to follow them, and so he had seen them enter the temple. The Bard was just joining them in the sacred place when Alpha marched past him and out the door. Raising an eyebrow, he shot a quick, quizzical look at the group as if to ask "What's his problem?", then started after the Sheikah towards... wherever they were going.

Dogura watched Alpha's reaction, and imediately knew something was wrong. Dogura was sandwiched in between the adventurers, as they gathered around to read the note. "Why would alpha be so reckless? Rushing into the unknown like that. Its not like him. Or maybe he knows something we dont. I guess we will all get a straight answer in due time." Dogura muttered, as he chased after the sheikah. What choise did he have? He had come this far, and there was no way he was going turn back.