# 101 Riddles of the Sphinx



## Torx

Let's hear some good riddles that you've used/thought up for your traps, puzzles, and of course: the Sphinx.

If I might suggest - give the answer in a later post, only if others haven't come up with the proper one yet.  And feel free to post unoriginal riddles, but don't steal 50 from the same site.  Here are a couple to start us off in good fashion:

1.  What walks on four legs, then two, then three?

2.  The part of the bird
that is not in the sky,
which can swim in the ocean
and always stay dry.

3.  What is unique about this poem?

Evil am I.
Evil,
as so to die not sane.

Menace I lay.
A stab mocks.
I revolt.

No din is still.
I kidnap and I kill.
It's sin I don't love.

Risk combat.
Say a lie.
Cane men.

A stone I do toss!
Alive,
I'm alive.



_A happy lurker turns 50 with this post.  Only took a year and a half, discounting posts lost in the Great Server Migration.  Yay!_


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## Jolly Giant

This could be fun!  I'm not very good at making these things, but I love to solve them, so I'm looking foreward to seeing what turns up here.

Gotta put in my 2 cents worth, though:

4) If you speak my name, you destroy me. Who am I?

5) It belongs to me, but both my friends and enemies use it more than me. What is it?


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## Jolly Giant

Answer to #1 would be a human, and #2 would be the reflection of a flying bird on a lake, ocean etc.


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## Moe Ronalds

My answers!

1-- A human

4-- Silence

5-- Your name


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## Baron Von StarBlade

3 - The poem is a palindrome.


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## sellars

3 is very impressive


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## Richards

The answer to #2 could also be a shadow.  And #3 is not only a palindrome, but one of the longest (and coolest) I've ever seen!  Did you develop that one yourself?

Johnathan


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## wighair

How about....

Oh pale tyrant
A plot thy near
Oh try a planet
Thy polar ante
Heat trap only
Ah, a rotten ply!


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## Baron Von StarBlade

wighair said:
			
		

> *How about....
> 
> Oh pale tyrant
> A plot thy near
> Oh try a planet
> Thy polar ante
> Heat trap only
> Ah, a rotten ply! *





All lines use the same 12 letters.


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## Robbert Raets

*IMPRESSIVE.*


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## AngelTears

6) Say and enter

Owoh
taneeh
diot
tjam

7) 

I wear a conical hat of old,
Sitting on the ground bold,
Near to death, not be told, 
Breath a whistle to behold.

8)

All that glitters is not gold
And yet many a man wish to bed with me on a night cold.

9)


Awilpro
nunztis
kurstelast
sothotmi
paersmai
gitpaest
osin
gelwo
rdrong
meinsthi
spelwilfol
onmikroun
minoes
follte
thegraund
mifeate
poustethot
avohaund
mieirstwest
akursdtebe
komabiest
eavermoar



-Angel Tears


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## wolff96

AngelTears said:
			
		

> *All that glitters is not gold
> And yet many a man wish to bed with me on a night cold.*




A hot blonde?  

Sorry, I couldn't resist.


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## mkletch

Baron Von StarBlade said:
			
		

> *3 - The poem is a palindrome. *




that is wicked-cool

-Fletch!


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## Gilthanas_Galanodel

Hi,
Is 2 the inside of a bird?


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## Balgus

2) down feathers


how about this?
10) when we meet, you see nothing
But apart, you can see it all.


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## nameless

Balgus said:
			
		

> *
> 10) when we meet, you see nothing
> But apart, you can see it all. *




Eyelids.


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## Sanackranib

*riddles*

this is cool I want to use some of this in my game!


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## AngelTears

wolff96 said:
			
		

> *
> 
> A hot blonde?
> 
> Sorry, I couldn't resist. *




I could just see a sphinx, ater an adveturer says that, looking up and saying: "Umm... close, but not quite."


Here is another one (old as the hills too)

Measure exactly 4 units of water using a 3 and 5 unit receptacles.


Or to be really annoying:

"what grammatical mistakes can be found on page 48 in the lost book of Kellorn?"


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## Crothian

11) A house full, a room full, and couldn't catch a spoonfull

Edit: Helps if type it right.


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## Deedlit

12(To be spoken aloud, not written): Speak friend and enter.


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## Sanackranib

*type right*



			
				Crothian said:
			
		

> *11) A house full, a room full, and couldn't catch a spoonfull
> 
> Edit: Helps if type it right. *




Next they are gonna want us to SPELL too!  whatever is the world commin' to?


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## Crothian

*Re: type right*



			
				Sanackranib said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Next they are gonna want us to SPELL too!  whatever is the world commin' to? *




Just be thankful I caught the error.  It's amazing how much more difficult a riddle is when its told wrong.


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## Sanackranib

*riddles*

yes Crothian accurate info is the best. Just don't count on me to catch too many spelling errors (either mine or sombody elses )


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## Crothian

12) It ate everything that came
And everything that will
And still it will never get its fill


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## Torx

Answer #2 - A shadow. 

No, I didn't create the palindrome, I found it on a website several weeks back, copied it, and promptly forgot where I found it.

Keep the riddles coming, these are great (I'm stumped on Crothian's).


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## tleilaxu

How many steps does it take to get a horse in a refridgerator?

How many steps does it take to get an elephant in a refridgerator?

One day the king of the forest had a meeting of all the animals. Everyone came except one animal. Who didn't come and why?

In the forest there is a river that humans have never crossed, because they always got eaten by alligators. One day, a clever explorer managed to make it across. Why was she able to do it?


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## Red Baron

Swings by his thigh a thing most magical!
Below the belt, beneath the folds
of his clothes it hangs, a hole in its front end,
stiff-set and stout, but swivels about. 

Leveling the head of this hanging instrument,
its wielder hoists his hem above the knee:
it is his will to fill a well-known hole
that it fits fully when at full length. 

He has often filled it before. Now he fills it again.

(Hint: It's not what you might think...)


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## pogre

Hard as a rock,
It is destroyed by sweetness.

*I won't mention what my players guessed on this riddle as it would set off the EN Granmother alert.


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## tleilaxu

How much dirt is in a hole that is 1' deep, 1' wide, and 1' long


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## s/LaSH

tleilaxu said:
			
		

> *How much dirt is in a hole that is 1' deep, 1' wide, and 1' long *




Nobody else wants a go? None. No dirt, or it wouldn't be a hole.



> *Swings by his thigh a thing most magical!
> Below the belt, beneath the folds
> of his clothes it hangs, a hole in its front end,
> stiff-set and stout, but swivels about.
> 
> Leveling the head of this hanging instrument,
> its wielder hoists his hem above the knee:
> it is his will to fill a well-known hole
> that it fits fully when at full length.
> 
> He has often filled it before. Now he fills it again.
> 
> (Hint: It's not what you might think...)*




Random guess: Some kind of key? I'm clueless here.


My turn:
A knight and his son journeyed into the wilds, and were set upon by brigands. The knight died of his wounds, but the son was bought back to the town by his retainers. They fetched the Chief Apothecary, who said, "I cannot treat this youth; he is my son." How can this be?

What kind of sitting stool can never wobble?

Another knight was travelling with a friend. They parted ways at a certain place. The knight traveled ten miles due north, while the friend also walked due north for five miles. Neither deviated from their course. Yet at day's end, they were fifteen miles apart. How can this be?

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?
(Not kidding... this could be an interesting riddle to solve as a quest rather than an intellectual exercise)

What can you never hold in your left hand?

I seem like you, and keep your pace,
Yet your hand can never touch my face.
What am I?


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## Richards

I'll have a go at some of these...







> A knight and his son journeyed into the wilds, and were set upon by brigands. The knight died of his wounds, but the son was bought back to the town by his retainers. They fetched the Chief Apothecary, who said, "I cannot treat this youth; he is my son." How can this be?



The Chief Apothecary was the wounded lad's mother.







> What kind of sitting stool can never wobble?



A three-legged stool.







> Another knight was travelling with a friend. They parted ways at a certain place. The knight traveled ten miles due north, while the friend also walked due north for five miles. Neither deviated from their course. Yet at day's end, they were fifteen miles apart. How can this be?



They parted ways at the South Pole, and each traveled "north" in opposite directions.







> What can you never hold in your left hand?



Your left elbow.







> In the forest there is a river that humans have never crossed, because they always got eaten by alligators. One day, a clever explorer managed to make it across. Why was she able to do it?



She was an elf (or a dwarf, or any non-human sentient explorer).

Johnathan


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## Gez

I'm the beginning of the end,
the root of evil, the end of life
I stretch from the origin of eternity
to the end of time and place.

I also know some good ones in French, but I won't be able to translate them accurately.


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## Gez

Richards said:
			
		

> *She was an elf (or a dwarf, or any non-human sentient explorer).
> 
> *




Or she flew across, or she build a bridge, or she brachiated like Tarzan (it's in a forest), or she simply dropped 500 pounds of dynamite in the river, killing all alligators in a wide radius.


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## Richards

Or she teleported, or she was a druid and wildshaped into alligator form herself, or she cast an _invisibility to animals_ spell on herself before crossing, or she... (D&D makes this riddle kind of easy to answer, doesn't it?)  


> I'm the beginning of the end,
> the root of evil, the end of life
> I stretch from the origin of eternity
> to the end of time and place.



You are the letter "e."

Johnathan


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## Malhavoc

This is how you role-play Int 3 characters.




			
				tleilaxu said:
			
		

> *How many steps does it take to get a horse in a refridgerator?
> yadda yadda yadda
> *




3

4


the Elephant


She swam across.


i'll say why if someone asks, but it's pretty obvious.


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## tleilaxu

this is so fragile, you break it just by saying it's name


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## shilsen

tleilaxu said:
			
		

> *this is so fragile, you break it just by saying it's name *




Silence


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## seasong

For those of you who liked the palindromic poem, it was written by Mike Maguire, and published (I think) through Spineless Books. He's pretty clever .


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## tleilaxu

i come after Y but before Z


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## Gez

OT: For the truly geeky, here's a palindromic C program. Applause.


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## seasong

tleilaxu said:
			
		

> *i come after Y but before Z *




"but before"


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## Bjorn Doneerson

It's more powerful than God, and more evil than the Devil.  Rich people want it, poor people have it, and if you eat it, you die.  What is it?


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## Zhure

Bjorn Doneerson said:
			
		

> *It's more powerful than God, and more evil than the Devil.  Rich people want it, poor people have it, and if you eat it, you die.  What is it? *




nothing


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## Cutty Sark

I learned the one Gez posted as:

_The beginning of eternity,
the end of time and space.
The beginning of every end,
and the end of every race.
_


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## Atavar

13) What gets wet while it dries?

14) Twins who, when close together, can never touch each other.  But who, when at a distance, can unite as one.

Bonus points to the first who can name the D&D adventure that 14 came from.  

Thanks,

Atavar

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"Compromise!?  Let me tell you how compromise works.

"You want to watch the domjat tournament.  She wants to listen to music.  So, you compromise: You listen to music.

"You want to listen to old Earth jazz.  She wants to listen to Klingon opera.  So, you compromise: You listen to Klingon opera.

"So, you plan to spend an evening watching the domjat tournament, and instead you compromise yourself into listening to Klingon opera.

"Compromise....  Ha!"

-- Odo, DS9


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## Sanackranib

*ok I've got this one*



			
				AngelTears said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I could just see a sphinx, ater an adveturer says that, looking up and saying: "Umm... close, but not quite."
> 
> 
> Here is another one (old as the hills too)
> 
> Measure exactly 4 units of water using a 3 and 5 unit receptacles.
> 
> 
> Or to be really annoying:
> 
> "what grammatical mistakes can be found on page 48 in the lost book of Kellorn?" *




step 1)Fill the 5 gal. pour into the 3 gal. until its full. 
step 2)empty the 3 gal and pour the 2 gal. thats left in the 5 gal. into the 3 gal. 
step 3)then refil the 5 gal and pour into the 3 gal. until full = 4 gal in the 5 gal. container.


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## Psion

Rise! Rise from the grave!


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## Crothian

Psion said:
			
		

> Rise! Rise from the grave!




damn, that's an old thread!!!


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## heirodule

What walks on four legs in the spring, four legs in the summer, eight legs in the autumn, and two legs in the winter?


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## interwyrm

And no one ever solved the phallic riddle... I was wondering what the answer to that one was...


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## 3y3g00

Did anyone ever solve this?  It's been bugging me since before I had an account.


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