Sterlin

Sterlin is a strange, confusing figure not entirely understood. His past - a mystery. His motivation - perhaps also a mystery. And mysteries they shall remain, as he is dead, if he was ever real (?) enough to be alive in the first place.

The party of Jeff, James, Juice, and Dave encountered him within a strange series of rooms inside the wizard Alistair's tower. Upon entering, they found Sterlin blindfolded and suspended from the ceiling, as well as chained in manacles. He begged them to let them out, claiming that he was a thief that had once attempted to break in and steal something and has been captive ever since.

He indicated a nearby basin full of liquid, and indicated there was a key inside necessary to free him, and that the party couldn't get out of the chamber without him. While the party was able to dip a javelin in the liquid and cut the ropes that bound him, they found no evidence of a key. Jeff would later suggest that the liquid itself was probably what allowed them to cut the ropes, but as he was speculating James simply opened the door and found it unlocked.

In the next chamber (that Sterlin immediately entered) there was a long narrow platform that led to another longer larger platform, perpendicular to the narrow one leading into the chamber. On both sides of that larger platform were two large stone golems with a door beside each, and a rhyming Pixie popped up to say : if you open the door with the liar beside, the scale of justice will then decide. The platform was balanced like a see-saw, with any extra weight added to one side tipping it over unless counterbalanced on the other.

James was able to determine that the statues were identical save for the rune "life" and "energy," leading the party to believe that neither of the golems represented the "liar" in the riddle.

James then came to the conclusion that Sterlin was the "liar", as he had claimed they needed him to leave the chamber when the door had been unlocked. As a test, James asked Sterlin what color his hair was, and Sterlin said "blue". James, outraged, said his hair was purple. The rest of the party weighed in and said that subjectively both were not untrue statements.

Jeff then asked how many fingers he was holding up, and Sterlin made a strange, very forced non-answer. It was almost as if he was trying very hard to provide as a subjective an answer possible, yet the question was so simple and innocuous there would be no reason to lie about it, unless specifically made to lie for unknown reasons.

Furthermore, someone trapped for years against their will would likely say anything, including an outright lie, just to make sure they could escape, so that in of itself wasn't really enough to prove Sterlin a liar, nor the hair color question, nor the finger question, odd as his answer was. Honestly, if that was enough to cast him as a liar than by rights James would be counted as a liar by the riddle's own logic, as Jeff pointed out. Sterlin however seemed adamant in following the party, and therefore risking the trap of the platform if James's hunch was true.

So, James killed him by throwing him off the platform, where he landed on several thousand torches and died very quickly. The party just sort of let it happen, either dulled to apathy by the previous tedious trapped chambers or simply filled with the knowledge that this is Bol, and ridiculous, arbitrary things just happen here.

They were able to pass into the next chamber without incident, but that itself leads to more unanswerable questions: who was Sterlin? Was he really a thief captured there for years, perhaps cursed by Alistair to be unable to answer any question save for with subjective opinion? Was he a hapless victim gleefully murdered by a coal-eyed maniac? Or was he a creation of the Tower, part of an elaborate and stealth trap, who's entire existence was simply to....be someone who can't answer a straight question when asked?

No one in the party will likely ever know, or care to find out.