Alright, so our scripter combed through the whole thing last night, and he found a couple of bugs...
He fixed everything, and sent me a few screenshots... alongside an indepth explanation... It's funny how the little things get you in the end!
First, there's a total of 33 riddles, not 34 (the script makes reference to this, but the string in the final textbox was incorrect, and printed 34 instead of 33 when the Riddlemaster tells you how many points you've scored at the end). The final riddle (#33) is the one Meredith solves without the Player's input:
The Riddlemaster also plays fair and doesn't cheat at all, but there were a few errors in how the reward variables were tallied...
Riddle #6 was tracked incorrectly: the answer is indeed 'Whip', but it was set to give +1 for 'Tiger' for some reason (probably just an oversight).
Riddle #10 was bugged as well: the correct answer is 'Sky', but it was set to +1 for 'Bruise' inside the script itself. Again, probably an oversight.
Riddle #16 also had an error: it was giving +1 point regardless if the Player accepted or refused Meredith's incorrect answer! (hence skewing the outcome)
Fun fact: Riddle #5 ("Towns without houses, forests without trees, mountains without boulders, and waterless seas...") is the only one in the whole repertoire with 2 correct answers! (a town map; a diorama). You can see how the variables are tracked below...
All the errors have now been fixed, and the reward variable tracks everything as it should!
It's now finally possible to score 30 or more points, and claim all of the Riddlemaster's rewards...
The encounter is now working 100% as intended; it's part of the latest build, to be released when we make a new content update...
And by the way, thanks for reporting this - there's no way we would've caught it on our own! We did multiple play-tests through the Riddlemaster's conversation, but there's so many branching paths and possible outcomes that it made it impossible to cover them all. And none of us on the team even noticed it was reporting 34 riddles instead of the correct 33 that were actually inside the script!
So consider your sanity reaffirmed - you were right! 😄😄😄
~ Frenzin, Crimson Delight Games