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mikeboyle44
2013-08-26, 05:28 PM
I ran a session last week that was basically a dungeon crawl in a temple of Baccobb. The final room was a puzzle room (right after beating the BBEG).

The group really liked the puzzle, so I thought I'd share (its long!)

You enter an impressive and expansive library. Magical lanterns adorn the walls, illuminating the endless stacks of books. Several pieces of finely crafted furniture decorate the room and offer stations for those seeking to study the tomes.

Exploring the room, you find a glassy black rock door frame encompassing a solid gray stone wall. Perched above the door is a Jade gargoyle, gazing down on you with gruesome features. It is hunched on its loins with its four clawed hands wrapped over a stack of stone books. It has a large cavernous nose that protrudes several inches from its face. On the floor, just before the doorway, is a circle of arcane runes.

The arcane runes can either be read with a magical lore check or by those that know draconic. Alternatively, if a player steps with in the circle the gargoyle speaks in a high pitched nasally voice

“Speak to me the order in which Baccobb revealed knowledge to his followers”

The players must stand in the circle and say, in the correct order, the lores as “presented” by Baccobb to his followers.

If the players are having difficulty understanding the puzzle, have them roll an intelligence check; clue them in that “Lore” is often considered “knowledge”.

This should engage your players to seek clues in the stacks of books, if not, have them roll a wisdom check and state “perhaps there are some clues amongst the stacks”.

Have the players “research” some clues. Tell them that it takes a long time to search through even a fraction of the books, so perhaps it would be best to spilt research up according to people’s strengths. Have each player roll for a particular Lore and keep note to yourself of which lore they succeed on and which they fail. This will determine what clues are given to them. After all rolls have been resolved, for any successes reveal that clue to the players (do not reveal the Lore for which they were successful as that is a clue in of itself).

Standing in the circle begins the magical ritual. A player must recite the order correctly; any mistake or leaving the circle early results in the gargoyle sneezing and a Green Slime rockets out of its nose at the player (See Bestiary for Green Slime).

If the players correctly list the order in which the knowledge was revealed the gargoyle leaps down from his perch holding the books. He opens one of the stone books and reads out loud.

“The pursuit of knowledge brings great treasure”

After the gargoyle speaks:

Flecks of stone begin to chip off the front of the door and trickle down its face. As it hits the floor it dissipates into dust. Soon enough the entirety of the door has vanished; revealed before you is a small room with a treasure chest seated on top of a small table. .

Notes:

I didn’t present any DCs above because it can scale for any level. I ran this puzzle at 1st level.

I had the gargoyle say “The pursuit of knowledge brings great treasure” in an “arcane” language and had a magical lore check reveal that it was a clever variation on the spell “knock”.

I had the library in a Temple of Baccobb. Part of my treasure was a deep blue cloak with golden stars and crescent moons fashioned on it. It was lying over the table that the treasure chest sat on top.

I had the clues turn into a logic puzzle (strongly suggest doing the same). I will present my order and clues here, but I recommend creating your own, as that was a lot of fun for me.

1-Magical – DC 14
2- Planar – DC 13
3- Religious – DC 13
4- Natural – DC 17
5- Cultural – DC 16
6- Political – DC 18
7- Military – DC 18
8- Hobbyist – DC 16
9- Trade – DC 16
10- Subterranean – DC 20
11- Forbidden – DC 21


Lore
Book and Author (if available)
Passage

Cultural:

A Gentlemen’s Guide to Culture by Prince Charles the V

“Anything less would be uncivilized”

Forbidden:

Perilous Travels by Jozan LaMarch

“Months did we toil in the rifts of Hell. Day and night blurred together and soon we lost track of time and space. Though I cannot be certain, we must have travelled at least nine levels of Hell before finding the forbidden tomb of the Devil Prince.”

Hobbyist:

The Players Handbook: A Hobbyist’s Guide to Dragon’s Ante by Mary Mymax.

“There are eleven dragon cards in total, but a clever player can achieve victory with only eight.”

Magical:

A History of Magic by Bae’o the Black

“Before War and Kingdoms, before the animals and us, before even the heavens and the hells and the gods that created them, before all of this…was Magic!”

Military:

The Rise and Fall of the Western Kingdoms: A Collection of history of the kingdoms and wars that brought ruin to the first men

“Wherever there is a strong kingdom, there is a strong military, and wherever there is a weak military, there is a weak kingdom. Always are political and military might sewn together”.

Natural:

Field Guide to Natural Order by Arch Druid Sylvini Delwen

“One must have a clear understanding of the natural world before they attempt to understand the civil world”.

Planar:

We Are Not Alone by Deaxus Mont Luclare`

“Between the realities of the arcane and the divine lies the truth of the planes themselves”.

Political:

Blood in the Snow “An orcish political thriller” by Krusk!

“Grock, successor to the Chieftain of his clan, felt the dagger plunge into his back. His mind raced to the warning words of the oracle. He turned to see his attacker, but the blade slide out and struck repeatedly four more times. His legs went limp and he began to fade before he felt one more final thrust, stealing his life.”

Religious:

The Holy Trinity

“Pelor, his son, and the holy light are godhead three in one”

Subterrranean:

Mining in the New Age by Oxen Onyx

“Dwarves efficiently tunnel at six feet in height. Orcs, with their big oafish bodies and disgraceful tools, seem to wildly tunnel as high as 14 feet. To accommodate to the humans who are not use to our subterranean worlds, it is best to tunnel at a height exactly in-between.”

Trade:

Stealing- A rogue’s code to trade (Author Unknown)

“Always seel stolen items in multiples of three”.

person29
2013-08-27, 09:54 AM
I was a player in this game and it was a lot of fun trying to figure it out. Especially since we didn't have all of the clues due to poor rolling we were initially in the dark on a few, and poor interpretation of the Magic clue hindered us, but it was a lot of fun and eventually we were successful and were rewarded with loads of copper!

Psyren
2013-08-27, 02:00 PM
So, if I'm reading it right, the puzzle is to figure out which subject matter goes in what order. For example, you would know "Magical" was first in line because the "Magical" book proclaims that magic came before everything else.

Yeah, it seems interesting, though you could easily do this in 3e/PF and even 4e so I'm not sure what about it is Next tailored.

mikeboyle44
2013-08-27, 02:08 PM
Psy ,you're understanding the puzzle correctly and I said it was dnd next tailored bc my puzzle example uses the lore stuff from dnd next, but yeah, its pretty universal.