Puzzle to unlock magic door?

[Chester]

6 rooms, plus one magically sealed door.

I'd like to come up with a fun puzzle whose solution will open the door.

Ideas?

[Jurai]

How are these rooms arranged?

Perhaps have one of those spinning stone things from Skyrim?

[Uncle Pine]

Put one helmed/battle horror in front of each door, for a grand total of 6 guardians. Two always lie, two always tell the truth and two stab people who ask tricky questions. :smalltongue:

[Chester]

How are these rooms arranged?

---------- _____
| X X X | |
| X X X | A |
------------------

X=6 rooms
A=chamber to which sealed door leads

Hallways surround each room; each room has 2 entrances.

I was thinking of having 2 Gauth patrol the halls.


Put one helmed/battle horror in front of each door, for a grand total of 6 guardians. Two always lie, two always tell the truth and two stab people who ask tricky questions. :smalltongue:

Maybe a variation with 2 helmed horrors guarding the sealed door?

6 rooms contain:
one has a large gargoyle statue and a pentagram on floor
two have altars
one has a pile of bones
one has a large pentagram drawn in blood
one has a trap door to a chamber below; this is the entrance for the PC's to the area.

I'm thinking maybe Helmed Horrors provide riddles to what objects might go in gargoyle statue's hands?

[Afgncaap5]

You could have the door only open if attacked with a weapon made of the right material. A "Cold Iron Key", for instance.

You might give the bards or knowledge experts something to do and have the door depict a scene from history or mythology. A magic mouth could ask a question like "Who wears the crown and empties the chalice," and only a bard or character who passes a knowledge check to recognize the story would know the name of the figure. (As always, best to do this if there's a rogue in the party who might be able to disarm the door in case everyone rolls natural ones.)

If there's a chance that the players might see two or three other people use the door first, the door might have a password system. Something weird. I'm a fan of the old password puzzle where the password giver says a number, and the person has to respond with the number of letters required to spell the number. So Three needs a response of Five, Four needs a response of Four, Six needs a response of Three, etc.

[ericgrau]

I was bored so here you go. Feel free to use all, some, or none, or to change things.



---.---
|A:B:C|
|.---.|
|D:E:F|
|--.---


The 6 rooms form a path where you enter south of E and can then go through a door to D or F. D leads to A, F leads to C, either A or C leads to B, and B leads to the exit. So you must defeat at least 4 challenges to proceed. Each of them is meant to affects intruders but not the place's owner. There are thick stone walls and iron doors. Breaking them is possible, but noisy. The monster in C (who is warded against B or naturally resistant to it) will probably go get help if he hears a lot of ruckus.

A: There is a single narrow pillar in the middle of a spiked pit 20 feet below. The walls are also spiked. There are four iron U loops next to the entrance and exit, one on each side of the door near the bottom. The owner owns two ropes of climbing which knot themselves and snake down the wall, through the spikes and back up to tie themselves to the center pillar and then repeat to tie to the iron U loops near the other door. Then he starts laying down wooden planks from his handy haversack to form a bridge. A player might attempt a jump check (DC 1 per foot of gap) and balance check (DC 20) to leap to the center pillar. Then open the opposing (unlocked) door somehow, then make another jump. Or the players might try something more clever. A fall deals 2d6 falling damage plus spike damage. Moving a square along spikes also deals spike damage. 1d4 spikes attack with a +10 bonus and deal 1d4+2 damage each. For higher level characters you can use a deeper pit and higher damage spikes for more damage.

B: A permanent wall of fire or two blocks the final exit. The owner has resist energy, a racial resistance or something similar. You might also lock the door and add another method of entry to unlock it, and standing around guessing isn't exactly comfortable.

C: A melee monster attacks intruders. Probably a golem or undead or a guard who works for the owner.

D: An illussory wall covers the exit door and makes it look like a wall (a caster can be hired even if the owner is not a caster). The door has a recessed handle. If the players feel around (DC 15 search, and like anything you can take a 20), they can reach in, grab the handle and turn it. Interacting with the north wall in any way (staring at it, probing it, whatever) also grants a DC 18 will save to realize that the wall is fake; otherwise there is no save rolled. You may want to note the players' will saves and roll this secretly. The west wall has a locked door with an ordinary lock (DC 20 open lock, or smash it, or whatever). It opens into a stone wall. Painted on the wall is a picture of room A as seen through the doorway. It is a non-magical decoy. Alternatively if the owner is a caster, he might put a nystul's magic aura on the wall indicating it to be marvelous pigments to an identify spell (and a failed will save) or strong conjuration to a detect magic. It's still a meaningless decoy.

E: A false floor tile pressure plate on each of the exit doors causes wooden doors to unlatch on the ceiling and drop stone blocks for 6d6 damage. Atk +15 melee (6d6); multiple targets (can strike all characters in two adjacent specified squares); Search DC 20; Disable Device DC 25. The entire ceiling is wood painted to look like stone. DC 15 spot will reveal, or simply stopping and looking around. Above them and the stone blocks is real stone.

F: A DC 20 search check on any square in this room likewise reveals that it is a pressure plate. If jammed (e.g., disable device), the mechanism will fail to function at all until unjammed. Stone gears raise and lower the iron exit door like a portcullis using weight on the pressure plates. They actually sink several inches when stepped on. The door is initially closed. Weight on all squares except the southeast corner square closes it. Weight on the southeast corner square opens it. Weight on both counterbalance each other. If there is about 400 pounds more on the southeast square than on other squares, it will lower to a certain point and the iron door will suddenly open. All squares except the southeast square lower together and make the southeast square raise. And vis versa. So with 600 pounds of weight there a person weighing less than 200 pounds might walk out. The owner of the dungeon typically has his lackeys crowd on the southeast square for him and they stay behind. Then he returns via path BADE.