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The Glyphstone
2016-03-16, 08:52 PM
I'm looking to create an encounter with a swamp troll who likes to challenge passer-by to riddling games, but since he doesn't get out much, it'd make sense for a lot of his riddles to be vaguely related to things in the swamp that he sees on a regular basis. Any ideas/suggestions for either original riddles, or taking traditional fantasy riddles and reframing them in a swampy context?

Keltest
2016-03-16, 08:54 PM
How specific are we able to get? Do the players know anything more about swamps than that there is water and plants in them? Does the troll?

The Glyphstone
2016-03-16, 10:25 PM
As specific or general as you like, really. It's the troll's home, so he would know a fair bit about its day-to-day reality, if not, say, the chemical processes behind swamp formation.

eru001
2016-03-17, 10:00 AM
What terrain is a slaver's favorite?

Bayou (sounds like buy you)

Joe the Rat
2016-03-17, 10:01 AM
We stand in the water on many legs, but our limbs stay dry. We do not travel far, for the land comes to us. Who are we?
Mangroves. Notable for their many, many visible standing roots - with their "limbs" above the water. They are also responsible for the buildup of sediment into "land" - particularly for costal swamps.

shadow_archmagi
2016-03-17, 10:37 AM
"I am in darkest darkness, in mightiest battle, in a well made tent, and vital to song. I die in flames."

(Answer: Pitch. Best known as a verb and adjective, but originally referred to the black oily tarlike substance farmed from swamps.)

Sam113097
2016-03-17, 10:40 AM
Little armored-covered knight
Only can be seen at night
And from the end of his tail
Casts a mighty magic spell
A lightning bug

Douche
2016-03-17, 10:53 AM
Do the one about the guy with the boat, a wolf, a sheep, and a sack of grain. He uses the boat and can only take one across the swamp at a time. Wolf eats the sheep, sheep eats the grain. How does he save them all?

MrStabby
2016-03-17, 11:20 AM
What terrain is a slaver's favorite?

Bayou (sounds like buy you)

Well if we are going swamp themed jokes then:

"What's moist and sticky?"

Douche
2016-03-17, 02:21 PM
Do the one about the guy with the boat, a wolf, a sheep, and a sack of grain. He uses the boat and can only take one across the swamp at a time. Wolf eats the sheep, sheep eats the grain. How does he save them all?

The answer is irrelevant. The troll came along and ate them all. Now he has a boat that he uses as a hat.

Concrete
2016-03-18, 05:11 AM
A lady coming through my swamp
Comes right through but does not stomp
Sometimes seen and sometimes cloaked
Never by the rain is soaked
She lulls the serpent to its sleep
Causes every bird to cheep
She strokes the spine of every gator
But they do not try to bite her
Comes and goes but does not stay
Going home so far away
Who is she?

The Sun

Path go hither!
Path go yon...
Nothing ventured...
Nothing won!
When i come...
the path is gone!
Who am I?

("Flood", "Fog" and "Rain" are acceptable.)

I eat Goblin, Snake and Spidre
I eat Giants, Drakes and Walking Bone
I eat Soldier, Hunter, Squire
But simple fish I leave alone
Who am I?

(Water)

Four are walking in a row
One is here right here and now
One bring much and one brings more
One brings plenty, one brings death
Who are they?

(The Seasons. Springs brings rain and life, in summer, things grow more, in autumn, all plants bear fruit, and in the winter, plants die and things starve or go in hibernation)

That's the best I can come up with. I couldn't find any good riddles, and much things I could think of that exist only in swamps are etiher too obvious or too obscure.

LibraryOgre
2016-03-18, 08:23 AM
Speaking as someone who has lived in swamps for the past quarter-century, the biggest swamp-themed riddle is "Why the **** do I live in a swamp?"

That said...

Tentacles hang
From every bough
Marking the circles
between then and now
Come into
My shaded embrace
Against all save elves
I'll win the race

(Live oak tree)

Lacco
2016-03-18, 08:30 AM
Do the one about the guy with the boat, a wolf, a sheep, and a sack of grain. He uses the boat and can only take one across the swamp at a time. Wolf eats the sheep, sheep eats the grain. How does he save them all?

For bonus points, make the swamp troll write down notes as they solve it, then stand up, go to a boat hidden behind him and start loading the sheep... :smallbiggrin:

Lvl 2 Expert
2016-03-18, 01:59 PM
What walks on four legs in the morning, on two legs during the day and on three legs in the evening?

Nope, it's this weird bug I found.

Kol Korran
2016-03-19, 01:26 AM
Just wanted to say, that a riddlign troll is quite an image. Kudos to that! I may just incorporate that in one of my games in the future! :smallwink:
----------------------------------------------------

Some ideas for more fantasy related riddles (At least from a D&D POV):

In the deep, she cooks a stew,
Of smells, and tastes, a special brew!
She is very pretty, be sure to tell,
Or you'll join the many, who now here dwell...

A hag/ witch.

The many-snakes always eat.
The eat fish, gators, even two-legs meat!
They be mighty, hard to kill,
One cut down, two come still!
The many-snakes and trolls are same,
We no like the human flame!

A hydra

They watch and wait, and seek the red
With wings of bat, they wait and wait.
They wait till time is right,
Then they come and suck and bite!
Squash them all! Burn their nests!
I hate, I hate these awful pests!

Stirges! :smalltongue:

daremetoidareyo
2016-03-19, 02:18 AM
For bonus points, make the swamp troll write down notes as they solve it, then stand up, go to a boat hidden behind him and start loading the sheep... :smallbiggrin:

And the troll proceeds to trade the sheep for a ring of regeneration, the wolf for a young elf prisoner, and the grain for a metal pitchfork to roast the regenerating elf kabobs that he is going to eat for the rest of his life as a pacifist who never kills.

roushguy
2016-03-19, 06:43 AM
It grow like hair, smell like rot, in me swamp you see a lot.

Moss/lichen/fungus in general, don't accept 'mushrooms'.