PDA

View Full Version : DM Help Nature/Melora themed puzzle help



OdinTGE
2018-06-14, 01:53 PM
So my party is going to be entering a sort of vault created by Melora (Goddess of nature etc. from D&D 4E). I'm trying to come up with a puzzle that is on level 1 that opens the way to continue. I've got a variety of half-baked (maybe quarter-baked) ideas and one that is complete, but I'm not very happy with it--I think it's far too easy but that might be because I thought it up. So, in the first spoiler tag I'm going to put a description of my complete idea and I'd just like people to respond with what they think the solution is, or what they'd do. Assume that no brilliant shenanigans are thought up to somehow just circumvent the whole thing. In the 2nd spoiler tag I'll go over some of my other ideas that aren't complete to see if anybody has ideas to fix those up.

I'll be leaving out most of the fluff and flavor descriptions to just get to the meat of things:

Your party enters the base of a giant tree. Inside you find a series of circular hallways that take you throughout the tree. Along your path you come across three small rooms and a larger central chamber. One room is roughly circular and there are three wooden statues of wolves around the edge of the room. The second room has a large wooden statue of a squirrel on a tree branch. The third room has a wooden statue of an owl in flight. All three rooms have a wooden pedestal in the center.


The statues are all magical, but it's difficult to get a read on that as it seems the whole tree you're in is magical.


In the central chamber there are a variety of wooden figurines, all about a foot tall. They all have a base and are loose, that is they can be picked up and moved. The figurines are, in alphabetical order: Acorn, Bear, Boar, Deer, Hawk, Owl, Panther, Rabbit, Squirrel, Sunflower, Tree (with face), Wolf.

What do you do?


I intend to spawn a Wood Woad in the room if an incorrect figurine is put on the pedestal. One Wood Woad is a non-issue for the party if they're all together, but if they split up to deliver the figurines it could get interesting; especially if more than one are wrong.

I'm also considering including an incentive to not dawdle or just some sort of ongoing threat. Maybe a creature using hit and run tactics. My first idea is an Alkilith (from the new Mord's Tome of Foes) but that might be a bit much. I might use it but just tone it down.



Assumes you've read the Completed Idea:

I've also considered the same idea as above, but instead of finding all the rooms only one is accessible at first. Perhaps a wolf. I'd also include one of Melora's commandments: "Do not fear or condemn the savagery of the wild" somewhere in the wolf's room to help indicate that they should provide a prey animal for the wolf to eat. Doing that would open up one of the other rooms etc.

In another version of this idea I considered trying to wrap the puzzle entirely around Melora's commandments:

Protect the wild places of the world from destruction and overuse. Oppose the rampant spread of cities and empires.
Hunt aberrant monsters and other abominations of nature.
Do not fear or condemn the savagery of the wild. Live in harmony with the wild.

Or at least part of them. The best I could come up with was one room with a wolf and one with an elf (with spear). Then you'd give the wolf a figure of any sort of prey animal and the elf a figure of some aberration. I couldn't come up with any way to work with the 1st commandment or living in harmony with the wild.

The original idea I had that started me down this road was to do something with flowers. The central chamber would have a variety of flowers going in it and the party would need to take certain flowers to certain places. The main issue here is I don't know much about flowers and neither do any of my players. Just prior to entering the tree the party is going to interact with some Pixies and I considered tying the names of the pixies along with each of their skin colors (purple, green, yellow, etc.) to the flowers and the rooms where they went. That would serve as the sort of clue/riddle that tells the party what to do. My main hang up on this is that it's possible (likely, given my party) that their interaction with the Pixies won't be amicable and the pixies are most likely going be disinclined to help in any way, or even share their names. I could overcome this by having one of the Pixies be a bit dull and try to be nice to the party even when her sisters are trying to berate the party for being mean and rude.

All that said I don't even have a super solid idea for what exactly I'd do with the skin color/flower/name situation to make a viable puzzle. Perhaps the pixies could all be named for flowers, but their skin colors could be mismatched to their names. Then the party has to match flower color to pixie name rather to pixie color or...something

Wilko
2018-06-15, 03:06 AM
Perhaps for the "Do not fear or condemn the savagery of the wild. Live in harmony with the wild." you could have a split path - a snarling beast before one path and a statue of a guardsman before another, they must know Meloras commandments and choose to go into the "wild" without fear, walk past the beast without fear and it won't attack you, attack it or choose "Civilisation" and you will be attacked by the beast.

For "Hunt aberrant monsters and other abominations of nature." you could have a room full of statues or jars with depictions of natural creatures and aberrations, the key to pass through is contained within the ones depicting aberrations, you must smash those to get the key however smashing the depictions of natural creatures will summon those creatures to attack you... (pick your creatures wisely or at least be ready to have your players fight 1d4 squirrels :smallamused: )

As to "Protect the wild places of the world from destruction and overuse. Oppose the rampant spread of cities and empires." i'm not sure. Maybe a situation where they acquire something valuable or useful but must choose to give it back because taking it would harm nature in the area?

OdinTGE
2018-06-15, 03:17 AM
(pick your creatures wisely or at least be ready to have your players fight 1d4 squirrels :smallamused: )

All the AC in the world won't save you once that squirrel is up your pant leg.

I do like the first two ideas you had though. I'm probably going to use those. I think the second one needs a bit of help though. I'm not sure exactly what the mechanic should be to "hunt" the aberrations. I'd like everything in the tree to appear naturally grown or made. So jars are out. Any sort of statue or figurine needs to be grown into its shape rather than carved or something. I'll keep thinking on it, thanks for the help!