EggKookoo
2020-11-08, 02:56 PM
I had an idea for a hopefully-fun and not to tough puzzle this morning and I thought I might run it by the gang.
My current setup: The party is 4th level, 5 PCs (fighter, artificer, druid, warlock, and rogue). They're investigating a long-abandoned dwarf keep built into a hill. They're about to come across the quarters of the dwarf in charge of security, in which is a macguffin that's not really relevant to the puzzle. The room is about 30x30 feet. Before he died the dwarf set up a "force field" about 10 feet into the room, blocking off the other 20x30 feet (the macguffin is behind it). This will be a wall of force or something similar. I might have the wall flicker briefly to let the PCs know it's there, and for flavor to help reinforce how long it's been in place (like the power creating it is getting old).
When the PCs approach it, a large symbol will appear on the otherwise-invisible wall. On this symbol are three hand glyphs, real-sized. The way past the wall is to put your hand on each glyph in turn and hum or sing the first three notes in the anthem of the keep, one note per glyph. This would likely be a performance check, perhaps against DC 10 or 12 (it shouldn't be too hard). If you touch the hands in the wrong sequence or sing the wrong notes or initiate but don't complete the process, the wall zaps you with 3d6 lightning damage and will stun you unless you succeed with a DC 10 Con save (you can re-try your save "every round on your turn" to break out of it). Doing it right drops the wall entirely.
Scattered on the floor, both beyond the wall and in at the players' feet, are dozens of pages of old notes, written in dwarvish. Most of them are faded beyond reading, and most of what can be read are of mundane matters. But with a successful DC 12 investigation check a PC will locate a page (on the near side of the wall) with a copy of the hand glyphs and cryptic writing about "pride in our anthem" (assuming the PC knows dwarvish) A history check might let a PC know that the dwarven anthem in question was a song.
Further among the notes, found more easily because the writing is fresher (i.e. no check needed), are other notes scribbled furiously in infernal. Unknown to the PCs at this point is that a fiend has taken up residence deeper in the complex and has been trying to get through the wall as well. Another DC 12 investigation check from a PC that knows infernal will decipher three potential note configurations (actually many more but most are scratched out, leaving three likely options). At this point, it's basically trial and error with the three options and the performance checks, assuming the PCs don't take so much damage from the attempts that they feel they need to retreat or just move on.
So that's basically it.
My current setup: The party is 4th level, 5 PCs (fighter, artificer, druid, warlock, and rogue). They're investigating a long-abandoned dwarf keep built into a hill. They're about to come across the quarters of the dwarf in charge of security, in which is a macguffin that's not really relevant to the puzzle. The room is about 30x30 feet. Before he died the dwarf set up a "force field" about 10 feet into the room, blocking off the other 20x30 feet (the macguffin is behind it). This will be a wall of force or something similar. I might have the wall flicker briefly to let the PCs know it's there, and for flavor to help reinforce how long it's been in place (like the power creating it is getting old).
When the PCs approach it, a large symbol will appear on the otherwise-invisible wall. On this symbol are three hand glyphs, real-sized. The way past the wall is to put your hand on each glyph in turn and hum or sing the first three notes in the anthem of the keep, one note per glyph. This would likely be a performance check, perhaps against DC 10 or 12 (it shouldn't be too hard). If you touch the hands in the wrong sequence or sing the wrong notes or initiate but don't complete the process, the wall zaps you with 3d6 lightning damage and will stun you unless you succeed with a DC 10 Con save (you can re-try your save "every round on your turn" to break out of it). Doing it right drops the wall entirely.
Scattered on the floor, both beyond the wall and in at the players' feet, are dozens of pages of old notes, written in dwarvish. Most of them are faded beyond reading, and most of what can be read are of mundane matters. But with a successful DC 12 investigation check a PC will locate a page (on the near side of the wall) with a copy of the hand glyphs and cryptic writing about "pride in our anthem" (assuming the PC knows dwarvish) A history check might let a PC know that the dwarven anthem in question was a song.
Further among the notes, found more easily because the writing is fresher (i.e. no check needed), are other notes scribbled furiously in infernal. Unknown to the PCs at this point is that a fiend has taken up residence deeper in the complex and has been trying to get through the wall as well. Another DC 12 investigation check from a PC that knows infernal will decipher three potential note configurations (actually many more but most are scratched out, leaving three likely options). At this point, it's basically trial and error with the three options and the performance checks, assuming the PCs don't take so much damage from the attempts that they feel they need to retreat or just move on.
So that's basically it.