I need a poem that warns of danger


Homebrew and House Rules


Basically, the characters will come upon a dangerous thing and there will be an inscription that describes the "rules". I need something poetic to work in all the rules. I have tried myself, but I suck, so I am turning to you all for help.

Here is the story:
The characters will come upon "The Twin Colossus", which are two statues of Hydra...or is Hydras...whatever. One is a Pyro-Hydra, the other a Cyro-Hydra. They are basically guardians of a long forgotten path. They come to life when someone travels the area, unless someone follows the specific instructions.

Here is the information that I wish to have included:
-On the north side of the path is the Pyro-Hydra, named Oxor.
-On the south side of the path is the Cryo-Hydra, named Drohz.
-Together they are "The Twin Colossus".
-If the characters stray from the path, they will awaken (100%).
-If they stay on the path, and travel one by one, they have a better chance (basically 5% per 5' square and they have to travel about 50' on at a time).

So I need a poem or something that explains all of that.

Can you help?


With those odds they still stand a good chance of awakening them, even if the follow the rules.

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Here is one:

The Twin Colossi wait ahead,
turn north they're hot, turn south they're cold,
Oxor who burns, Drohz who chills,
By ones and ones, move slow, steer true,
and heed this verse, or soon be dead,
For each one of both breaths death and kills.


Ciaran Barnes wrote:
With those odds they still stand a good chance of awakening them, even if the follow the rules.

Yeah, I am still going to tweak it a bit. I realized for 1 or 2 characters it may work, but more than that and you are right.


moon glum wrote:

Here is one:

The Twin Colossi wait ahead,
turn north they're hot, turn south they're cold,
Oxor who burns, Drohz who chills,
By ones and ones, move slow, steer true,
and heed this verse, or soon be dead,
For each one of both breaths death and kills.

That ain't bad! :)


Windquake wrote:
Ciaran Barnes wrote:
With those odds they still stand a good chance of awakening them, even if the follow the rules.
Yeah, I am still going to tweak it a bit. I realized for 1 or 2 characters it may work, but more than that and you are right.

Yep, 40.12% chance that any single party member will wake them.

With a party of 5, there is a 92.3% chance that one of them will wake them.


Twin Colossi guard the path long forgotten.
Stray slightly and you'll need a coffin.
To the North Oxor whips, to the South D-rohz nips,
Go singly, as marked, and be awesome.


I took the path less trapped, and that has made all the difference.


All,

Here was the final poem I went with for my game:

The Twin Colossus await
Right-ahead straight
Travel ones by ones
Move slow, steer true
North, Oxor burns red
South, Drohz chills blue
Each one brings foul and death
Heed this verse or draw last breath

The party ran across it, and was able to navigate without waking them. Although the players were very curious to see if they could take the Hydras.

They are six, level 4 characters with 2 mythic Tiers. So their APL comes out to 6. Each of the Hyrdas is a CR 8, so that make the two of them a CR 10. It would have been really rough.

What I did for the "odds" of waking them was started out with a DC5 stealth check. If they walked right down the middle, that is what they had to do. If they strayed from the middle, or tried to sneak around the statues, the DC went up depending on how far away from center they were and/or how far they tried to travel. When they got to the end of the path, they had to make their roll. If someone else was on the path at the same time, they had to add the previous person's check to their own (so if two people walked down the middle right after each other, the first would be a DC 5, the second would be DC 10).

The Paladin of the group, with his armor check penalty, has a Stealth of -4. So he actually rolled a 2 on his check, but then used on of his Mythic Surge abilites and brought it to a 6.

Thanks again everyone. The poem did its job. It made them curious, warned them of danger, and gave them the safe path all at the same time.


Waking them would have made a story much more fun to tell. :)


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

i'd have prefered the poem

stay on the path you dinguses

but that's me.


Ciaran Barnes wrote:
Waking them would have made a story much more fun to tell. :)

Well yes, it would. And probably will, as they have to pass back by it on the way back. :)


Windquake wrote:
Can you help?

As others have said, the plural form of "colossus" is "colossi".

How about:
Roses are red
Violets are blue
The Twin Colossi
Will eat you.

Note that my poem doesn't give any instructions for how to not wake them up because the characters WILL wake them up. Guaranteed. Well, not quite guaranteed, but almost guaranteed.

Some math:

Windquake wrote:
-If they stay on the path, and travel one by one, they have a better chance (basically 5% per 5' square and they have to travel about 50' on at a time).

OK, that means ONE character goes alone, 50', with a 5% chance PER 5 FEET to wakey wakey the Twins. What is the chance he makes it to the end without waking them up?

59.87%. Not bad, he has about a 60% chance to make it.

Now the next guy goes. He also has about a 60% chance to make it,b ut together, it's just 35.85% that BOTH of them make it. When the third guy goes, their chance is now down to 21.46% that ALL THREE make it through without waking the TWINS. The fourth guy brings the chances down to just 12.85%.

So assuming you have a party of 4, well, they have about a 1 in 8 chance of making it through. So, basically, yeah, they're very likely to wake up the Twin Colossi.

You never mentioned what happens if they all go together? Stray off the path, 100%. Go on the path one at a time, 87.15%. What's the chance if they stay on the path and all move together as a group?

As a player, if I knew these were my odds, I would stuff my three companions into my bag of holding and let them take their chances on suffocation - at least then I would have a 60% chance of getting us all through.

That is, assuming I can't just teleport (etc.) 55 feet.

I hope that helps.

Scarab Sages

Fire burns in the North
Cold freezes all in the South
The Twin Colossus

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