Riddle Me This

Thursday, July 19, 2018

Attendees of PaizoCon 2018 might have noticed something new and unusual in the program booklet: a page with a map of Varisia overlaid with a grid, accompanied by a challenge to seek out a packet of puzzles and solve the mystery of the virtuous sihedron.

Why, that was just the annual PaizoCon Puzzle Hunt coming back strong! We debuted this event last year, and it went over so well, we were able to increase its exposure and present an even more exciting and involved set of puzzles. But we know not everyone can make it to the convention, so we are proud to present the entire thing here for you! Check the link below, which contains everything you need to participate in this year's puzzle hunt... except, of course, your wits. Unfortunately, we can't offer any prizes for completing this puzzle hunt (or for discovering the secret secondary puzzle that hides within), but rest assured we will be back in 2019 with another set, as well as some new partners in this endeavor!

Download the PaizoCon 2018 Puzzle Hunt!3.1 MB zip/PDF

What is a puzzle hunt?

A puzzle hunt is a series of linked puzzles, with the answer to each being a word or phrase. Those words and phrases are used in the puzzle on the first page of the PDF to generate the hunt's final solution. Figuring out how that puzzle works is part of the challenge!

Who made this, anyway?

Once again, that's us! We challenged ourselves from last year to add more visual elements to these new puzzles, creating what we hope are a diverse array of interesting mind-bending enigmas. But we couldn't have done it without the aid of Art Director Sonja Morris, who created all of the puzzle hunt's outstanding graphics!

What do I do if get stuck?

First, put the puzzle down and come back at it in an hour or so with a fresh mind. Perhaps you'll spot something you hadn't seen before. Be sure to reread the instructions at the top of the page; sometimes clues are hidden in there! If all that fails, feel free to ask for a hint on the Paizo.com forums. There's no shame in getting a nudge from a fellow solver, and perhaps you can help her in return with a different puzzle!

Jason Keeley and Joe Pasini
Developers

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Tags: Paizo PaizoCon 2018

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

"The solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle."

Paizo Employee Developer

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Fumarole wrote:
"The solution often turns out more beautiful than the puzzle."

Clearly you have not completed our puzzle! *self-deprecation emoji*

Silver Crusade

I look forward to learning the answer from Reddit 30 minutes after it becomes possible to figure it out.


someone clearly spent too much time gaming and too little time reading history books.

Silver Crusade

So using the rules that shards can't be adjacent to each other and cannot be in the same row or column (saying that they can't be due north or due east of each other is just an obscure way of saying they can't be in the same row or column) I have determined that, if we number rows from top to bottom starting at 1 and label columns alphabetically starting at A, they are in:

The answer, don't read if you want to do it yourself:
A3, B1, C4, D7, E5, F2, G6

That's only the first part of the puzzle of course but it'll let anyone who wants to skip it get up to speed with the community.

Scarab Sages

Conjectures! (possible spoiler alert)

1:
The number of full-sized diamonds between two narrow diamonds means something!

and

2:
The Adventure Path titles in the riddles mean something!


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RocMeAsmodeus wrote:

Conjectures! (possible spoiler alert)

** spoiler omitted **

and

** spoiler omitted **

3/4 Correct!

By the way, the puzzles were amazing this year, and there would have been no way for me or the wife to have solved the "secret puzzled" without Jason's and Joe's help.

I'm super excited that this has been made public!

Paizo Employee Developer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Link2000 wrote:
RocMeAsmodeus wrote:

Conjectures! (possible spoiler alert)

** spoiler omitted **

and

** spoiler omitted **

3/4 Correct!

By the way, the puzzles were amazing this year, and there would have been no way for me or the wife to have solved the "secret puzzled" without Jason's and Joe's help.

I'm super excited that this has been made public!

Thanks! We are still honing in on what is too difficult and what is too easy, but I'm glad you had a good time.

As mentioned in the blog, Joe and I already have plans for next year that I think people are really going to enjoy!


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Thanks, lots of fun! For me, the regular puzzles were exactly the right level of difficulty: a nice challenge, but not frustrating.


Er, the letters I found for the ruler's name don't seem to make sense.

Paizo Employee Developer

Bardess wrote:
Er, the letters I found for the ruler's name don't seem to make sense.

Want to spoiler the letters you found?

Also, per
a hint in the instructions:
the answer is two words. Even some of our best puzzle smiths resorted to using an internet anagrammer on this one—which neither Jason nor I consider “cheating”!


Spoiler:
AC NP MR GR CH RI NI

Paizo Employee Developer

Bardess wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Keep Fishing:
Looks like you just need a different answer for the first “sea” creature—what’d you get for that one? (Also it’s not “monster”)
Paizo Employee Developer

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I’m reminded that people found a false positive in one of the puzzles, so I’ll just point out to everyone that sea monsters aren’t real. ;)


I found the solution there. I just wonder

Spoiler:
Time and salt can't be both precious because there's only one T...

Paizo Employee Developer

Bardess wrote:

I found the solution there. I just wonder

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
Very true—can’t keep time in a cargo hold, either... so only one of those is an answer!

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Gonna sit on this until work slows down to horrible tedium in the fall... then I'll pick at it on slow days.

Silver Crusade

Shattered Star Spoilers:
So when you reassemble the seven shards of sin, they turn into an artifact of pure virtue. Does that mean that the shards of the virtuous sihedron will turn into an artifact of sin?

Paizo Employee Developer

ThePuppyTurtle wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Sure, why not? That's why you have to bury the shards apart from one another! Yeah, that's right. Planned it all along!


Is there an answer key posted anywhere yet?

Paizo Employee Developer

Thefuzzy1 wrote:
Is there an answer key posted anywhere yet?

There is not! Nor did we plan to make one, though that’s something I could look into doing after GenCon... Is there an answer or two you wanted here?


Joe Pasini wrote:
Thefuzzy1 wrote:
Is there an answer key posted anywhere yet?
There is not! Nor did we plan to make one, though that’s something I could look into doing after GenCon... Is there an answer or two you wanted here?

After gencon is good if you would make one, I was hoping to use them in a game and have my players come across the clues as they hunt down the shards. I just haven’t had time to solve them all myself before the start of the new game.


Good to have some free puzzle-hunting stuff for 2018. ;)

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