Hey folks,
I'm putting a secret chamber for my players to find under Fort Rannick...
I was thinking some sort of a vault with a puzzle to get to the goodies.
Anyone have any cool ideas?
1) on what kind of goodies could be found in the vault (and why).
2) on what kind of puzzle I could place there.
Any thought will be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks!
Ultradan
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Hey folks,
I'm putting a secret chamber for my players to find under Fort Rannick...
I was thinking some sort of a vault with a puzzle to get to the goodies.
Anyone have any cool ideas?
1) on what kind of goodies could be found in the vault (and why).
2) on what kind of puzzle I could place there.
Any thought will be GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks!
Ultradan
1) I'm not sure why there would be a puzzle-locked room unless it protected something secret to the leader of the Rangers that would be solvable in the case that leader died.
Perhaps a scrying room with an in-place crystal ball? To me, a puzzle room would fit better in one of the older ruins in this AP.
2) There are lots of logic puzzle books that you can find with the magazines in a sizable bookstore (near the crossword books). If I were adding a puzzle, I would buy one of those because they have dozens of possibilities in each issue.
I'm not sure why there would be a puzzle-locked room unless it protected something secret to the leader of the Rangers that would be solvable in the case that leader died.
Perhaps a scrying room with an in-place crystal ball? To me, a puzzle room would fit better in one of the older ruins in this AP.
I was thinking of a room that could be found at the bottom of the crevasse where the rope bridge is in the secret tunnels (near the dead halfling). This room would have been there, undisturbed for a long time, perhaps even before the fort was built.
The scrying room is a cool idea though.
Ultradan
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I was thinking of a room that could be found at the bottom of the crevasse where the rope bridge is in the secret tunnels (near the dead halfling). This room would have been there, undisturbed for a long time, perhaps even before the fort was built.
The scrying room is a cool idea though.
Ultradan
If I were putting a scrying room in, I would make it fixed - i.e. not a crystal ball that can be carried around because that is a pretty powerful (expensive) magic item.
If it predates the Rangers, it could have anything at all in it - maybe some shrine to an earth spirit (because it's in the geode room) or in a similar vein, a cache made by some kind of earth elemental spirit (some kind of earth-fey). It could be an abandoned brigand hideout (if the bottom of the chasm connects (or connected before a cave-in) to the waterfall or something) or it could connect to yet another Thassalonian complex (it seems silly to me that there would be ruins everywhere but YMMV).
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The Rangers of Fort Rannick operated on a military commission. The goodies could be a treasure three of the rangers didn't want to share with their superiors; they planned on taking it with them after their time was served, but they didn't trust each other. So...
Each ranger had an animal companion: a weasle, a raven and a bear. The puzzle has three triggers: one down a small hole, one up high on a ledge and one as heavy as a cart. They all need to be activated at the same time to open the treasure pit.
The treasure pit itself could be warded with an exceedingly nasty Fire Trap spell (yeah, it's a Druid spell, but close enough). The trap itself does minimal damage, but it could trigger a collapse at the entrance (burned trigger rope) and be surrounded by noxious dried herbs. Poison smoke trap!
You'll have to determine how they created the mechanism in the first place, but it's a start :)
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I have tried to post this twice now, but the forums eat a post that takes too long to write. So I used a text editor, and am copying and pasting. My puzzle idea. I'm actually planning to put this in the Old Light, and it'll also be a hook for learning Thassilonian history for my players. Should be adaptable to Ft. Rannick, though explanations on how it got there are your problem. ;)
This is actually a modified Sudoku puzzle; I adapted it from one of the "Very Hard" ones.
The players encounter a 9x9 grid on the wall, each square of which has a small circular indentation. The grid is divided into nine 3x3 smaller areas, which are painted in murals. The upper-left mural shows Heaven, the upper-middle shows Nirvana, the upper-right Elysium. The left-middle is Axis, the left middle is the Maelstrom, and dead center is the Boneyard. Finally, the bottom-left is Hell, the bottom-middle is Abaddon, and the bottom-right is the Abyss.
Above the mural, each of the columns is labeled with the numbers 1 to 9, in Ancient Thassilonian. To the immediate left, each of the rows are labeled from A to I, in Giant. (So any intersection has a letter-number identifier.)
Farther to the left of the grid is a small alcove, containing circular shaped pieces. These have the faces of wizards carved into them, each with one of nine colored hats. (I'm using Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Brown, Grey, Black, and White.) There are 81 total pieces, but 24 of them have already been fitted into the puzzle and cannot be removed under any conditions; 57 pieces remain in the alcove.
F3 and I1 contain red-hatted mages. There are 7 left in the alcove.
B3, F6, H7, and I5 contain blue-hatted mages. There are 5 left in the alcove.
C7 and D4 contain green-hatted mages. There are 7 left in the alcove.
C6, F8, and G4 contain yellow-hatted mages. There are 6 left in the alcove.
D7 and G3 contain orange-hatted mages. There are 7 left in the alcove.
A1, C4, E2, and G7 contain brown-hatted mages. There are 5 left in the alcove.
C3, D2, and G6 contain grey-hatted mages. There are 6 left in the alcove.
A5 and I9 contain black-hatted mages. There are 7 left in the alcove.
A9 and E8 contain white-hatted mages. There are 7 left in the alcove.
To the right of the giant mural of the planes the stone has been engraved with a block of text in Ancient Thassilonian:
Nine squared wizards of nine orders.
Watchers of the outer planes.
One of each order for each of the masters' runes.
One of each order for each of the servants' runes.
One of each order for each of the final destinations.
To solve the puzzle, all 81 pieces must be placed into an indentation in such a way that each row, column, and Outer Plane has one mage of each order (hat color) in them - ie, no duplicates. If a piece is placed into an incorrect position (see the solution, below), the offending character is punished with an inflict spell of an appropriate level. No attack needs to be made - the spell is delivered through the piece, already being touched by the character. (Players can bypass this through mage hand, but this still doesn't solve the puzzle.) All pieces except the originals can be removed from the puzzle without penalty. Breaking a piece results in an unsolvable puzzle.
Solving the puzzle opens the door to the treasure and causes the free pieces to be absorbed into the wall - these are magically returned to the alcove.
There are some variations you could do with it. For example, if they put a piece in wrong, they get an inflict spell... but if they do it in a way that clearly violates the rules (same row, column, or plane as another of that order), it is maximized and enpowered. You could vary the spell - each order, or each plane, casts a different touch spell. Or, instead of having the spell go off when you put a piece in wrong, it does it only when the 81st piece is in. This will do less damage, and encourage more trial and error... but it also gives the players no clue if they are on the wrong track, potentially wasting lots of time. Which brings me to the next variant: once the players insert the first piece, the doors to the room seal and water starts pouring in, at a rate of a half inch per round. Doesn't seem like much, but if it takes a round to put in a piece or two, then even working quickly they may find they have to hold their breath to complete the puzzle... or drown! Alternatively, you can give them as much time as they want, but plenty of distractions... like a Summon Monster spell appropriate for the party level. A new enemy is summoned each time they defeat the old one, so the party must split efforts between fighting the monsters and solving the puzzle. Lastly, you could remove some of the pieces, having them be found as treasure in later encounters. This way, the PCs know of the puzzle, but can't immediately solve it. (I wouldn't recommend trapping them in the room in this case, however.)
There is only one solution to the puzzle:
X 123 456 789
A 654 283 719
B 382 179 465
C 917 654 382
D 479 318 526
E 268 745 193
F 531 962 847
G 825 497 631
H 796 831 254
I 143 526 978
Where 1 is Red, 2 is Blue, 3 is Green, 4 is Yellow, 5 is Orange, 6 is Brown, 7 is Grey, 8 is Black, and 9 is White.
(You may wish to double check that with the locations above... I'd hate to have made a mistake! At best, it would make the puzzle easier. At worst... it would be impossible.)
Each ranger had an animal companion: a weasle, a raven and a bear. The puzzle has three triggers: one down a small hole, one up high on a ledge and one as heavy as a cart. They all need to be activated at the same time to open the treasure pit.
Ok, I really like this idea (since it's basically a 'Rager' stronghold...
Now what could the trerasure be? Not a weapon... Surely something useful. A stash of magic arrows? Like a few of each (shocking burst, exploding, etc...)
Any insights?
Ultradan