So I wrote myself into a corner--I promised a puzzle for next week's session, because I don't plan ahead very well. I'm absolutely terrible at coming up with puzzles. I'm sure you guys are better than me, so here's the situation:
The PCs need help from an NPC who is in prison. He knows some information about the location of their mutual friend/mentor who was kidnapped, but he's not telling, and they aren't torturing him because they're all Lawful Good. So I plan on the NPC coming up with a deal: Solve a puzzle or an investigation for him and he'll give them the information he knows. Unfortunately I don't know what kind of puzzle to make.
Optional Background Info: The NPC in question turned himself in to the prison (he's actually hiding from the big bad, whom he used to work for), so he's not going to ask them to spring him out of prison or anything.
Setting is Lands of the Linnorm Kings, PCs are level 2 (human paladin, half-elf rogue, halfling ranger, and human sorcerer). I'd love to hear any idea; I'm a bit desperate.
I guess the first question to answer is what's the NPC's in-character reason for wanting the puzzle solved, or the [whatever] investigated. If you come up with that, it might help you decide what sort of puzzle (or investigation) to be undertaken.
It could be anywhere from the NPC is a bit like "The Joker" (though perhaps without the psychotic murderousness), and wants to put the party through the hoops just to mess with them, to he needs the puzzle solved to get some McGuffin he's been after, but unable to solve, or he needs something investigated in order to find the man who stole his whatsit/kidnapped his best friend/eloped with his daughter or sister/and so on.
Personally, I suck at puzzles, too, but I have an idea that combines both a puzzle and an investigation, somewhat. In the old early-days Traveller game, there used to be the occasional puzzle of navigating a bureaucratic maze to get the approval the party needed in order to do [something]. Usually they had to conduct various side-trades/negotiations even to get one flunky to direct them to the next flunky who would stamp their paper to send them back to the first office for final approval.
Now, how does this apply to something like Lands of the Linnorm Kings? I mean, no bureaucracy there, right?
Well, ok, perhaps this NPC wants/needs some sort of approval from a local Headman or Chief. The party goes to the Headman, and the Headman says he'd like to approve it, but first the whole thing needs the blessing of the Shaman/Druid. They go to said holy man, but the holy man doesn't want to give the blessing because he's in a tiff with the Headman. But he also needs some whatsit from another person (or even a nearby critter), the PCs go there but that person doesn't want to part with it. The PCs need to find out what this entity wants (it's coy about telling them directly), some item or favor that would make it worth their while to part with the item that can be traded to the holy man/shaman/Druid. It turns out the Headman's wife has the only example of this item in the area, so they need to try to get it from her. Only she prizes this McGuffin, too. So. . .
Well you get the point. This can be as elaborate as you want, with as many twists and turns and trades, with the PCs acting as intermediaries, as you'd like.
I don't have any puzzles in mind for you, but perhaps if this guy is in jail and wants to stay there, he still wants to be as comfortable as possible within the jail. Maybe the PCs could obtain some items/make some deals to make the NPC's stay in jail as pleasant as possible.
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He misses his poison of choice, being a special bottle of brandy, a cigar, or a drug. He knows where an Everfull Bottle/Box/Bag of this McGuffin is, and of course would go get it himself if it wasn't for his current situation.
The McGuffin is in one of his former hideouts, but locked away in a clever secret room he built or had built. It isn't like other secret rooms where you just spot the door and open it, you actually have to follow a specific series of actions. If someone breaks in through with force the contents of the room are destroyed.
He will only give them subtle hints to how to open the room, claiming that figuring it out is part of the test. He also tells them that they can have anything else that is in the room because he doesn't need any of it anymore.
The party needs to do three or more actions in order. All of them in the room that the secret door is in. After each action a DC 20 Perception check is needed to hear a click. They could also see some other subtle sign that each action is correct like a clock that changes or a statue that rotates, but he wouldn't tell that about that.
Some of the actions could be:
Opening a window
Closing a door
Leaning back in a chair
Pulling on a book
Straightening a portrait
Pushing a loose floorboard down
His hints could be a riddle, a rhyme, or just archaic phrases, but he wouldn't give them the complete set up.
Once the door is open, you could add in a bonus a combat as some thugs waiting for him to come back and open the secret room jump in and attack.
Inside is more then just the McGuffin and has all sorts of useful and valuable stuff.
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Expanding on Caleb T Gordan's idea above.
The Incarcerated Man's Vault
Prologue:
"Okay, so I haven't had any Pesh since I've got myself locked up. I happen to have a Bottomless Bag of Pesh back home, but as you can see I am unable to get myself out to pick it up.
So I'm going to kill two birds with one stone. First I'm going to alleviate my boredom by watching you dummies try and figure out my stronghold, and I'm going to get my Bottomles Bag back."
He tells you an address in the city.
"Now I didn't just leave it out where any idiot could find it. I had myself a secret Vault beneath the apartment. Of course I'm not just going to tell you how to get in right off the bat, or how to deal with the traps inside, but for each riddle you solve you might get a little hint on how to get through the traps."
Riddle The First: "When Sarenrae wakes up in the morning, to which direction does she roll?"
Clues:
Knowledge (Religion) DC 5: Sarenrae is the sun.
Intelligence DC 0: The Sun rises in the east.
Intelligence DC 15: There is a trick to this question.
Answer: The West, although the sun rises in the east, it "rolls" westwards always, because that is the direction in which it sets.
Correct Answer: "Good job. The hook that hangs my picture of the Sun Goddess is the latch to open the secret door leading to the vault. Don't pull any of the other hooks, they're poison."
Incorrect Answer: "Oooh, sorry chumps. Good luck finding the way into the vault. I recommend taking your time because it's quite heavily hidden."
Riddle The Second: "If Adronax the Centaur has 4, a Bambogg the Girallon has 2 and Machusmo Chimera has none, how many does Silvio the Grig have?"
Clues:
Knowledge (Nature) DC 8: Show a Picture of the Centaur.
Knowledge (Nature) DC 12: Show a picture of a Girallon.
Knowledge (Nature) DC 15: Show a picture of a Chimera
Knowledge (Nature) DC 17: Show a picture of a Grig.
Intelligence DC 5: He's talking about limbs.
Intelligence DC 15: He's talking about hands.
Answer: 2.
Correct Answer: "Very good, okay then. Watch your step when you head down the ladder. Some of the rungs may be... loose."
Incorrect Answer: "At this rate you're going to end up dead at the bottom of some pit."
Riddle the Third: "A terrible thing lives in the forest, she is old when she's born, has two eyes when she's young and three when she's old. What is she?"
Clues:
Knowlege (Local) DC 10: There are stories of many things that live in the forest. Green Vangross that eats unwary travellers, The Mumbershut Clan who prey on caravans and horses, Aunty Skackles who it is said kidnaps naughty children, and The Rotten Tree that hangs the guilty and innocent alike from its boughs.
Knowledge (Local) DC 15: Green Vangross is a Tatzlwyrm, The Mumbershut Clan are Ogres, Aunty Skackles is a Green Hag, and the Rotten Tree is an Ent that was corrupted by Aunty.
Knowledge (Local) DC 18: Green Hags live in Forests and Swamps. Annis hags tend towards caves. Night Hags rove the planes. Sea Hags live in the sea. Swamp Hags tend to stick to swamps.
Intelligence DC 5: He's not asking for who but what?
Intelligence DC 15: The Answer is a Hag, but which kind.
Answer: Green Hag
Correct Answer: "The Iron Cobra is a savage beast, but can be soothed by a simple tune, played on a pipe." (He whistles the tune).
Incorrect Answer: "Oh you poor sods. It's a shame I was really looking forward to that Pesh."
Part 1 Entry
The Incarcerated Man's former home is in a basement apartment beneath a bakery. A set of stairs lead down off the street to a heavy wooden door with an Average Lock (Disable Device DC 25). If they can't convince the Incarcerated Man to give them the Key (Diplomacy DC 15+ his Cha mod) then they will need to pick the lock.
Otherwise they can walk around the building and they find one of his windows smashed and broken on the other side of the building (Perception DC 15).
Once the PCs get inside they find an apartment in disarray. Somebody has very obviously been inside the apartment and turned it upside-down searching for something. (It might be the McGuffin the PCs are after, or it might be something else the prisoner has). In any case they can find a muddy bootprint just beneath the window with a DC 5 Perception check. A DC 15 Perception check reveals some dried blood on the window (where the burgular cut themselves).
With the room in disarray (and the pictures taken off the walls) it's going to be difficult to tell which hook to pull. Allow the PCs a DC 10 Perception check to find the 4 picture hooks on the walls. The pictures themselves are strewn about the apartment (Each successful DC 15 Perception check reveals 1 picture at random. None of which is the Portrait of Sarenrae (the burgular took it to resell)). These pictures depict: Framed Sheet Music with a title in Qadiran (A DC 10 Linguistics check translates the title of the music as "The Snake Charmer's Song"), A Pretty Woman and her Daughter (the criminal's family that left him long ago), and a still life of some fruit.
(Hand the PCs 3 hand-outs each of a different size and orientation, and then show them a picture of 4 squares. Where the damp had settled behind the pictures approximating their size). If the Players can't figure it out have them roll an Intelligence or Wisdom Check vs DC 12. Each Successful check matches a picture to a hook. (Via process of elimination the hook the PCs are looking for is the one picture they don't have). Alternatively the PCs might figure it out by seeing which hooks are poisoned and which aren't.
Terinav Root Poison Trap Trigger: Touching the wrong hook. Perception DC 15, Disable Device DC 15, Save DC16; [b]Effect: PC is poisoned by Terinav Root (see PRD) Reset: None.
Secret Door: Perception DC 25. The Trap Door is made of a 6 inch wood. (Break DC 20, Disable Device DC 20, hp 60).
Part 2: The Ladder Down
The Ladder down goes down 30 ft. If PCs don't know about the tricky rungs they trigger the trap automatically by climbing down. If they do they can climb carefully. The DC to Climb down avoiding the rungs is 10.
Trick Rungs Trap CR 1 Trigger:Pulling the Wrong Rung. Perception DC 20; Disable Device DC: 20. Effect: PC drops from whatever height they triggered the trap taking falling damage as appropriate. (First trigger does 3d6, second trigger does 2d6, third trigger does 1d6).
Part 3: Cobra Taming
The sub-basement opens up into a large circular chamber. A number of pedastals with magic items are around the room (5 pedastals. One has a Bottomless Bag of Pesh, another has Pipes of the Sewers, and the other three have Minor Magic items of the GM's choice).
Monster: Advanced Mithral Cobra CR 4. Hp: 30 (The Cobra has 4 doses of Large Spider Venom).
Development: The Cobra has orders to not attack anyone who plays the tune on a set of pipes (the PCs can use the Pipes of the Sewers, or their own if they have them). It takes a DC 10 Perform (Wind Instruments) Check to successfully keep the Cobra still. (Failing the Check means the Cobra fights for a round). A PC can make the check untrained if he has the Sheet Music (found in Area 1).
Conclusion: If the PCs are able to retrieve the Bag, then the Incarcerated Man gives the PCs the information they seek.
Apologies for mistakes, inconsistencies and rushed formatting. Had to do this during my lunchbreak.
Mind you I'm just a player and only a somewhat experienced one at that. However, these kinds of things intrigue me, so I figured I'd give my cents worth in ideas.
ITEM: Prisoner wants a smoking pipe. Intricate designs and is in fact magical. Whomever smokes from it receives the benefits of the spell Mind Blank. If they stop smoking they receive the benefits for 1 hr afterwards. Prisoner explains he wants it to keep forced intrusions away and won't help the party until it is permanently in his possession. Of course the object could be something silly and small, like his journal or a lighter he lost in a bet long ago.
The item was taken back from him by a wizard, one whom had died off years ago. Sadly the wizard with aid of hired help, rigged the place with confounding puzzles and traps to keep his item safe.
Puzzle Idea: The party enters a room, with a large hall at the center and 2 small halls, one off to each side, beside the large hall. Inside the large hall they can see 2 large metal locked gates beside one large heavily barred cage. Inside the cage lies a very nasty creature that the party will probably not want to mess with. (Your choice of course.) Magic won't do anything to these bars for some reason and they won't budge, which should lead them down the side halls.
Preferably you have them split up into teams of 2, one team for each hall. Once they go so far down the hall, a solid wall juts up from the floor and blocks the path behind them. When they go on, they will meet a dead end however there are multiple levers on the walls. Each lever has a letter directly above it.
Each lever is either connected to a trap that effects the other sealed in team or when pulled down in the proper order to make a specific word (probably given to them in the form of a riddle or two) does nothing, at least until the word is completed on both sides.
For example: Lets say the word is "Once". If the party pulls a lever starting out that isn't the letter "O" then something will happen to the other half of the party that went down the other hall. Lets say they pull the "W" letter, then perhaps the other party members room starts to fill with water, either continuing to fill until the lever is put back into place or only filled slightly and filled again with each incorrect letter. If a letter is correct and in the proper order, the letter above the lever glows magically and the handle locks into place to symbolize they are on the right path.
As for the monster in the cage, he is let loose after so many incorrect letters are guessed or if guessed correctly if you wish. (Just for fun.)
They can't hear each other, or at least much of anything as the rooms are enclosed.
Easy if they figure out the word in the riddle (which could be harder if put in a foreign language like orc and noted by the prisoner, saying the lead builder was an orc.)
I also realize this could be a potential death trap, and how lethal and or easy it is would be up to you. I'm sure I can come up with other ideas, Dudemeister's is pretty good though and like I said, I'm not entirely experienced at these things, so feel free to throw the idea aside... gently. ;D
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RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32
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Expanding on Caleb T Gordan's idea above.
The Incarcerated Man's Vault
You did better then I did with a lunch break. I was also at work when I wrote up my response and didn't have the time to expand it like you did. Kudos to the awesome riddles!
Wow, so many good ideas! I love the incarcerated man's vault, Caleb and Dudemeister! Pophyrogenitus' beaurocratic maze idea is great, not quite what I'm looking for with this situation, but I will probably use it at some point. And Third, the pipe and the puzzle are both great. I could also see the monster in the puzzle being a nasty underwater Lovecraftian horror in a pool (no cage), and every time they guess a wrong letter the room fills with a couple inches of water, until there's finally enough for the monster to swim out and try to eat their legs...
Man, I don't know if I can pick. I might have to create more situations later on so I can use all of these.
I really like the water monster idea. To add a bit of difficulty you could have say the left hall's levers correspond to odd numbers, the right side hallway correspond to even numbers and both sides have to work on pulling the correct levers all for one word. So, for example, say the word was "Doomsday" the left side would be responsible for the letters "D, O, S, and A" while the right side would be responsible for the letters, "O, M, D, and Y" and each side must respectively pull their letters in correct sequence.
Actually, this thread has been inspirational overall, as I am inspired to create a bunch of random puzzles and write them out, later on making a book / pamphlet that I could go to for puzzles. :D