Could somebody explain that puzzle like I'm five? English is not my first language and I just don't get it.
Are the missing lanterns important to the solution of the puzzle? What is the solution anyway? Can the players go to the passage at the northeast just climbing, without doing anything with the sarcophagus? How do they can figure out that the sarcophagus can move? Nothing happens if the sarcophagus is pointed at the direction of the blue or violet lanterns?
Thank in advance.
Players can go to the passage at anytime, but until the lanterns are lit, there is no way to move beyond the face. The face remains closed and the trap is still active until then.
For the sarcophagus, I recommend just telling your players that it appears it can move, if they decide to search the sarcophagus. If you like, you can set a simple check, such as DC 10 to find that it moves. You are correct, nothing happens if you point it at the blue or violet tunnels.
I'm pretty much in agreement with donato.
Are the missing lanterns important to the solution of the puzzle? What is the solution anyway?
Yes. All seven lanterns have to be in place, and lit (most likely by placing a burning torch in each one). When they are, the trap is disarmed and the mouth of the stone face opens, giving access to the the true tomb. The trap itself gives a clue to this, if it is triggered, by shining in the colours of all the lanterns that haven't yet been lit.
Can the players go to the passage at the northeast just climbing, without doing anything with the sarcophagus?
Yes. There's no false ceiling, or elevator, or anything like that - the shaft over the blue lantern just goes up higher than all the others. The PCs can climb up the shaft at any time, and then crawl along the passage of the face. They'll trigger the trap when they get 60 feet down the passage, of course, if the lit lanterns aren't all in place.
How do they can figure out that the sarcophagus can move?
The clue to this is the raised platform on which the sarcophagus sits - it's in the shape of an arrow. If your players don't work this out just from the description, you might consider giving anyone examining the sarcophagus a DC 15 Search or Spot check to notice scratches on the floor in circular arcs.
Nothing happens if the sarcophagus is pointed at the direction of the blue or violet lanterns?
Yes. In fact, nothing happens when the sarcophagus is pointed at the red, orange, blue or violet passages. Note that the movement of the sarcophagus, and what happens when it's pointed at the different passages, is unaffected by whether or not there are lanterns in those passages.
While we're on the lantern puzzle, does anyone know the significance of the missing finger on the tomb in the main chamber? I gave my players a handout of the upper half of that picture, wanting to hide the zoom-in in the bottom half, and my players latched on to the missing finger. The text mentions that this is a clue to finding the true tomb, but I can't find anything in the text about its actual importance...
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It's a red hearing. Their are a lot of them in this AP. Feel free to make any thing you want out of it. Some of the red hearings make really good side quest if your inclined to put them together. That's one of the main reason I'm running this AP for a second time. It has turned out totally different then the first time I ran it.
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While we're on the lantern puzzle, does anyone know the significance of the missing finger on the tomb in the main chamber? I gave my players a handout of the upper half of that picture, wanting to hide the zoom-in in the bottom half, and my players latched on to the missing finger. The text mentions that this is a clue to finding the true tomb, but I can't find anything in the text about its actual importance...
The missing finger itself isn't significant - it was broken off by tomb robbers ages ago and can be found among rubble elsewhere in the tomb - but the three extended fingers on the hand are a (rather obscure) clue. They indicate that if you turn the sarcophagus three clicks clockwise, from its starting position facing the orange tunnel, it will be facing the entrance to the true tomb, in the blue tunnel.
Ohhhhh. Now I get it. Thanks, Callum!
It's supposed to be 4 fingers right, one is broken off. So it's 4 clicks from Red. But it still works with 3 fingers, 3 clicks from it's starting position of Orange. My party didn't even notice any significance in the broken finger. It's not a strong hint. The best hint for my group was the crushed skeleton just sitting in the Blue tunnel terminus. They all searched and several noticed the extended ceiling.
As an aside, I misread it at first and indicated to my players that the lanterns present were already lit and the other two were just missing. The green lantern being lit threw me off. That took some serious DM voodoo to fix that mistake. They have to find them all and then light them all to deactivate the Face in Darkness above Blue.