| gameinvestigator |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
So I came up with a game for my player and I need help with make sure it works right.
The camp Castra is home to some man and woman's family who set out 5 years ago to escape a tyrant of Hedgetin who placed a large bounty on them, all in a region within the north-west portion of Aeridia. The family settled down 3 years ago after the oldest member of their band, their 57 year old grandfather, died of pneumonia very early on in their journey. They traveled for 2 years after the grandfather died, crossing a single town before eventually settling down. Though the camp seems abandoned now, the family seems to have constructed a fully functioning fortress. The fortress is complete with a strong wall, several tents, a wagon, a fountain, three weathered combat dummies with iron helmets, two guard towers, two tombstones, and a large iron bell.
The wall is made of logs.
On the inside of the wall, there are some distinctive smells of dog pee all along the edges. Additionally, the walls have three sets of markings for heights: First set has 8 markings up to 3'8", second set has 11 markings up to 4'4", and the third set has 17 markings up to 6'1".
The two smaller tents are empty entirely.
The larger tent is mostly empty, but it does have a large broken table inside, and seventeen mostly used candles lying around the wooden floor in a pile.
The wagon has one item within.
Within the wagon, there is a large linen wrapping. You can not unwrap it for the purposes of the mini-game.
The fountain is filled with standing water.
The fountain is made to be 2 feet above the ground, but the depth is a total of 4 feet. The walls are made of sun dried white clay bricks. Inside are 7 large and black catfish swimming around.
The combat dummies appear used.
The top left and bottom right ones have marks in them below the waist. The middle one has markings all across the body. The top left one is certainly the one in best condition. The iron helmets are unremarkable, except for broken bits off of the neck piece.
The guard towers are made of the same wood that the walls are.
These towers are fairly small, but extend above the wall to a height of about 20 feet. The towers have small ladders going up to them, and boards commonly used to protect against arrows lining the edges of the platforms. They are splintered with multiple arrows.
The two graves.
The wide one made of stone, with pink potted flowers which are still alive reads:
"Castra Tilding, age 54. Died of a broken heart. Survived by her 2 sons and 3 grandaughters."
The smaller one is a stone with a brass plaque. It reads:
"Nathan Tilding, age 57. Pneumonia broke him at last. Survived by his 2 sons, and 1 grandaughter."
The bell is very large, and held up by prosaic wood.
The bell is roughly cast, and clearly was crudely made. It's cracked along multiple areas, and the iron bar which is supposed to be inside is missing, along with any apparent mechanism it should have for ringing it. On the front is the inscription, "Blast! Love with Erathis. Blast! Love for their wards. Blast! Passion in the face of persecution. Blast! Love, together, forever." The wood is unremarkable.
How many people lived in camp Castra before it was abandoned?
Bonus Question:
Can you piece together the story of the family correctly?
| Tinalles |
This brings back unpleasant memories of word puzzles from elementary school math.
Why would the PC care how many people lived here? It seems pretty irrelevant at this point considering they're all dead or gone.
Unless your PC has some serious motivation to decipher this puzzle, expect a standard "Huh, that's weird. I loot the place and leave."
| gameinvestigator |
This brings back unpleasant memories of word puzzles from elementary school math.
Why would the PC care how many people lived here? It seems pretty irrelevant at this point considering they're all dead or gone.
Unless your PC has some serious motivation to decipher this puzzle, expect a standard "Huh, that's weird. I loot the place and leave."
well the Rewards:
1 minor magical item.If you answer both questions correctly,the magical item, which will be replaced by 1 moderate magical item.
| justaworm |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It looks like a fun riddle that you've put some effort into
Here are some things you should consider
- foremost this shouldn't be a problem for the player but rather the pc; it is the pc's world and story after all
- why would the pc know that they should be solving this riddle? Is there a ghost, magic spell, genie, sprite, sign post, etc? Otherwise they will just come across the camp and shrug. You ca just tell them as the GM, but that also yanks the player out of the game
- once the pc knows about the riddle, why solve it? Does the riddle giver offer a magic item? Something complicated will probably take motivation for this mental investment, or the Pc could just move on.
- how are you bridging the gap between the player and pc? A 20 int wizard should figure this out with ease but that doesn't mean the player will. What kind of clues will you offer using the pc's skill checks or wisdom checks, for example. What can be discovered with perception ? Survival? Enigineering? Etc. Let the pc use their abilities to shine.
Good luck !