Post by Lokuzt on Jun 7, 2013 12:52:33 GMT -5
Here's the link for the complete items and rules : lokuzt.tumblr.com/post/40643842118/twin-snakes-heres-how-the-puzzle-works-what
Please, feel free to run and adapt it!
I have to admit I was kind of scared at first that this might be quite a big of a challenge, but they actually did pretty well! the team effort that went into solving it was awesome, and totally worth the hours I spent preparing this encounter.
Here's how it went: After a short battle encounter and some exploration I had the players rolling on a treasure table I had prepared beforehand, one found the wooden box with the coins.
They then had to make successful hard perception DCs, some arcana and history checks. With their results they found out that these coins started radiating a particular glow when they were close to a previously found handout (the diagram with the twin snakes), that they were of a similar craft and that placing the tokens over the circles in the diagram made a faint hum. Also, I told the Eladrin wizard that his character recognized the snakes as an ancient symbol for portals. That got them hooked!
Then, by rolling 1d6+1+ their Wis or Int modifiers (this was sort of an on-the-fly house rulish maneuver) I would hand them clues on thin strips of paper, explaining that they were visions their character perceived inspired by the magical humming. I had sort of calculated how many clues each one could get, setting a limit of 10 as a max and 2 as min. (My party has 5 players)
There was indeed a pause at first where they did get a little frustrated, because everyone was trying to make sense of and solve their clues individually. It took them less than 3 minutes to start sharing notes and comparing their results, and after an hour or so they figured out the name of the serpents, what each symbol stood for, how many and which symbols were fake, and where each symbol had to be laid on the serpent diagram.
As they activated it, two voices (one feminine, clear and high, the other masculine coarse and gruff, each overlapping like an echo) came from the diagram, asking for a password which left the characters stumped again... and our session was over, the game left in a cliffhanger!
MWAHAHAHA
They are still investigating the source of the items, and searching for the password.
I recently had people commenting on my blog that the puzzle was hard to understand. Do you see any particular problems adapting or running it? I could really appreciate some feedback on this, so I could get to work on more puzzles.
Enjoy and thanks in advance!
Please, feel free to run and adapt it!
I have to admit I was kind of scared at first that this might be quite a big of a challenge, but they actually did pretty well! the team effort that went into solving it was awesome, and totally worth the hours I spent preparing this encounter.
Here's how it went: After a short battle encounter and some exploration I had the players rolling on a treasure table I had prepared beforehand, one found the wooden box with the coins.
They then had to make successful hard perception DCs, some arcana and history checks. With their results they found out that these coins started radiating a particular glow when they were close to a previously found handout (the diagram with the twin snakes), that they were of a similar craft and that placing the tokens over the circles in the diagram made a faint hum. Also, I told the Eladrin wizard that his character recognized the snakes as an ancient symbol for portals. That got them hooked!
Then, by rolling 1d6+1+ their Wis or Int modifiers (this was sort of an on-the-fly house rulish maneuver) I would hand them clues on thin strips of paper, explaining that they were visions their character perceived inspired by the magical humming. I had sort of calculated how many clues each one could get, setting a limit of 10 as a max and 2 as min. (My party has 5 players)
There was indeed a pause at first where they did get a little frustrated, because everyone was trying to make sense of and solve their clues individually. It took them less than 3 minutes to start sharing notes and comparing their results, and after an hour or so they figured out the name of the serpents, what each symbol stood for, how many and which symbols were fake, and where each symbol had to be laid on the serpent diagram.
As they activated it, two voices (one feminine, clear and high, the other masculine coarse and gruff, each overlapping like an echo) came from the diagram, asking for a password which left the characters stumped again... and our session was over, the game left in a cliffhanger!
MWAHAHAHAThey are still investigating the source of the items, and searching for the password.
I recently had people commenting on my blog that the puzzle was hard to understand. Do you see any particular problems adapting or running it? I could really appreciate some feedback on this, so I could get to work on more puzzles.
Enjoy and thanks in advance!
