A wizard in my custom campaign has found a spellbook with a decent amount of spells. But I want to give him another homebrew spell I found, except that I want him to "unlock" the spell in the book through a riddle of some sort.
It is a homebrew spell for weapon storing, Alunni's Infinite Armory - Credits to the maker of the spell ofcourse!
So I have decided that the spell is written in Deep Speech, but the wizard is able to use Comprehend Languages. So I want to make it a bit difficult for him to properly reveal the spell. A riddle could be written in Deep Speech and if he performs an action or speak a word, or anything like that he will unlock the spell and be able to copy it eventually.
But I am not sure what type of riddle to use for this! So I am asking for help. Short story on how he acquired the book: The party was jailed in the underdark, taken by drows that decimated a dwarven city they visited. They flawlessly managed to break out and defeat a large group of drows with excellent teamwork. One of these drows had a spellbook (and he was very powerful). So he took the book with him, I presented the spells that were written, and now theres this one spell remaining.
Hopefully theres a riddler reading this, able to provide some proper clever way to "unlock" it!
I'm don't really have the skills to write a whole riddle (I can do general ideas and specific improvements, but not good at creating a first draft, Idk why), but here is an idea I had.
Some kind of metaphor of various weapons resting and waiting in their house. And the answer of what the house is, or where the weapons wait is "armory." With various synonyms for rest and waiting possibly with alliteration such as "Where swords sleep. Where spears wait silently."
How adept is this player? Personally, a cipher in a poem like Highland_Troll suggested would be too easy for me, but I'm a fan of ciphers, riddles, cryptography, etc. However I have players that have a hard time figuring out a 5 letter anagram and riddles just glaze their eyes over.
If they're into puzzles and such, have fun with the whole Drow idea and give them a two part reveal. Have them find a brooch or holy symbol that's a spider, and have them find a piece of paper with what appears to be random letters/words. The spider, when placed on the paper, reveals the necessary letters, or words, to reveal the hidden spell. If you can pull it off using physical props, that would be even more fun.
"I have found a way using silver wire to store and summon weapons in extradimensional space. The spell brands the benefactors of the spell with the wire appearing as a tattoo would. Speak and reveal: Alunni's Infinite Armory -Alunni"
N YEQH MFOSR E PEC OZNSB ZNTQHD PNDH UF ZUFDH ESR ZOIIFS PHEKFSZ NS HWUDERNIHSZNFSET ZKEJH. UYH ZKHTT GDESRZ UYH GHSHMEJUFDZ FM UYH ZKHTT PNUY UYH PNDH EKKHEDNSB EZ E UEUUFF PFOTR. ZKHEV ESR DHQHET: ETOSSN'Z NSMNSNUH EDIFDC -ETOSSN
The recommended hint was: H = E, but if you want to make this easier, maybe print or write this out, then display but cross out -ETOSSN and replace it with ALUNNI giving them a number of letters to work with so maybe they complete it faster. The entire thing can be written in Deep Speech of course as well, limiting the individual to having to work on it on their own if you like.
Completion of the cryptogram magically unlocks the spell which becomes visible once they speak the name of the spell (possibly even appearing from extradimensional space on a piece of paper if the notes on this page were written in silver?).
What other spells were in the spellbook? Maybe the riddle could include those spells leading to one ultimate spell (in this case the one you mentioned).
I went with the "armory" riddle at first, making it a two part riddle seems like a way I seem fitting to reveal the spell. They escaped the whole drow situation, thus making it hard to include any drow action at this moment.
"I have found a way using silver wire to store and summon weapons in extradimensional space. The spell brands the benefactors of the spell with the wire appearing as a tattoo would. Speak and reveal: Alunni's Infinite Armory -Alunni"
N YEQH MFOSR E PEC OZNSB ZNTQHD PNDH UF ZUFDH ESR ZOIIFS PHEKFSZ NS HWUDERNIHSZNFSET ZKEJH. UYH ZKHTT GDESRZ UYH GHSHMEJUFDZ FM UYH ZKHTT PNUY UYH PNDH EKKHEDNSB EZ E UEUUFF PFOTR. ZKHEV ESR DHQHET: ETOSSN'Z NSMNSNUH EDIFDC -ETOSSN
The recommended hint was: H = E, but if you want to make this easier, maybe print or write this out, then display but cross out -ETOSSN and replace it with ALUNNI giving them a number of letters to work with so maybe they complete it faster. The entire thing can be written in Deep Speech of course as well, limiting the individual to having to work on it on their own if you like.
Completion of the cryptogram magically unlocks the spell which becomes visible once they speak the name of the spell (possibly even appearing from extradimensional space on a piece of paper if the notes on this page were written in silver?).
This is a good one, might be complicated but I think I can go from there. Since he can comprehend languages, that will reveal the text. So perhaps I'll go with "Alunni" as the spellword. As of now I got "Where swords sleep, and daggers wait silently, where the story of a shield is told. Speak the word where they belong, and the belongings shall be yours to forever hold." This is a small text on the page, and the only text visible to him.
Thanks for the tips everyone!
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Hi!
A wizard in my custom campaign has found a spellbook with a decent amount of spells. But I want to give him another homebrew spell I found, except that I want him to "unlock" the spell in the book through a riddle of some sort.
It is a homebrew spell for weapon storing, Alunni's Infinite Armory - Credits to the maker of the spell ofcourse!
So I have decided that the spell is written in Deep Speech, but the wizard is able to use Comprehend Languages. So I want to make it a bit difficult for him to properly reveal the spell. A riddle could be written in Deep Speech and if he performs an action or speak a word, or anything like that he will unlock the spell and be able to copy it eventually.
But I am not sure what type of riddle to use for this! So I am asking for help.
Short story on how he acquired the book: The party was jailed in the underdark, taken by drows that decimated a dwarven city they visited. They flawlessly managed to break out and defeat a large group of drows with excellent teamwork. One of these drows had a spellbook (and he was very powerful).
So he took the book with him, I presented the spells that were written, and now theres this one spell remaining.
Hopefully theres a riddler reading this, able to provide some proper clever way to "unlock" it!
I'm don't really have the skills to write a whole riddle (I can do general ideas and specific improvements, but not good at creating a first draft, Idk why), but here is an idea I had.
Some kind of metaphor of various weapons resting and waiting in their house. And the answer of what the house is, or where the weapons wait is "armory." With various synonyms for rest and waiting possibly with alliteration such as "Where swords sleep. Where spears wait silently."
An acrostic - a poem where the first (and last?) letter of each line spells out (no pun intended!) the name of the spell.
How adept is this player? Personally, a cipher in a poem like Highland_Troll suggested would be too easy for me, but I'm a fan of ciphers, riddles, cryptography, etc. However I have players that have a hard time figuring out a 5 letter anagram and riddles just glaze their eyes over.
If they're into puzzles and such, have fun with the whole Drow idea and give them a two part reveal. Have them find a brooch or holy symbol that's a spider, and have them find a piece of paper with what appears to be random letters/words. The spider, when placed on the paper, reveals the necessary letters, or words, to reveal the hidden spell. If you can pull it off using physical props, that would be even more fun.
From a website that creates cryptograms:
"I have found a way using silver wire to store and summon weapons in extradimensional space. The spell brands the benefactors of the spell with the wire appearing as a tattoo would. Speak and reveal: Alunni's Infinite Armory -Alunni"
N YEQH MFOSR E PEC OZNSB ZNTQHD PNDH UF ZUFDH ESR ZOIIFS PHEKFSZ NS HWUDERNIHSZNFSET ZKEJH. UYH ZKHTT GDESRZ UYH GHSHMEJUFDZ FM UYH ZKHTT PNUY UYH PNDH EKKHEDNSB EZ E UEUUFF PFOTR. ZKHEV ESR DHQHET: ETOSSN'Z NSMNSNUH EDIFDC -ETOSSN
The recommended hint was: H = E, but if you want to make this easier, maybe print or write this out, then display but cross out -ETOSSN and replace it with ALUNNI giving them a number of letters to work with so maybe they complete it faster. The entire thing can be written in Deep Speech of course as well, limiting the individual to having to work on it on their own if you like.
Completion of the cryptogram magically unlocks the spell which becomes visible once they speak the name of the spell (possibly even appearing from extradimensional space on a piece of paper if the notes on this page were written in silver?).
What other spells were in the spellbook? Maybe the riddle could include those spells leading to one ultimate spell (in this case the one you mentioned).
Thanks for the ideas!
I went with the "armory" riddle at first, making it a two part riddle seems like a way I seem fitting to reveal the spell. They escaped the whole drow situation, thus making it hard to include any drow action at this moment.
This is a good one, might be complicated but I think I can go from there. Since he can comprehend languages, that will reveal the text. So perhaps I'll go with "Alunni" as the spellword. As of now I got
"Where swords sleep, and daggers wait silently, where the story of a shield is told. Speak the word where they belong, and the belongings shall be yours to forever hold."
This is a small text on the page, and the only text visible to him.
Thanks for the tips everyone!