My players were asking for more puzzles so I'm adding an optional one but would love advice. I'm running LMoP which is puzzle light and wanted to adapt a standard item reward in Cragmaw Castle to be a puzzle reward. I'm a lore heavy DM and they are kind of power gamer and slayer focused... so they might not remember enough details to solve the puzzle!
In my campaign, a minstrel band put on a play several sessions ago based on the birth of Tymora and Beshaba from Tyche. Tyche found a diseased rose planted by Moander and wore it in her hair. Her friend, Selune, Goddess of the Moon, killed her in cleansing light before it could rot Tyche's essence entirely and out sprang Tymora, Goddess of Luck, and Beshaba, Maid of Misfortune. In the play Tymora wore a gold circlet and Beshaba wore a crown of antlers, her symbol. The minstrels were really Harpers called by a cleric Sister Garaelle to take down the town villain Glasstaff. The party simply got to him first.
This session, goblins have taken over an ancient human castle and the party will be in a church section.
I have two versions of the puzzle and I'm debating which one to use.
The simple one is that there will be several stone statues to various gods including Tymora. Each god is clutching some symbol associated with them, except for Tymora who has an open hand. Each statue also has an opening which seemed to contain an object, except the Tymora statue is still locked. How does it open? Quite easy if you know anything about Tymora.
The harder version I'm mulling has three circular hollows at the base of three statues, Tyche, Tymora, and Beshaba. There will also be two stone emblems that fit the hollows, one with an icon of a rose and another an icon of antlers. This one builds off the previous but the party would have to remember the minstrel's play and the lore to know the proper configuration!
The reward is a gold statuette of Tymora which can be used to cast Augury. After they use it, the players will likely be encouraged to trade it to Sister Garaelle, who worships Tymora for a Harper reputation reward.
Seems fine to me. If players need help, you can see if they remember the story with INT checks. And religion and history checks may get them additional relevant (or irrelevant if you want to play it that way) hints.
I agree, the puzzle seems fine. And a good way to bring some of those less frequently used skills into play.
Remember there is a chance the party will completely fail to solve, or even to see, the puzzle. If this happens they will not get the gold statuette, will not get the Augury, and will not get he Harper reputation award. All of these are OK. Not every puzzle has to be solved. If they simply must succeed or the campaign is derailed, just give it to them in a long cut scene. For puzzles to be meaningful it must be possible for them to remain unsolved.
I thought about an interesting detail that there's a brute force way of getting the gold statuette. Break the stone statue open. Doing so will curse the subject. Since Tymora is the Goddess of Luck, the offending player will not be able to gain advantage until the curse is lifted!
As far as them not seeing the puzzle is concerned, there is a 1 in 2 chance they enter the room based on dungeon layout and the players are usually pretty thorough about exploration... unless it may lead to a fight!
Be sure the players and/or their characters know something about Tymora. Usually it seems simple in your head but if the players don't follow lore they'll scratch their heads and you'll bang yours on the table.
Okay, so the full puzzle and hints I've developed are as follows:
The church is separated into a small cathedral portion and a preparation room. In the cathedral section is a multi-faceted statue of Tyche, Tymora, and Beshaba, with three hollows at the base. In the preparation room, there is a gold chalice and censer. Inside the censer, are two coins, one electrum and one silver. Picking up the censer is all that's needed to know the coins are hidden inside.
A passive perception of 12 is needed to realize that the coins are actually not standard print (like how you notice the difference between a Canadian penny and an American one). The electrum has an emblem of a rose and the silver has an emblem of antlers. Alternatively the player can just inspect the coins.
A DC 12 intelligence check will have the player remember the saying "A copper to the Lady returns tenfold in gold."
A DC 15 intelligence check will make the player remember the story from the play (or the players can simply remember it).
And a DC 18 intelligence check will allow the players to know that electrum is actually a naturally occurring gold / silver alloy. This hint allows them to know that the electrum coin is associated with Tyche who split to form Tymora and Beshaba.
The solution is to put the electrum coin with the rose in the hollow associated with Tyche, to put the silver coin in the hollow associated with Beshaba, and to take a COPPER coin from the player's pouch and put it in the hollow associated with Tymora. This is a small twist... this statue is an enchanted treasure chest, and Beshaba is jealous. She would never allow Tymora to be associated with gold while she herself is only associated with Silver. Of course, by being associated with good fortune, Tymora can easily transform that copper to gold.
The alternate easy solution is to simply break the statue open, which will curse the offending player!
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My players were asking for more puzzles so I'm adding an optional one but would love advice. I'm running LMoP which is puzzle light and wanted to adapt a standard item reward in Cragmaw Castle to be a puzzle reward. I'm a lore heavy DM and they are kind of power gamer and slayer focused... so they might not remember enough details to solve the puzzle!
In my campaign, a minstrel band put on a play several sessions ago based on the birth of Tymora and Beshaba from Tyche. Tyche found a diseased rose planted by Moander and wore it in her hair. Her friend, Selune, Goddess of the Moon, killed her in cleansing light before it could rot Tyche's essence entirely and out sprang Tymora, Goddess of Luck, and Beshaba, Maid of Misfortune. In the play Tymora wore a gold circlet and Beshaba wore a crown of antlers, her symbol. The minstrels were really Harpers called by a cleric Sister Garaelle to take down the town villain Glasstaff. The party simply got to him first.
This session, goblins have taken over an ancient human castle and the party will be in a church section.
I have two versions of the puzzle and I'm debating which one to use.
The simple one is that there will be several stone statues to various gods including Tymora. Each god is clutching some symbol associated with them, except for Tymora who has an open hand. Each statue also has an opening which seemed to contain an object, except the Tymora statue is still locked. How does it open? Quite easy if you know anything about Tymora.
The harder version I'm mulling has three circular hollows at the base of three statues, Tyche, Tymora, and Beshaba. There will also be two stone emblems that fit the hollows, one with an icon of a rose and another an icon of antlers. This one builds off the previous but the party would have to remember the minstrel's play and the lore to know the proper configuration!
The reward is a gold statuette of Tymora which can be used to cast Augury. After they use it, the players will likely be encouraged to trade it to Sister Garaelle, who worships Tymora for a Harper reputation reward.
Seems fine to me. If players need help, you can see if they remember the story with INT checks. And religion and history checks may get them additional relevant (or irrelevant if you want to play it that way) hints.
I agree, the puzzle seems fine. And a good way to bring some of those less frequently used skills into play.
Remember there is a chance the party will completely fail to solve, or even to see, the puzzle. If this happens they will not get the gold statuette, will not get the Augury, and will not get he Harper reputation award. All of these are OK. Not every puzzle has to be solved. If they simply must succeed or the campaign is derailed, just give it to them in a long cut scene. For puzzles to be meaningful it must be possible for them to remain unsolved.
I thought about an interesting detail that there's a brute force way of getting the gold statuette. Break the stone statue open. Doing so will curse the subject. Since Tymora is the Goddess of Luck, the offending player will not be able to gain advantage until the curse is lifted!
As far as them not seeing the puzzle is concerned, there is a 1 in 2 chance they enter the room based on dungeon layout and the players are usually pretty thorough about exploration... unless it may lead to a fight!
Be sure the players and/or their characters know something about Tymora. Usually it seems simple in your head but if the players don't follow lore they'll scratch their heads and you'll bang yours on the table.
Okay, so the full puzzle and hints I've developed are as follows:
The church is separated into a small cathedral portion and a preparation room. In the cathedral section is a multi-faceted statue of Tyche, Tymora, and Beshaba, with three hollows at the base. In the preparation room, there is a gold chalice and censer. Inside the censer, are two coins, one electrum and one silver. Picking up the censer is all that's needed to know the coins are hidden inside.
A passive perception of 12 is needed to realize that the coins are actually not standard print (like how you notice the difference between a Canadian penny and an American one). The electrum has an emblem of a rose and the silver has an emblem of antlers. Alternatively the player can just inspect the coins.
A DC 12 intelligence check will have the player remember the saying "A copper to the Lady returns tenfold in gold."
A DC 15 intelligence check will make the player remember the story from the play (or the players can simply remember it).
And a DC 18 intelligence check will allow the players to know that electrum is actually a naturally occurring gold / silver alloy. This hint allows them to know that the electrum coin is associated with Tyche who split to form Tymora and Beshaba.
The solution is to put the electrum coin with the rose in the hollow associated with Tyche, to put the silver coin in the hollow associated with Beshaba, and to take a COPPER coin from the player's pouch and put it in the hollow associated with Tymora. This is a small twist... this statue is an enchanted treasure chest, and Beshaba is jealous. She would never allow Tymora to be associated with gold while she herself is only associated with Silver. Of course, by being associated with good fortune, Tymora can easily transform that copper to gold.
The alternate easy solution is to simply break the statue open, which will curse the offending player!