Is that this puzzle, as introduced, solvable by the common participant, with solely the data included beneath? If not, what would have to be added/modified/outtaken to make it extra logical and cohesive (however not inordinately easy).
The Context
The gamers are in an archaeology delve right into a metropolis that has been frozen in time. The denizens of town go about their every day lives, frozen halfway by means of no matter they have been doing at that second. Researchers are learning them after lastly managing to interrupt by means of the (as of then) sealed gates and excessive partitions. They discover a huge carving of a Baast Sphinx abutting the plateau upon which the temple ward sits. At its base is a mirrored image pool, just a few centimeters deep on polished marble. Rising from it’s a plinth, upon and round which relaxation a number of bronze plates, untouched by the ravages of time…
The Puzzle
There’s a waist-high stone plinth, inside which a round divot is made, the face of which is oriented roughly at a ~70* Angle from the bottom, and has a easy engraving of a sunburst with 14 rays in the midst of the round despair.
The puzzle consists of 14 steel plates, upon every a riddle is written. There are two round scarab amulets, one in rose gold and one in white gold. All of those will not be hooked up to the plinth by any means, and could also be taken out or moved at will.
The completely different segments will, when all place, match snugly throughout the despair. Their riddles have to be answered accurately, and the 14 plates have to be in place, and oriented accurately relative to one another for the puzzle to be solved and a close-by secret passageway to open.
A Trace could also be offered by a close-by reside Baast Sphinx as to the orientation of the plates:
“the Horizon is a gathering level of the heavens and the earth, a grade
upon which spins the axis of time, when one holds daybreak in a single’s palm.”
The plates are all identically formed and sized, save for 4, every of which have a hemispherical minimize from considered one of their edges. They every have a sunbeam engraved on the bottom, corresponding with any one of many 14 on the plinth.
When laid flat, the rose scarab is perpendicular to a horizontal sunbeam, its head dealing with the “North” facet of the amulet; the white scarab can also be perpendicular to its sunbeam, dealing with the “south” facet of the amulet.
Initially of the puzzle, there’s a single piece of the puzzle (particularly the “solar”) sitting within the stone plinth, oriented on the very backside (the place “river” must be) whereas the remaining are scattered concerning the ground instantly close by.
The Riddles
- [Dawn]I’m instances starting, and instances finish. The solar, star, moon, all my buddies. With rosette hue I paint the world, as leaf, unconscious, is unfurled. I’m loss of life, delivery, and rebirth, for the turning of the earth.
- [Clouds] We’re the canvas of the attention’s painter, the playthings of the gods, torn, hire, and shrove asunder, our tops alight, at morn so underneath. We’re thrown from heaven to the earth, laden with sorrow and thunderous mirth.
- [Birds] We’re the sailors of the limitless blue, brown, white, and each hue. Heralds of the daybreak above the cloud, with limitless songs we’re endowed. Lovers greet us with stone in hand, but our voices they do demand.
- [Sun]I reign unchallenged from my throne, throughout my area I rule alone. Nobody might dissent my would possibly, upon my most favored topics I render blight. All I see beneath my eye, is mine to offer life, or bid to die.
- [Rest] I steal upon you after your forehead is sweated, usually is my presence feted. Nobody denies me, though they fight. I shut the thoughts and relieve the fraught, and silence I convey to hurried thought.
- [Stars] We watch over the lands beneath. When previous Solar’s zenith, our
faces present. Candles floating upon the ocean, we die, are reborn,
eternally. - [Mountain] I’m the oldest within the land, the best boulder, the
best sand. I contact the rock beneath, and from my shoulders the winds
blow. I’m from whence the river fountains, I’m everlasting. - [ Forest] We span beneath the mountains and twixt the plains,
waterless seas with out chorus. Our waves transfer throughout whole ages in
our swell, above every peak and fell. - [Plains] We’re limitless, but unamed, windwept amber untamed. Beneath
us beats the hoof, above us thunder rolls. We’re form ought to cautious
hand us maim. - [Farms] Mockery of Heath derided, measured, minimize, and subdivided.
Cautious palms reap and sow, what throughout us season’s move. We lose all
we’re with the flip of the moon. - [River] Doomed to run from place to position. Cities pay me tribute to
run beside them, but cower once I run amongst them. They chew and gnaw
to sow their grain, At my finish, I start once more. - [Desert] Pink by blue from Black is riven, by no means taken, unwilling
given. From the banks, we baldly rise, merciless backdrops of limitless
skys. - [Hills]Twixt salt and sand, and sand, heirs obvious of the skyward
strand. - [Ocean]I devour all earlier than, the solar, the celebrities, beast, plant, man and
extra. Inside my gullet all life lies, but in my embrace all will die.
My indigestion is everlasting, churning and vomiting scenes of flare
infernal.
HINTS:
The Baast Sphinx is the one one who can present the trace to start with, if the gamers have been well mannered to her. A number of Archaeologists, whereas strolling concerning the metropolis with the gamers, could have quoted experiences, historical past and theology related to the puzzle (Please word, this isn’t meant to be 112% Correct to the Egyptian doghma and has some heavy homebrewyness.):
The If-they-were-actually-listening hints, distributed by the opposite archaeologists whereas perusing town, are as follows:
I keep in mind the final time I used to be standing on the coast like this…
Namib is a desolate place, stone hills and sheer cliffs abound. However,
with Sand behind me, in entrance of me, ending within the limitless waves of
the ocean. I miss my homeland dearly.
The individuals of the Nile, that are descended from the individuals dwelling
right here, are very superstitious individuals. They take into account black a holy and
good shade. The black soil is on one financial institution, whereas the purple of the
desert is on the opposite.
That they had a really attention-grabbing perception system. Their god is killed and
born anew daily. At daybreak, he bursts from the ocean, he sails throughout
the sky, and at nightfall, he plunges right into a mountain and dies. They’re
quite unusual individuals, and I pity the poor bloke.
These individuals feared the ocean above all else. I am not shocked they
determined, that, in the event that they needed to construct on an island, they picked the
place farthest away from the waves which have sunk their ships since
they started constructing them.
These individuals, they’ve a love-hate relationship with water. On one
hand, they chuck cash into the wells and river within the good instances,
and shake fists at it from the rooftops when it inevitably floods.
Their god of ‘good’ water is each a cat and a lady, each very
pernicious creatures, they’re.”
“The individuals of Amun had a narrative about why the gods made the clouds.
They have been meant to hold the sorrows and tears of the gods to the
individuals beneath, so they might undergo as an alternative. The clouds refused, and for
their insolence, they have been torn aside and scattered to the 4
winds… And but, the god of the solar had pity on them, and each
morning as an apology, painted them fantastically to spark hope and pleasure
to the people they protected.”
Problems
A Tabaxi by the identify of Ri’saad has arrange camp close by, and had taken one of many items to review it. The gamers (in the event that they haven’t been shoving their thumbs of their ears) know of him and that he has been sneaking in to pillage the belongings of the frozen denizens.
Afterword
I’ve tried to make this a enjoyable and three layered puzzle which challenges the abilities, information, and logical pondering strategy of the gamers, in addition to requiring some passive note-taking and a focus to the lore being introduced to them by way of NPC dialogue. The puzzle is the seal for a “cave of wonders” affair inside which the priest-kings of town hoarded all of their ill-gotten good points.
As a full disclosure, I’ve this as part of my D&D 5e marketing campaign, however I’m not involved concerning the summary participant part on this query, merely the deserves of the puzzle, and whether or not something can be utilized to enhance it.
Crossposted from RPG StackExchange, as they intimated it could be higher suited right here, although I nonetheless would really like the attitude of the puzzle as pertains to the Recreation inside which it’s set.
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