D&D 5E Looking For Help With A Riddle/Puzzle.

[O-Castitatis-Lilium]

Hello!

So, I am trying to come up with a few puzzles for my party when they eventually get to the hedge maze in Tyranny of Dragons. I have a premise for one, like the layout of the room and what I want to happen, but I can't quite get how to accomplish this.

Pretty much I have a section or "room" (because I will more than likely say room instead of section lol) where there is a large circle of statues. Each statue is standing on the pedestal and each of them has their hands out and open, waiting for an item to be placed into them except for one. Each of these statues stands in the center of a small pool with a different liquid relating to what they do. Their hands also act like a fountain of sorts, but that's not really important it's mainly for visual. Anyways, the one statue stands in an empty pool, hands behind his back and looking out into the center of the circle. In the center of this circle, there is a stone with six items on it that need to go to these statues. The list is:

1. A Trident/Bow (representing the hunter gatherer start of all cities that start from small little villages)
2. A Scythe (representing agriculture, reaping the harvest. This allowed more food to be made from less land)
3. A Hammer (representing the development of trades and trade within the city once stable with food)
4. A Book (representing the scholars attracted to these newly developing cities to spread education)
5. A Dagger (representing the eventual "black market" and crime syndicates that come from having a large city)
6. A Crown. (representing all the others in making the city work)

What I want to happen, is that these items need to be in the hands of the proper statues, and if they aren't given in the proper order, something happens and the puzzle is reset. I want to have a monster spawn from the incident and the party have to fight it. I'll give an example:

Lets say that the scythe is given to the proper statue before the book, which the book statue is supposed to go first, then the man with the scythe "Attacks" the one that is supposed to get the book first, and then a monster comes out.

I'm not sure if I want to use the Trident or the Bow, as I'm trying to use thing not so cliche in terms or representing these thing (the plow or the hoe for agriculture, the bow or spear for hunting, ect.) I know some cliches are unavoidable, like the book and the dagger, but I'm willing to leave those as I do want to have some easy ones to get. I don't want them spending an entire session in these little places.

I am also trying to come up with a little riddle that tells the players what order to put them in, and I want it to be at the base of the one with his hands behind his back. I guess I'm just not sure how to represent the "death" of each statue if they put the wrong one in order, you know. like if they put the hammer before the trident/bow, how would that look as the death of the start of the city type thing...maybe I am over-complicating it, I don't know. I would like some help if you guys see potential in this, if not, I would like some feed back on if I am making this too complicated. Thank you to everyone who answers!

 

[TiQuinn]

My two cents - you’ve got enough going on in the puzzle with just putting items in the right statue’s hands that you can drop the idea of having things in the right order. That would make for a frustrating and possibly very lengthy encounter. As it is, if the PCs get one item in the wrong statue’s hands, it would trigger a monster to spawn.

 

[BlackSeed_Vash]

Unless you plan on foreshadowing/giving clues for such a complicated puzzle like this, enforcing both the right item and order is going to be unfair to your players.
Personally, I'd find 6 different monsters (preferable of the same CR level) that fighting 6 of them would constitute an Easy fight. Each monster represents a different statue. When the trap resets, one of each corresponding monsters are released for every wrong statue. The monsters should be released in order in which the statue is suppose to receive it's item. I'd also implement the following:
1) Let all 6 items be placed before a reset is triggered.
2) Make it Passive Perception DC ~20 to notice upon reset, that the statue(s) given the correct item, holds onto it's item for a few seconds longer. Reduce the DC by 1 each time they fail.
3) Reward them for get the order right.

 

[Nakana]

This doesn’t answer your question, but I think what you have here is an opportunity for an amazing campaign instead of a one room puzzle.

Each statue needs the proper object. The search for each object becomes a quest in its own right (the objects are not in the room, they must be found and brought here).

Matching the object to the correct statue should be easy based on appearance and pose. But the sequence should be detailed in a story/fable that links all statues together.

That’s just my two pennies, sorry if it didn’t help. I do love how imaginative it is though!

 

[aco175]

I think that placing 6 items in order may be too many and people would fail too many times before success. I tend to go no more than just 4 items.

Another idea is to present them with a clue to the first item to be placed, almost a free start to the first item. They get a note from someone in town or maybe a note on a dead body entering the dungeon. Maybe some carvings on the floor from another group that tried to get past the trap and failed.

 

[O-Castitatis-Lilium]

I think that placing 6 items in order may be too many and people would fail too many times before success. I tend to go no more than just 4 items.

Another idea is to present them with a clue to the first item to be placed, almost a free start to the first item. They get a note from someone in town or maybe a note on a dead body entering the dungeon. Maybe some carvings on the floor from another group that tried to get past the trap and failed.

I do have clues that involve the fountains, I didn't want them to have to spend an entire session on it lol. I want a riddle at the base of the one statue without their hands out telling them what order to put them in, which I did state in the initial post lol. The fountains flow with a liquid that indicates what would be their item would be as just an extra hint. I have:

1. Ink for the book
2. Mud for the scythe
3. Molten metal for the hammer
4. Blood for the dagger
5. and either Saltwater for the trident or a stationary plant fountain with vines coming from the hands going into a small flower bed below for the bow as a link to the hunger/gatherer thing.

The last one would flow with liquid gold once they are all placed properly to show the prosperity of the newly budding city.

I don't have plans to have them constantly mess up. the items would fall to the floor just outside the little pond they stand in and I'm pretty sure that they would remember which one they had put. I'm trying to add as many hints and clues as to what they are to do, I just don't want to hand them the answer either.

I do like the idea of a hint though for the first. I might add something like that if I can. I don't want a body in there....maybe? Not sure on that yet.

This doesn’t answer your question, but I think what you have here is an opportunity for an amazing campaign instead of a one room puzzle.

Each statue needs the proper object. The search for each object becomes a quest in its own right (the objects are not in the room, they must be found and brought here).

Matching the object to the correct statue should be easy based on appearance and pose. But the sequence should be detailed in a story/fable that links all statues together.

That’s just my two pennies, sorry if it didn’t help. I do love how imaginative it is though!

Also, for Nakana, I was thinking it over and while I do like this as an idea for a campaign, I know a lot of my party don't like these types of campaign settings, where they rely on a puzzle type thing to move the story along. It's hard to explain lol I'm sorry. They are alright with small puzzles, but not an entire campaign involving one. If you want to, you can use it. I might even use it for a different group if I ever feel confident enough to DM for random strangers. I just know my current table would not be too interested lol.