Knowledge Based Trap

[Trit One-Ear]

For the dungeon-crawl I'm currently crafting for my players, I want to include a knowledge-themed puzzle/trap. They'll be infiltrating an underground lair of a devil-worshiping cult, and I'd love to use some sort of puzzle room as the entrance to the upper tier cultists' rooms.

The key to opening the door and not setting off some sort of trap (I'm thinking of reworking the trap used in Seekers of the Ashen Crown; a grinding ball beneath a floor of loose tiles and pit traps) will be related to know about the Nine Hells and their devil lords.

My problem is creating the actual "key" to allow players to pass, and the puzzle needed to answer. They could be pushing runed plates or pulling levers in efforts to open the door, or they could be trying different doorknobs... but none of those feel right.

I did make a puzzle some time ago, having each Hell correspond to a certain letter that spells out Beelzebub (nine letters, score!) But that seems like a puzzle with little room for error; either they get it, or they don't. I'd love to have them flub an attempt or two, activate certain elements of the trap, then have to contend with those as they guess the correct answers.

Any ideas or insight anyone has would be amazing.

Trit

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Sounds like a Skill Challenge. If the PCs figure a clue out without help or dice rolls, give them a success.

Such a trap would leave the cultists vulnerable to demon hunters with Arcana and Religion, or even these lower-ranking cultists. If they're okay with that, then it seems to me successful skill checks would grant a success each.

Skills like Athletics could be used to push plates, Perception to figure out which plates were pushed most often, etc.

Each failure would provoke a themed attack, perhaps fire or necrotic damage that attacks enemies only, or summoning demons. Fail two checks and you might be taking fire damage every turn while facing demons, which would make disabling the trap in the midst of raging combat a priority. Hope the PCs have good Thievery scores.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Perhaps something I did might be modifiable for your needs.

Basically, the PCs needed access to 3 rooms, each associated with an ancient empire. Each of the 3 rooms had 3 puzzles to open the door. For any and each each failed puzzle, the encounter against the guardian spirt in the room was more difficult... but you could easily have different consequences for failure.

Each puzzle consisted of 2 disks, and a 3rd element that was static. Each disk had 3 choices on it, and one had to rotate the disks so that it told the correct story. One had only one chance to "enter" each puzzle, so no retries if you got it wrong. For each room, one puzzle dealt with the beginning of the associated empire, one with the empire's role in the demon war, and one about what happened to the people of the empire who fled the demon war.

Before the game, I have each of my 5 players a list clues (usally thematically - for example, the wizard got the clues from arcane sources), which basically accounted for tidbits of knowledge they knew from various obscure sources. Putting those clues together, they could figure out which way to turn the disks. Plus, there was a room associated with a 4th empire that the PCs knew all the right answers to (2 PCs are heirs of that empire), which by them doing that first let them figure out how the puzzle worked.

It was a fun way of introducing some obscure back story into my campaign and was a lot of fun for all involved... though the PCs only failed 2 of them, and one of those was one player getting his own idea in his head at the last moment and turning to the wrong element after the group had figured out the correct one. My only real complaint is that the way I gave the clues meant that the players didn't really go at it "in character".

Okay, I found my notes, so I will give you an example of one of the easier ones:

Fixed symbol: a flag with a boat on it
Disk one: An arcane circle, a boat & a metal horse
Disk two: A forest, floating rocks, an ocean

Clues:

1. The 4 wonders of the ancient lands were the Engine of Damkina, the Hall of Idun, the Palesian Gardens, and the Library of Accaris. Common lore regarding the Ancient Lands


2. Some have been mislead by the Engine’s name to think it moved… but I think not... instead it… moved others? Scrawled on the margins of Practical Applications in Thamaturgy

3. “Prince Sybald wore a boat on his breast – not because his peoples were mariners, but because they travelled the byways between the worlds, and so by earned their vast fortunes. His ostentation led some critics to snidely remark that it was unfortunate he had no real boat nor ocean to sail it, for so gilded would it be that they would be rid of him in a watery grave.” The many deaths of Sybald Osgodden.


Based on the puzzle they knew the answers to, they PCs knew that the fixed element was the flag of the empire, the second was one of the great wonders of the ancient world, and the third was where it was located.


The correct answers from the disks were the arcane circle (it moved others, transport circles are an important element of my campaign) and the floating rocks (not an ocean, had to guess between forest and floating rocks, and floating rocks are also kind of a "thing" in my campaign).


What made things a bit more challenging is they got all the clues for all the puzzles at the same time, so had to work out which clue was for which puzzle, which wasn't always easy.

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Sorry for the double post, but it seemed the best way to respond to Unwise's xp comments.

Glad you like it. Yeah, I have the rest all written - I ran it as the "crossing into paragon" adventure, and the PCs are now level 16... so, last summer, I think...

If anyone wants to see the rest of my notes, p-mail me with an e-mail and I'll send them to you... they may not make much sense without the context of my campaign and my own idea of how they are supposed to work - my notes are litterally just the various clues, the pictures on the disks, and the correct combinations... though I'd be happy to explain them better to those who ask for me to send it to them.

As an entertaining side note, one of my players unexpectedly decided to draw the various clues on his i-pad - there was much moaning to be had when the pictures included "an army of goblins", "a demon with 50 heads" and "a demon with 1000 eyes" - he accused me of deliberately making them difficult to draw when really I had no idea any of the players would try.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=6678017]Trit One-Ear[/MENTION]
Another idea: The door is covered with a series of magic tiles each with some depiction on it (for example 3 x 3 tiles with scenes of hell, or the lords of nine, or the dark eight + cantrum).

A plaque nearby - or perhaps a scroll acquired elsewhere in the dungeon - has a cryptic riddle, each line of which describes one of the tiles, as well as the overall shape the "answer" tiles form (e.g X or I or H or T or C or +). If possible, all of the lines taken together should allude to some overarching principle which shares the same name as the shape created.

For example, when I ran this puzzle for my group it was to enter a thieves' secret lair...

[sblock=Gate of 9 Thieves]
"I am the finder of hidden treasure,
Yet I am also the assassin's gold.
I am the product when twins couple,
Yet I am also the lover left behind.
Who am I?"

There are 3 x 3 tiles with engraved images arranged thus:

Old Hand (recruiter)......Rum Diver (pickpocket)......Hitman
Box Man (safe cracker)......Guild Master......Scapegallows (escape artist)
Dice Runner (gambler)........Fence........Sharper (con artist)[/sblock]
[sblock=The Answer]X. Specifically, in this order: Old Hand, Hitman, Gambler, Sharper, and Guild Master.[/sblock]

What makes the puzzle interesting is that it can respond however you need for your game. When the PCs try 5 tile combinations (or however many is the "right" amount), the magic door mechanism checks if the answer is correct if not... Well then it's up to you how nasty it is. In mine each tile picked wrong had a unique effect, as it was an elite trap.

Since your group is already in the dungeon it might be interesting to have an alarm go off the first time the puzzle is solved wrong, thus creating a time pressure for the PCs to open the door (and some kooks for antsy players to kill while the "smart ones" figure out the puzzle).


Oh, and here are my 3 very important rules to DMing puzzles....
1. Make the puzzle optional (e.g there's another way in besides the puzzle trapped door)
2. The puzzle shouldn't take more than 30 minutes game time. Have a backup plan to speed things along if the puzzle is eating up too much time (unless your players are hardcore puzzle fiends).
3. Prepare balanced clues keyed to certain ability/skill checks.

 

[Tony Vargas]

The key to opening the door and not setting off some sort of trap will be related to know about the Nine Hells and their devil lords.

Knowledge of Immortals is, IIRC, Religion.

By itself, that wouldn't make for much of a skill challenge, nor for a very good means of keeping outsiders from getting in.


I'd start by brainstorming some 'whys?' Why a complicated puzzle instead of a simple key or a magical Arcane Lock or something? Well, locks can be picked, and Arcane Lock can be Knocked, or tokens used to unlock it stolen, or 'allowed' individuals immitated or pass-phrases found out. But, a puzzle can potentially be opened by anyone, including people you haven't authorized. Why?

Answer: because you want to give access to people whom you won't be able to authorize in advance. Like the secret leaders higher up in the cult, or new recruits who are well on the path to damnation, say?

They'll have in common knowledge of the Devils you deal with - and a willingness to make terrible oaths and bargains and blaspheme against the gods.


So, make the challenge about more than just Knoweldge is the first step, but willingness to take risks, betray fellows, denounce gods, accept curses and the like also come into it.

If you get through it all correctly, the dangers/curses/etc don't descend on you, though you still invoked them, perhaps at some peril to your soul or against some holy oath if you have one. If you fail, some of the curses or traps are set off on you.

To be elegant, you could invoke a series of curses upon yourself to get in that, done in the right order and timing, negate eachother, for instance. To make it eviler, it'd have to be done by several individuals, in a given order, with one who gets a nasty curse on him as a 'sacrifice.' But, obviously, that wouldn't be for regular use.

 

[Quickleaf]

To be elegant, you could invoke a series of curses upon yourself to get in that, done in the right order and timing, negate eachother, for instance. To make it eviler, it'd have to be done by several individuals, in a given order, with one who gets a nasty curse on him as a 'sacrifice.' But, obviously, that wouldn't be for regular use.

That's a great idea! Perfect for a threshold meant to keep out all but the most devout (in the evil sense) of infernal supplicants.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

These are all great ideas.

[MENTION=85177]Dr[/MENTION]_Ruminahu: That was originally the kind of idea I was going for, and most likely will use... something that gives the heroes a clear number of tries before things start going wrong. I'd probably soup it up a bit, so each time they insert the disks, either something goes wrong or doesn't. Once they've tried all the disks, they can try again, but now have to contend with the traps as they do so. What exactly my riddle/puzzle will be, we shall have to see.

@Quickleaf , combining your puzzle with Ruminahu's might be the best way to do this... give each devil a nickname, then let Religion checks give clues to each devil's true identity... then the heroes can answer the questions using their own knowledge/their players' cleverness. Also, your three tips at the end are extremely useful to keep in mind.

@Tony Vargas , I -really- like the idea of sacrifices, betrayals and curses brought upon yourself to open the door... I'm thinking a giving of blood (a healing surge for mechanics) which is later refunded in some way if you get through... maybe at a price? I'm wary having my players start "betraying" each other, even lightly, but there are still ways to capture that feeling...

I'm going to ponder this advice and try to come up with a fun way to combine the high-points of what you guys have offered me. The important thing I think to remember is this has to be an effective lock to keep unwanteds out, but also should have a solution simple/quick enough that a cultist in-the-know can get through without having to undergo a 10 minute ritual of selling his soul again. For example.

It's also worth pointing out two things; the cult the heroes are hunting (or will be after Sunday's session) is still very secret, so their need for security from outside forces may not be as high as it soon will be... this could account for some of the simplicity in their traps/puzzles.
Also, I believe 3 out of 4 of my players have trained Religion (Paladin, Knowledge-junkie Wizard, and Cleric/Fighter Hybrid) so this means as along as I give the Ranger something fun to do, I wont' be excluding anyone by making this a Religion-based skill challenge.

Thanks guys, I'll keep you posted!
Trit