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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tuzenbach" data-source="post: 1805171" data-attributes="member: 16155">Hope this helps......Sorry it took me so long, but here’s what I have for you.First off, describe to your players the room with several statues in a circle. Then, only if they ask, tell them there are 36 of them. They all have plaques indicating who or what the statue is of. Starting from the top (immediate North) and working clockwise, the plaques are the following:“Vishnu”, “White Dragon”, “Dionysus”, “Loki”, “Medusa”, “George Washington”, “Zeus”, “Cerberus”, “Wyvern”, “Nazgul”, “Kali”, “Ponce De Leon”,“Odysseus”, “Hydra”, “Socrates”, “Bahamut”, “Quetzalcoatl”, “Sir Bernlad De Hautdesert”,“Onyx Troll”, “Radagast”, “Cyrano De Bergerac”, “Morgan Le Fay”, “Ape”, “Unicorn”,“Fafhrd”, “Jaguar”, “Tutankhamen”, “Yeenoghu”,  “Euripides”, “Father Pencraft Lunettes”,“Yamamoto Date”, “Geryon”, “Pegasus”, “Kuan Yin”, “Xorn”, “King Arthur Pendragon”In other words, they appear to be characters or creatures fictitious or factual. The “Onyx Troll” appears to be black stone. “Sir Bernlad De Hautdesert” is a statue of an armoured knight, though the stone is completely green. Could this have been the real name of the fabled ‘Green Knight’? The “White Dragon” statue is more white than the other statues which are mostly gray except where otherwise noted. “Tutankhamen” is more gold than the others. None of the party should recognize the name “Father Pencraft Lunettes”. That’s because it’s a decoy! Said statue appears to be a half-elven monk or priest.FWIW, most of these names were culled from the 1E Deities And Demigods and/or Monster Manual and their appearance should be described as such, or a reasonable facsimile. Either way, none of the details of the descriptions will actually matter, but don’t tell your players this! Let them believe every minute detail is part of the trap….erm……..puzzle!If one were to draw a graph of the room, at the point were the vertices of the “Tut” and “Ape” statues intersect, there is a loose stone. Beneath it is a scroll detailing the following:Fun cattle serpent; Tributary of pain, bolstering of couragePencraft Lunettes; What a swine will not require a spade to doFrenne St, Tut Place; An ale which won’t intoxicate, a hidden plantApe scent; Not preffix or suffix, source of the UdoSOLUTION: The answer isn’t who or what the statues are or what colour they happen to be. The names are a code for determining which number should be assigned to which statue. It’s mostly A=1 and Z=26 with a couple of hooks thrown in:1A; Ape2B; Bahamut3C; Cerberus4D; Dionysus5E; Euripides6F; Fafhrd7G; Geryon8H; Hydra9I; Cyrano De Bergerac (this is a red herring thingy. The “D” and “C” and “B” add up to 9, so this is the 9th statue.)10J; Jaguar11K; Kali12L; Loki13M; Medusa14N; Nazgul15O; Odysseus16P; Pegasus17Q; Quetzalcoatl18R; Radagast19S; Socrates20T; Tutankhamen21U; Unicorn22V; Vishnu23W; Wyvern24X; Xorn25Y; Yeenoghu26Z; Zeus27 = White Dragon28 = King Arthur Pendragon29 = Yamamoto Date30 = George Washington31 = Morgan Le Fay32 = Ponce De Leon33 = Sir Bernlad De Hautdesert34 = Father Pencraft Lunettes35 = Onyx Troll36 = Kuan YinFor numbers 27-36, one must add the first letters of all the names to derive the appropriate numbers.Cyrano De Bergerac is the “I” or “9” statue to throw the players off. More of these distractions could always be substituted in, of course. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":-)" title="Smile    :-)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":-)" />However, the players probably won’t go about attempting to codify the statues until they’ve solved the riddle:Step one should be to separate the halves of the riddle, as indicated by the semi-colon in each line. Fun cattle serpent;               Pencraft Lunettes;              Frenne St, Tut Place; Ape scent;                                              The above is a series of anagrams. Correctly solved, they should look like this:Ten paces turn leftTen paces turn leftTen paces turn leftTen pacesIf this course is mapped out, it should become apparent that the outcome is that of a square. Thus, “square” is the first half of the riddle’s solution.    Tributary of pain, bolstering of courage    What a swine will not require a spade to do    An ale which won’t intoxicate, a hidden plant    Not prefix or suffix, source of the Udo“Tributary of pain” is a metaphor for “root" canal. One’s courage is bolstered when one is “rooted” for. The act of a pig digging in the dirt with its nose is called “rooting”. A non-intoxicating ale could be “root” beer. Etc., etc……..you get the point. Thus, the second half of the riddle is “root”.So, “square root” is the riddle’s solution. By itself it means nothing, but in the context of 36 statues….CORRECT! The McGuffin can be found within the Fafhrd statue. Wasn’t that fun, everyone? ;~DPS: Watch with glee as the bastards squirm while trying to figure out whether it's the white dragon or the wyvern who's the "fun cattle serpent". LoL! As always, extraneous details are the key to any good, massively time-consuming riddle.</blockquote>

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