Test My Riddle!

[Illirion]

Hey,

I'm currently running a campaign in a homebrew world and the PC's are not very far away from encountering an old man (actually, a disguised silver dragon) with a riddle I thought of. I wanted him to tell the PC's where to find his lair, but I didn't want to give it away that easily and I though of a riddle as the perfect solution for this. I however feel like testing it first because I wouldn't want them to give the right answer right away but I don't want it to feel impossible. So if the people here at Enworld can help me out and vote in the poll if you think this is right for my adventure.

Here's how it goes: (translated in english, because we speak dutch in our games)

"So the old man says:"

"In order to find me again, you must face the beast that roars endlessly and devours the reckless mercilessly".

Any idea which beast he's talking about? (and no, it's not a beast I made up).

The answer is in the blackened tekst below:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxIt's a Waterfall!!xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

EDIT: I wanted to add a poll but I took too long wrinting the answers. So I'm sorry, people will just have to post if they think it's suitable for use in a campaign. (Maybe one of the mods can let me attach a poll anyway, but we'll just have to do with this for now)

 

[Ravellion]

I thought about it a while and didn't get the riddle. Perhaps a slightly more descriptive clue would help. Thundering down endlessly? Perhaps a clue related to water would help too.

Rav

 

[Ragnar69]

The solution was the first thing I thought of.

 

[jonesy]

I still don't quite get it. What does a maw have to do with it? A river might be said to have a maw, but a waterfall? And the beast part totally threw me off the trail.

 

[Blackrat]

I think it's a good riddle. As I research riddles in my job it didn't take much of me to figure this out, but in my mind it is perfect in game-use. I don't think in-game riddles should be too complicated, just something to tickle your brains with. This one is not hard but you need some creative thinking to solve it. So I give you thumbs up...

 

[Someone]

Maybe substitute "beast" with "place" and it´ll be easier, and make more sense.

Also, make sure they can continue with the adventure by other ways. There´s nothing more frustrating that being stuck for hours trying to solve a riddle.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I thought "raging river" initially, even with Ravellion's suggestion. Of course if I had some knowledge of the geography of the area (like I assume the players do), the leap

Spoiler

to waterfall

doesn't seem to be to far to make.

I don't think it is too hard. It seems ambiguous enough to not be completely obvious, but not so obscure as to have people sitting there scratching their heads.

Does the party have a deadline to meet the dragon? If not and they can go a wrong direction or two, I think this riddle is fine as there won't be any real consquence for getting it wrong initially.

 

[Illirion]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

To clarify some things:

I think the maw thing was a good point and I'll fix it to make it a little easier. I'm not going to replace beast with place however cause I think that would make it a little too easy.

The players also have a map of the region which features the waterfall. They don't use the map that often though, so I was kinda hoping the riddle would draw their attention to it a bit more. I really want to have them guessing about beasts (maybe searching for it at home in some monster books), untill someone takes a look at the map they rarely use and make the beast=place connection.

The encounter with the dragon is optional of course, cause I don't plan on them meeting the old man and immediately having to go search for the "beast". If they find him it'll be cool, cause the dragon will probably be nice to them and help them out with items from his horde and such, but if they don't, it wouldn't matter that much. They'd probably still get to meet him in the end anyway (but probably in a different place).

 

[DragonLancer]

The solution was the first thing I thought of.

Same here. Its an obvious answer, but knowing how these things work in game it might be about right.

 

[Vrecknidj]

I think it's a good riddle. As I research riddles in my job it didn't take much of me to figure this out, but in my mind it is perfect in game-use.

Sorry for the tangent--what is your job?

Dave