Test My Riddle!

[Ed_Laprade]

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

I got it right away, even though I usually hate riddles.

 

[jeffman]

Women..

The first things that came to mind were my ex's.

 

[Jack of Shadows]

Hmmm....

I was way outside the box. I thought "Bravado". Not sure how that was going to help find the lair but then I figured I was wrong anyway.

Jack

 

[Vrecknidj]

I study folklore. Had a three month assignment to research old finnish riddles.

Very cool. Thanks for the reply. And, one of the reasons I ask is that one of my occupations is philosophy instructor. When I teach sections on logic, I usually cover paradoxes and those can sometimes come about as close to riddles as I get. When you said it was part of your job I thought that maybe there was a better line of work out there for me.

Dave

 

[Huw]

Got it instantly, and I'm no good at riddles. Sorry.

However, I think that it's a good riddle for a game. You want the players to get it eventually, and want them to feel good for getting it. Even if they don't, when they go looking for the lair, they might stumble across (or hear) it and then get it.

 

[Odhanan]

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

Desire? Envy? Ambition?

*looks up the answer* he. I guess I was more in the abstract.

 

[Carpdiem]

My first thought was a fire (forest fire maybe?), but the waterfall makes perfect sense after the fact. I think a group would be fine with this.

 

[Liolel]

It seems a bit to difficult on its own. However since the players would know in one sense or another that there's a waterfall in the area it shouldn't be to hard for them, especially if they decide to take out their map and see what's on there that fits.

The tricky part about the riddle is the word beast, as that made me think they would need to find a certain monster instead of a certain location. So watch to make sure your players aren't making a similar mistake because if they do it would be almost impossible to solve.

 

[WarlockLord]

Divinations

Say the players use divination spells or something. Not to throw in a crimp, but it seems that riddles are impractical as you can just call up an outsider for an answer.

 

[Nareau]

I guessed it quickly, but wasn't sure until I checked the answer. That's bad--the players should know immediately when they hit the right answer. I don't know what the map looks like, but if it were "Lion Falls" or a waterfall on the "Grizzly River" it would be better.

If you don't mind my asking, how will the PC's find out this clue? And have you checked out OotS this week?

Nareau