A Pyramid of Puzzles

randosaurus
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Posts: 166

Favorite D&D Class: Spellthief

A Pyramid of Puzzles Feb 16, 2017 7:41:41 GMT

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Post by randosaurus on Feb 16, 2017 7:41:41 GMT

I am devising a location for a campaign and I would like some advice and ideas.

The site I am devising is a desert location, specifically an inverted pyramid. The widest level, the base, is sometimes visible when not covered by dunes. The entrance would be either camouflaged, require some lore or skill to open, or be occupied by some massive sandworm that must be defeated. TBD.

What I am seeking is what to populate the pyramid with, for challenges. The pyramid levels get smaller and smaller as the players descend & the shape tapers to the deepest point. The challenge should ratchet up with each level descended. I would note here that the difficulty can increase to any level, the site is not necessarily intended to be 'solved' upon its first visit.

A brief note on the design & function of the pyramid and how it informs the challenges. They pyramid is designed to focus heat & light from the surface deep inside & into the chamber at the bottom. The base covers a lot of space/surface area; at each level the energy is focused and more intense as the size of each level decreases.

The challenges should be typical of an arid ruins; desert monsters, devious traps, ancient puzzles inspired by forgotten lore. In my imagining, the challenges/encounters have good/bad/neutral outcomes-- if players get to the good outcome, they gain access to a deeper level. Neutral, they have to go to an adjacent chamber and another challenge. Fail, they must back track up a level and find another path down.

Additionally, the influence of the heat and light has an effect on the challenges. Using cold and shadow to block or re-direct the energies can make challenges more simple, or obstructing light from higher levels might be required to pass further downward. Some examples:

Crystals focus & redirect light through an aperture; in the chamber itself, those focused beams cut like lasers making an acrobatic challenge.
Fire elementals are of a size commensurate to torches or braziers lit in the chamber; extinguish them and the elementals decrease.
Light shines through 7 gems of different color against a wall; at first all are illuminated, but removing some blocks that part of the color spectrum. Different combinations of colors show different clues or riddles and only the correct arrangement of colors will allow the adventurers to proceed.

Ultimately, the pyramid dungeon shouldn't be solved on the first visit... at least not easily. The fact is, the heat and light focused on the point of the pyramid, the deepest chamber, has a purpose. Some creature, an arch villain, is imprisoned in the pyramid-- a creature of shadow & cold, the entire design of the pyramid is intended to nullify her powers and contain her. The traps, creatures, riddles are all devised to prevent her escape. As you may have figured out, by deactivating the mechanisms of the pyramid and dousing the surface energies, the PCs are weakening the prison more and more with each level they descend. The scene will end either when the PCs succumb and lose to the challenges (to be discovered later by some group of PCs in the future) or they manage to release the nemesis at the bottom. The setting is intended to host a short length prequel or backstory. In the future, I can imagine sending a new band of PCs down through the same pyramid to look for hints at how to defeat the now-ascendant nemesis... maybe they'll find the remains of those prior heroes who foolishly abetted her escape.

Any advice or ideas or inspirations you have will be most useful! At this point, it's an exercise in collecting as much inspiration and ideas as possible. The pyramid design allows discrete rooms & chambers. None of the challenges necessarily need to relate to one another, other than thematically as indicated above. Here is a general plot for how the chambers will look from the side/above, buried deep into the desert (not accurate isotropic view):
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irontaurus
Commoner

Posts: 20

A Pyramid of Puzzles Mar 20, 2017 12:02:43 GMT randosaurus likes this

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Post by irontaurus on Mar 20, 2017 12:02:43 GMT

The idea is interesting, I have some feedback I want to give you.

1. First thing is that it might be hard to make the pyramid interesting and fun for the players if it is designed to be solved after several tries. It might be good to have the pyramid in a strange pocket universe of which entry can be found in many places around the world. Introduce the Pyramid during a campaign in a desert or something let them have a try and if they give up, let them do it and during a completly different campaign and place you can let them see a similar entrence and when inside it looks exactly the same. This can also give interesting puzzles(I will explain later).

2. Making the Pyramid have an entrance on different places can give interesting aspects. You can make it so there are writings on the walls but they only reveal themselves based on certain temperature or humidity, maybe the desert gives of a certain heat and light so the texts reveal a clue to how to solve room Floor 3:B5 but not 4:B5, but if they go through a swamp entrance the texts reveal a clue to 4:b5 but not 3:B5 and so on.

3. You can mix mental and fighting challanges, make it so a monster can only be truely beaten if they follow a certain pattern or use a certain object. There can be a riddle or puzzle that would reveal this weakness. For example: A fight with an enemy and on the walls in the room is texts of three poems: "Thinos born with the beauty of a swan and the mind of an owl, with his heart on the right side he was loved by all. Thanos born to be opposite of his brother fierce and foul, with a love of blood, fighting was his call" "Thinos and Thanos cursed by fate, while one is asleep the other is awake" "Thinos and Thanos now a forgotten name with a body of stone only their heart is the same" The enemy is a humanoid man with four eyes and four arms, two of the eyes are closed and if the players defeat him the two eyes which are open close and the two that are closed open and the fight continues. The only way to truly defeat him is to pierce his heart, but it has two hearts one of Thinos who has it on the right side and one of Thanos who has it on the opposite side.

randosaurus
Hero

Posts: 166

Favorite D&D Class: Spellthief

A Pyramid of Puzzles Mar 28, 2017 4:21:21 GMT

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Post by randosaurus on Mar 28, 2017 4:21:21 GMT

Mar 20, 2017 12:02:43 GMT irontaurus said:

The idea is interesting, I have some feedback I want to give you.

2. Making the Pyramid have an entrance on different places can give interesting aspects. You can make it so there are writings on the walls but they only reveal themselves based on certain temperature or humidity, maybe the desert gives of a certain heat and light so the texts reveal a clue to how to solve room Floor 3:B5 but not 4:B5, but if they go through a swamp entrance the texts reveal a clue to 4:b5 but not 3:B5 and so on.

3. You can mix mental and fighting challenges, make it so a monster can only be truly beaten if they follow a certain pattern or use a certain object. There can be a riddle or puzzle that would reveal this weakness. For example: A fight with an enemy and on the walls in the room is texts of three poems: "Thinos born with the beauty of a swan and the mind of an owl, with his heart on the right side he was loved by all. Thanos born to be opposite of his brother fierce and foul, with a love of blood, fighting was his call" "Thinos and Thanos cursed by fate, while one is asleep the other is awake" "Thinos and Thanos now a forgotten name with a body of stone only their heart is the same" The enemy is a humanoid man with four eyes and four arms, two of the eyes are closed and if the players defeat him the two eyes which are open close and the two that are closed open and the fight continues. The only way to truly defeat him is to pierce his heart, but it has two hearts one of Thinos who has it on the right side and one of Thanos who has it on the opposite side.

Thanks for these, they are just what I was trying to devise. I am really just looking at seeds for a diversity of challenges. The purpose of the pyramid is as I mentioned a prologue episode and interludes later in the campaign-- reincarnation & rebirth is a campaign theme and one of the bonds the PCs share is common memories of a persistent pyramid location from a different life / shared dreams.

Humidity & water have fun effects in the desert due to their scarcity. Maybe a room needs to be chilled to a certain temperature so moisture condenses on walls forming some map or instruction to pass. I could also come up with some sort of puzzle involving filling vessels with water-- some sort of water clock puzzle where a pitcher placed under a stream fills and weighs a lever-- sort of an elaborate timer for a battle or puzzle. Having to expend water to solve puzzles could also be a limited resource; PCs need to use water to travel deeper but at the cost to their own health.

I really like multi-part battles or fights that are themselves puzzles; not used nearly often enough. Thinos/Thanos could have fast healing or regeneration while eyes closed so you could theoretically wear them down. The regeneration ability would be associated with the working 'heart' so by destroying it so the regeneration is negated. It's a subject for a different post, but this would work well as a segmented creature battle, where Thinos/Thanos are considered two distinct creatures always bound like conjoined twins.

Really though, thanks again, hoping I have permission to lift your poetry from the above.

irontaurus Commoner Posts: 20	A Pyramid of Puzzles Mar 29, 2017 0:51:07 GMT Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by irontaurus on Mar 29, 2017 0:51:07 GMT No worries, You can use the Thinos and Thanos as you wish. I am glad to help in any way.

irontaurus
Commoner

Posts: 20

A Pyramid of Puzzles Apr 5, 2017 10:46:50 GMT joatmoniac likes this

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Post by irontaurus on Apr 5, 2017 10:46:50 GMT

Just as a note, I continued writing the Thinos & Thanos room to use for myself. You can still use it as you like but I wrote it and posted it on this forum to get further feedback and to improve it. I can leave the link here as well.
Note: the art is not really mine but I photo-manipulated it a bit (kinda sloppy work though).
docs.google.com/document/d/1cT57-9_pCm2bnnfuQCyTAW8V2QBF5hsvxu6o6M-h2V0/edit?usp=sharing

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A Pyramid of Puzzles

Post by randosaurus on Feb 16, 2017 7:41:41 GMT

Post by irontaurus on Mar 20, 2017 12:02:43 GMT

Post by randosaurus on Mar 28, 2017 4:21:21 GMT

Post by irontaurus on Mar 29, 2017 0:51:07 GMT

Post by irontaurus on Apr 5, 2017 10:46:50 GMT

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