Okay folks, time to put on your thinking caps! I'm trying to design a decently elaborate puzzle boss for my players. The situation is this: they're tracking down a trio of creepy Dolgaunts that I've modeled after The Gentlemen from Buffy. The trio, which we'll simply refer to as The Gentlemen, are servants of a Daelkyr known as the Master of Silence (I took this from Don Bassingthwaite's books) and each possess a key that, together, opens up a room the party wants into. The Gentlemen, like their Buffy namesakes, do not speak. They float and smile. When they first meet the party, they'll steal their voices using a magic item, then scram. The party will track them down to their hideout/lair and confront them.
This is all well and good. But I plan to make this a puzzle boss. I don't want The Gentlemen to be just a standard combat encounter. There should be something more to it and I'd love it if it all tied into the theme of "silence".
Things to consider:
- Dolgaunts (and The Gentlemen in particular) do not speak. They have blindsight, so they also can't read. But they can probably read things that are carved into surfaces. I considered one of The Gentlemen might use runes a lot and is a caster of some sort. I also assume that they would have adapted to a lot of nonverbal communication (as they don't speak) and this would play into how they think. Lots of those stone-carved runes or silent spells and whatnot. Any magic classes that focus on the written word or symbols would make sense.
- The players have a monocle that lets them see uh... well, plot devices. That is, it was originally meant to let them see a symbol that was hidden on a wall in Khyber's Gate. The symbol was put there by The Gentlemen to signal someone else who had the monocle. The party stole said monocle and now are looking for the symbol. I figure this monocle should become more important than seeing this one symbol. Perhaps The Gentlemen have developed a type of magic writing that they can see even with blindsight or something and this monocle lets others see it. Oh, did I mention that wearing the monocle also warps what you see into an ever-changing kaleidoscope of Lovecraftian-nightmares? Yeah, that happens, too.
- I want the logic puzzle to allow for any of the party members to help solve it. We've got a barbarian, a combat cleric, an artificer, a binder, and a rogue as the main classes. So there's a couple skillmonkeys, a couple magic-users, and a couple fighters.
I have a couple ideas for this already, but don't want you guys to focus on that, so I'll post it later, once there is some discussion (or lack thereof).
Thanks!
Ive been thinking about this for a few days and haven't come up with anything, except to say that the monocle sounds like that eye that the three hags share in greek myth. Also, the Gentlement could also share a horn for hearing.
Also, dolgaunt braille would be based on nodules that mimic different positions of cilia on their bodies. So the "runes" would look like a tangled nest of worms.
Can you give us anything else to go on?
Any information in particular that you're looking for? There's plenty of details in the background, but I'm not sure what you'd find relevant.
One idea I had was a large chamber with every wall, ceiling, and floor covered in runes. Each one did something different. Some could be traps or offensive magic, while others may be buffs or healing, etc. Then have a device that can alter the direction in which gravity points. Maybe every couple rounds, you'd roll a d6 to see which surface is the new "down". The runes are party-inclusive in that the artificer or cleric may be able to activate the runes (to use their effects), the fighters might be able to smash the runes (to deny The Gentlemen their effects), and the rogues may be able to disable or bypass the runes (to create safe terrain). Maybe the base of The Gentlemen's power comes from the runes, so using, destroying, or disabling the runes would weaken them, making them easier to take out.
I dunno, it seems like dolgaunts should really have an illogic puzzle. Something totally counterintuitive. Like all of the ways of manipulating the trap have random results, ranging from deathtraps to producing a bowl of cheez whiz. And the thing they really need is under the box of kittens, you know?
Or the puzzle has a bunch of solutions, and the right one is the only one that doesn't work.
Beoric wrote:
I actually tried to edit that last post before you read it, but my modem blew up.
I was going to suggest as an alternative (since any aberrant puzzle is going to make no sense) that the real puzzle is to use daelkyr technology (like the Husk of Infinite Worlds, for example) to transform a creature sufficiently that they think like the Gentlemen and can comprehend their devices, and thereby disable their eldritch machine (or whatever), since hiding the trigger under the kittens would now make perfect sense. Then they have to transform the person (presumably a party member) back before the mental changes become permenant.
You would need a lot of clues to make sure they took the hook, and a fallback if they never figure out that the transformation is required and everything falls apart.
That's a pretty cool idea for later in the campaign when I plan to actually include the Husk of Infinite worlds when they face off against one of Dyrrn's head minions.
Most of my players have never watched Buffy. As long as my daughter wasn't playing, I could lift the puzzle straight from the nursery rhyme in the episode.
Now there's a thought: the clues for the puzzle come from folktales regarding the Gentlemen, presumably passed down by survivors from the last time this happened. The puzzle itself doesn't have to make sense, because someone who was only the ordinary amount of crazy mapped it out for them. They don't have to understand the Gentlemen, only the survivors, who figured it out by trial and error.
For that matter, there could be clues in the Prophesy, but that doesn't Grimmify it as much as the folktales would. I would probably start with some pretty nutty sounding rhymes and stories (like the "up and down" lines in Midsummer Night's Dream), construct a puzzle room around that, and accept any alternative solution that the players come up with that is remotely reasonable.
Ooh! I do like that. One part room of runes, one part word-based puzzle. I think it's time to go read some E. E. Cummings again...
May I suggest:
Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice
The Gentlemen don't have tails, but they do have tentacles. Which if severed could interact with the runes. It has the feel of older riddles, which are less literal than we are used to.
Or see what you can do with this, which could be a reference to a sacrifice by villagers:
Higgledy piggledy, my black hen,
She lays eggs for gentlemen.
Gentlemen come every day
To count what my black hen doth lay.
If perchance she lays too many,
They fine my hen a pretty penny;
If perchance she fails to lay,
The gentlemen a bonus pay.
Or how about this as a reference to an artifact or important historical figure:
The Gentlemen can't look about
All their ribbons fly about
And the ladies give a shout
For Bonny Byeshk Shafto
The Gentlemen have come to tea
They will try to murder me
Noone there to hear me scream
But Bonny Byeshk Shafto
Or the one that started it all:
Can't even shout, can't even cry
The Gentlemen are coming by.
Looking in windows, knocking on doors,
They need to take seven and they might take yours.
Can't call to mom, can't say a word,
You're gonna die screaming but you won't be heard.
ok.. so i came up with this idea, just reading this,..
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil..
have the characters suffer one of the above, the gentlemen could provide this service somehow. a trap or spell they cast or something..
Then make the character work together to solve a simpler riddle. Not forgetting that one cant talk, one cant hear, and the third cant see. this should result in some rather funny outcomes..
Just an idea 