#RPGaDAY – August 13, 2025 (DARKNESS)

 

#RPGaDAY – August 13, 2025 (DARKNESS)

Darkness– For Darkness, I am including a magical Door Trap/Puzzle I created for my group.  If any of my group is reading this blog, please skip this one.

It will most likely not be too difficult, but all of the characters are 3rd level magicusers of some type in Shadowdark (so low hit points) and they are currently trying to make it through a Wizard’s Tower Test, given to all apprentices before graduating to become journeyman wizards.  The Tower appears for only a few hours, once a year, and groups of apprentices are run through it together, having three hours to make it through. If they fail, they can choose to remain apprentices for another year to try again, or may leave the program without officially graduating.  We are using a third-party supplement*, which has several different types of magic users, all with different flavors and powers and another supplement with additional level 1 and 2 spells** so players have more spell options.  

 

Wizard’s Tower Door Puzzle

Puzzle Basics:

The door itself is a large stone slab, without any hinges, knobs, or keyholes visible. There are 4 small insets near the top of the door and underneath it is some lines of wording chiseled into the stone.  Hanging on the walls to either side of the door are 8 small stone plaques with pictures etched in them.  There is a sun, gravestone, star, and a cloud on the left side and a snowflake, wave, moon, and campfire on the right side. All the plaques can individually fit inside the inserts in the door.






                  Darkness fades as my flame growing glows

Bringing light and heat til my time goes

 

Ever constant, ever changing I wax and wane

Swelling big and full and then gone again.

 

My view for you means life’s no more for me

And still upon me, all send their wish for thee

 

Always changing, wispy floating up in the sky

I bring random breaths of rain and wind as I drift by

 

Solution and Triggering the Traps:

The idea behind this to identify the correct 4 symbols that need to be used and then figuring out in what order they need to be placed in the door.

The correct symbols are Cloud, Moon, Star, and Sun.  If any of these are picked up and inspected, there is a line of text engraved into the back of the plaque.

 

Position 2 on the wall.

 

 Position 3 on the wall.

 Position 4 on the wall.

 Position 1 on the wall.

  

Darkness fades as my flame growing glows

Bringing light and heat til my time goes

The first stanza of the text corresponds to the Sun and it goes in position one.

 

Ever constant, ever changing I wax and wane

Swelling big and full and then gone again.

The second stanza of the text corresponds to the Moon and it goes in position three.


My view for you means life’s no more for me

And still upon me, all send their wish for theE

The third stanza of the text corresponds to the Star and it goes in position four.

 

Always changing, wispy floating up in the sky

I bring random breaths of rain and wind as I drift by

The fourth stanza of the text corresponds to the Cloud and it goes in position two.

If any of the proper 4 pieces are put in the wrong order, they all reappear back on the wall where they started from. 

If any of the other 4 incorrect pieces (Gravestone, Snowflake, Wave, or Campfire) are picked up, a trap is discharged that affects all characters in the room. Once that happens, the plaque crumbles to dust.


My group has 4 players.  As each trap discharges, each player makes a Dexterity check, adding or subtracting their Dex modifier. The traps go in order from lowest to highest, with the first trap doing 4, 3, 2, and 1 accordingly. So, the highest Dex check result takes 1 point of damage and the lowest takes 4 and so on. If there is a tie, the person with the highest actual Dex wins and if they are the same, those people will roll again against each other to determine the order.

If a second trap is set off, it does 8, 7, 6, and 5, the third does 12, 11, 10, 9 damage and so on.  The only way they should set off more than 1 or 2 at the most is if they are being careless, perhaps due to the time limit.

 

*Third-Party Shadowdark book - Players Companion for Shadowdark, by Greg Christopher, bought on Drive-thru RPG

** Third-Party Shadowdark book – Novice Magic, by Greg Christopher, bought on Drive-thru RPG








                                                                                                                                                                                       

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