- Type: Puzzle trap
- Location: A hallway
- Difficulty: Difficult
Background:
The party has stumbled upon an ancient, abandoned temple deep in the jungle. As they make their way through the crumbling corridors, they come across a strange hallway with four doors on either side, numbered 1-8. Each door is closed and bears strange symbols and markings.
The Puzzle:
As the party approaches the hallway, they see a countdown clock counting backwards. There’s 5 minutes on the clock.
To escape the hallway, the party must figure out the correct sequence of doors to open. However, each door they open will trigger a magical trap that causes the hallway to reset (but not the clock), returning them back to the start of the corridor. The magical traps are:
- Flame Strike: This trap is a small altar with magical sigils etched into its surface. When triggered, a pillar of divine fire descends from the ceiling, dealing 8d6 fire damage to anyone within a 15-foot radius. DC 18 Wisdom check to disable.
- Poison Needle: This trap is a hidden needle coated in a deadly poison. When triggered, the needle shoots out and injects the poison into the victim, dealing 4d6 poison damage and causing the victim to become poisoned for 1 hour. DC 16 Dexterity check to disable.
- Acid Sprinkler: This trap is a hidden pipe that sprays acid when triggered. It deals 6d6 acid damage to anyone within a 20-foot radius. DC 14 Constitution check to disable.
- Electric Arc: This trap is a series of magical symbols etched into the door frame. When triggered, an arc of lightning jumps between the symbols, dealing 8d6 lightning damage to anyone within a 5-foot radius. DC 16 Intelligence check to disable.
- Frostbite: This trap is a small crystal that releases a burst of icy cold when triggered. It deals 6d6 cold damage to anyone within a 10-foot radius and slows their movement speed by half for 1 minute. DC 14 Wisdom check to disable.
- Wall of Force: This trap is a hidden magical field that expands to fill the doorway when triggered. It deals 8d6 force damage to anyone caught in the field and pushes them back 10 feet. DC 18 Strength check to disable.
- Acid Pit: This trap is a hidden pit filled with corrosive acid. When triggered, the pit opens up and anyone standing above it falls in, taking 10d6 acid damage. DC 16 Dexterity check to disable.
- Exploding Runes: This trap is a small stone slab inscribed with magical runes. When triggered, the runes explode, dealing 6d6 force damage to anyone within a 10-foot radius. DC 15 Intelligence check to disable.
The party can try to open the doors in any order and have as many changes as they like, but they only have 5 minutes in real time.
A ghostly voice says: “3, 6, 4, 8, escape now or forever wait.”
Solution:
To solve the puzzle and escape the temple, the party must open the doors in the following order: 3, 6, 4, 8.
The symbols on the doors are clues to the correct order. Door #3 has a symbol of a triangle, which represents the number 3. Door #6 has a symbol of a circle, which represents the number 6. Door #4 has a symbol of a square, which represents the number 4. Door #8 has a symbol of a pentagon, which represents the number 8.
By opening the doors in this order, the party will be able escape the hallway. If they don’t make it in time. All traps behind each of the 8 doors are triggered simultaneously.
Dungeon Puzzles
Dungeon Puzzles is a system for turning your entire dungeon into one giant puzzle! The hallways, dead ends, rooms and so on all become part of the puzzle. Prior to entering the dungeon players only receive a fragmented map and dungeon tiles. They need to use the dungeon tiles to create the layout of the dungeon and solve the puzzle.
One of the coolest things about this puzzle is that – when players solve it – they will have created a dungeon map on which you can play immediately. So the DM doesn’t have to spend any time laying out the dungeon because doing so is part of solving the puzzle!
This puzzle pack will allow you to create an infinite amount of puzzles of various difficulty levels. But there’s more: the puzzle pack also comes with cave tiles, vine tiles, and magic tiles. So you can reskin this puzzle for a variety of situations. And having dungeon tiles allows you to lay out random dungeons even if you don’t want to use the puzzle. That’s a lot of replay value. Finally, Dungeon Puzzles comes in tabletop and vtt format.