Puzzles, Riddles & Traps …oh my!

By Patrick E. Pullen
Art by Patrick E. Pullen, Leonardo Da Vinci & Daniel F. Walthall

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1. Worms and birds pass, but you 5. First is needed to make quotes
may not, you see,
until you open my rusty lock. and often comes out when it’s time
for tea.
Once I’m free, I swing to and fro,
Second has distinction which is
yet nowhere do I ever go.
easily found,
Answer: A Gate
bearing the symbol that love has
bound.
2. Black as Pitch, White as Snow Three should be longest but that
born in flame, at first I glow can depend,

Without wings, I still fly never standing alone or it may

offend.
until I land and finally die
Fourth is oft needed when giving
Answer: Ash directions,
and sometimes used while making
3. I like to follow you around selections.

while going up and coming down Fifth is the shortest yet still has
much say,
If you run, then so do I
especially when signaling that all
until the sun falls from the sky is ok.
Answer: Shadow Answer: Fingers

4. Peasants capture knights and 6. I never was, am always to be.

kings No one ever saw me, nor ever will.
stealing all the hearts of queens And yet I am the confidence of all,
To live and breathe on this
Rest now bishop, caught by rook terrestrial ball. What am I?
ebony and Ivory, by battle took Answer: Tomorrow/Future
Answer: A Game of Chess
7. The one who makes it, sells it.
The one who buys it, never uses
12. Two bodies have I,
it. The one that uses it never
though both joined in one.
knows that he's using it. What is
The more still I stand,
it?
the quicker I run.
Answer: Coffin
Answer: An hourglass

8. I cover cities and destroy

13. Double my number, I'm less
mountains,
than a score,
I make men blind, yet help them
Half of my number is less than
see.
four.
Answer: Sand Add one to my double when
bakers are near,
Days of the week are still greater, I
9. Iron roof, glass walls fear.
Burns and burns
Answer: Six
And never falls.
Answer: Lantern
14. Two brothers we are, great
10. It holds most knowledge that burden we bear
has ever been said; By which we are bitterly pressed.
But is not the brain, is not the In truth we may say
head.
We are full all the day
To feathers and their masters, 'tis
But empty we go to our rest.
both bane and boon. . .
One empty, and one full. Answer: Shoes

Answer: Paper

11. I have rivers without water,

15. What runs around a city
Forests without trees, but never moves?
Mountains without rocks
Towns without houses. Answer: A Wall
Answer: A Map
 The Forge Puzzle
The forge puzzle should be in a room of a dungeon with a forge in it. The
note suggests that someone with great forging abilities is needed to solve
the puzzle and there is an impression beneath the note which would lead
one to believe that a specific dagger must be forged and placed in the
mold. However, the forging is of the signature not the weapon. Anyone who
forges the signature with the pen on the bottom of the note opens the
secret door, finds the treasure etc. Make the ink an “everfull ink vial” that
never dries or goes empty. That should come in as a useful bonus treasure
for your players.

The Stone Hand

This puzzle contains a riddle to solve. The players come to a wall made of
stone or metal and it has an open hand, palm upward, carved or forged into
it. Have an inscription on the wall or have a magic mouth read the riddle. If
the proper item is placed in the hand, it closes and melds into the wall. The
wall then opens into a doorway allowing passage or unveiling a hidden
treasure. If the wrong object is placed in the palm, you can have a trap go
off instead of the door opening.
The Riddle:
Lost for centuries underground
You’ll rejoice once I am found
Once I’m in the light of day
I spread my light in every way
Hard as stone, yet clear as ice
I will not yield without a price
Place an item in my hand
And receive that which you demand
Answer: A diamond
 The Blood Door
Similar to the Stone Hand Puzzle above, the door can only be opened with
the right thing placed into a container. In this case it is blood. Once the
blood is poured into the receptacle, the door opens. It requires 1 HP worth
of blood from exactly 2 PCs to work.
The Riddle:
Sacrifice by own consent
From two, must be spent
Fill from that which courses heart
Then on your journey you may start

The Broken Riddle Door

This is more of an amusing role-playing situation, than an actual puzzle, but
it offers some fun role-play, if your group is into such encounters. The PCs
have come to a blocked passage and need to answer a riddle to proceed.
A magic mouth spell activates as the PCs begin to search a wall for secret
doors. The magic is old and in need of a replacement. The mouth just
starts spitting out gibberish. After about a minute of this a gnome comes
out of a small secret door and starts to kick at the wall, mumbling about
how he doesn’t get payed enough, the stupid spell never works right, if it
were more than just him, he would start a union… etc. This makes for a
nice tension breaker in a long dungeon crawl and adds a bit of comedy
relief.
 The Coded Language Puzzle
This could be a letter or clue that someone has made and used a bunch of
made up symbols that replace the real letters of the alphabet. You will need
to make a legend for yourself to show what letter each symbol stands for
then write out what you want while substituting the real letters for the
symbols from the legend. To make this easier for your players, make sure
the code has a few of the following words, which will make it easier to
decipher: “and” “the” “A” “If” Once your players have a few of the symbols
figured out, it will become easier and easier to solve.

The Infinite Hourglass Puzzle

After the heroes enter this puzzle chamber, all exits are cut off, leaving no
way out. In the center of the room is an hourglass attached to a lever and
pulley mechanism. It flips over and a magical voice begins to count down
from 20. If the PCs examine the hourglass, they find that it can easily be
flipped. Flipping the hourglass resets the voice to start counting down from
20 again. The puzzle is solved and the doors open if the counting gets to
zero. This is a nice little trick that will keep your players guessing and
searching the room while one of them continually flips the hourglass
prolonging their escape. If you want to be really cruel, throw in a monster or
have the room start filling up with water.

The Sighting Stones

This puzzle takes place in a graveyard with a few burial mounds. The
heroes have been informed that all but one is full of deadly traps and
monsters. One however, has a great treasure. As they enter the burial
ground, inform them that they see 3 strange stone structures several yards
out from the mounds and show them the following handout. By lining the
sighting stones up, the players get a straight view through the holes to the
correct burial mound. Once they figure this out show them the second
handout.
 The Combination Puzzle
This puzzle is a play on words. The players need a certain combination to
open a door, chest or something similar and they come to this riddle on the
wall. By reading the words that can also be numbers, you’ll get the
combination which is: 8,2,4,2. A wrong combination releases a bolt of
lightning.
 The Cursed Fountain
The cursed fountain trap works best on a fountain but can be adapted to a
statue or something similar. The fountain should have writing or a magic
mouth which tells the players by drinking they will receive a gift from (place
obscure evil deity name here.) If the players make the catch that it is evil or
roll a good DC on their knowledge; religion check, they should know better
than to drink from the fountain. If a player drinks, have them loose a point
from a random stat. whether it is temporary or permanent is up to you as
the DM to decide. You can also come up with some other curse if you feel it
is more appropriate to your story. Suggestions; noticeable disfigurement,
alignment change, polymorph into an animal, negatives or disadvantage to
certain roll, etc.

The Downward Spiral

This trap involves a long spiral stair case that is only connected to a large,
inner stone wall/pillar and has a large open gap on the outer side which
drops down a hundred feet. The players should encounter the stairs from
the top and have to make their way down. Once the adventurers have
made it around the curve of the first spiral, there should be a pressure plate
or series of plates. When the pressure plates are activated, random stones
slide outward pushing the characters off of the stairs into the open pit
below. Roll a d4, d6 or d8 (depending on the number of PCs/NPCs you
have going down the stairs) to decide which character is possibly struck by
the sliding stones. Use marching order to decide what number is assigned
to which player. If you roll a number without a player assigned to it, nobody
is struck by the block. A dexterity; acrobatics save keeps the character from
falling. (You can set the DC to whatever you feel is appropriate for your
group’s level.) A falling character takes the appropriate amount of falling
damage. Feeling particularly evil? Just add some spikes or lava at the
bottom.
 Jacob’s Ladder
A Jacob’s ladder is a rope ladder with wooden rungs tied into the ropes.
This trap refers to one that is laid horizontal over an expanse with
something dangerous below. You can have the ladder as long as you see
fit. You may place whatever wickedness you wish below the ladder; a
spiked pit, pool of hungry piranha, lava, slimes, acid etc. The ladder has
only one rope connecting it to a solid foundation on each end of the
expanse. This makes the ladder very unstable and extremely hard to
maneuver. The climb DC should be at least 15 for a short ladder and more
around DC 20 or higher for one longer than 10 or 15 feet. If the player fails
by less than 5, you can say he is unable to advance but doesn’t fall.
Anything more than 5 they fall. If you are feeling generous, you may allow a
save to grab the ladder instead of falling. A simple solution is to use the
ladder as if they were monkey bars. Drop the climb DC by a few points if a
player comes up with this idea.

Split the Party Trap

Rule number 1: NEVER split the party… unless the DM decides to throw
this fun little trap at them. A pressure plate or True Seeing trigger sets off a
mechanism that happens to be holding up a huge stone above the other
side of a doorway or opening. Once a player carelessly crosses the
threshold into the area beyond, they step on the plate or enter the magic’s
area of effect which triggers the stone to fall. This effectively blocks the
doorway from both sides. Anyone inside is cut off from anyone who has yet
to enter the doorway. If someone is directly under the block have them
make an athletics or acrobatics save. If they make it, let them choose which
side they jump to safety. If they fail make sure to roll up the appropriate
damage and you can have them pushed randomly to one side or the other
or have them pinned beneath the stone.
 Gelatinous Cube Pit Trap
This is a particularly nasty trap. It can work in one of two ways. It involves a
normal pit trap 20 to 50 feet deep should do. At the bottom of the pit is a
trapped gelatinous cube. When the carless adventurer falls into the pit he
lands in the cube. The good side of this is that the cube breaks the fall. The
bad side; the character is automatically engulfed. The second way the trap
can work, is to have the character fall into the pit, take the appropriate
damage and then have a second trap door above the pit open and drop the
cube in on top of the victim. Have the player roll an acrobatics save to
avoid falling into the pit.

Acid Lock Trap

This trap is usually placed in a door or chest lock. When a thief fails his roll
to pick the lock by 5 or more, he punctures a bladder containing a very
small amount of potent acid. Instead of doing harm to the thief, it melts the
pick and the locking mechanism together which makes picking the lock
impossible from that point on. Call on the fighter to bash it down.

Exploding Brazier Trap

This trap is placed in a large dark room. It is a simple brazier that can be lit
as a source of light for characters that don’t have dark vision. The brazier is
full of an extremely explosive chemical or liquid which ignites if lit. The
result is a fireball-like effect. Allow for a Dexterity; Acrobatics save for half
damage.
 Vorpal Blade Trap
This is a VERY nasty trap. It is similar to a normal blade trap, where a
blade swings out from a wall, but with one major difference. The blade is
actually a magic Vorpal sword. When activated, make an attack roll for the
blade as if the attack was being made by a fighter of an appropriate level to
your party. If a natural 20 is rolled, the victim losses his head. Typically,
players without heads can’t do much on their turn other than place large
amounts of blood on the walls and floor. As a bonus, you can allow the
players to retrieve the sword as a treasure after it decapitates their buddy.

Stay on the Path; Maze

The players enter a maze to discover letters in dwarven or elven at each
junction or crossing. You can use the languages and alphabets for other
races which can be found in the 5th edition DMG. The adventurers must
decipher the runes to follow the correct path out of the maze safely. If they
follow the wrong set of runes, they will become lost or set off a nasty trap.
For this to work, place an inscription on a wall or in a scroll somewhere in
the dungeon prior to the maze. It could simply be a word or a name written
in elven or dwarven. When they find it they will have no idea what it means.
Once they see the individual elven or dwarven script in the maze, they
should figure out that they can safely pass the right way by spelling out the
word or name they found earlier.

Break the Circle Trap

This trap requires a demon to be trapped inside of a circle of protection
made in salt. A door that opens into the room has a broom head attached
to the bottom, which can’t be seen from outside. When the door is opened,
the broom bristles sweep some of the salt aside, which frees the captive
demon from the circle of protection. It immediately attacks.
I hope you enjoy this product and have fun integrating these into your
games. Your players will love you for it! Trust me!

Thank You for your patronage! Please Rate and Comment so that I can
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Patrick E. Pullen

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