i'm going to use this puzzle in the same area as your 'Scarecrow Mansion' puzzle (#34), as that is where they will have to bring the scarecrow from! great puzzle once again!
Ooooh. Good choice. Those two will run well together. I also want to tell you thank-you for taking the time to comment on all of these, I really appreciate that and am super stoked that you are enjoying this series! Fantastic comments like yours are what keep me motivated to create more videos. And... stay tuned for a new puzzle video in February and a special announcement on a project I am working on. :)
@@WallyDM hey man, thank YOU for making this series! My campaign could use some more puzzles like these, and i've made a few, but they take me sooo much time to make that i just can't use them much, unless i get some great inspiration elsewhere!
Oh I am using this one! It's perfect! I like the idea that the 'failure' state for the dial summons a ghost instead of causing the crows to attack. I'd probably describe the ghost as having shredded flesh, and it's eyes put out, like it was killed -murdered if you will- by the crows. Maybe as a suggestion to the players that attacking the crows isn't the best solution.
Just found your channel here and love it... a lot of these puzzle ideas are REALLY good... every time I write puzzles they are apparently so blatantly obvious that the team figures them out in like less than a second and I think "why did I bother" or I guess they are so complex that my teams never figure them out even with like 10 hints and just go wandering off without ever finding hidden treasures and stuff... lol... Most of the ones you have posted seem to be a nice mix of "sort-of" challenging, but still appear pretty do-able... thumbs up...
@@WallyDM- I just finished up some plot stuff for the game I'll be running tomorrow... Part of it includes finding a key and using it to trigger a hidden door ( pretty standard )... upon turning the key, hidden door opens, but lots of whirring noises happens and then a little "plunk" and a teeny tiny like 1 inch hole opens near the floor on an opposite wall... Hidden door goes to a room with some old scrolls & whatnot talking about an ancient rat god... whether or not the team realizes they need to find a mouse or rat and shove it into the tiny hole to open up another door is yet to be determined... lol...
Nice I dig it! Two things on your idea... The first is... it is very similar to a future puzzle video that I will be recording. The adventurers will need to access an area through a small hole in the floor, similar to what you have outlined here, but instead of shoving a mouse or rat into the hole, (SPOILER ALERT) they will need to Polymorph into the mouse or rat... This puzzle is still in the works, but it should be an absolute blast to play through. Hoping to have it on my channel by January. The second... I like the rat god idea... be sure to check out my Raxivort puzzle! Number 29, I think. Raxivort is god of Xvarts, Rats, and Wererats.
@@WallyDM - having a druid in the team who could control mice and/or using a meta/polymorph spell would work too... that said, none of the players on the team have those abilities yet... I'm playing a kind of low-magic world... so most people are illiterate, and spells / magic users are hard to come by... even trying to find an alchemist who would have a metamorph to rat potion would be like a major adventure... :D The wizard in the team does have a "reduce self" spell, but that still makes him about 6" tall, and too big to fit... ( initially the wizard was none to pleased with his spell book... his only attack spell is cloud of slumber... but he's coming to grips with it since most of their enemies are very limited on attack spells as well... )
Hello again Wally DM Sir. Had another session with more of your puzzels and i'd like to tell you about it! Starting with 'scarecrow mansion'. They solved it rather easily, as verbally explaining the paintings of the servants made it too obvious their emotions were important. Any advice on how to make this more subtle? Next, this puzzle, the scare crows. I made it such that the scarecrows they had to use for the puzzle were the ones standing around in the 'scarecrow mansion'. I had this one set up that the ground floor was a big random pattern of colors, above it a number of colored glass pains that, when looked through the colored glass pains would display the correct runes. They checked out every inch of the room for a while but not being able to see anything properly due to the crows everywhere. When they found the holes for the scarecrows, one suggested to get some scarecrows, but with a clear attitude of 'this cannot possibly by the solution, but i will try anyway'. Big smiles when i revealed that it worked anyway. And finally, the eyes of the beholder puzzle, placing it in a dark room so that some sort of natural light needed to be brought it for the colors to be visible, non magical naturaly. I also set it up that when solving it wrong, the damage they took was proportional to the amount of eyes that were wrong. They tried all blue eyes first (7 wrong, 7d6 damage) and 2 of each next (4 wrong, so 4d6 damage). Then they just thought about it, someone just blurted out to 'count they eyes per picture', coming to 9. So for a brief moment they didn't think that was it, until the druid asked if the eye of a needle is indeed called an eye. At which point they solved it! So, all in all, another great session thanks to the inclusion of your puzzles!
Hey again! Awesome! Having not run these puzzles yet myself, I am living through your stories right now, so thank you for this detailed report. ... For scarecrow mansion, I would have to put a little bit more thought into it. Perhaps, instead of paintings, I use ghosts/spirits and they either tell an emotional story or simply have an expression on their face. I am super stoked to hear that your players are enjoying the puzzles! That is six of them you have used so far... I better start making a lot more videos, lol. :)
@@WallyDM More puzzle videos? Yes please! It will probably be a while until i can use more puzzles in game. My players have a plan of what to do next few session (which includes some interplanner travel thanks to the cleric's new gate spell), and they are not likely to encounter puzzles in those plans. Though i am planning to go though more of your videos again to see how i might use them for future missions!
Oh wow... I'm not sure what happened to that. No worries... you can download it here: www.wallydm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/runes-stone-dial.jpg Thanks for watching! :)
Be right back... (Runs over to check Blind Rat on Twitter... Runs back) Oh dang... what a coincidence! Super cool. :) Thank you for the awesome comment, my friend. Hope your campaign is still going well... I need to tune-in to your podcast again sometime. :)
I REALLY like this one! I'm going to use this puzzle and adapt it to a corn maze I'm building for a Halloween one shot. And instead of a ghost I think 1 or 2 small swarms of crows are going to come out to attack the players. And im gonna add another symbol to the dial. And the players will have to spin it like a padlock for lockers in Highschool. :)
Personally I'd have it so that when they go downstairs there's so many crows flying around that the odd one will accidentally fly into them and scratch them, just be a very minor wound so just one damage but it would start to annoy them after a while. Also you could have the runes raised slightly, outlined in stone with either some sort of glass/crystal centre line. Once the scarecrows are put in place the glass/crystal centre lines of the runes glow. The adventurers would then see this so be motivated to clear the bird shit etc out of the way so they can then see them clearly.
I like your take on this... Having the runes light up and the characters scrambling to clear the mess to see what is going on... I could definitely envision that happening. Great comment! :)
I would put Scratchmarkings on the ground of the lower floor and make the crows land on the it as soon as both scarecrows are setup. So the crows make up the symbols and there is no way the players e.g. measure the paint and draw it on paper. Maybe even let half of the crows land and form the symbol as soon as they put down one scarecrow and the other half as soon as they put down the second one.
Yes, yes.... I do like that idea. That sounds good to me. Such a fun little puzzle, hope you are able to use it in a game sometime soon! Thank you for the great comment!
I totally agree! Wish I would have looked up the "murder of crows" before I recorded... I really could have played off of that. Oh well... but, anyways... thank you for the great comment, hope you liked the video!
You're never too late to comment on my videos. I am always around. :) But yes, absolutely, making the crows illusions would be another great way to utilize the puzzle. Welcome to the channel, I hope you subscribed. :)
@@FERRETKIDROCKS That's one heck of a compliment... Thank you, I appreciate this. Truth be told, feedback and comments from subscribers help ME become a better DM... and content creator. Stay safe! :)
Its almost halloween so I want to be evil... If they linger around the room too much or attempt to attack the crows, have the crows join into a crow-like monster thats made out of crows and attacks the adventurers. Now how do they get the scarecrows? Simple...once they found the door on the lower floor (either by simply exploring or by running from the monster lol) they will find a room where 2 adventurers are sitting there and seem to have been hurt by the crows and are barely hanging onto life. In this room there are also some random wood planks nearby by so...guess how they will make the scarecrows? Yep...Murder (A murder is also a group of Crows). Once the scarecrows are position the blood from the corpses will make the runes needed to solve the puzzle. If you want a less bloody scene, just maybe have the option to heal the adventurers and have them help or give useful information on how to solve the puzzle or defeat the crows :)
Oh yeah... assemble like Voltron... into a Crow Golem! And that scarecrow idea... that is a horror movie scenario for sure. Definitely the plan of an evil DM! Haha. Great ideas buddy. :)
Ever seen the film The Crow 2 - City Of Angels? In case you haven't, at the end the main character (the Crow) make all the crows that are flying around above pass through him as if they were ethereal then all fly into the man bad guy hence killing him. Could take some inspiration from that maybe? The crows fly up, pass through some spectral figure and attack the players if they get it wrong? Yet afterwards there doesn't seem to be any less crows once they fly back to what they were doing.
Used this today for my DnD group. Thanks for sharing!
Such an underrated channel.
Oh nice! I'm glad that you were able to use this in your game. That is awesome. And, thank you for the kind words. :-) Cheers!
i'm going to use this puzzle in the same area as your 'Scarecrow Mansion' puzzle (#34), as that is where they will have to bring the scarecrow from!
great puzzle once again!
Ooooh. Good choice. Those two will run well together. I also want to tell you thank-you for taking the time to comment on all of these, I really appreciate that and am super stoked that you are enjoying this series! Fantastic comments like yours are what keep me motivated to create more videos. And... stay tuned for a new puzzle video in February and a special announcement on a project I am working on. :)
@@WallyDM hey man, thank YOU for making this series! My campaign could use some more puzzles like these, and i've made a few, but they take me sooo much time to make that i just can't use them much, unless i get some great inspiration elsewhere!
That is an awesome idea
Marvelous puzzle, as always. I like that you provide some real life Scarcrow information.
Thank you Fred! Thank you for stopping by to say hi! :)
This is really atmospheric.
Great puzzle! Just found your channel and as a new DM this is quite a resource - thank you! Looking forward to seeing more of your puzzle vids!
Awesome! Thank you for the fantastic compliment Gillian, I appreciate it. Welcome to the channel!
Oh I am using this one! It's perfect! I like the idea that the 'failure' state for the dial summons a ghost instead of causing the crows to attack. I'd probably describe the ghost as having shredded flesh, and it's eyes put out, like it was killed -murdered if you will- by the crows. Maybe as a suggestion to the players that attacking the crows isn't the best solution.
Awww yeah, brilliant! I absolutely love this idea. A small message to the players. Don't Mess with the Crows! Thank you!
Just found your channel here and love it... a lot of these puzzle ideas are REALLY good... every time I write puzzles they are apparently so blatantly obvious that the team figures them out in like less than a second and I think "why did I bother" or I guess they are so complex that my teams never figure them out even with like 10 hints and just go wandering off without ever finding hidden treasures and stuff... lol...
Most of the ones you have posted seem to be a nice mix of "sort-of" challenging, but still appear pretty do-able... thumbs up...
Rock on! Thank you, Hoppy! I am glad you found my channel... welcome aboard! :)
@@WallyDM- I just finished up some plot stuff for the game I'll be running tomorrow... Part of it includes finding a key and using it to trigger a hidden door ( pretty standard )... upon turning the key, hidden door opens, but lots of whirring noises happens and then a little "plunk" and a teeny tiny like 1 inch hole opens near the floor on an opposite wall...
Hidden door goes to a room with some old scrolls & whatnot talking about an ancient rat god... whether or not the team realizes they need to find a mouse or rat and shove it into the tiny hole to open up another door is yet to be determined... lol...
Nice I dig it! Two things on your idea... The first is... it is very similar to a future puzzle video that I will be recording. The adventurers will need to access an area through a small hole in the floor, similar to what you have outlined here, but instead of shoving a mouse or rat into the hole, (SPOILER ALERT) they will need to Polymorph into the mouse or rat... This puzzle is still in the works, but it should be an absolute blast to play through. Hoping to have it on my channel by January.
The second... I like the rat god idea... be sure to check out my Raxivort puzzle! Number 29, I think. Raxivort is god of Xvarts, Rats, and Wererats.
@@WallyDM - having a druid in the team who could control mice and/or using a meta/polymorph spell would work too... that said, none of the players on the team have those abilities yet... I'm playing a kind of low-magic world... so most people are illiterate, and spells / magic users are hard to come by... even trying to find an alchemist who would have a metamorph to rat potion would be like a major adventure... :D
The wizard in the team does have a "reduce self" spell, but that still makes him about 6" tall, and too big to fit... ( initially the wizard was none to pleased with his spell book... his only attack spell is cloud of slumber... but he's coming to grips with it since most of their enemies are very limited on attack spells as well... )
this is lovely! gonna try this puzzle with a halloween oneshot i'm running soon, very excited about it
Hooray! Please stop back by and let me know how it goes!
Hello again Wally DM Sir. Had another session with more of your puzzels and i'd like to tell you about it!
Starting with 'scarecrow mansion'. They solved it rather easily, as verbally explaining the paintings of the servants made it too obvious their emotions were important. Any advice on how to make this more subtle?
Next, this puzzle, the scare crows. I made it such that the scarecrows they had to use for the puzzle were the ones standing around in the 'scarecrow mansion'. I had this one set up that the ground floor was a big random pattern of colors, above it a number of colored glass pains that, when looked through the colored glass pains would display the correct runes. They checked out every inch of the room for a while but not being able to see anything properly due to the crows everywhere. When they found the holes for the scarecrows, one suggested to get some scarecrows, but with a clear attitude of 'this cannot possibly by the solution, but i will try anyway'. Big smiles when i revealed that it worked anyway.
And finally, the eyes of the beholder puzzle, placing it in a dark room so that some sort of natural light needed to be brought it for the colors to be visible, non magical naturaly. I also set it up that when solving it wrong, the damage they took was proportional to the amount of eyes that were wrong. They tried all blue eyes first (7 wrong, 7d6 damage) and 2 of each next (4 wrong, so 4d6 damage). Then they just thought about it, someone just blurted out to 'count they eyes per picture', coming to 9. So for a brief moment they didn't think that was it, until the druid asked if the eye of a needle is indeed called an eye. At which point they solved it!
So, all in all, another great session thanks to the inclusion of your puzzles!
Hey again! Awesome! Having not run these puzzles yet myself, I am living through your stories right now, so thank you for this detailed report. ... For scarecrow mansion, I would have to put a little bit more thought into it. Perhaps, instead of paintings, I use ghosts/spirits and they either tell an emotional story or simply have an expression on their face.
I am super stoked to hear that your players are enjoying the puzzles! That is six of them you have used so far... I better start making a lot more videos, lol. :)
@@WallyDM More puzzle videos? Yes please! It will probably be a while until i can use more puzzles in game. My players have a plan of what to do next few session (which includes some interplanner travel thanks to the cleric's new gate spell), and they are not likely to encounter puzzles in those plans. Though i am planning to go though more of your videos again to see how i might use them for future missions!
I don't see the link to the runes.
Oh wow... I'm not sure what happened to that. No worries... you can download it here:
www.wallydm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/runes-stone-dial.jpg
Thanks for watching! :)
Another great puzzle and If you've been following the Blind Rat on Twitter at all, you know I LOVE crows!!!
Be right back... (Runs over to check Blind Rat on Twitter... Runs back) Oh dang... what a coincidence! Super cool. :) Thank you for the awesome comment, my friend. Hope your campaign is still going well... I need to tune-in to your podcast again sometime. :)
I REALLY like this one!
I'm going to use this puzzle and adapt it to a corn maze I'm building for a Halloween one shot. And instead of a ghost I think 1 or 2 small swarms of crows are going to come out to attack the players. And im gonna add another symbol to the dial. And the players will have to spin it like a padlock for lockers in Highschool. :)
Oh nice! I like the addition of the third dial and the corn maze. Be sure to let me know how it goes. Glad you liked the video, Nick! Cheers!
Personally I'd have it so that when they go downstairs there's so many crows flying around that the odd one will accidentally fly into them and scratch them, just be a very minor wound so just one damage but it would start to annoy them after a while. Also you could have the runes raised slightly, outlined in stone with either some sort of glass/crystal centre line. Once the scarecrows are put in place the glass/crystal centre lines of the runes glow. The adventurers would then see this so be motivated to clear the bird shit etc out of the way so they can then see them clearly.
I like your take on this... Having the runes light up and the characters scrambling to clear the mess to see what is going on... I could definitely envision that happening. Great comment! :)
I would put Scratchmarkings on the ground of the lower floor and make the crows land on the it as soon as both scarecrows are setup. So the crows make up the symbols and there is no way the players e.g. measure the paint and draw it on paper. Maybe even let half of the crows land and form the symbol as soon as they put down one scarecrow and the other half as soon as they put down the second one.
Yes, yes.... I do like that idea. That sounds good to me. Such a fun little puzzle, hope you are able to use it in a game sometime soon! Thank you for the great comment!
the tengu in my party will have quite the feeling of deja vu...
This puzzle + Tengu = A most excellent adventure. :)
FYI. Group of crows is called a murder of crows. Goes better with the theme also.
I totally agree! Wish I would have looked up the "murder of crows" before I recorded... I really could have played off of that. Oh well... but, anyways... thank you for the great comment, hope you liked the video!
@@WallyDM enjoying all the ideas. Like the channel. Looking for ideas to put in my game.
@@LandBeyond Fantastic! Glad you are enjoying the content... stay tuned, new videos coming soon! :)
A bit late but the crows could be illusions that can’t be dispelled
You're never too late to comment on my videos. I am always around. :) But yes, absolutely, making the crows illusions would be another great way to utilize the puzzle. Welcome to the channel, I hope you subscribed. :)
Wally D.M. Of course I’m a sub your videos inspire me to be a better dm
@@FERRETKIDROCKS That's one heck of a compliment... Thank you, I appreciate this. Truth be told, feedback and comments from subscribers help ME become a better DM... and content creator. Stay safe! :)
My players will be raven about this one 🐦⬛
Its almost halloween so I want to be evil...
If they linger around the room too much or attempt to attack the crows, have the crows join into a crow-like monster thats made out of crows and attacks the adventurers.
Now how do they get the scarecrows? Simple...once they found the door on the lower floor (either by simply exploring or by running from the monster lol) they will find a room where 2 adventurers are sitting there and seem to have been hurt by the crows and are barely hanging onto life.
In this room there are also some random wood planks nearby by so...guess how they will make the scarecrows? Yep...Murder (A murder is also a group of Crows).
Once the scarecrows are position the blood from the corpses will make the runes needed to solve the puzzle.
If you want a less bloody scene, just maybe have the option to heal the adventurers and have them help or give useful information on how to solve the puzzle or defeat the crows :)
Oh yeah... assemble like Voltron... into a Crow Golem! And that scarecrow idea... that is a horror movie scenario for sure. Definitely the plan of an evil DM! Haha. Great ideas buddy. :)
Ever seen the film The Crow 2 - City Of Angels? In case you haven't, at the end the main character (the Crow) make all the crows that are flying around above pass through him as if they were ethereal then all fly into the man bad guy hence killing him. Could take some inspiration from that maybe? The crows fly up, pass through some spectral figure and attack the players if they get it wrong? Yet afterwards there doesn't seem to be any less crows once they fly back to what they were doing.
Or the crows could simply be spectral. >^_^
Yes you are! Haha, thanks buddy. :)
Spectral... Yes, I dig it! :)
I'd worry about the cleric just using "Turn Undead" to clear them out, in that case.
Scarecrows are my favorite keep all those nasty birds away
Agreed! Scarecrows are some of the coolest. :)
Love your chanal. I'm almost done with my campaign, thanks for your help.
You bet Beau! I'm glad my videos were able to help you with your games! :)