Sphinx Riddles

[Chilxius]

I'm sure I'm not the first to post something like this, but here we go...

In my campaign the PC's are heading to liberate a Sphinx's library so she can help them find plot-information. The various doors inside are all protected by riddles. (They didn't bother to ask her about that, and even if they did she doesn't really like them that much yet.) I want them to be using her as a contact in the future, so they'll probably be back later and I want fresh riddles each time.

The thing is, each riddle bears a punishment/reward for being solved incorrectly/correctly. I've found some good ones from various sources, but I'm trying to assign fun rewards that relate to the answer. Here's what I have now:

"A dragon with thirty legs and one wing sheds its scales upon the sand."

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'Ship' or 'Boat' would be the answer.
Reward: A Feather token of a small boat.
Punishment: A dragon-head sculpted into the wall hits them with a burning hands effect.

"Thousands lay up gold within this house,
but no man made it.
Spears past counting guard this house,
but no man wards it."

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'Beehive' would be the answer.
Reward: A jar of honey that has the effect of a lesser restoration when consumed.
Punishment: Two giant bees are released from the walls.

"I wonder as I wander: where am I?
I shed tears, yet I cannot cry,
I trek, but cannot walk, swim, or fly,
I am born to die. Say, what am I?"

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'Cloud' would be the answer.
Reward: An image of a cloud floats off the door and onto the PC's arm. (Functions like a psionic tattoo of Concealing Amorpha, but appears as a cloud.)
Punishment: Thunderhead spell on closest PC.

"When people come for me to meet,
They come to me with heavy feet.
The one I hold,
When I get my chance,
Will turn and spin,
And start to dance."

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'Gallows' would be the answer.
Reward: A rope that duplicates the rope trick spell when used.
Punishment: An animated noose attacks (and tries to strangle).

Ideas?

[Keltest]

Those riddles are pretty tricky. Unless one of your actual players is fond of riddles, theres a good chance they wont get any of them. That's going to be frustrating very quickly, because it will quickly be perceived by the players as the time to get zapped by a random spell because of out of game reasons. Furthermore, if your 6 int barbarian player is played by an actual riddlemaster or otherwise intelligent character, you have the dumbest person in the group coming up with the answers to the riddles, while the 20 int wizard is clueless.

[VoxRationis]

Only got the first one—I came close with the last, though, with "torturer's wheel."

Atop a wall, on stilts of stone
The loyal men guard hall and throne
Jutting forth into the wind
I make it so they see where blind
When battle joins, and sappers mine
I enable guards to hold the line
A gross of arches makes my frame
Can you, pray tell, say my name?

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Machicolations

I think there need to be more technical riddles—especially in situations where the riddler's life is on the line. (Come on, Bilbo!)

[Chilxius]

The riddle doors will all have a place to input the answer, so they know how many letters are in the answer. I know the mage in my group is a smart person (who likes riddles), so I'm pretty confident that they'll get most if not all. Also, there are secret passages to bypass some of the doors. It's a little hard, but the damage won't be too bad. I know I guessed all except the last one.

A successful knowledge check on the topic could allow me to provide them hints. Honestly though, I think these players would be insulted by hints. I know some groups wouldn't like riddles, but this one will.

The NPC I have with them won't be able to help much, since she's a mermaid and has little experience with these objects, aside from boats. (BTW, having the group healer be a mermaid, with a mere 5' moment, is a fun way to make PC's rethink tactics.)

[Kid Jake]

First thing that popped into my head:

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[Cluedrew]

You should probably have the Riddle of the Sphinx in there eventually. Which I believe is actually the following:

"What walks on 4 legs in the morning, 2 legs during the day and 3 legs in the evening?"

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Humans: Four legs when we crawl as children, 2 legs when we walk for most of our lives, 3 legs when old and using a cane.

Riddles in role-playing games are an interesting topic on their own too.

[Wartex1]

I quickly seize my prey with surprise
Making their attempts go awry
Those I stalk tend to hate me
But I am still on their side

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A sneeze

[Thrawn4]

Regarding riddle three

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you are saying clouds cannot fly? Isn't that like, a little untrue?

I like riddles btw, but you should still include an alternative route.

[erikun]

As a player, I would be inclined to take some mining tools to solve your Sphinx's library. It doesn't seem as though answering any of them would do most parties any good, especially since failing to solve a riddle just asks you to try again. There doesn't seem to be any harm in just ignoring the riddle and drilling through the door, after all.

[3SecondCultist]

Being a lover of puzzle dungeons, I have a couple of ideas to help you if you want to incorporate it:

First, talk to your players about it. Run the idea by them in passing first, if you don't want to make it too obvious. Something like, "wouldn't it be neat if X feature was in this dungeon?" If they seem conducive to the idea, then work on it secretly, or in private at your discretion.

Second, find a way to make the riddle work with whatever system you're using at the table. I love 3.5, and let's assume you're using D20s. Set Int checks to give people hints with the riddles, so that people can try roleplaying and the smarter characters at the table might have a leg-up, and you reinforce the roleplaying.

Third, make them fun! You can enforce them with adamantine doors if you want, but it's just as awesome to make them optional prize sections of the dungeon. Turn in into a challenge, sort of like 'are you smart enough to do this?' Since it's a Sphinx themed dungeon, maybe incorporating it into the core mechanic would work better.

Hopefully that helps! I love riddles, and would be more than happy to offer some of my own.

[Lurkmoar]

Third, make them fun! You can enforce them with adamantine doors if you want

Eh, then the players will just cart the doors away. Make them magically hardened to adamantine levels, but that goes away if they're moved more then ten feet from current location.

Edit: I remember a few from Wizard and Glass, the Dark Tower series. Walk on the living and they make no sound, walk on the dead they mutter and grumble. What are we?

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Leaves

I have a hundred legs but cannot move. I have a long neck but no head, I eat the maid's life. What am I?

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A broom

What lives in winter, dies in summer and grows with it's roots upward?

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An icicle

[Keltest]

Eh, then the players will just cart the doors away. Make them magically hardened to adamantine levels, but that goes away if they're moved more then ten feet from current location.

Or just make them portals. What kind of a silly door needs physical materials?

[3SecondCultist]

Or just make them portals. What kind of a silly door needs physical materials?

My previous point still stands though: you don't need to make the doors too difficult to breach, so that there are strategies for everyone at the table. If the riddle is too hard, then the party can try to maybe break down or otherwise circumvent the door.

[erikun]

At that point, you might as well make the doors be the granted treasures, polymorphed into a functional stone door. Cut through the door, and you see it revert to the smashed magical item that you would've received otherwise.

[Chilxius]

I appreciate all this input.

My players are riddle solvers. I've known one of these guys for a decade, and I know he'll appreciate a good puzzle.

The doors are not locked-until-solved; they open either way, but the puzzle-solver is rewarded with the small trinket (and exp) for successfully solving it. The traps are not particularly deadly (except possibly the last one, but that door guards the sphinx's nest). They're designed to reward ingenuity. The sphinx whose library this is "constantly seeks out new intellectual challenges--riddles, puzzles, and other such test delight her to no end." She's a diviner/loremaster who only tolerates humanoids who bring her interesting riddles or challenges, and she believes that anyone who cannot solve these riddles doesn't deserve to be in her library in the first place.

I don't know how many of your NPC's can afford adamantine doors, but this sphinx sure can't. The doors are just thick wood, and breaking them would set off the trap. The library is built into a hill, so most of the walls are solid stone. If my level 4 PC's want to go invest in digging equipment they can, but since they're trying to re-take the library from the bad guys who kicked the sphinx out, it's not in their interest to aggravate her by damaging her property since they are doing this to get her help.

Don't worry; I'm familiar with the 'circumvent the impassable door by digging through the wall' technique.

I know these players, and I tailored the dungeon for them. They'll enjoy it. And, if they don't, I'll just pull the old 'the bandits seem to have broken this riddle-door apart' move.


I like some of these riddles! I didn't get all of them, so I might change some of the wording a bit. (And you're right, Thrawn. That part of the wording bothered me.)

I quickly pounce whenever I slay
Your words do not stop me; you cannot hide
And though I am an ill-harbinger
I am still on your side

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'Sneeze' would be the answer.
Reward: A potion of cure disease.
Punishment: A Gust of Wind effect. Maybe a pool or pit is near the door.

Get it? Ill-harbinger?

Walk on the living and they make no sound, walk on the dead and they mutter and grumble. What are they?

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'Leaves' would be the answer. (I prefer 'what are we?' to 'what are they?', but It makes the answer harder to get (at least it did for me))
Reward: A vellum leaf which when torn has the effect of Barkskin or Tree Shape or one of many druid spells.
Punishment: Entangle centered on the PC's, possibly with poison ivy.

I have a hundred legs but cannot walk.
I have a long neck but no head.
I eat the maid's life.
What am I?

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'Broom' would be the answer.
Reward: A broom figurine that can create an Unseen Servant effect 1/day.
Punishment: An animated broom attacks the PC's.

It lives in winter,
it dies in summer,
it grows with its roots upward.

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'Icicle' would be the answer.
Reward: A few (2d4-1) arrows of frost.
Punishment: A few Lesser Orb of Cold spells (shaped like icicles) or a Chill Metal effect.

This one might not work so well since this campaign takes place in a tropical setting.

I probably won't use the actual riddle of the sphinx. Not only is it a bit played out, and my players will know it already, but with all the Monster Manuals we have there's bound to be more than one creature that fits that description.

[VoxRationis]

I think the "walk on the living" riddle could use rewording; it becomes difficult to tell what "they" means in the question.

[JCAll]

"A dragon with thirty legs and one wing sheds its scales upon the sand."

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'Ship' or 'Boat' would be the answer.
Reward: A Feather token of a small boat.
Punishment: A dragon-head sculpted into the wall hits them with a burning hands effect.

I just figured out what was bugging me about this one.

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A ship's crew is generally referred to as "hands", which rhymes with "sand". I don't know why that was bothering me. Maybe because the others were on a rhyming theme, I dunno.

Regarding riddle three

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you are saying clouds cannot fly? Isn't that like, a little untrue?

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Technically clouds don't fly, they float. Clouds are made of water vapor, H2O, which is lighter than air, mainly N2 and O2.

[Thrawn4]

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Technically clouds don't fly, they float. Clouds are made of water vapor, H2O, which is lighter than air, mainly N2 and O2.

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I know, it's just that some players might be disappointed by that. I know that it keept me from saying cloud. Also, if we are talking technically, boats are no dragons per se.

[Maglubiyet]

From mountaintops I flow
A child's plaything
Though a man may cut me down
I bring glory to maidens
Change gold and copper to silver
Or leave some naked

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Hair

[MrStabby]

Well there is always the classic
"What have I got in my pockets?"

[Maglubiyet]

Well there is always the classic
"What have I got in my pockets?"

Or "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

[MrStabby]

Or "Why did the chicken cross the road?"

"where do babies come from?"

"who let the dogs out?"

"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

[Lord Torath]

"How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?"

About as much wood as a woodchuck could, if a woodchuck could chuck wood. Duh!

Well there is always the classic
"What have I got in my pockets?"

"This Thing all things devours:
Birds, Beasts, Trees, Flowers..."

More powerful than Ao (or whatever is the most powerful god in your setting),
More Evil than Asmodeus (or whatever lives in the lowest part of the lowest lower plane in your setting),
The Rich need it
The Poor have it
If you eat it for long, you will die.

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Nothing

What gets bigger the more you take from it?

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A hole:
Correct: Get a portable hole!
Incorrect: A pit trap opens beneath the party's feet

I've got a list of riddles in a folder somewhere. I'll track it down later today and post the ones that aren't already up.

Edit: Okay, here's the lot of them. Spoilered, 'cause, LOTS!

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These first few are from The Hobbit. The book; I haven't seen the movie.
What has roots that nobody sees
Is taller than trees
Up and up it goes,
And yet it never grows

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Mountain

Thirty white horses on a red hill
First they champ
Then they stamp
Then they stand still.

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Teeth

Voiceless, it cries
Wingless, it flutters
Toothless, it bites
Mouthless, it mutters

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The Wind

An eye in a blue face
Saw an eye in a green place.
"That eye is like to this eye"
said the first eye,
"But in a low place,
Not in a high place."

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Sun and Daisies in a field

It cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt.
It lies behind stars and under hills,
And empty holes it fills.
It comes first, and follows after,
Ends life, kills laughter.

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Darkness

A box without hinges, key or lid,
Yet golden treasure inside is hid

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Egg

Alive without breath,
As cold as death,
Never thirsty, ever drinking,
All in mail, never clinking.

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Fish

This thing, all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers,
Gnaws iron, bites steel,
Grinds hard stones to meal,
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountains down

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Time

What has it got in its pocketses?

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Okay, here are some more I've found:
You feel it, but never see it, and never will.

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Wind? Gravity? There are probably a bunch of other things that might qualify as well

As light as a feather, but you can't hold it for 10 minutes.

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Your breath

Has a mouth, but does not speak,
Has a bed, but does not sleep,
Runs as smooth as any rhyme,
Loves to fall, but cannot climb.

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A river

You break it even as you name it.

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Silence

You feed it, it lives.
You give it a drink, it dies.

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Fire

A red drum which sounds without being touched,
But falls silent at a touch.

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Heart

If you break me,
I do not stop working.
If you touch me,
I may be snared,
If you lose me,
Nothing will matter.

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Heart

I go around in circles,
But always straight ahead.
I never will complain,
No matter where I'm led.

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Wheel

Lighter than what I am made of,
More of me is hidden than is seen.

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Iceberg

If a man carried my burden,
He would break his back.
I am not rich,
But leave silver in my track.

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Snail

My life can be measured in hours.
I serve by being devoured.
Thin, I am quick, fat, I am slow,
Wind, I have for my foe.

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A candle

Weight in my belly,
Trees on my back,
Nails in my ribs,
Feet I do lack.

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Sailing ship

You can see nothing else
When you look in my face.
I will look you right in the eye,
And never will I lie.

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Mirror.

I am always hungry,
I must always be fed.
The finger I lick
Will soon be very red.

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Fire

Glittering points that downward thrust,
Sparkling spears that never rust.

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Icicles

Each morning I appear
To lie at your feet.
All day I follow,
No matter how you run,
And yet I nearly perish
In the mid-day sun.

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Your shadow

Gentle enough to sooth the skin;
Light enough to caress the sky;
Hard enough to crack the rocks;
These three lives have I.

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Water

One thin, one bold,
One sick, one cold.
The Earth we span
To prey on Man.

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The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

He who makes it does not keep it.
He who takes it does not know it.
He who knows it does not want it.
He who gathers it, destroys it.

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Counterfeit money

One tooth to bite,
He's the forest's foe.
One tooth to bite,
As all Norsemen know.

Spoiler: This might not work if there are no Norse in your world...

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The Axe.

This creature, part man and part tree,
Hates termites as much as the flea.
His tracks do not match,
And his limbs may detach,
But he's not a strange creature to see.

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A man with a wooden leg, possibly named Smith.

The root tops the trunk
On this backward thing,
That grows in the Winter,
And dies in the Spring.

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Icicle. Again.

Touching one, yet holding two,
It is a one-link chain,
Binding those who keep words true,
'Til death rent it in twain.

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Wedding ring

A house of wood in a hidden place,
Built without nails or glue,
High above the earthen ground,
It holds pale gems of blue.

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Robin's nest.

Inside a great blue castle
Lives a shy, young maid.
She blushes in the morning,
And comes not out at night.

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The Sun

I have legs, but I walk not,
A good, strong, back, but work I not,
Two good arms, but reach I not,
A seat, but sit-and-tarry not.

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A chair

Look in my face, and I'm everybody.
Scratch my back, and I'm nobody.

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A mirror

Inside me the adventurous find
Quests and treasures of every kind:
Trolls, goblins, orcs, and more await
Within my closed walls for
All those who wish to visit me.
Your hands are the key to secrets untold,
And your mind will unlock the door.

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Books. Adventure books.

I run through the hills,
I dodge around mountains,
I leap over rivers,
I crawl through the forests.
Step out through your door to find me.

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A road

He who makes me does not want me.
He who buys me does not need me.
He who needs me does not know it.

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A coffin

Spoiler: Here are some I don't know the answers to. Maybe someone else here can figure them out?

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It passes before the sun and makes no shadow.

Two horses, swiftest travelling,
Harnessed in a pair, and
Grazing in places
ever far from them.

A harvest sown and reaped in one day
In an unplowed field
Which increases without growing,
Remains whole, though it is eaten
Within and without.
It is useless, and yet,
The staple of Nations.

Man of old, it is told,
Would search until he tired,
Not for gold, ne'er be sold,
But what he sought was fire.
Man, today, thou mayest say,
Has quite another aim.
In places deep, he did seek
To find me for his gain.

[goto124]

As light as a feather, but you can't hold it for 10 minutes.

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Your breath

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Might want to check the system's rules on breathing here...

[VoxRationis]

Has a mouth, but does not speak,
Has a bed, but does not sleep,
Runs as smooth as any rhyme,
Loves to fall, but cannot climb.

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A river

A most perplexing riddle! I'm guessing it's some sort of dragon.