Puzzle Box

The Puzzle Box

During a recent session of Rise of the Runelords, an attempt to teleport from a remote region back to Sandpoint went awry. According to the rules, the misfired spell was supposed to send the PCs to a similar area, defined as “an area that's visually or thematically similar to the target area.” As they were aiming for the Rusty Dragon Inn, it seemed clear that they should be in a tavern somewhere, but where? I pulled out the Inner Sea World Guide and had them generate a random number using some wacky zocchi dice. A few rolls later, we determined that the hapless adventurers had somehow landed in the city of Katheer, the capital of Qadira (gateway to the east). What would a startled, pseudo middle-eastern barkeep do if a few adventurers materialized in his business? Try to sell them something, of course!

 

When I was in Turkey, one of my favorite memories was browsing through the wares of the various shops in the area known as “the alley” just outside the Air Force base there. So, adapting my best Turkish accent, I began to recreate that experience at the game table. Recovering quickly from his initial shock, the friendly merchant launched right into a sales pitch. While his son brought hot tea to these new customers, the man began to demonstrate the quality of his many fine, hand-carved puzzle boxes. I must have done a fairly convincing impression, because one of my players immediately gave up some of his hard-won gold for his own, authentic, Qadira puzzle-box.

 

Presented below are the stats for the item, more a curiosity than a useful hiding place. The flavor text is written for my own home-brewed world of Terren. For a Pathfinder campaign, assume these items come from Qadira rather than Hzar. There are two versions below, with stats for different rule sets.

 

D20 VERSION

 

Puzzle Box: This carved wooden box can only be opened using a specific combination of twisting parts, hidden buttons, and sliding panels. Puzzle boxes are one of the many exotic wares for sale in the Hzari caravans that travel the great trade route merchants call the River of Spices. The overall complexity and number of steps required to open each box varies, from two steps for the simplest puzzle boxes to hundreds for particularly intricate versions. Most puzzle boxes are of the five-step variety, as the Hzari consider five to be the luckiest of all numbers.

Opening a puzzle box requires one or more rounds and a successful Disable Device check, as shown below. A character makes this check with a +10 bonus if he knows the correct pattern for that specific box.

 

Complexity	Disable Device	Time to Open	Cost
Simple	DC 10	1 round	25 gp
Moderate	DC 20	1d6 rounds	50 gp
Complex	DC 30	2d6 rounds	250 gp

 

 

5E VERSION

 

Puzzle Box: This carved wooden box can only be opened using a specific combination of twisting parts, hidden buttons, and sliding panels. Puzzle boxes are one of the many exotic wares for sale in the Hzari caravans that travel the great trade route merchants call the River of Spices. The overall complexity and number of steps required to open each box varies, from two steps for the simplest puzzle boxes to hundreds for particularly intricate versions. Most puzzle boxes are of the five-step variety, as the Hzari consider five to be the luckiest of all numbers.

Opening a puzzle box requires one or more rounds and a successful Dexterity check, as shown below. A character makes this check with advantage if he knows the correct pattern for that specific box.

 

Complexity	Dexterity Check	Time to Open	Cost
Simple	DC 10	1 round	25 gp
Moderate	DC 15	1d6 rounds	50 gp
Complex	DC 20	2d6 rounds	250 gp