I have a Modron-made device that my players will be finding soon. While they can advance the plot without making it work, they would really benefit from doing so. I’m going to give you the device without hints, even though the 15th level PCs will likely have hints from skill checks or from research/divination/consultants. I want to see just how ridiculously hard the puzzle is on its own.
A small hatch opens into a large room that is perfectly spherical. Intricate piping adorns the entire surface of the sphere. In the center of the sphere is a small console with an array of controls. Radiating from the platform with the control console are six walkways that lead either up or down to six installations which each house three special containers. These containers, upon investigation, contain pure essential elemental matter or energy. Each installation is dedicated to one of the six basic elements (earth, air, fire, water, positive energy, and negative energy). Radiating from the central platform in a separate but related pattern are four support pillars and four walkways, one leading from the entrance, two to other doors, one to a complex ring mechanism.
What concerns us are the ring mechanism and the control console. The other two doors lead to supply rooms. The workings of the elemental containers can be figured out without too much trouble. The ring is very complex, with a multitude of moving parts.
The top two rows of controls are identical sets of ten switches, each switch having four distinct states, each marked with the same four symbols in the same order. The three right-most switches on each row have their symbols inscribed on the opposite side of the switch, however. Below these rows of switches are controls, listed from left to right: a button, a switch, a dial, a switch, and another button. The dial has 145 distinct notches, with every sixth notch longer and every twelfth notch including a bump at the end of the mark, including both the first and last notch. The dial only has 270 degrees of movement centered on vertical.
Here’s a basic notation: the ten switches in a row will be a number, 1-4, for the four states, going from bottom to top. So, if they are all in the bottom-most position, the row would be 1111111111. The dial will have a value of 1-145, indicating which notch it is set at, going clockwise starting at the first notch ("1") you reach past the dead zone.
The starting state of the control console:
Row One: 1121441231
Row Two: 1224411311
Left Switch: up
Dial: 65 (this is a normal notch)
Right Switch: down
What do you do? Also, specify if you want to continue from someone else’s progress point, or if you want to start your own.
I have no idea what’s supposed to happen here. So, I’d randomly fiddle with it if I were a player.
Press the buttons first, to see if they do anything. Then again, but in different order. Then change the switches and try all 4 combinations. Press buttons again (both ways) with all different switch setups. After that, play with the dial. Turn it to 0 and repeat everything before. Then try 1, then 6, then 12 and 145. Again, keep repeating the other steps as before.
In short, I’d methodically fiddle with controls (except the rows) till I see what they do. Only then I’d try my luck on the rows.
You press the left button: there is a whirring followed by a clicking sound coming from the ring.
You press the right button: no reaction.
Upon reversing the order you get the same responses.
Flipping the left switch down, you hear a grinding sound from the ring.
While the right button still produces no response, the left button is now unresponsive.
Flipping the right switch up, while leaving the left down, the left button is still unresponsive. Now, however, when you press the right button, the ring begins to glow and parts of it begin spinning rapidly. A flash of light erupts from within the ring and a steady swirl of light is held within.
I would assume an investigation of the ring. It is now a gate to the elemental plane of fire. There is a ring of a different, but complementary design on the plane of fire. A platform exists there, and upon a little investigation, it becomes apparent that this platform was used for refilling the containers of elemental fire.
What do you do next?
I suppose I should mention that all of the containers are dangerously low, and the players have motivation to refill them.
At this point refilling of all elemental containers of fire commenses.
I then reset the machine to it’s original state.
I set the Dial to 1. Flip both switches Up. Press both buttons.
After I see that result, if no new gate appears, I set the Dial to 145 and re-attempt the button pushing.
Following that I set the swtiches to:
Row 1: 3323443213
Row 2: 3224433133
And push the buttons twice, alternating the Dial from position 1 to position 145.
Patriarch: because Magic Missile targets a creature, and you are the only presumptive creature in the room, you take 5d4+5 damage.
Devastator: just to be clear, the gate was opened when the left switch was down and the right switch up.
Upon switching the right switch down, the ring ceases glowing and decelerates its spin. Upon flipping the left switch up, bringing the controls back to the original state, the rings abruptly come to a complete halt with a clang.
You set the rows as you mentioned in your second post:
Row One: 1121411211
Row Two: 1111411311
Dial: 49
You flip the right switch up, so both switches are up (this is the first time they are both up). You press both buttons simultaneously. The whirring and clicking sound previously heard is accompanied this time by a low-pitched harmonic. Nothing further happens. No part of the gate spins.
For good measure, you press the left button again. You hear the same whirring and clicking. You then flip the left switch down, which is accompanied by the grinding sound. The left button is now unresponsive.
The right switch is still up. You press the right button, and the rings begin spinning. While you get a glowing light-show, this time the light is dimmer and quite red. Also, rather than an even glowing swirl, you have a clockwise spiral of light and gaps. There was no eruption of light as previously seen.
Before shutting it down (if you do so), you are observant enough to notice that the spinning rings are moving at a little less than half the rate they were before. The dim red spiral does not have a noticeable effect on either objects or creatures, and certainly is not an active gate to another plane.
Reset everything. Let’s not fiddle with the rows till the end. And ignore the dial until we figure out what buttons and switches does.
So far:
Switch down=dead button. Switch up=button works. Dial OR the rows seem to control spinning speed. Let’s ignore that for now. Right button ATM opens a gate to fire. Probably dial and rows control what element gate leads to. Left button just makes whirring.
Combinations we’re missing are both switches up and press each button. Make it easier and give us this table:
LS: down RS: down = LB: dead RB: dead
LS: down RS: up = LB: ? RB: ?
LS: up RS: down = LB: ? RB: ?
LS: up RS: up = LB: ? RB: ?
When we figure these out, it’s time to play with the dial. Long story short, give us the same table above for dial at 0, 1, 6, 7, 12, 13, 145. Methodicalness ftw…
Then there’ll be the rows, where methodicalness fails. But one step at a time…
I admit, this is probably more work than Denmark bargained for (at least for posting here). But if there’s one too methodically inclined player, this is what’s going to happen during the game.
I obviously JUST figured out what everything does.
The dial is the speed of the rings, the left switch/button combo causes the rings to stop all movement, the right switch/button combo prompts the rings to begin rotation (which as we can see is dependant on the ring speed).
LS: down RS: down = LB: dead RB: dead
LS: down RS: up = LB: dead RB: active
LS: up RS: down = LB: active RB: dead
LS: up RS: up = LB: active RB: active (causing interference, both the brake and the accel are on)
Going from MY last post, where I refrained from shutting down the rings as you had assumed, I will slowly turn the dial back up until it reaches 145, I’ll stop if at any point a major reaction occurs, or my death seems imminent.
The rows are probably an addressing system of some sort that tells the machine where the gate you’re trying to open should point to (and where there has to be a matching gate, since the fire plane had one). The trick here is cracking the code of the addresses.
My guess here is that each row represents a coordinate in base 4 notation. The left 7 switches set the whole number portion of the coordinate, the right three set the fractional part (hence the change of sides in the marking). This gives the coordinates a ranage from 0 (1111111.111) to 3*4^-3+3*4^-2+3*4^-1+3+3*4+3*4^2+3*4^3+3*4^4+3*4^5+3*4^6 = =16383.984375 (4444444.444). To that end I’d propose using the numbers 0 to 3 to represent the switch states instead of 1 to 4.
Under this system, the coordinates for the plane of fire are 1121441.231, 1224411.311 in base 4, or 316.375, 1520.5 in decimal (base 10) notation.
Unless these numbers have some significance in the game, then finding the coordinates to other places is simply a process of trial and error. A very time consuming process.
Wow BP. You’re running overkill on that math.
I think the coordinates for the plane of fire are 20…
because in the OP:
Row One: 1121441231 (1+1+2+1+4+4+1+2+3+1 = 20)
Row Two: 1224411311 (1+2+2+4+4+1+1+3+1+1 = 20)
So we need to discover the other 5 possible combinations, and if the coordinate “20” (or “40") has any relation to the dial setting (which i determined relates to the speed at which the gate rings spin at)
CnSvnc: this isn’t more than I bargained for, as I fully expect my players to . . . well, wait. What would it take to call in a Modron consultant to operate the machine?
Also, Devastator got the table correct, although I will currently refrain from commenting on his parenthetical note. I should also point out that the rings stopped ("braked") when the left switch was flipped up. The left button was not required to stop the rings. The right button was required to start the rings. The left button has only been successfully activated with the rings stationary and the left switch up.
Your dial results are different than Devastator’s: You still have the original row settings. While you might be right that the lowest mark on the dial is “0,” I have so far referred to them as the 1st through the 145th mark. Now, because you mentioned being methodical with your dial settings, I’m assuming you’re following the previous procedure for starting the rings (right switch down, left switch up, set dial, left switch down, right switch up, right button, repeat).
Dial 1: the rings move much, much more slowly. There is brief shimmer of light that immediately fades. The rings continue to spin very slowly until the right switch is flipped down.
Dial 2: identical to Dial 1 with unaided observation.
Dial 6: similar to Dial 1, although the rings take only about a third as long to rotate.
Dial 7: identical to Dial 6 with unaided observation.
Dial 12: similar to Dial 1, although the rings take only about half as long to rotate.
Dial 13: identical to Dial 12 with unaided observation.
I will also note that, if you are quite observant, the light last longer the higher the dial setting.
Dial 145: the entire room vibrates as the rings spin up, releasing an ear-piercing shriek. The eruption of light floods the entire room, temporarily blinding everyone within. The operator manages to flick down the switch in panic. The rings continue to spin very rapidly for a while, until someone flips the left switch, pulling the rings to a jarring halt. A bright and curious companion notices a significant drop in the levels of the positive and negative energy containers.
Black Plague: I don’t think I should comment on your hypotheses just yet. I will say, however, that I will applaud my players for making similar deductions and doing research to see if such numbers are meaningful. Of course, given that you are supposing that these numbers are inter-planar coordinates on a system designed by Modrons, the local library is probably not going to have a chart with those numbers. For this thread’s purposes, however, we’re looking at this without gimmes.
Devastator: you still have the dim red swirl going as you begin turning up the dial. The rings pick up speed as the dial is turned, with a corresponding increase in brightness from the spiral. At the 65th notch (where you found it), the rings are spinning at speed previously seen, but the red spiral, while brighter, is still not as bright as the working gate. As you continue to turn the dial the rings continue to pick up speed. At the 90th notch, the rings are spinning about 10 times as fast as they were when you started at the 49th notch. By the 130th notch the rings are spinning 100 times faster than they were at the 49th. They have also started shrieking a bit. At the final notch, the 145th, the shrieking is quite loud. The red glow is quite bright, making everything look infernal.
What do you do from here? You will also have a friend notice that the positive and negative energy containers have dropped significantly.
CnSvnc: this isn’t more than I bargained for, as I fully expect my players to . . . well, wait. What would it take to call in a Modron consultant to operate the machine?
3.5: Some variety of planar ally depending on the HD of the modron needed.
4e: A custom ritual that does the same as the 3.5 solution (such a ritual has not been published yet)
