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Collin's Confusing Puzzle
Collin was always good at solving blacksmiths puzzles, but this time he had finaly met his match. Collin's Confusing Puzzle is an item that complements Siren no Orakio's Item submission 'Shards of the Storm'. This is a quest submission.
Quest entry
Quest entry
Quest - The Shards of the Storm
First Official Quest 12 week long quest with 10XP award per post. To get things really started here on new Strolen's I dug into the archives and recovered Siren no Orakio's old request for fresh ideas on the Shards of th… Open the quest
Full quest brief
First Official Quest 12 week long quest with 10XP award per post. To get things really started here on new Strolen's I dug into the archives and recovered Siren no Orakio's old request for fresh ideas on the Shards of the Storm. The quest is as follows: What non-weapon can you make of the Shards of the Storm? Who among us can craft the most ingenious idea spawned from Siren's old masterpiece? Originally posted by Siren no Orakio:
Some time ago, I posted up the Shards of the Storm. In essence, they are fragments of a goddess's essense, containing a piece of the driven fury of the concept of the Storm. Much of their purpose, from a GMing point of view, is to provide a common thread for items of power. So? So, so far I have only been able to come up with two not-weapon items to make out of these, and I'd like to see what better minds than mine can do with them.
Full Item Description
This item is a standard blacksmith's puzzle.
History
As the blacksmiths anvil beat down in it's repeating motions, sparks flew during the forging process of Thunderheart, a legendary item forged with one of the Shards of the Storm. Sparks are actually red hot pieces of metal that are scattered on the ground. After the forging of Thunderheart, the floor was swept, and the metal was recycled and recast into many small objects and trinkets...
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On his birthday, Collin, a twelve year old boy, opened a small box. Inside was a blacksmith's puzzle. Collin was genuinely impressed. It didn't look like any blacksmith's puzzle that he had done before, and he had done a lot of them. He was very good at them, and considered himself one of the best around.
Exited, he immediately took to solving it with the care and patience that he always used, methodically trying one thing, then another. After about half an hour, he realized that this was a particularly tough puzzle, one of the hardest that he had ever seen, and he was even more determined to get it right.
Two hours later, he was a little bit annoyed that he had not yet solved it, but at least he was getting close. His mother called him to come down for lunch and once lunch was over, he quickly raced upstairs, having realized the solution while he was eating.
When he got back up, he tried his solution that he knew would work, but instead, he found that he had somehow overlooked something.
In total, he spent about twenty three hours with the puzzle, getting more and more frustrated with it, until he finally threw it out of his window in anger, something that had never happened before.
Magic/Cursed Properties
This blacksmith's puzzle contains the smallest fraction of a Shard of the Storm. Because of the random and volatile nature of these shards, the blacksmith's puzzle is unusually hard to figure out.
Even more frustrating, is the fact that, left unattended, the puzzle changes. The change is usually small, but even a small change can change a blacksmith's puzzle drastically. The change never makes the blacksmith's puzzle impossible to solve. There is always a solution, but that solution changes, and if solved, another way has to be found to put the puzzle back together again.
Because of the nature of the shards, prolonged use of the puzzle will cause the solver to become more quickly frustrated or aggravated than usual, espescially while trying to solve the puzzle.
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Continue the path
Three more steps through the hall.
- Shards of the Storm by Siren no Orakio Bound
- Sleigh of the Storm by Cheka Man Same quest
Other takes
No other takes yet — the best compliment on the Citadel is a Retelling.
Bonds
Curated bonds across the Citadel. Kindred Favors are another thread in the same weave.
Also for this quest
Other entries under Quest - The Shards of the Storm.
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Sleigh of the Storm
Once a year, Father Olaf delivers presents to all the people of the world in one night.How does he do it? With the help of the Sleigh of the Storm, and the vita…
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Shard of Deluge
Long sword built from storm sword shard. Empowered with the force of storm-water.
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Saint Vedast's Zephyrous Icon
'Let me to battle, Brother. I shall sweep thine enemies as the wind, and thou shalt have vict'ry.' -St. Vedast's revelation to Hural
Winner of The Shards of…
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Chalice of Remorse
There are certain things that need not be said, and events best left in the past, to be forgotten. Be careful what you wish for.
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The Fulminant
Within the chest of a wizardly tool, there beats a Shard heart, deeming the master a fool.
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Faerie Talisman of Concealing Mists
A divinely aware ornament, this device serves to conceal and hide from the most powerful of beings...
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Book of the Storm
An (un)holy book written in ink created from a Shard of the Storm.
-
The Crown of the Storm
The Crown of the Storm brings great power to it's wearers, but at a great cost...this can chage the weather but it also has a nasty habit of changing it's weare…
I have to say that I like it. A pretty minor item that certainly could be created.
Just to ask: What happens if/when ever the puzzle is solved? At least there should be lightning and thunder somewhere far, for dramatic effect. (Would be fun if a character completes it, hears the thunder, and imagines something world-shattering has happened.)
Any other idea?
Well, incidentally, the puzzle does not have enough power to cause such an effect. Whatever it does has to be a pretty weak ability.
Oh well. That's probably a desire for something dramatic.
At the least, after long hours of completing this diffilcut puzzle could the lucky solver get into a great wild party-crashing, celebrating mood (I have made it! I HAVE MADE IT! YEAAAH!).
Side-effect, as they say. :)
Actually Manfred, considering the nature of the item, and the length of time that would be required to solve it, I think that that makes perfect sense.
I like it, something to annoy the players with. It is a simple item like this that can throw an entire party for a twist.
What kind of puzzle is it though. I was picturing a Rubic Cube in my head but that seems pretty off to me as it has been done so many times before. I would think that the person who made the puzzle would have some type of reward in the puzzle, or maybe the shards create random odd little items to put in it, if it can fit something like that inside it.
A neat idea.
Have you ever gone into a game shop and you have seen those puzzles where they have two long twisted pieces of metal intertwined with each other, and the goal of the puzzle is to separate them? That is a blacksmiths puzzle.
I gave a XP to Nobody for explaining what a blacksmith's puzzle is... and I'm giving this a 3.5/5 for utility. My only problem with this, is that it makes finding all the Shards of the Storm impossible. (At elast a task for a starfaring nation.. plus if the shards were to be put into a galaxy sized setting.. would really make finding all the pieces impossible.)
Still it's a nice submission. (maybe the sparks from forging thing was a special effect - based off the effect that sparks only come from hot forging, and that the shards of the storm should be too cold for this type of forging.)
Diabolical.
This is nifty too. I would likely be somewhat irrational with it myself - without the magic influence. I take offense if I'm defeated by one of these stupid little puzzles :)