Goodman Games

A lovely adventure that I had the pleasure of running this past week! My players only got through about 1/2 the module, and a second session is already scheduled to finish. We ended the first session after the party had completed one of the rooms in the cataphract - Construction - though not without incurring some interesting consequences before solving the riddle.

I have a couple of questions about the potions for anyone familiar with that room. The text states that the effects happen if they are drunk out of order, and they need to be drunk in order by one or more party members to solve the puzzle. Some points of confusion:

1) The crimson potion has a stated effect, but being first in the order, how is the effect ever triggered? Does drinking another potion prior to crimson then trigger the crimson potion's effect? If that is the case, what are the 'reset' conditions so that the puzzle can be solved?

One of the possible solutions I thought through and ended up using was that if a particular character had not drunk a potion out of order, then they could drink the crimson potion without triggering the effect. Carrying that to the multiple party members ability to drink the potions in order, I thought that could be one reset condition. An example:
Character A drinks Azure - effect triggers
Character A drinks Crimson - effect triggers
Character B drinks Crimson - effect does not trigger, conditions reset
Character A drinks Tangerine - effect does not trigger

However, that still leaves an issue where if everyone in the party drinks out of order, there is none left to reset the puzzle. Is there another suggested approach?

2) What happens to the glasses when they are drunk - do they refill? If they are always empty even after drunk in the wrong order, is there a reset condition to fill them again, or is the party stuck? The text isn't clear to me. I thought possibly the reset condition could be leaving the test and returning, but the text about "The doors leading to the trials shut behind the party once the trial begins and remain sealed until the test is complete. Only successfully passing the test can return the PCs back to this central area." seems pretty clear that the trials go on until solved or the PCs get in a bind and are picked up by the scions of law.

As my players were having a bit of a hard time, I used the approach where the glasses magically refilled if drunk out of order, but once drunk in order, they were empty. I was planning on having the empty ones fill again if they had not continued drinking in order, but they were able to catch on and solve it without that becoming an issue.

Thanks for the feedback!

Ykoal (aka Judge Marc)

Hi Ykoal,

Here's some answers to your questions (SPOILERS below so beware you who are going to play through this one)







1) If consumed first, there is no adverse effect to drinking the crimson liquid. The side-effects only happen if sampled second or later in the process. Drinking any incorrect liquid by a single PC who then drinks the red one invokes its side-effects. There is no "reset" condition. Once a single PC starts the process, if he does it in the wrong order, he can never successfully pass the Construction trial. If everyone tried sampling the liquids and nobody deduces the correct order, the party cannot pass the trial and is trapped in the room for eternity (or until the Scions discover them, if you're feeling generous). Note that a single PC must drink the liquids in order for the effect to occur, but multiple PCs can do so to create multiple bridges (a moot point, but that's what is intended by one or more PCs, not PC A drinks one, PC B drinks another in the proper order, followed by PC C etc).

2) It's your call how the liquids refill. A PC merely sampling a liquid can produce the same effect as consuming it entirely. The glasses may refill if put back on their pedestals or if consumed in the wrong order (which is how I ran it during playtesting).

Hope that clarifies things for you (and for anybody else running through this one)!

Mike

Thanks for the reply! The clarification about a single PC vs multiple consuming in order cleared the chaos up for me.