I wrote previously about using puzzles. This is the first in a series of playground rooms–places for fantasy heroes to explore in a D&D or OSR adventure.
Elquist’s Haunted House
The heroes are involved in searching a dead sage’s musty old house before it’s torn down to build anew. The place sat empty for nearly 20 years, because is rumored to be haunted, so few have ventured into it.
Inside, the heroes meet the ghost of the sage Elquist–whose unfinished business is trying to warn the local baron about the awful plan of an evil cult. And they encounter some braver members of said evil cult (searching, no doubt, for Elquist’s notes and correspondence about them). Otherwise, the heroes find little but some rodents, threadbare furniture, and moldy bedding (which is where Elquist’s notes and correspondence are concealed).
The Library
But they do find the sage’s library, a collection of 14 tomes of arcane and mystic lore. They can go thru them to see how much they’re worth, altho some may be damaged….
Print and cut the book cover cards offered at bottom and write the title on the back of the card you feel best matches that book. Allow the players to choose one of two randomized titles that you read to them. This way, they can guess at the value of the book from its title. But sometimes they’ll have to choose from between two low-value books or two high-value books.
Once they’ve chosen 10, the final 4 are chosen randomly from pairs of the remaining 10. This way, they’ll have a second bite at a high-value book they had to discard the first time around.
Altho all look different, and some are marked on their spines in some way, none of them are imprinted with titles or authors, so they must be opened to see what they even are, let alone if they are of any quality.
Condition
Unfortunately, the books are water-damaged from the leaky roof, so some are unsalvageable due to water and mold. When one is opened, roll 1d12. On a 1, 2, or 3, the book turns out to be ruined. On a 1, the tome is not only ruined but (in order of occurrence):
- It contains a (very flat) bookmark snake (save vs poison or sleep for 1d4 hours).
- It was hollowed out by a frog-like frollip (tries to leap into opponent’s mouth and make choke it to death). 2-in-6 chance it also ruined the next highest book.
- It is infested with nearly-invisible book mites (causes a lengthy stomach illness, no save). 2-in-6 chance they also infested the next highest book (but no more).
- It is actually a juvenile mimic (half hit dice and half damage).
If the books are taken without examining them, the four creature types will come out all at once and have their effects at the earliest opportunity when the books are removed from a bag, etc.
Book Choice
The titles are followed by the resale value and experience point value if read.
| Number Chosen | Tome |
|---|---|
| 1 | Temerall’s Course on Intricate Weaving (10 gp — literally about basket-weaving) |
| 2 | Cluff’s Lamp of the Ages, a History of the Realm (500 gp, 500 xp to clerics) |
| 3 | Camdy’s Dragons & Other Leathery Creatures of Awful Countenance (500 gp, 500 xp to martials) |
| 4 | Wessup’s Courtly Fashions, Passions, & Prolixity (300 gp, 300 xp to rogues — somewhat out of date) |
| 5 | Intia’s Nobles & Their Pursuits & Vices (20 gp, 100 xp to rogues — largely old rumors) |
| 6 | Hevila’s The Shapes of Monsters & Their Lairs (500 gp, 500 xp to martials) |
| 7 | Dryhill’s Weird Beliefs of the Savages (10 gp — biased to the point of falsity) |
| 8 | Vilustrius’s Bloodlines of the Gods (50 gp; 50 xp to clerics — fanciful cosmology but having some corrections in the margins) |
| 9 | Harboor’s Weights & Measures (30 gp — merely about measurements) |
| 10 | Gulcien’s Insights into the Old Empire (400 gp; 400 xp to clerics) |
| 11 | Flomm & Grake’s Analysis of the Coastal Waters (200 gp; 200 xp to any with sea-going background or skills) |
| 12 | Fablewail’s Plants & Plant Creatures (300 gp; 300 xp to rangers and druids) |
| 13 | Throzin’s The Art of Rat-catching & That of All Monstrous Vermin (50 gp; 50 xp to martials and rogues – good information about wererats but mostly about regular rats) |
| 14 | Peckeril’s Noxious Odors & Their Origins (50 gp; 50 xp to wizards — basic alchemy) |
| 15 | Vabery’s Enchanted Objects & Weapons of Antique Lore (500 gp; 500 xp to martials and rogues) |
| 16 | Nilk’s The Fault in the Firmament, a Discussion of the Planes (400 gp; 400 xp to wizards) |
| 17 | Convey’s Spirits & Other Undead Abominations (400 gp; 400 xp to clerics; 200 to others) |
| 18 | Penarch’s Mating Habits of Lesser Humanoids (50 gp; 50 xp to martials — mostly speculation) |
| 19 | Mathematics by Abacus (50 gp; 50 xp to anyone — anonymously written basic mathematics) |
| 20 | Father Folcup’s The Origins of Our Traditions (100 gp; 100 xp to clerics — religion) |
Value as Treasure & as Knowledge
Books are of such value that you should grant a small experience point bonus for reading them. All characters of the specified sort spending a week reading the book gets the bonus, not just the first character.
Variations
You might have one book be a cursed tome, which causes the examiner some unfortunate effect, such a major wild magic effect.
Or you might have one book be an enchanted tome, which grants the reader some permanent effect (one time per character), such as those below or something else.
| d12 | Tome | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tome of Brawn Improvement | +1 strength, if 14 or less |
| 2 | Tome of Agility Sharpening | +1 dexterity, if 14 or less |
| 3 | Tome of Bodily Health | +1 constitution, if 14 or less |
| 4 | Tome of Intellect Expansion | +1 intelligence, if 14 or less |
| 5 | Tome of Judgment Deepening | +1 wisdom, if 14 or less |
| 6 | Tome of Charm & Leadership | +1 charisma, if 14 or less |
| 7 | Manual of Skill at Arms | +1 level for warriors under 6th level |
| 8 | Manual of Arcane Excellence | +1 level for wizards under 6th level |
| 9 | Manual of Holy Insight | +1 level for clerics under 6th level |
| 10 | Manual of Natural Experience | +1 level for druids under 6th level |
| 11 | Manual of Worldly Wisdom | +1 level for rogues under 6th level |
| 12 | Manual of Enlightenment | +1 level for monks under 6th level |
Printable Covers
You can print pictures of old book covers and cut them into cards for the players to choose from. You can write the title of the book (or just its number) on the other side and read the title to the players. Remember that a key aspect of this as a mini-game is that they only get 14 choices, not all 20, so they literally have to judge books by their covers.
Below is a PDF you can download with three pages of covers–24 covers in all, so you can reject some of them.
Zarban 
Leave a comment