You enter a striped tent that smells of spun sugar, rain-wet canvas, and faintly of ozone. A brass bowl stands beneath a milky glass lens, with ruby, leaf-green, and sky-blue gems resting in little cradles. Four painted shutters glow in sequence: a sunset, a meadow, a twilight sky, and a noon sun. The gems' beams overlap in the lens, making a shifting patch of colored light while a tiny bell gives an encouraging tinkle.
You step into a bright little carnival tent where a brass bowl glitters beneath a glass lens. Three colored gems rest beside it, and four painted pictures glow along the far wall. Somewhere above you, a tiny bell rings as if the tent is pleased you came.
The sliders uncover or block the gems' beams, and the lens visibly combines their colors. The shutters are numbered one through four. Players can safely test combinations; the poem beside the bowl describes the needed mixes.
Let the players experiment freely for a few minutes. If they stall, draw attention to the additive-looking overlap in the lens, then offer the hint ladder one tier at a time. Keep the tone playful and do not make a failed attempt costly.
You enter a striped tent that smells of spun sugar, rain-wet canvas, and faintly of ozone. A brass bowl stands beneath a milky glass lens, with ruby, leaf-green, and sky-blue gems resting in little cradles. Four painted shutters glow in sequence: a sunset, a meadow, a twilight sky, and a noon sun. The gems' beams overlap in the lens, making a shifting patch of colored light while a tiny bell gives an encouraging tinkle.
The bowl, colored gems, four numbered picture shutters, and rhyme are all visible from the entrance. The shutters brighten faintly when a gem slider moves, inviting experimentation.
The Moonbean Mixture
At sunset, red and green make amber skies; A meadow keeps green beneath its eyes. When twilight gathers, red and blue shine; At noon, all three make daylight fine.
Light the pictures as they stand in line, And ring the bell when colors shine.
The players uncover or block any combination of the red, green, and blue gem beams with the sliders, then direct the mixed light through the lens at the numbered shutters in order. The rhyme gives the intended mixture for each picture: the sunset requires red and green, the meadow green alone, twilight red and blue, and noon all three. The lens displays the resulting light before the players commit by pressing the brass bell. A correct color makes that shutter glow and advances the sequence; an incorrect color or wrong order triggers the harmless reset. Characters can inspect, test, or use alternate light sources, and the fey accepts any clear demonstration of the same color sequence.
The puzzle activates when a character moves any gem slider or rings the brass bell.
| DC | Check | What it gives |
|---|---|---|
| 12 | Intelligence (Investigation) | Notice that the three gem cradles control separate beams and that the four picture panels are the order of the test. |
| 12 | Intelligence (Arcana) | Recognize the gems produce colored light that combines additively, rather than behaving like paint. |
| 10 | Wisdom (Perception) | Spot the small color marks and order indicators around the four target windows. |
No hint given yet.
The four shutters blaze in sequence, and the lens scatters dancing ribbons of warm, cool, violet, and white light across the tent. The bell rings a jaunty tune; a little door in the wall opens to reveal the Moonbean token and a fey attendant's delighted applause.
The shutter gives a comic raspberry, and all four reset after a few seconds. A harmless puff of glitter briefly tints everyone's hair the color of the failed mixture. After three failed sequences, the tent's fey attendant sings the first line of the rhyme aloud, then the puzzle remains available.
The fey showrunner Lilt-of-the-Lanterns built this light game for the Moonbean Carnival, where young visitors learned that colors can cooperate without losing their own brilliance. It once opened the way to a little dance stage, and it still rewards a thoughtful team with a private performance and a useful token. Lilt insists the puzzle should be fair, so the poem gives every combination needed.
For a simpler version, let the rhyme be read aloud by the tent's attendant after the first miss. For a harder version, cover the numbered marks and make the party infer the order from the poem's verse order, while keeping the combination clues explicit.
Treat this as a cooperative observation puzzle, not a test of color vocabulary. Describe mixed light clearly and accept reasonable real-world or magical demonstrations. The rhyme states the combinations directly; checks can clarify the apparatus but should not gate access to the clues. If a player has difficulty distinguishing colors, describe each mix by the picture and its warm or cool quality.
No images yet.
A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.
