The Three Duties of the Ward

You find a cramped stone chamber beneath the city street, where rain taps somewhere overhead and a low, uneven hum vibrates through the soles of your boots. Three brass controls sit around a dark basalt wheel: a sliding shoe, a swinging bar, and a hooded lens. A thin blue glow leaks through seams in the wall, while each control’s markings catch the light like fresh scratches. The mechanism is still working, but its pulse stutters, and dust trembles loose with every beat.

Puzzle · Level 7 · Moderate

The Three Duties of the Ward

Ancient Ward

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You descend beneath the street as rain ticks overhead and a blue pulse shivers through the stone. Brass controls ring a dark wheel, each one vibrating out of time with the next. The air tastes of wet iron. Somewhere beyond the wall, the city’s ward gives a strained, rising whine.

Leading up to it

The controls move freely but resist at their stops. The drain track slopes toward a grated floor channel, the bar’s fork fits the street-side frame, and the shutter faces a lens aimed outward. The inscription is legible. Let players inspect and test controls before the ward’s pulse becomes urgent.

Pacing

Give the party time to compare the inscription with the control tracks. If they stall, let a correct control produce a steadier hum and brighter blue line. Escalate only after several minutes of real table discussion or repeated guesses, and make each warning pulse visible before any consequence lands.

The room

What they notice first

The apparatus can be found by following the cold blue light leaking between street stones, or by opening a service hatch marked with a worn wardwright’s seal. A nearby maintenance niche holds the operating inscription.

WhereUrban, in a maintenance chamber beneath an old city counting house.

ThemeAncient Ward

Maintenance inscription

A ward has three duties:

Send the burden down, where stone drinks the strain. Hold the crossing fast, where the city meets the beyond. Lift the warning outward, where watchful eyes may see.

When all three duties are true, turn the wheel with the sun.

How it works

How to play

The players must set the three controls to ground, contain, and project the ward, then turn the crank clockwise until it catches. The inscription and the controls’ shapes make the intended settings discoverable without checks: lower the shoe into the floor drain, swing the forked bar toward the street-side frame, and raise the shutter so the lens points outward. Each correct setting steadies the hum and brightens a corresponding blue seam; an incorrect setting makes the wheel rasp and the light flicker, but does not immediately trigger a penalty. A character can use an action to move or test one control, and the crank takes an action to turn. Allow reasonable tools, teamwork, and creative means of holding controls in place. On a wrong crank attempt, resolve the failure consequence, reset the controls to neutral, and let the party try again.

What sets it off

The apparatus activates when a creature touches any of the three controls, or when the maintenance hatch opens far enough for the ward’s blue seam-light to reach the wheel.

Time limitThere is no strict countdown. After roughly 10 minutes of in-world indecision, the ward’s pulse grows sharper and louder; after another 10 minutes, resolve one failed-attempt pulse as a warning, then allow the party to act.

Its parts

Drain shoeA heavy brass shoe slides vertically in a stone track marked with a root-shaped glyph and two hard stops.
Threshold barA broad iron bar swings between the chamber and street sides of its slot, ending in a fork shaped to catch the doorframe.
Beacon shutterA hooded brass shutter lifts or lowers over a narrow lens; a tiny etched street plan marks the outward direction.
Engagement crankA waist-high crank connects the three controls to a central toothed wheel. Its grip is worn smooth.

Checks to ask for

DC	Check	What it gives
13	Investigation	Notice that the three shoes, bar, and shutter have tracks matching the directional words on the inscription.
13	Arcana	Recognize the three controls as grounding, containment, and outward projection rather than independent power sources.
12	Perception	Hear the low hum deepen as a control reaches its correct stop, or notice the fine blue line pointing toward the street.

What they can use

Wardwright’s operating plateA rubbing of the control markings and the maintenance inscription, left inside a weatherproof tin.Use: Provides the player-facing directions and confirms that the crank should only be used when all three duties are ready.
Service pry barA short iron pry bar with a flattened end and a wrapped grip.Use: Moves a stiff control or can be wedged to hold one in its correct position.
Beacon lensA palm-sized lens in a hinged brass hood, cloudy with age but intact.Use: Shows the outward direction when aligned with the street-side marks and reveals the shutter’s correct raised position.
Engagement handleA squat brass crank handle fitted to the central wheel’s square socket.Use: Turns the wheel clockwise to complete the ward’s reset after the three controls are correctly positioned.

Solution

The answer · GM only

Answer key · GM only

Other ways to solve it · GM only

A character can use a firm wedge or piton to hold the Drain shoe down, brace the Threshold bar toward the street, and raise the Beacon shutter, then operate the crank. Award success if the intended three relationships are maintained.

A character can use Mage Hand or another suitable effect to move one control while the party handles the others; the mechanism does not require a particular creature to touch every control.

A character can bypass the controls by supplying three distinct magical effects that reasonably reproduce grounding, containment, and outward illumination. Require an Arcana check or a resource expenditure appropriate to the effect, and describe the ward accepting the substitute.

Partial progress · GM only

When it counts as failed · GM only

After

If they solve it

The wheel turns with a deep, clean chime. Blue light runs through the wall seams and outward into the street, the chamber’s vibration settles, and the ward resumes its protective function. The party can continue through the service passage or return to the city above with the mechanism secured.

If they fail

The wheel bucks and releases a harmless but forceful ward pulse. Each creature within 10 feet must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or take 2d6 force damage and be pushed 5 feet; on a success, it takes half damage and is not pushed. The controls reset to neutral, the ward weakens, and the party can try again. After two failed attempts, the ward’s pulse becomes irregular but does not collapse; further failures can impose the same consequence without preventing eventual success.

Rewards

The ancient ward stabilizes, protecting this stretch of the city and making the party trusted allies of its caretakers.

A small maintenance cache contains 50 gp worth of tools and trade bars, plus a map of service passages beneath the nearby streets.

If the party examines the stabilized wheel, they can recover a wardwright’s brass seal that grants advantage on one future ability check made to identify or operate similar civic ward apparatus.

Where it leads

A fresh scrape on the service hatch matches a tool mark found at another failing ward site, suggesting someone has been testing the city’s defenses.

When the ward steadies, its blue light briefly traces an unfamiliar street beneath the present city, inviting the party to locate what lies below.

A caretaker’s name is stamped inside the wheel, and a local records clerk recognizes it as belonging to a family recently seeking access to sealed municipal archives.

The story behind it

The city’s early wardwrights built this street-level regulator beneath a public counting house, where they could maintain the old boundary without drawing attention to it. Its three controls embody the ward’s essential duties: ground dangerous force, hold the boundary, and cast its light outward to warn and repel. Generations of caretakers maintained it with ordinary tools and a short operating inscription; the apparatus was meant to be understood in an emergency, not kept as a secret.

For a weaker or stronger party

For a lower-level or more fragile party, reduce the failure pulse to 1d6 force damage and remove the push. For a higher-level party, have a failed crank attempt also draw a hostile ward-echo into the chamber, but keep stabilizing the apparatus possible during or after the encounter.

Tips for running it

Treat sensible experimentation as progress, not a demand for exact phrasing. Let checks clarify what a control does, but keep the inscription and visible tracks sufficient to solve the puzzle without rolling. Use the escalating hum to show urgency, not to punish careful discussion.

Check

What it gives

Investigation

Notice that the three shoes, bar, and shutter have tracks matching the directional words on the inscription.

Arcana

Recognize the three controls as grounding, containment, and outward projection rather than independent power sources.

Perception

Hear the low hum deepen as a control reaches its correct stop, or notice the fine blue line pointing toward the street.

Read aloud

Say this

Leading up to it

Pacing

The room

What they notice first

How it works

How to play

What sets it off

Its parts

Checks to ask for

What they can use

Hints

Solution

After

If they solve it

If they fail

Rewards

Where it leads

The story behind it

For a weaker or stronger party

Tips for running it

Media

Turn The Three Duties of the Ward into a sheet

Read aloud

Say this

Leading up to it

Pacing

The room

What they notice first

How it works

How to play

What sets it off

Its parts

Checks to ask for

What they can use

Hints

Solution

After

If they solve it

If they fail

Rewards

Where it leads

The story behind it

For a weaker or stronger party

Tips for running it

Media

Turn The Three Duties of the Ward into a sheet