The Four Smiles of Maelith

You enter a circular chamber carpeted in soft moss that grows in impossible spirals. Four stone pedestals face you beneath a ceiling of tangled roots, each socket shaped for a wooden mask and each groove sized for a small offering. Moonlight glimmers from nowhere, turning the masks' painted eyes into watchful faces. A silver apple, black candle, bronze bell, and thorn-wrapped rose rest on a central table. Green fire crawls across a mirrored plaque, while the hanging bronze bell gives a faint, impatient chime whenever anyone speaks a lie.

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Puzzle EntryLogic PuzzleLevel7Hard

The Four Smiles of Maelith

7LevelHardDifficultyLogic PuzzleType

LevelLevel 7

DifficultyHard

TypeLogic Puzzle

Components8 parts

Time Limit20 minutes of in-world time, represented by four stages of escalating fey interference. The party can pause the countdown by correctly explaining a clue or making meaningful progress.

Primary DCDC 16

Quick Reference

Type

Logic Puzzle

Difficulty

Hard

Level

Time Limit

20 minutes of in-world time, represented by four stages of escalating fey interference. The party can pause the countdown by correctly explaining a clue or making meaningful progress.

Primary DC

DC 16

Checks

InvestigationDC 15 Intelligence (Investigation)
Notice that the four mask sockets and four offering grooves are numbered from left to right, and that faint scratches show repeated failed placements.
ArcanaDC 15 Intelligence (Arcana)
Understand that the apparatus tests spatial relationships and reacts to the final bell strike rather than requiring a particular person to interact with it.
InsightDC 14 Wisdom (Insight)
Recognize that the inscription uses deliberately poetic language, but every statement is literal rather than metaphorical.
PerceptionDC 16 Wisdom (Perception)
Hear different tones from the crystals when pieces are placed correctly, incorrectly, or in a position that satisfies only part of a clue.

Overview

Discovery

The party finds the chamber beyond a curtain of living ivy after following a trail of silver footprints. The footprints stop at the threshold, and the ivy closes behind the last character unless the puzzle is solved or the chamber's magic is broken.

Puzzle Handout

what the players see

The Four Smiles of Maelith

Place one mask and one offering at each pedestal, from left to right. Then ring the bronze bell.

The plaque reads:

Four faces wait where moonlight falls, Four promises lie beneath the walls. Give each face one promise true, And let the leftmost promise start with you.

The Swan stands somewhere left of the Fox, But the Fox will not stand first or last in the box. The Stag walks immediately before the Moth, Like antlered dusk before winged froth.

The Bell is first, though none may sing Until every face has found its thing. The Apple sits directly before the Rose, While Candlelight shuns the Bell's close.

The Stag rejects the Apple's shine. Set all four true, and make the final chime.

The Masks

Stag Mask
Moth Mask
Fox Mask
Swan Mask

The Offerings

Silver Apple
Black Candle
Bronze Bell
Thorn-Wrapped Rose

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The Four Smiles of Maelith

Place one mask and one offering at each pedestal, from left to right. Then ring the bronze bell.

The plaque reads:

Four faces wait where moonlight falls, Four promises lie beneath the walls. Give each face one promise true, And let the leftmost promise start with you.

The Swan stands somewhere left of the Fox, But the Fox will not stand first or last in the box. The Stag walks immediately before the Moth, Like antlered dusk before winged froth.

The Bell is first, though none may sing Until every face has found its thing. The Apple sits directly before the Rose, While Candlelight shuns the Bell's close.

The Stag rejects the Apple's shine. Set all four true, and make the final chime.