D&D Puzzles #44 - Magic Mouth

Our adventurers are investigating four murals that are an obvious clue to solving a puzzle. Meanwhile, a loudmouth, magic mouth sings, talks, shouts, recites lyrics and give riddles to the party. Is it there to distract them or will the Magic Mouth provide the final clue they are looking for?
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Ambience from KZbin Library
Eviction - Silent Partner
Red Eye - E's Jammy Jams
Ether Oar - The Whole Other
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[@storytime7408]

Once again your backlog of puzzles have provided the perfect encounter to drop into my dungeon crawl. Only slight flavour text mmodifications to fit the dungeon. Thank you very mmuch. WallyDM, you are my not-so-secret eapon for creating amazing varied games.

[@WallyDM]

Hoooray! Glad I could help. This was one of my favorite puzzles... I'll never forget the moment when the barbarian said "I like the cubes", we were rolling. Anyways, hope the puzzle treats you well, let me know how it goes. Cheers!

[@storytime7408]

@@WallyDM I am running ToA and there's an encounter on floor 5 that is... pointless? So I'm going to put this puzzle in it place, and if they succeed, I'll give them a safe place for a short rest. I'll send you another message when they get there.

[@ChrisWEEZ]

Wally, this channel is under-appreciated. Love this puzzle and can’t wait to use it in one of my games! I was thinking maybe if the players fail a try, the mouth could say “oof...I feel sick...” and then vomit out acid which dissolves the cubes. Then he says “that didn’t taste right...if you’d like another try, solve this riddle to prove your worthy” and have an easy riddle at the ready. Preferably something food-related!

[@WallyDM]

Thank you Chris! I appreciate the compliment and hope more DMs find my channel in the near future. :) I absolutely love the phrase... "that didn't taste right", a perfect line that provides some humor and a clue for the players. Well done! If you run this, stop back by and let me know how it went! :)

[@bryankelly3647]

Excellent puzzle. Just by eliminating the act of pointing out that each of the murals coincides with particular taste you greatly increase the difficulty of this puzzle. This is a scalable puzzle, you can make it easier or harder; in fact most of his puzzles are scalable this way, which is great. Personally I present my puzzles with few clues to go on initially and then the process of solving a puzzle actually involves solving other simple puzzles along the way to offer clues. OK I’m getting philosophical but I love puzzles and logic 😂 Looks like Wally has a new fan.

[@WallyDM]

Glad you are enjoying the tour through my puzzle archives Bryan. I definitely enjoy presenting an idea on the channel and learning how fellow DMs/GMs make adjustments to fit it into their game. Great to have you here. Welcome to the channel!

[@mmardh799]

very interesting, thank you! I like the livinig scene

[@WallyDM]

Out of all of the puzzles I have created, the Magic Mouth puzzle might be my favorite. :-) Glad you liked it!

[@Rieliesza]

You just saved me from my hiatus of putting passage-puzzles into my game. Great idea of you and the video was nicely done and well explained. Thank you! :-)

[@WallyDM]

Hooray! I am glad I could help. Good to see you will be putting puzzles back into your game! :)

[@riderviper]

A follow up on the first time using this puzzle for one of my groups... Took 3 months for the players to get to this point... ingame it had been a few hours. They walked in, took a look around... and then I realized I had forgotten all the details of this room because I didn't know where I put the notes from 3 months earlier about this puzzle. After a quick reminder from WallyDM's video... the Wizard was the first to experience the Brewer painting... and he tried to smell everything instead of tasting the beer and attempted to take ("steal") it from the painting. It didn't help that I accidentally described the beer was sour to someone who hasn't really tasted beer. The Cleric and Rogue engaged in trying to converse with the magic mouth which sounded a bit like Donkey from Shrek, always pushing the conversation onto each other until they dragged the wizard into the conversation. The "Mouth on the Wall" didn't remember its name, so the Wizard named it Wally. I am not joking, I was laughing inside the whole session and the party took my giggling as a sign that something bad was about to happen. Using the Wand of Secrets, they realized the doorway is the mouth and and were preparing the rogue to jump into the mouth. Wally argued with them refusing to let them into his mouth, accusing the players of potential misdeeds while the cleric used her negotiating skills to calm Wally down. By the time they finished examining the meat painting, I realized the whole session had included way too many unintended mixed messages of innuendo. After getting their hands on the cubes, they tried to trade them in the paintings. Eventually they put the cubes in the right slots, said goodbye to Wally who turned into a door, and they didn't ask why there were 8 chairs and a table in that room for no reason. At the end of the session, I apologized for the unintended innuendo session and revealed to the players that WallyDM was where I got the puzzle from. Overall they had a "WTF Was That" moment and enjoyed it completely.

[@WallyDM]

Holy dang, thank you so much for sharing this story! You had me laughing and put me in tears, lol. Super excited that the Magic Mouth's name was "Wally". lol. Ya know, your players might have been like... WTF was that... but I guarantee you that this is a memory that they will never forget! Well done Viper! Well done!

[@nickbabyak8135]

Wally is the GOAT, I love using his puzzles in my campaigns

[@WallyDM]

Awww yeah! This comment is super cool. I'm glad you are having fun with the puzzles in your game. Thank you!

[@grumpyturtle1711]

I really enjoyed this puzzle as it can be solved by logic... or the Dungeon Dannigan way by relying on creative thinking and luck. I feel like this really sets up a situation where players with different gaming styles and strengths get a moment to shine. This made a great counterpoint to some of the other puzzles encountered earlier in the game. Also, creating a moment in a TTRPG that incorporates a sense other than sight or hearing... just brilliant!

[@WallyDM]

Great comment! Thank you, this is an excellent evaluation. Was a fun adventure, and glad that Dungeon Dannigan brought his taste buds with him. "I lick the cube" will be an epic moment I will never forget, lol.

[@Haroldsavatar]

LOVED this one. Who thinks to use taste? Amazing!

[@WallyDM]

Aww yeah, thank you! I was thinking the same thing... 4 identical cubes, the only difference is how they taste. When I ran this in a one-shot adventure, it was absolutely amazing!

[@HowtoRPG]

You really do great puzzles. The Magic mouth is inspired.

[@WallyDM]

Thank you my friend! I always value your feedback. :)

[@michmichoui]

As Pathfinder GM, I ran this puzzle last week. We enjoyed a lot. We spent a real good time together. The mouth started to sing old medieval songs I had just adapted to Pathfinder Universe, Golarion. PC where trying to sing along and try to find any logic, then the mouth started to ask them some short riddles, and they still didn't really get the point. Then they started to try to put the cubes, but they stayed stuck into their holes. They asked for help to the magic mouth. She told them, "Oh, tell me me when you stucks these cubes, I don't really see what happen in this room" and then Boom! The cubes liquified and exploded to their face. They did not taste anything at the begining, and then they tried different combination thinking about seasons, lyrics of the song, races of the portraits... Then, one of them get the most of the liquid explosion get a bitter taste in her mouth, but still continued to don't figure it. Then a fourth and fifth explosion, then salty and sour taste. They started to understand something and it was the time that they try to lick the cube. It was a very hilarious situation among the players. We played it about 1 hour and a half, and really enjoyed. At the end, the mouth disappeared they had as reward a cubic ioun stone as an intelligent item containing the spirit of the Mouth. She will follow them until the end of the campaign with her humour and weird comments. Thank you for your work and your commitment I really appreciate your channel, I wish you great success !

[@WallyDM]

It does my heart good to hear how much you and your players enjoyed this puzzle. Thank you for sharing your story and for subscribing to my channel. Cheers, Mich!

[@ZetHololo]

This puzzle could be even cooler with Harry Potter-style talking paintings

[@WallyDM]

Oh, yes absolutely! Great idea! I'd need that Harry Potter background music in the background too. Haha, glad you liked the puzzle!

[@ZetHololo]

@@WallyDM Thanks! Bought your book today also and it's great! I always wanted to do more puzzles for my game but I'm very bad at them

[@riderviper]

Im sold on this puzzle... Im sure my players can taste the victory

[@WallyDM]

lol yessss! I love the pun! Hope this puzzle runs well for you... be sure to let us know how it goes!

[@riderviper]

I sure will. I decided to alter your puzzles a bit, mainly by including a slight instructing poem-clue for the new players who aren't used to puzzles. Maybe you could include a riddle or poem about each puzzle.

[@CRobbio]

Here's how I used this. I put a little spin on it as I felt my players would have gotten it too easily. The cubes were immediately visible in the room, but instead lacked any taste to the players, leaving them no immediately distinct features at all. The mouth unknowingly served as an active distraction towards the players, in a way that is entertaining (or annoying) similar to how you describe. He had a character not unlike donkey from Shrek. The use of the mouth is realizing that its purpose is to taste the cubes, which being a magical creation is able to distinguish the different tastes. The mouth is not explicit about the taste using its words, as it is too focused on getting out what it was trying to say as it has been lonely, and does not understand it's purpose. The mouth only makes certain expressions in response to the different tastes, so the players had to correlate which expression goes with which respective foods portrayed by the different scenes. The mouth was on a stone cube, which upon completion of the puzzle shrunk down to a handheld size revealing a passageway. My one player kept it as a pet and named him Murphy.

[@WallyDM]

This was an amazing story! Thank you for sharing! I really dig the "expressions" idea and the fact that Murphy is now a pet for your PCs. lol. Well done!

[@immortalorigins9446]

The idea about entering the puzzle and living the scene is brilliant and should be the number 1 way to solve this puzzle! :) Knowning my players they would end up licking the paintings before licking the cubes LOL I would probably make the mouth lick each player each time they got a cube wrong and while they are solving and thinking about the puzzle I would have the mouth sing annoying songs, lame DnD jokes like "A human, a half orc, and an elf walk into a bar. The dwarf walks under it" and random useless facts for +1 annoyance :P To have the mouth lick the cubes would require some Charisma checks and I would make sure the failures end up in humorous results XD This was a really cool puzzle and it would have been amazing on stream! I would love to see how you roleplay the mouth lol :P

[@WallyDM]

Thank you for the kind words, my friend! It was fun to have the characters enter the puzzle. I came up with the idea last minute and wish I would have planned it out and maybe extended the scene a bit longer, but it was absolutely awesome. lol, when I ran this the barbarian, Dungeon Dannigan, licked the painting first... then, had the idea to lick the cube. It was an epic moment! Good ideas on the Magic Mouth activity. I was having him sing (very poorly) a few classic rock tunes... I did okay, playing the role of the Mouth, but there are so many directions to take it. It really opens up endless possibilities, for sure. This was an absolute blast to run, for sure. Thank you for the great comment! :)

[@everybodytogether5532]

This is dope. Thanks Wally!

[@Raezeman]

Hey Wally DM! I ran a game last night where i used a couple of your puzzles. My players are exploring an abandoned Drow city in the underdark, and apparently, the drow used to like to protect there treasure room and personal studies with puzzles! Started with your 'missing graves' puzzle. They huddled together and solved it without too much issues, taking notes and using basically all the same logic as you did in your video (i changed the names to Drow names to fit the theme a bit more). Next was the 'combination cubes' (i already commented in that video some detail how i'd use it :) ). I used the words Arcana, Corona, Arrows, Cobalt and Silver. They had to use to first 4 words first, before they part where 'silver' needed to be used got revealed. While i was describing the scene of Arcana (5 arcane spells in action), one of the players didn't pay much attention to that description and just focussed on making words with the cubes, and managed to find all words except 'Arrows'. They did assume there were were only 4 words available now. proceeding, they correctly guessed (in order) Arcana, Corona and Cobalt, so when the fourth came up they said: 'we just put in silver and not look at the image', which was wrong and they got blasted with an eruption of negative energy. After that, they DID have a good look at the image (a row of archers that just released their shots) and found the word 'Arrows' quickly. After all that they proceed, got the clue 'offer one piece of what remains unused' and the cleric of the group stated that must be a piece of silver then. Finally, the magic mouth, which went super smooth! When they got the 4 seemingly identical white cubes, they inspected them. I told them, 'you can't find any differences between them, they have the same size, shape, colour and weigth'. To which the cleric went: 'Also smell and taste?' I then told him that the 2 cubes he grabbed tasted bitter and sour. This was met with a bit confused looks, except from the druid who quickly replied, 'the bitter one should match with the brewer!'. They even guessed from the portraits the flavors of sweet and salty before actually tasting the cubes. All in all, a great session, thanks to your awesome puzzles! Me and my players really enjoyed them! Also and awesome fight in the beginning where the warmage died due to a 'finger of death' spell he couldn't resist (we are playing 3.5 edition, but thinking of switching to 5th when this story arc is finished), but when you are a group of lv 16 characters, that only slows you down a bit! They area they are still in also has the your 'scarecrow mansion', 'scare crows' and 'eyes of the beholder' puzzles in specific locations. I'll let you know how those go if they encounter them! (They leveled up at the end of this session, giving the both the druid and cleric access to level 9 spells. I've never DMed or played at this power level before, so i'm not sure how game-breaking strong capabilities they will display next session. I must prepare!!

[@WallyDM]

THIS is why I love puzzles in D&D. Your players worked together to solve a problem and "tasted" victory along with a few minor setbacks. All-in-all, you have given them an experience that I am sure they will remember and talk about fondly for years to come. Thank you for sharing your story, I loved reading it and look forward to seeing how your players tackle the next set of puzzles you present to them. Good luck with your preparation!

[@dmstretch6634]

Hmm, what you said about the mouth giving hints, could use a play on words using 'the bitter sweet taste of victory' Or if they fail, say 'aww don't be sour' etc. Hehehe, just thought, how entertaining would it be if the mouth had the voice of Harley Quinn from suicide squad?.....

[@WallyDM]

Those puns are winners. Well done! Oh wow, Harley Quinn. If I could even slightly imitate her voice for this I would... And of course, the mural for "sweet" would have to have "Puddin'" involved somehow. lol.

[@dmstretch6634]

Wally D.M. Ohhhh yes of course, didn’t think of the puddin’ bit, love that.

[@Raezeman]

another winner!!

[@WallyDM]

Hooray! One of my top 5 right here. Simply because when I ran this in my one shot, it was hilarious when the "not-so-bright" barbarian said: "I lick the cube". lmao.

[@brandencarr7878]

This is great thank you! I'm going to slightly mod. It becuase my players would never think to taste the cube without me flat out telling them. So I'm going to have the cubes in the room and I know after they try to put them in the Holes and it fails they would eventually try putting it in the talking mouth. That's when I'll have the mouth say what he is tasting. Thanks again for the idea

[@SuperDPL]

Googled "magic mauth" and I am not dissatisfied 😁

[@WallyDM]

Fantastic! Glad you like it... and welcome to the channel! :)