iv'e been thinking about an adventure in three or more parts wherein the players battle a tzeentch cult who are looking for an ancient puzzle which one way or another winds up in the players hands

the object would be a seemingly unsolvable puzzle cube which i will impress upon the players is instrumental in thwarting the plot of the cult's patron daemon

now, what got me excited to write this plot arc is that the puzzle becomes easier once the players understand it has something to do with the concept of empathy, sort of a so simple it's looking you right in the face thing, but something only a human could understand, not a daemon

and the way i want to get this across to the players is letting them know there is some big secret about the puzzle and there are clues in the adventure, there would be no truly evil villains besides perhaps the cult leader and this daemon enacts his plan through callus mortals, say in the hive city where they are tracking down the cult signs of warp corruption are obvious in apathetic uncaring imperial officials who overlook the cult's activities and say a resolute caring priest trying to help the people remains pure, it's a bit of a raw concept at this point but that's sort of what i'm going for,

and of course managing to solve the puzzle will save the city from a heavy handed response by the ordo malleus but they can't let the cultists deliver the solved puzzle to the daemon,

it's a work in progress but what do you guys think?

I think it's a good idea. However, I do have one question, How will the PC's know that the puzzle is getting easier to solve? Would it re-configgure itself (to make it more difficult) when they interact with someone who has little empathy? Would the reverse be true? But as I said before, awesome concept!!

yes well the puzzle would be essentially impossible, like a labyrinthine -60 test and perhaps 1d5 insanity points for spending hours with it's impossible geometry

i'm just going to let the players know from the get go that the awnser is in the puzzle is in the adventure and it's something a human would understand, and my hope is that they see empathetic behaviour in the npcs and callus uncaring npcs being used to further the cult/daemons plans

and if one of the players says to me something along the lines of "hey does it have anything to do with empathy?" the puzzle will suddenly make much more sense and only be a -10 intelligence test, and hopefully the players will get some real satisfaction from figuring it out

and then of course the race is onto either keep the solved puzzle from the daemon certainly to stop the cultists from delivering the puzzle to the daemon, or maybe to sate the daemons curiosity and ask him to retreat to the warp to study his new toy before the ordo malleus shows up and starts taking really extreme measures, or maybe they'll fight the daemon, or you know whatever the players want to do

I like this idea a lot, I think it should be clear from the get-go that the puzzle doesn't react to physical action (i.e solving it is not like a rubix cube) but a state of mind (or similar). If there is a psyker let them see/feel a field emanating from it, and how it changes when they behave in certain ways. I would also be careful about setting a number on the test to start with. If one of your players chucks some dice and gets a 01 it can bypass a really cool part of the adventure! Make it impossible to start with.

Given that it also has to do with empathising with ones fellow humans, and solving it thwarts a daemon's plans I would consider allowing solving it to reduce corruption points. The daemon might want to solve the puszzle as it would then empathise with humans and be better able to corrupt them.

I'm tired and all so I'm just going to say that I think it look great although some serious work will be needed to make the puzzle come out right.

"The Box!…Give me the box!"

I like it.

Interrogator Z.