Puzzle System #10

Iteration #10
Colour: Pink
Size: This doesn't really matter any more. The inside is a series of rooms and corridors, though.
Inside: The inside of this iteration is made up of 3 different rooms connected by narrow, straight corridors, containing a number of different puzzles. All of the rooms are rather dull by appearance.

Each of the three rooms contains a test or challenge that is based on one of the following factors: Mind, Body and Soul.
Though the actually order the challenges go in here is: Body, Mind and Soul.

First Room (Body):
The players enter into this room immediately upon opening the box. The box seals shut once all the partaking characters have entered it. There will be a black silhouette symbol of a human figure marked onto the pedestal in the centre of the room, which has a large, glass jug of water in the middle. The more someone drinks, the younger they get, but if the characters end up drinking the entire jug between them, everyone's ages revert to normal, and the door to the next room opens. The jug will contain enough water to revert 2/3 of the group to about 5 years old (which is the point at which no-one can get any younger and any attempts to drink from the jug will fail for those people) and there to still be a small amount left in the jug. Put simply:

The jug is marked in imaginary units along the side. Each unit is 1 year. The amount in the jug will be: Everyone's Ages Together minus 5 per person, minus 1/3 (then rounded up), plus 1.

If I am unable to get someone's age, there could be issues. However, I will take this as it comes, and will most likely have 20 go into the jug automatically for every person I don’t know the age of. This still bears the issue of those people drinking though.

Any attempt to pour the water out of the jug will cause the jug to fill up to exactly where it was before you started pouring.

The point of this is to teach people to take a risk when it might pay off, which is sort of a puzzle (that said, the puzzle box isn't going to be just puzzles from now onwards).

With reversion, personalities revert partially to what they were at that age, but not entirely, as memories remain, giving a little more maturity in all except the youngest of ages. In fact, this is just related to the general mannerisms that would be expected of someone of that age.

It is entirely possible for players to take the jug with them, but any water they drink will be replenished instantly, the lower cap is still 5, and they will revert whenever they complete a room/the iteration. Once outside the box, the effects of the jug will last for about 2 hours after the person last drank from it. That said, the jug will be confined to containment for obvious reasons. Just thought I’d write this in case the players tried to take it with them.

Second Room (Mind):
Players enter this room after a short corridor leading from the first. However, this is less of a room and more of an area. The door of the room seems to exit from the box itself (though it isn’t really). Very realistic fake versions of the people who were waiting outside exist here. Players have to work out that they aren’t actually out of the box by noting the various inconsistencies that exist within the fake world. Any time someone realises that they’re not in the fake world, they vanish from it (player is moved to a separate room where the others can't see what is happening, most likely named randomly and PM'd to players to stop the others finding it), waking up in the box again, in a room where the others are all just standing around almost motionless, as they are in the fake world. Anything the players who have ‘woken up’ do to those who haven’t will somehow translate to those people the fake world. Within the aforementioned, room, there is a central pedestal (which has a side-on picture/symbol of human brain marked onto it), holding some kind of crystal ball which close listeners will hear everyone else’s voices from. Any kind of tap or knock made to it will translate to the fake world. And though it would require a high strength roll due to the ball being rather hard to break, successfully breaking it will free everyone else.

Since Wilson (most likely) will be waiting outside the box, there’ll be some inconsistencies in his personality and thoughts from before and in the box, as well as a miscount in the form of the number of guards and/or scientists he has with him.

Another inconsistency will most likely be the layout of the site, though given how the site can be, they may or may note notice this (probably a perception roll for this bit).

Once everyone is free, one way or another, the passage to the next room shall open.

Third Room (Soul):
Like the other rooms, this area is fairly bare, save a pedestal in the middle. This pedestal has nothing on it's top, but has an eye symbol printed onto it's side, along with the carved writing: 'Have faith.'. Shortly after all of the players have entered this room and this text has been read, the door seals itself shut, and weird, humanoid figures begin to phase out of the walls (an equal number to the number of players. Said figures are completely solid, but have skin that looks like graph paper with numbers and equations scrawled all it. They also have no discernible features or clothing). Attempts to attack the figures are about medium difficulty (enemy stats to follow), but for every figure that it destroyed, another comes out of the walls to take it's place. Since this is the soul room, it's all about having faith in your soul. The only way to win is to let the figures get you. When this happens, the figure seems to phase into the character, causing both to vanish (and the figure doesn't regenerate). The player in question will then be moved to a separate (possibly private, as above, so the others don't know) channel where their character wakes up in the final area (see below). Characters can continue in the final area whilst the others are in the third room, but the thing in the final area will not become accessible unless all of the group is there.

End Room:
This room is large, dimly lit and circular, with a high, domed roof. Like the previous room, it's pretty bare and dull. However, there are a number of existing features in this room. In the centre of the ceiling, there is a circular hole (impossible to climb to, purely aesthetic). The other side is completely white, and a pillar/ray of light shines down onto the floor below. On the floor here, there is a white circle marked into the floor (will probably shorten this description in the actual event. Once of the group is in this room, the following, in order, happens:

1. The circle on the floor begins to glow white.
2. In a triangle arrangement around the outside of the circle (where said triangle's points would be), the three symbols from the previous rooms (human figure, human brain, eye) appear, glowing white.
3. A pedestal of sorts; with a cube shaped box on top; raises out of the middle of the circle. When the pedestal is fully risen, the box folds open, revealing a set of 13 rings. Once they are all taken by the players, they are transported back outside the box. Each character is allowed to keep one ring, whilst the rest are kept by the Foundation itself.

Following these, the box glows and vanishes. Shortly afterwards, all of the rings glow noticeably, indicating the existence of the 11th iteration, though this isn't revealed at the time.