Riddles at the Peak

Overview

The party leaves Thebes by the North Gate. The Phikion road switchbacks above olive terraces; the Cadmea shrinks behind them, Helicon a blue mass to the west. Four winged shapes drop onto the stones ahead — lion-bodies, human faces, not yet the size of the thing that roared. Three males, one female. They have been waiting for travelers on the Sphinx Mountain.

"The Ancient yawned," says the largest, Kleitos. "So we came to eat whoever tries her game. Or — if you are amusing — we will tell you what the mountain already knows."

Level 1 — Road Riddles (8)

The four smaller sphinxes choose from this bank. One riddle each. Accept variants in parentheses. ~60 seconds. Player cards: Riddle Cards. Four-page table sheet: DM Reference.

Riddle Hints (any encounter)

A PC can spend an action studying the plaque, conferring, or reading the sphinx. Roll a skill that fits the riddle (table below). You invent the hint — these DCs only say how obvious it should be. The Clay Tablet of Savano grants advantage on Investigation for riddles.

• Faint: name the domain only — “a light,” “something the sea knows,” “a tool,” “not a creature.”
• Useful: a true property or exclusion — “it has no flame of its own,” “not the sun,” “you can hold it,” “it is spent, not kept.”
• Near-giveaway: a Greek-table picture that almost names it — “what a sailor calls the white in the hold,” “the third leg is a stick.”

Which skill. Pick one that matches the riddle; Insight always works to read the asker. Typical asks: Nature/Survival (river, wind, star, sun, lightning, bee, honey, salt, sail, oar, torch, coal); History/Religion (mortal, name, time, silence, dreams, life); Investigation/Arcana (cipher, key, secret, riddle, mirror, echo); Insight/Medicine (secret, tears, life); Performance (echo, riddle); Athletics (hammer).

Resolution

Trap Stations

Overview

The summit cave is a cathedral in the peak of Phikion. A crack in the roof shows open Boeotian sky — wind, not a cellar. Columns like tree-trunks hold a ceiling lost in smoke-stained dark. Six raised platforms ring a sand floor. On each, a stone altar wears a bronze plaque. At the far end a wall of living rock has been carved into a sleeping lion the size of a dragon — until the lion opens its eyes.

The Great Sphinx unfolds. She is Gargantuan. The roar you heard in town was her stretching. Do not use her personal name until midway through the encounter (see Name Reveal). To her this is all a game: she relishes their fear and speaks with a bravado that dares them to challenge her. "Four centuries," she says, almost kindly. "Play my game. Fail, and I remember I am hungry."

Name Reveal — Savano

Until midway through Enc. 3, refer to her only as the Ancient Sphinx or the Great Sphinx. Her personal name is Savano — a deliberate red herring for the word-puzzle (Greek letter shapes: η like v, ν like n, θ like o — players may think Savano anagrams toward the answer).

She reveals Savano dramatically when either:

• The party has gathered 2–3 letters from the altars, or
• A PC succeeds on Investigation or Arcana DC 16 (chamber carvings), History DC 15 (old Theban graffiti), or Persuasion/Intimidation DC 17 to extract it from her in conversation.

She offers the name as if it were vital to the puzzle — it is not. Line: "You pry at my name? Savano. Carve it if you like — the wall wants something older."

Riddle / Puzzle — Action Economy

Enforce these at the table to limit table-talk and give each player room to think. Full table also on DM Reference p. 3.

Dialogue Suggestions

Read these as invitation, not lecture. She is hunting and hosting at once. Pick one when the cue hits; do not stack three in a row. The secret under the bravado: she wants the name and the seal so Athena will visit. She is sated by the game, not by flesh.

The Clock

• Initiative: roll. She uses melee and cooldown spells to punish clusters and anyone ignoring altars. She does not camp a single altar unless a PC is mid-activation.
• End of every round: Savano poses a combat riddle (bank below). Only a PC who still has a reaction may answer (no conferring — one voice). Correct: one-third of the wall-cipher appears, and all PCs have advantage on saves vs. her until the end of the next round. Wrong / no eligible answer: all PCs have disadvantage on those saves for the next round.
• Cipher thirds: (1) Greek letters Α Θ Η Ν Α fade onto the wall. (2) Transliteration A-THE-NA. (3) "The grey-eyed one who won the city."
• Patience: End of round 8 she says she is weary. End of round 10, if the hidden name has not been spoken, she uses Word of Unmaking on every PC in the cave (TPK-adjacent) — unless the Back gem is destroyed, in which case she cannot. Warn at round 6. The back gem flashes at the start of that round.
• Shout: Bonus action, one word, must be heard. The correct six-letter name (see cipher) opens the rear wall and starts the seal phase — it does not end the fight. Other words: she laughs and a claw legendary is free.
• Gems: intended stall. Two or three strikers on gems, one or two on support, two or three on altars. See Armor-Gems.

Optional Pressure

• She calls brood (Harder / if table is steamrolling altars unused): 1–2 Brood Cubs at initiative 20 on round 3. They peel off altar-runners.
• City help (if Enc. 1 was peaceful and Enc. 2 was clean): an acolyte from a forgotten roadside shrine arrives at the cave mouth on round 4 with a torch, a key, a hammer, 1 gp, and a scrap of polished bronze — one free tool delivery, then they hide.

Armor-Gems

Six Large crystals are set in Savano's hide: head, back, each shoulder, each thigh. They are how she shows her hand. Targeting them is the intended way to stall her while the rest of the table runs altars and riddles.

• Separate targets. Declare a gem. Use the Ancient Gem Stone AC (17), not hers (22). Nonmagical weapons hit the gems. A miss does not transfer to her body.
• Reach. Head sits ~15 ft. up (ranged, 10-ft. reach, jump, or fly). Back needs a flank behind her or flight. Shoulders from that side. Thighs from adjacent melee.
• Cracked at 30 HP remaining (24 damage taken). Destroyed at 0. Track Intact / Cracked / Destroyed per gem.
• White-hot reset: when the hidden name is spoken, every gem repairs to 54 HP and Intact. They can be cracked again during the seal phase.

Level 2 — Altar Riddles

Six bronze-plaqued platforms are in play. Five can yield a letter of Ἀθηνᾶ (Α, θ, η, ν, ᾶ); one is a decoy (Ω). History or Religion DC 14 with 3+ real letters: “This is a name of the grey-eyed goddess.”

Put six of these fourteen plaques on the required platforms. Leftover Level 2 riddles can be extra platforms (no letter, or a red herring Μ / Ξ) if you want to spread the party. Solving the riddle names the deed; they still have to perform the activation.

Level 3 — Combat Riddles

Savano poses these at the end of the round. One reaction, one voice. Cycle or pick. Hints use the Enc. 3 Great Sphinx row on Riddle Hints (and spend an action, not the answering reaction).

The Seal

When a PC shouts the correct six-letter name (Athena / Ἀθηνᾶ) and is heard:

• The rear wall splits. The Seal sits in the compartment — an owl-stamped bronze disc, warm to the touch. Retrieving it is an action.
• Savano does not stand down. Every armor-gem knits shut (54 HP, Intact) and burns white-hot. She still has every option.
• A seventh altar — bare marble, no plaque — rises in the center of the sand orchestra (difficult terrain). It has no riddle.
• She grins. Use the seal-phase line from Dialogue Suggestions.

Alternate Ending — Seal Presented to Savano

If the party solves the word puzzle quickly, fetches the Seal, and presents it to Savano (action) instead of placing it on the central altar:

• Every remaining armor-gem shatters instantly.
• Replace her stat block with Savano, Broken Form (CR 13) — a fair fight for 6×L11.
• At 0 HP she does not die. She stumbles, recites an incantation that activates the Seal, light fills the cave, Athena arrives, heals Savano, and Savano becomes friendly.
• Run the Epilogue as normal.

Resolution