Heart chakra puzzle

This page contains spoilers for the Iron Labyrinth one-shot

The Iron Labyrinth has six puzzles for the players to solve. The Heart chakra puzzle is the second puzzle that the players will encounter should they take the right hand path through the labyrinth

This puzzle requires experimentation, but once the rules of the puzzle are learned the puzzle has a medium difficulty

When the players enter the room, it is mostly empty. There is a large heart chakra symbol carved into the floor, which covers more than half the floor. In the center of the room is six-legged table made of metal. Set into the tabletop is a maze which is underneath glass. On the side of the table there is a channel in the metal which dispenses small wooden balls which are painted blue and have three stripes, making them appear similar to the Mystic class logo, seen to the right. Initially, there are 12 of these balls in the channel, but there is room for three times as many

There are six points in the corners of the maze into which the wooden balls fit perfectly and can enter the maze. The paths of the maze are covered in a thin layer of what appears to be grass as in a lawn or garden. Some of the paths dip under or over other pathways. In the center of the maze, in the middle of the grass, is pane of glass, behind which is an emerald keystone sitting in a setting. Chiseled into the metal in small lettering is the phrase:

First you learn
Then you earn

The phrase is chiseled into the outside edge of the puzzle and is repeated several times

The object is to insert one of the wooden balls into the “Start” position and using jets of air, push the ball to the end zone. The players will need to discover the following rules via experimentation

• An aeromancer can generate a jet of air from their left hand, right hand, and mouth. These jets of air enter the maze from the six openings
• A jet of air starts at 100% pressure. Each time it reaches a branch, an equal amount of air presssure is diverted to each branch regardless of the length of each branch
• Once the pressure of a blast dips below 10% pressure, it will continue to push the ball but will stall out at the next branch in the path, leaving the ball sitting in the intersection where the paths branch off
• If a ball goes down a dead end, it will stop and occupy one of the segments shown in the maze
• If a second ball goes down a dead end path, it will stop in the last unoccupied section
• If all the segments of a dead end are occupied, then air pressure will no longer divert down the dead end branch
• If air pressure is supplied from multiple branches of an intersection, the branch with the strongest pressure will pass through the intersection, and all branches with weaker air pressure will be considered blocked off and the main stream will not lose any power
• When a stream of air pushes a ball to an intersection it will randomly choose one of the three forward facing branches that is not blocked. Roll a die to determine which path is taken
• If all of the forward paths are blocked, and there is a path or paths available on the back half of the intersection, then the ball will take one of those paths. If there is more than one, roll a die to determine the path taken
• If a ball is pushed into one of the blue circles marked within the maze, an additional 12 balls will be dispensed into the channel

The first half of the puzzle has only one solution and is designed to teach the players the rules above. After that, there are a few different paths the players can take to get the ball to the end zone

The emerald underneath the end zone of the maze has six facets and Dextrous 3. This grants a +3 bonus to a player's dexterity score (not modifier) if the stone is bound to the players heart chakra. It can also be bound to the lotus chakra

An increase to a player's dexterity modifier grants:

• A bonus to Initiative
• A bonus to Dexterity Checks
• A bonus to all dexterity based Skills
• A bonus to all dexterity based talents

Points
If the players solve this puzzle, they get 8 points