Solution: It's Your Turn

Answer: IRAN

Written by Mitchell Rosenberg, Thomas Gordon, Adeline Wong, and Ella Sheffield

The first thing we might note upon opening this puzzle is that there are five parts! Four of them are locked, however (including a specially-marked one at the end), so we should start by solving the only one available to us: Action.

Action

This puzzle is a transcript of a D&D 5e encounter, where the results of the dice rolled during the encounter are highlighted (and one of the characters makes reference to "keeping track of those, for whatever reason). Notably, however, the players never announce what their raw rolls are—they always present the modified number, or compare the total to something else, or forget to actually add their numbers from multiple dice together.

Based on information provided by the dialogue (crucially, everyone is level two, and we know their classes [and subclasses, where relevant]), we can piece together the raw results of each roll during the encounter. Rules information, including character abilities, spells, and stats for the Giant Spider, are available from a variety of sources online.

Interpreting the raw rolls using A1Z26 gives us SLASHING MELEE WEAPON. Calling it in gives us an action prompt—which, when completed, provides the subpuzzle answer TINY—and two new subpuzzles: Bonus Action and Movement.

(For a complete list of submission prompts, see appendix 1.)

Bonus Action

Each of the crosswords solves like so:

Healing Word

Bandages can start anywhere in the row, travel in either direction, and wrap around.

This crossword extracts to the answer GET YOUR.

Grasping Vine

Vines start at a 🌱, end at a 🍃, and never self-intersect. (Multiple vines can end at the same 🍃.)

This crossword extracts to the answer SECOND.

Misty Step

Misty cells (🌀s) are paired; when a clue lands on a misty cell, it teleports to a misty cell on the opposite corner of a different quadrant and continues in the same direction.

This crossword extracts to the answer WIND.

Concatenating all of the answers to the mini-crosswords, we get the phrase GET YOUR SECOND WIND. This is another action prompt, which gives us the subpuzzle answer LAGER.

Once we've called in the action prompt for either Bonus Action or Movement, we unlock a new subpuzzle: Reaction.

Movement

This is a modified Tents puzzle, where the tents and trees hamper the movement of our three intrepid adventurers. Descriptions of their movements are required to uniquely place all the tents; once all of their locations are known, reading the square each character lands on at the end of each movement (in the given order in "The Encounter") yields RUN AROUND DIFFICULT TERRAIN. This is another action prompt, which gives us the subpuzzle answer TAXING.

(See appendix 2 for a full logical solution path, including the completed grid.)

Once we've called in the action prompt for either Bonus Action or Movement, we unlock a new subpuzzle: Reaction.

Reaction

Each player turns exactly six times, and then exits the grid on the left hand side.

Bard: The bard turns on each subsequent note in the A minor pentatonic scale (which are, in order, A, C, D, E, G, and A).

TAHITI
CURVED
DANCER
EDGIER
DIGITS
PARODY

Ranger: The ranger turns on letters which match the direction they're travelling (which are, in order, R, D, L, U, R, and D).

EMPIRE
NOBODY
REPLAY
CORPUS
RIBBON
EDGIER

Wizard: The wizard turns on ascenders (b, d, f, h, i, j, k, l, or t) or descenders (g, j, q, p, or y) which are in the same position as the number of turns they've taken so far (or in the first, if they've taken none). (The matching letters are, in order, T, G, I, F, I, and T.)

TUNNEL
GALAXY
LIKELY
EFFECT
TAHITI
GROWTH

For each player, if you list all of the words on which they turn, and read down the diagonal, you get the following phrases:

• Bard: TUNITY
• Ranger: EOPPOR
• Wizard: TAKETH

Ordering by which row they exit the grid from (Wizard, then Ranger, then Bard) gives the phrase TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY, another action prompt. Completing this prompt gives us the subpuzzle answer SCARED.

Once any three of the four subpuzzles have had their action prompts called in, we unlock the final subpuzzle! It's a meta, Action Surge.

Action Surge

For this final subpuzzle, we're presented with a list of four crossword clues and flavor text telling us to use our "extra action". We are, of course, attempting extraction (only one A)—and indeed, our four subpuzzle answers (TINY, LAGER, TAXING, and SCARED) can have a letter doubled to make a new word that fits one of the crossword clues. Reading the doubled letters in clue order gives IRAN, the puzzle's final answer.

Author’s Notes

Adeline: I'm a big fan of D&D, and I'm also a big fan of action submission puzzles, so naturally I was excited when Mitchell first pitched this one. I didn't actually write anything for it until I got involved factchecking the Action solution, at which point I thought, "hey, this puzzle could be doing much more devious things with ability interactions." I had to restrain myself from making anything too cursed—all of the abilities and spells mentioned are free to access, and any 5e rules nerd will have no problem at all with following the numbers—but there's definitely a universe out there where this puzzle was written for Floor 3 and includes some ridiculous untelegraphed sorcadin build and/or a bunch of the feat minutiae that no one ever uses (Dwarf Fortitude to spend hit dice in combat, anyone?). But as it is, I hope it was reasonably solvable for everyone.

Thomas: I wanted to write some proper word puzzles for this hunt, and this was a good opportunity to do so, through both Bonus Action and Reaction. Though seasoned crossword constructors may not find much remarkable about the crossword minis here, I'm pretty proud of them as solid, interesting-ly gimmicked minis, with decent clues (including some that just make me laugh). (My favourite is "sky feature during always".)

Appendix: Action Prompts

SLASHING MELEE WEAPON

Submit a video or photo showing us an innovative way to defeat your enemies! Please demonstrate to us a way to repurpose a common household item into a slashing melee weapon, in any (non-dangerous) way you choose. The item must be something NOT originally intended for use as a weapon. Email us at submissions@shardhunt.com, and make sure the subject line of your email includes only the phrase SLASHING MELEE WEAPON.

GET YOUR SECOND WIND

Replenish some of your energy! To keep your strength up after a tiring round of puzzling, it's important to make sure that everyone is hydrating. Please submit a photo or video containing proof that the members of your team are drinking healthy amounts of liquid during this puzzlehunt! Email your evidence to submissions@shardhunt.com, and make sure the subject line of your email includes only the phrase GET YOUR SECOND WIND.

RUN AROUND DIFFICULT TERRAIN

Finding the difficult terrain was the first step; now you have to avoid it! Please submit a video or photo of a dramatized game of "The Floor is Lava" to submissions@shardhunt.com. Make sure that the subject line of your email includes only the phrase RUN AROUND DIFFICULT TERRAIN.

TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY

Opportunities don't come often, and when they do, they're usually quick to pass! Why don't you take this opportunity to tell us a fun fact or story you've been dying to share with someone--the more bizarre, the better? Email your submission to submissions@shardhunt.com, and make sure the subject line of your email includes only the phrase TAKE THE OPPORTUNITY.

Appendix: Movement Logic

Note that this is only one potential logical solution; others may exist.

We can start the logic puzzle by placing some tents according to the usual Tents rules: there must be a tent in K7 to satisfy the tree in L7, which forces tents in L5 and L9 (since no two tents can be adjacent). The L5 tent then forces a tent in J5, while the L9 tent forces one in J10.

We can also mark a good number of squares as tentless simply because they are not horizontally or vertically adjacent to a tree.

For the first "round" of three moves, we note that the Ranger ends up in F1, so there is either a tent in B1 or in F1 (but not both). The Bard ends up in A6, so we need tents in both A2 and A5. But that only brings the Bard to 35 feet of movement, so we also need a tent in A7 to prevent them from moving further. (Per the rules, they end their turn and waste the unused movement.) Since the Bard forces the tent in A2, the tent forced by the Ranger must be in F1.

The Wizard moves to L1, but gives us no useful information about the tents.

In the next round, the Ranger reaches F6 (if they encounter no tents) or F7 (if there is a tent in F4, F8, or both). The Bard does not reach A12, so there must be a tent in A10. The Wizard ends up in L5 whether or not there is a tent H3.

In the next round, the Ranger ends up in A6 or A7 (we still don't know where they ended their last move). The Bard ends up in F11 (if they encounter two tents within C11, E11, and F11) or G11 (if they encounter no tents in those squares). They cannot encounter only a single tent, because they end the turn with unused movement. The Wizard reaches G10, which means there is a tent in one of F11, G10, or H9.

[grid omitted; no new deductions have been made with certainty]

The round after that, however, does resolve some locations! The Ranger must have come from A6, because coming from A7 would mean running into the grid's edge before travelling 6 tiles. So there must be a tent in F4, F8, or both. We also know that there are no tents along the line that they travel this turn.

The Bard's location remains unknown—they end up in K11 (coming from F11 and encountering exactly one tent in H11 or L11) or L11 (coming from F11 and encountering no tents, or coming from G11 and encountering 0, 1, or 2 tents in H11 and L11). The Wizard ends up in I12 no matter what.

In the next round, we lose track of the Ranger again: they end up in one of G6, G7, or G8, depending on whether they encounter 0, 1, or 2 tents among G10, G8, G6, and G5. The Bard, however, resurfaces! Since they only pass through two movement penalty tiles (ending up in K6), they must have ended up in K11 last round—so they came from F11 before that, and we can place nearly all of the appropriate tents.

The Wizard is flying again, but they do give us some useful information this time: there's a tent in I1.

The Ranger is key in this round: They must end up in G3, G4, or G6 in order to potentially be diagonally adjacent to a tent (and a tree). Starting in G8, their lowest possible position from last round, and encountering the maximum number of tents on the way (1, because there can't be a tent in both G5 and G6) takes them all the way to G3. So they must end up in G3, and they must have come from G8. Additionally, since there now must be a tent in F4 or H4 (for the Ranger to end diagonally to), there cannot be a tent in G5. So there must be one in G6 instead. The placement of the Ranger's required tents from last round (G8 and G10) also force the Bard's last remaining tent from two rounds ago into L11. Additionally additionally, the new tents in column G force a tent into H4 (to satisfy the H5 tree), which in turn forces tents into J3, then L3.

The Bard resolves easily, moving a paltry one tile and ending in L7. The Wizard, on the other hand . . . moves.

We'll get back to them.

On the next round, the Ranger once again ventures into unknown territory. They end up in A9, B8, or C7, depending on whether they encounter 0, 1, or 2 tents among F4, E5, and C7. The Bard pauses in L12, then dashes . . . somewhere. Luckily, however, the entire party is not lost—of the five tiles reachable by the Wizard last turn (A1, L1, A9, I12, and L4), only one (A9) has a movement penalty tile below it and open space above. The Wizard ends up in A5.

[grid omitted; no new deductions have been made with certainty]

There's a lot of work to do in the final round. The only way the Ranger can move exactly five tiles is from C7, and only if there is exactly one tent among C6 and C5. So we can place a tent in C7 (the F4/E5 tent is still ambiguous) and force the C6/C5 tent into C5. This also forces tents into C9 and E6 to satisfy some trees, which forces another into E8 and resolves the final tent from the Ranger's last round into F4.

We now know the entire map! But we still need to find our wayward bard—the only square that they could have ended up in last turn (out of E12, G7, and L8), the only one that will allow them to avoid the edge of the grid this round is E12 (they end up in K6). The Wizard, meanwhile, takes a leisurely stroll down to F10 to round out the encounter.

And that's that! Taking the letters on the squares that each characters visits, in turn order (F1, A6, L1, F6, A11, L5, A6, F11, G10, G12, K11, I12, G8, K6, I1, G3, L7, A9, C7, L12, E12, A5, C2, K6, F10) yields the action prompt submission, RUN AROUND DIFFICULT TERRAIN.