Hawthorn Blackwood's Cypher | Free 5e and PF2e Puzzle
Written by Claire Martin
This free puzzle can be dragged and dropped wherever you may need a puzzle in your game and customized as desired. Versions for both 5e and Pathfinder 2e are included.
If you're looking for more puzzles like this or other 5e and PF2e resources, check out our entire collection of Lair Magazine issues. This particular puzzle came from the February 2024 issue, Heists & Havoc, where you can find even more puzzles!
Hawthorne Blackwood’s Cypher - 5e
Difficulty: medium
Hawthorne Blackwood is at it again—this time using an Arnold cypher to hide the vault’s instructions in plain sight.
A large, circular vault door protrudes from the wall, massive and imposing. Copper cogs and a heavy bronze wheel adorn its structure. Small clear tubes are embedded into the metal, offering a glimpse into the intricate mechanical interior, ever-so-often illuminated with a brief blue spark. A yellowed envelope is tucked behind one of the wheel’s spokes.
Puzzle Features
Two clues are required to solve this puzzle, and they can be placed close together in obvious conjunction or scattered in different rooms.
The first clue is a letter written by Blackwood. It reads:
Dear Adventurer,
I hope this letter finds you well and that the alligators
were well-fed when you arrived. They can get a little
snappy close to suppertime. As long as you didn’t open
their feeding hatch, they should have kept their jaws to
themselves. Let me regale you with the wonders inside my
vault, for that is why you are here—is it not? Much value
can be found, but there is much beauty and inspiration as
well. Let us never forsake the utter well of creative
intelligence we are both blessed and cursed with. Your
survival and your thriving both depend on it. The wonders
inside the vault might save you in your darkest hour if
used to their full potential. But all that will depend on
you. The secret to success is right under your nose.Good Luck,
Hawthorne Blackwood
The second clue is a sequence of numbers which reads “4 3, 4 10, 6 10, 7 1, 9 7, 10 9, 12 9, 14 3.” This can be scrawled out on a wall or tucked away on a piece of paper.
Solution
An Arnold cypher, also known as a book cypher, uses a code to reference words in a specific book (or in this case, letter). Each pair of numbers provided in the second clue points to a word by indicating its line and its placement in that line. For instance, “4 3” refers to the third word found on the fourth line, while “4 10” refers to the tenth word on the fourth line. Once each word is deciphered, the solution instructs, “To open my vault, utter your darkest secret.”
Hint Checks
Wisdom (Insight) DC 11. Blackwood’s letter is a little circular and doesn’t seem to really have anything of consequence to say, but its presence can’t be a coincidence. Could it be hiding a clue?
Intelligence (History) DC 13. Hawthorne Blackwood is notoriously known not only for being incredibly wealthy, single, and missing but also for his obsession with using puzzles as security systems and having been involved in cracking codes and cyphers in times of war.
Intelligence (Investigation) DC 15. Hawthorne Blackwood was known to be a champion of the Arnold cypher, also known as a book cypher. This cypher allowed two people to send an encrypted message to each other with a specific book used as the key, along with a sequence of numbers.
Customizing the Puzzle
While this puzzle is for a vault, you can apply the book cypher to any encoded message.
Decreasing the Difficulty. To simplify this cypher, have a couple of the number pairs already solved, with the corresponding word next to them, to give the characters a good start.
Increasing the Difficulty. To make this cypher a little harder, replace Blackwood’s letter with an actual book. The number pairs would then become trios, with the first indicating the page, the second indicating the line, and the last indicating the word.
Hawthorne Blackwood’s Cypher - Pathfinder 2
Difficulty: medium
Hawthorne Blackwood is at it again—this time using an Arnold cypher to hide the vault’s instructions in plain sight.
A large, circular vault door protrudes from the wall, massive and imposing. Copper cogs and a heavy bronze wheel adorn its structure. Small clear tubes are embedded into the metal, offering a glimpse into the intricate mechanical interior, ever-so-often illuminated with a brief blue spark. A yellowed envelope is tucked behind one of the wheel’s spokes.
Puzzle Features
Two clues are required to solve this puzzle, and they can be placed close together in obvious conjunction or scattered in different rooms.
The first clue is a letter written by Blackwood. It reads:
Dear Adventurer,
I hope this letter finds you well and that the alligators
were well-fed when you arrived. They can get a little
snappy close to suppertime. As long as you didn’t open
their feeding hatch, they should have kept their jaws to
themselves. Let me regale you with the wonders inside my
vault, for that is why you are here—is it not? Much value
can be found, but there is much beauty and inspiration as
well. Let us never forsake the utter well of creative
intelligence we are both blessed and cursed with. Your
survival and your thriving both depend on it. The wonders
inside the vault might save you in your darkest hour if
used to their full potential. But all that will depend on
you. The secret to success is right under your nose.Good Luck,
Hawthorne Blackwood
The second clue is a sequence of numbers which reads “4 3, 4 10, 6 10, 7 1, 9 7, 10 9, 12 9, 14 3.” This can be scrawled out on a wall or tucked away on a piece of paper.
Solution
An Arnold cypher, also known as a book cypher, uses a code to reference words in a specific book (or in this case, letter). Each pair of numbers provided in the second clue points to a word by indicating its line and its placement in that line. For instance, “4 3” refers to the third word found on the fourth line, while “4 10” refers to the tenth word on the fourth line. Once each word is deciphered, the solution instructs, “To open my vault, utter your darkest secret.”
Hint Checks
Society DC 15. Blackwood’s letter is a little circular and doesn’t seem to really have anything of consequence to say, but its presence can’t be a coincidence. Could it be hiding a clue?
History DC 20. Hawthorne Blackwood is notoriously known not only for being incredibly wealthy, single, and missing but also for his obsession with using puzzles as security systems and having been involved in cracking codes and cyphers in times of war.
Perception DC 25. Hawthorne Blackwood was known to be a champion of the Arnold cypher, also known as a book cypher. This cypher allowed two people to send an encrypted message to each other with a specific book used as the key, along with a sequence of numbers.
Customizing the Puzzle
While this puzzle is for a vault, you can apply the book cypher to any encoded message.
Decreasing the Difficulty. To simplify this cypher, have a couple of the number pairs already solved, with the corresponding word next to them, to give the characters a good start.
Increasing the Difficulty. To make this cypher a little harder, replace Blackwood’s letter with an actual book. The number pairs would then become trios, with the first indicating the page, the second indicating the line, and the last indicating the word.
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