The door to this chamber silently glides open to reveal a long room. Two stone statues of priests stand in the corners along one side of the room, facing a towering statue of a man holding out both of his hands, palms up. In front of this statue is a stone altar holding nine golden coins. A voice booms out from the statue.
“In my hands I judge the value of all wealth, raising up whichever is greater. One of these coins is a deception. Find it using only two judgments and receive my blessing.”
The party discovered this puzzle in the caverns underneath Otari’s fishery. At first glance, they were cautious, but quickly worked out the solution to Abdar’s riddle.
They conceived that since the puzzle is to split the coins into three groups of three coins each:
- Placing one group of three in each hand and leaving the third group on the altar, it is possible to determine which group contains the fake coin.
- If one hand rises, the other hand contains the fake.
- If neither rises, then the fake is in the three coins that were left on the altar.
- This then simply needs to be repeated with the group containing the fake, by placing one coin in each hand and leaving the third on the altar. If one hand rises, the coin in the other hand is the fake. If neither rises, the coin on the altar is the fake.