The Impossible Puzzle?

DM 3rd January 2026

A puzzle pops up on my sidebar that requires certain obstacles to be removed in order to collect some treasure. In one obstructing-chamber is burning lava, and in another, cooling water; and the challenge is to remove, but in the correct order, and without scorching your player, the barrier-pins that hold them back. Apparently only those with a high IQ can solve it, and so far, this poor puzzler is judging the problem to be impossible, or conceding that his IQ is below the threshold.

There is an easier and more intriguing puzzle in the Book. Two players have been ejected from a garden, and forbidden access to a treasured tree. The entrance is guarded by two sentinel angels plus a flaming sword that flashes back and forth. Can the players get to the treasure? Perhaps it’s a question of timing: Wait for the angels to go to sleep, then with incredible precision, dive through the entrance without getting scorched and sliced by the sword.

No one needs a high IQ to solve this one. It’s impossible. The entrance cannot be breached. And not just because the angels won’t go to sleep, nor because the flashing sword moves too quickly to bypass, but because the One who designed the puzzle cannot be outwitted nor beaten. Yet the puzzle can be solved, and the players can get to the Tree of Life. But not by quickly diving through the flaming sword, but by believing in a sword that once pierced a Lamb.

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