Family Treasure Puzzle

Ivory Bucket by Five Gallon Ideas

As previously mentioned in my last post
The circular family crypt contained the family's heirloom that the player characters could potential obtain as a bonus item if they solved the puzzle.

When they enter the central part of the chamber they notice whispers coming from the corpses of the deceased.

"The first contains five,
The second contains three,
But only one will open the chest you see."

After the voices are done, three small buckets appear one by one. They are small metallic buckets, with very fancy carvings and details on them. In my case, I had the family crest carved on all of them as well as animals and clovers to represent the township the family came from.

The first of the buckets to appear is to the right of the chest. This is the largest of the three, scaling at exactly 5 cups of water. If inspected properly the base of the bucket has a "V" carved onto it. The second appears on the left side of the chest exactly opposite the first bucket. This bucket has similar features. This bucket contains 3 cups of water and has "III" carved into its base. These two buckets, when inspected are normal buckets that were enchanted with simple illusion magic, to seem invisible until the puzzle is triggered.


The third is a little more complicated though. The last bucket to appear is at the base of the chest. This one has the same carvings, but cannot be lifted from the floor. If inspected the bucket is connected to a mechanism that unlocks the chest. 

The way this puzzle is intended to work: The players need to fill the small bucket with exactly one unit of water. Once this is achieved the chest will click open. They will need to use the V and III buckets respectively to do so.

Fill III bucket
Empty it into the V bucket
Fill III bucket again
Empty it into the V bucket until full
Empty the remaining contents of the III bucket into the I bucket

If the small bucket doesn't have exactly 1 cup of water, the base opens up and the water drains. So if there is more, it drains immediately. If there is less, it will keep it there for a few seconds and then drain.

Secondary option: The chest can be picked. It would however be an extremely hard lock to pick. So choose a score that seems appropriate for the level of the PCs

Once the chest is opened, the contents can be whatever you’d like.
I used the Silvertongue Inkwell created by LS over at Papers and Pencils.