The Puzzles of Professor Diddleswythe

During the party, Gaia and Cetacea offered some of the players a chance to visit Professor Diddleswythe. He would offer them a ring that would allow them to vote at the Meeting of the Races.

After the players met the Professor (and had been subjected to about ten minutes of meaningless chatter), he explained that a ring would be given if they could exhibit some logical reasoning. He had three boxes on a table: one of gold, one of silver, and one of bronze. Each box had a sign on it. Based on the signs, and on information Professor Diddleswythe gave them, the players would have to pick the correct box.

To discourage guessing, the two incorrect boxes were trapped. If a player opened a wrong box, it would activate an electrical trap that would do 20 points of damage, which was more than any character in the game could take.

There were three different puzzles, one for each group of people that were to be taken to visit Professor Diddleswythe. Due to time constraints, only two groups of people visited him. However, all three puzzles are presented below.

The first puzzle

The signs on the boxes were:

Gold box: You will get the Ring if you open this box.
Silver box: You will not get the Ring if you open this box.
Bronze box: You will not get the Ring if you open the gold box.

The Professor explained that of the signs on the boxes, at most one was true.

The second puzzle

The signs on the boxes were:

Gold box: You will not get the Ring if you open the silver box.
Silver box: You will not get the Ring if you open this box.
Bronze box: You will get the Ring if you open this box.

The Professor explained that of the signs on the boxes, at least one was true, and at least one was false.

The third puzzle

The signs on the boxes are:

Gold box: You will get the Ring if you open this box.
Silver box: You will get the Ring if you open this box.
Bronze box: At least two of these boxes are labeled with a false statement.

The Professor would have explained that each sign was either true or false. (For extra credit, explain why Professor Diddleswythe must make this statement before the puzzle can be solved.)

As a final puzzle, when the players opened the correct box, they found a card that read "Annulus sub mensa." Can you figure out what that means? (Or what it's supposed to mean; my Latin is not good.)

All right, so what are the answers? Here they are, but encoded in ROT13, a simple form of encryption. If you know computers, you'll be able to find a utility to decode it easily. You can also decode it manually (it's really simple). Or... you can solve the puzzles!

Svefg chmmyr: Fvyire obk. Frpbaq chmmyr: Tbyq obk. Guveq chmmyr: Oebamr obk. Gur Yngva cuenfr: "Gur evat vf haqre gur gnoyr."

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