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Maaarv's curiosity gets the best of him as the bronze door appears. As Tackle begins to manipulate the many cogs and switches, Maaarv sidles up and offers the tengu a hand.
"Fascinating contraption. Tackle, I have some experience disabling devices similar to this - the Osirions do love themselves their trapped vaults. Perhaps I could lend a hand with this."
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Eadie decides to do what she thinks is best to safeguard the group as a whole, in the event that the worst happens.
She addresses Rackle and Maaarv. “I have confidence in you guys, but if this goes wrong, you have my word I will charge in to help you to the best of my ability.”
I think being spread out but staying relatively close to Mella, so I can team up with her might be best.
Is there anything unusual about these pillars?
Eadie wedges herself into the corner of the room, at what she thinks is out of line-of-sight/blast of the doors at say R7.
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As Rackle & Maaarv begin to bypass the puzzle before them, the door groans followed by a series of metallic clicks before the great circular plates on its face spin and rearrange at random. Levers spin and knobs turn, protrude, or retract, creating a rearranged mess of clockwork oddities. With a metallic creak, the bronze door in the west wall slams shut and bolts with an definitive clang. A few moments of ominous silence hang in the air briefly before a rushing, gurgling mass of water starts pouring in through several five-foot-wide chutes in the ceiling.
The blood is instantly washed away, but runes surrounding the doorframe start to glow, forming a phrase in halfing.
Round 1
All Heroes Go!
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Mikhaere frowns as water starts pouring into the room; he wasn't one to mind the wetness, but this was a little too much! Splashing his way over to the door, he gives it a long and hard look, and then takes a long, deep sigh. "Bloody elves," he grumbles.
Tiddalik wriggles his way out of Mik's backpack and stares at the door for a moment. The frog ribbits a couple of times, and Mikhaere blinks curiously, suddenly seeing sense in the madness... or, well, slightly less madness than usual within the madness. "You don't say?" he murmurs.
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Eadie refuses to give in to panic, and instead thinks through ways she might be able to help solve the problem.
This is a good group – we can beat this.
“I could try using my greatsword to lever the door open with Mella’s help, but I’m not sure this is a situation that will be beaten by brute strength.”
OK, maybe there is some other way I can contribute?
Aunt Alix, I’m sorry we never got the chance to say goodbye. I feel very guilty that our parting argument may have distracted you, leading to your death … But there’s NO WAY you can be down here with me, when I know you are walking Abadar’s halls as one of his most devoted worshippers.
Eadie moves behind Mikhaere trying to offer some moral support.
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Rackle quickly tries to figure out a way around the puzzles. With a few maneuvers, one of the chutes closes.
Mikhaere who positioned himself on the far side of the room, takes the round to make his way to the door.
Eadie soon follows, lining up behind Mikhaere to figure out how the rhythm and flow of the puzzles.
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A moment of calm sets over Mella as she takes in the deadly situation. Looking at the water flowing down from the ceiling, she judges there is no way to close them from here. "Rackle, keep up the good work. Get those chutes closed. You've got a few moments left before Eadie and and I won't be able to smash it open." Mella moves up behind Maaarv. "Maaarv, can you disable another part of the door?"
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Eadie has an idea. “Unless I’m reading this incorrectly, it seems like there is time for the three at the door to have a go at the puzzle, then step back to the west, say 10 feet to let the person behind them step forward 5 feet and have a go in the same six seconds … and then repeat the process on the following round.”
“That way, everyone can have a go every round, yeah?”
Eadie waits for Mikhaere to have his turn, before taking his square – assuming Mik agrees with her reasoning above.
She reaches out two hands to put on the tengu’s shoulders as a sign of unity … but stops before making contact, screwing up her face in disgust. She locks eyes with Tiddalik if he’s there and whispers.
“How can you live in that?”
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Ignoring the puzzle and trying get through the inner workings of the door, Maaarv tries to disable the clockwork. Maaarv's hands are not calm enough, though. He accidentally nudging a filament, causing the 5th chute to open back up.
Maaarv steps aside to let Jarlgur get a look. His meaty fingers nearly get cut by the whirling gears within the door, but makes no progress.
Mella tries to remain calm among the rushing water filling this cavernous room.
Rackle maintains focus. He hacks his way through another puzzle, closing the chute that Maaarv just opened.
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Mikhaere continues conversing with his frog about the intricacies of the door puzzle, as he himself has absolutely no experience in this sort of thing. At Eadie's words, he sidesteps out of the way so that she may have a look at it.
Tiddalik croaks at Eadie, snuggling into the muddy mess of Mik's feathers. Perhaps it is entirely because the tengu is like that that the frog hangs around him... who knows what the elder amphibians' plans for this world were, anyway. He then leaps off of Mik's shoulder into the knee-deep water, merrily singing the song of his people.
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The puzzle's current formation appears to be too difficult for Mikhaere to figure out. He tries to guess at the six numbered sequence before him resulting in the chute that Rackle closed re-opening again. For a moment, a smile appears across Tiddalik's mug.
Stepping out of the way, Eadie moves into position. She more or less just slaps the door without any success.
The waters continue to rise to the pelvis.
Round 3
The puzzles on the door fold in and re-format themselves into a varity of cyphers and mathematical equations.
All Heroes Go!
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← Eadie extends her lower lip to the left and tries to blow her braid of zero masters out of her eyes in frustration. It doesn’t work.
I’m useless at this puzzle. I might actually be making things worse. I think I’ll enable the disablers to have a go.
As she steps away to let someone else have a turn, she splashes the frolicking tree frog in mock annoyance.
“Quiet you. I’m trying to think.”
“Mella, it will take about a minute to remove our armor won’t it? That sounds like it will take too long. What do you think?”
I had a pretty good look at those pillars before. Do they extend all the way to the roof? Is it possible to climb them?
With my potion and constitution, I might be one of the last ones to drown anyway … there’s a happy thought. Hmmm … even if the water stops flowing, it still needs to drain away …
“Mella, do you think it’s worthwhile trying to force the door – maybe with Jarlgur’s quarterstaff? I’m thinking let the able disablers keep trying for a while though. Please let me know what you think.”
Mella shakes her head, "I'll die with my armor on, even if it's because I can't swim. When the water reaches my shoulder, I'm smashing that door down."
A half-smile crosses Eadie’s lips. Now there’s a plan I can understand and relate to.
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Jarlgur's attempt was better this time, but his effort shows no results.
Eadie steps back and observes the steady rate at which the water pours into the room
Maaarv moves next to the door and tackles the puzzle head on. He remembers a sequence of numbers that is only recognized by the highest level of mathematicians. One of the chutes closes.
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Mikhaere casts his spell on Jarlgur.
Rackle tries to stay focused, but water splashes into his eye. He twists the knob in the wrong direction, opening the chute that was just closed.
The water is now high enough that a halfling would have to swim to stay afloat.
Round 4
The puzzle door configures again. This time it is a series of mazes that the average person could figure out.
All Heroes Go!
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OK, deep breath now!
“People I think the wall is telling us how complex the problem is to solve.”
“I think if you interact with it mentally – it is harder than if you interact with it physically – in other words I think it is easier to disable it.”
“Mikhaere looked to have some good insight into solving the problem a couple of turns ago – but still didn’t beat it.”
“If I’m right, Rackle, Jarlgur and maybe Maaarv should be able to beat the check of difficulty, when the problem is relatively easy to solve. The ease of difficulty is set every six seconds.”
“The problem has generally been quite hard to solve on the first few rounds – I guess we have to hope it gets easier and that the disablers can have a good go at shutting it down.”
“I am going to refrain from any mental interaction unless the puzzle challenge is VERY low – I will be counting on the diablers to get us through – OR I’m going to try and help Mella bust the door down.”
"Is what I’m saying making sense?”
“Does the rate of water flowing into the room seem to slow down with one chute closed? Or does it speed up to compensate out of the other chutes. If it slows, Jarlgur and Rackle might be able to buy us some literal breathing room – assuming the difficulty challenge of the puzzle is low enough.”
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Maaarv bites down on his tongue as he tries to figure out this portion of the door. At the last moment, he makes a left instead of a right, and the chute closes.
Mikhaere tries to get a sense of how these puzzle is supposed to work, instead of figuring out directly. His intuition is correct, as another chute closes.
Rackle tries to follow his brother-from-another-mother's lead, but he is unable to understand the format of the present puzzle. A chute opens.
Eadie observes environement around her and notices the rate of the water into the room is constant, no matter how many chutes are open.
Jarlgur takes the old school method of getting past a traps and kicks it like an old man. Chute closes
Mella wedges her way in after seeing a familiar pattern in the puzzle. She quickly solves the puzzle, closing another chute.
The water has now raised to neck level.
Round 5
The door now produces extremely difficult questions to figure out. Such questions include algorithms for the air speed of an African swallow, then how many pounds be square inch would be needed per claw to carry a coconut. Another fun one would be what the 10th part of the Fibonacci sequence multiplied by pi.
All Heroes Go!
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Mazes this tengu could handle, and the air-speed velocity of an African swallow would be easy if he knew what 'Africa' was, but his eyes begin to glaze over as soon as he spots the godforsaken Mathematics. He instead decides to sit this one out and gives Jarlgur another tap with divine guidance. Mikhaere stands on his tippy-toes (tippy-claws?), being a little shorter than average, and not wanting his oxygen supply to disappear...
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Mikhaere steps back to give Jarlgur divine assistance.
Jarlgur tries to bypass the puzzle when he attempts to disable this section of the door. The water slows down his nimble fingers. The refraction of the water throws off Jarlgur perception, and he sticks his instrument in the wrong hole.
A chute opens.
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As the new set of puzzles appears on the door, Maaarv examines them carfully while muttering to himself.
"4, 8, 15, 16, 24, 42...but of course you need to carry the 3...a times b quantity squared...accounting for thermal drafts..."
...but comes to the conclusion that "The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side."
Which, of course, is wrong.
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Eadie takes out her potion sponge of Touch of the Sea.
“Mella, we are the most heavily armored – do you want to share this with me once we’re swimming so we can both reach air until the chamber is submerged?”
“Half for you – half for me, will give us 30 seconds each. I know you’d do the same for me. What do you say?”
Eadie consumes half the potion and hands the sponge to Mella.