TOPIC: Sable Gauntlet Room 1 - How to solve it?

Could someone who solved the large ball from tall pedestal to low pedestal thing in the first room of the Sable Guantlet let us know how it worked?

I tried the room twice with two different parties and neither got anywhere close.

One party member suggested in room two we should have just skewered the ball on the end of a rod and walked it over like a lollipop .

One room 2 DM said they had heard of 4 different solutions, but wouldn't tell us any.

One group tried to line up the rods, using the white tubes to hold them together, and sort of roll the ball down it.

Another group tried to just have a bunch of long sticks sort of hold up the ball from all directions and walk it across.

Finally - during an early run I noticed extra "manacles" (e.g. rope material) in the room. I asked the DM "is that really there?" and they told me explicitly that it was not intended to be there and couldn't be used.

Later I heard someone used the second set of manacles as a webbing to hold the ball - and that subsequently the webbing was removed from the room.

Two questions:

1. Could you use the webbing?

2. When DMs are dressed in character (like the Drow DM in this room was), do they sometimes roleplay lie in response to player questions? If so I'd suggest some groundrules for DMs that they should not lie about metagame information such as "is this object usable" unless they want us prying props apart and breaking them because their instructions in this regard may not be reliable.

We solved it by having 4 people with 2 long rods each. 4 rods on top and bottom.

1. We were told no on the GT. It was not therw for other runs I was on.

2. They are not allowed to lie about something directly related to the puzzle afaik.

When I ran though it, we all took one of the longer poles, and sort of grabbed the ball with all of them, then turned in a circle and dropped it onto the 2nd spider.

Took a LOT of coordination, but we succeeded. On my puzzle run, we did drop it once so everyone got hit for 3. My combat run, we managed to not drop it. So we had about 5 minutes to just chat with the Drow DM.

In the groups I was in, we were 2/4 completing it. Both times we were successful, everyone just took 1 long stick each, and put them in random places underneath and on the sides. Then we backed up very slowly to move it to the center of the room. Then the party rotated around it in a circle, so that we could finally approach the short pedestal and place it there.

I heard someone soloed it using just 4 sticks to grab it.

What was your favorite puzzle and combat from this years event?

We took the handiman waist pocket from the drawer with the short sticks. Tied three poles together in a tripod, lifted the ball into the tripod and steadied the ball with the other poles. It was more a matter of moving as a unit and rotating around, like a marching band turn, that anything else. We dropped it the first time, but succeeded on the second trime.

There were multiple solutions. Each group I ran with did the ten people with sticks way (kind of like an inverse Ker Plunk! game), lifted the ball as a group and rotated around to drop it.

All of the sticks and the ball were magnetic.

There were quarter-length sticks in the drawers that could have been used to make a cradle for the ball, or a ramp (which I REALLY wanted to do but no group would go for it - ).

I don't think any group took the clue because most didn't have the rogue go first to be closest to the puzzle box so I have no idea what the clue was supposed to be. I took the treasure each run after we dropped the ball in.

Jeff321 wrote: I heard someone soloed it using just 4 sticks to grab it.

That was me. (We need a super cheesy grin emote)

TJRat came up with the great idea for one of our Team Yeti runs.
I figured I'd have to take push damage for the room, but attempted to modify TJRat's solution and succeeded.
Thanks TJ!

I'll never forget the excitement when it started to work, and when I managed to get it in place on the other spider. I was jumping up and down with joy!

Matthew Hayward wrote: One party member suggested in room two we should have just skewered the ball on the end of a rod and walked it over like a lollipop .

When DMs are dressed in character (like the Drow DM in this room was), do they sometimes roleplay lie in response to player questions? If so I'd suggest some groundrules for DMs that they should not lie about metagame information such as "is this object usable" unless they want us prying props apart and breaking them because their instructions in this regard may not be reliable.

My son wanted to skewer it, too, reasoning his 30+ strength could do it. He also asked if that was how I did it on solo (and no, I did not damage any props).

Probably would want verification from an AC or director, but IMHO, the DMs do not lie about any important (or metagame) information (which would be against the DM code), whether they are in character or not.

joshua baessler wrote: I don't think any group took the clue because most didn't have the rogue go first to be closest to the puzzle box so I have no idea what the clue was supposed to be. I took the treasure each run after we dropped the ball in.

The clue was something like "use the items in the room to build a structure to support the ball".

We solved it by taking a small stick and sticking it between the flags of the longer poles. this created a sort of track for the ball to fit in but also a sort of backstop so it didn't roll all the way down. One person controlled it while the rest coordinated movement and supported it from falling with other sticks.

The GM was like "I can't believe that worked, I totally thought you were going to fail"

Someone afterwards came up with an idea of connecting all of them into a single track from one side of the room to the other which may have worked as well since the sticks were all magenetic.

I loved the teamwork necessary for this puzzle.

The whole group panic when the ball started to roll and tip one way or the other and the frantic scramble to stabilize it while at the same time staying four feet away was hilarious.

Someone afterwards came up with an idea of connecting all of them into a single track from one side of the room to the other which may have worked as well since the sticks were all magenetic.

This is what I wanted to do! It would have taken longer but building a ramp would have been so cool!