TOPIC: Elevator Puzzle

Did it two different ways. The first way involved everyone picking numbers from the list 10 apart, which I feel was the best way to do it as you were handed the crystal from the same person and hand it away to the same person every time. Makes it a bit easier. Does involve movement around the room though. The second way in a different group involved everyone grabbing two symbols right next to each other on the wall and yelling out the next # in the sequence when it was your turn to be handed the crystal. This also worked, but had some lapses as was previously stated with people not announcing when it was there turn or going way slower than necessary.

One thing I noticed that wasted a lot of time was people trying to insert it in the corresponding socket as opposed to just hovering it above it real quick and moving on. The fumbling trying to get it facing the right way unnecessarily resulting in a fail during our one attempt.

We did the elevator on hardcore...more on that in another post. We had a young man (kid of friends of ours) who was doing his first dungeon run, and he did good even if he was nervous. He and I fumbled the ball...er crystal from 19 and 20 on the second run.

When we entered, we figured out quickly what to do and everyone took two symbols on the wall near them.

1st try: We started and it became clear that we needed a counter when we got to 11 and ran out of time.

2nd try: I hollered out numbers 1 and two to start to let 1 know who he was meeting in the middle. Then I counted out the rest ahead of where we were. Funny thing was I'd hear "Oh I'm 8" etc. people got lost easy without the counting. Unfortunately, slow handoffs in the middle made the last 4 impossible to complete.

3rd try: Success! I hollered out the numbers and the middle sped up to keep the end from being cramped for time.

It was my favorite room for us and 1 of our 2 successful rooms on hardcore.

I did this room several times and used several different methods including the ones already mentioned. The fastest method was to have 1 runner (no hand-offs), and the other 9 by 2-3 holes each directing the runner. I was the runner once and was to #20 before the 10 second warning.

I heard a rumor that the amount you gave the drow in the training room affected the amount of time you had to run this puzzle. Does anyone know if that is true?

The recording always said 60 seconds, so I would guess not. I was tempted to bribe the Drow with an underduck, though.

Incognito wrote:

Kirk Bauer wrote: So were you on that run that passed through my combat room with the boy? Sorry I can't remember who passed through when...

The father told me that the previous DM rushed his child a lot. I tried not to, and he said I did better, but again it is tough because the kid was trying to do things like slide with an ammunition token in his puck instead of a weapon.

I just would have let him slide the ammo and assign a reasonable, "average" damage for his class and difficulty level.

+1 Good idea!

The only problem I had with this puzzle was that the Drow introducing it was often demanding a bribe before even taking us into the first room. That may be in character, but it was only consistent to this one drow and it came off as the player enriching herself at the expense of new players.


As to the off-topic subject, I like kids and I don't mind an extra set of hands at the combat table. There was one this year though that started to test my patience. He was pretty obviously a forumite's kid, though, so I guess that's as much details as I'll be supplying.

sarielv wrote: The only problem I had with this puzzle was that the Drow introducing it was often demanding a bribe before even taking us into the first room. That may be in character, but it was only consistent to this one drow and it came off as the player enriching herself at the expense of new players.


As to the off-topic subject, I like kids and I don't mind an extra set of hands at the combat table. There was one this year though that started to test my patience. He was pretty obviously a forumite's kid, though, so I guess that's as much details as I'll be supplying.

All of the Drow asked for 20gp to show you the way to the elevator. As this was a NPC I very seriously doubt that the person was able to keep the gold that they collected. This was part of the script to my understanding.

valetutto wrote: I didn't have any come through my coaching room or I would have radio'd.

I see many sides to the child story and spent a lot of time talking to a father(outside of TD) who wanted to go with his son, on the subject.

As much as my kids have wanted to play--I've not let them do so yet. They'll both be 'legal' next year, so we're looking at whether or not they can come. Unfortunately, we live much further away now (a flight instead of a drive), so it may not be feasible. Even with both of them being over 13, I'm planning to talk to my groups first if they come just to make sure everyone's okay with kids (albeit older ones) being in the party. Some people I've run with (CommanderFuron is one) have been great about that; it's been cool to see his son grow up over the years.

I think it's safest with children (one of our runs often has three involved) to make sure you buy out the run. It's just a safer way to make sure both the kids and everyone else has a good time. The eldest of the three is a monster at Ranger sliding, which also helps.

Did anybody not pay the bribe?

The NPC's in this room were STELLAR! I went through the room 3 times. There was enough time for the Drow to engage the party in this room. Most were very sarcastic/sassy to us in a fun way.


In my observations tossing the crystal slowed down the process more than handing it off. The person catching the crystal tends to plant themselves, and then take a couple seconds to make sure they aren't going to drop the crystal before moving.

When we saw that there were 20 numbers we figured the solution was that we needed to cover 2 numbers each. Then we saw that there was exactly 10 wall panels with numbers... so one panel per person.

All 3 groups ended up calling their number and passing it.

Graven wrote: Did anybody not pay the bribe?

The NPC's in this room were STELLAR! I went through the room 3 times. There was enough time for the Drow to engage the party in this room. Most were very sarcastic/sassy to us in a fun way.

I thought demanding GP was funny and a great first interaction with the players. I also wish I could have convinced a group to refuse to pay the bribe, to see what the drow would do.

And yes, ALL the NPCs this year were excellent!

sarielv wrote: The only problem I had with this puzzle was that the Drow introducing it was often demanding a bribe before even taking us into the first room. That may be in character, but it was only consistent to this one drow and it came off as the player enriching herself at the expense of new players.


As to the off-topic subject, I like kids and I don't mind an extra set of hands at the combat table. There was one this year though that started to test my patience. He was pretty obviously a forumite's kid, though, so I guess that's as much details as I'll be supplying.

Barbarian?