Roll an INT check...

darkstorme · 07-26-06, 06:21 AM

Lower DC this time than last - an adaptation of a classic puzzle. You and your travelling companions are exploring a tomb somewhere on Dregar. The party's rogue, while searching for traps, stumbles across a hidden door to a chamber hitherto unexplored. It is only after you and one other party member step through the newly opened door that you discover WHY no one ever reported the room's existence - a heavy stone slab slams down, a secondary door, sealing the room. You turn and smite the rock with your sword, to no avail - the glimmer of protective enchantments ward the stone against any sort of harm, physical or magical. As your companion crosses the threshold into the room proper, there is a low hum and the eerie whine of a spelltrap activating, and the green glow of a feeblemind spell outlines your hapless companion for a moment. A hurled dagger destroys the source, but it's too late: without any readily available cure, your companion is now essentially mindless - capable of obeying commands, and not much else. Growing ever more concerned, you spy a plaque on the wall, and three containers sitting below it, as well as two tables with raised circles - likely pressure plates - in the centre of the room. The largest of the containers appears to be full of diamond dust. The plaque reads as follows:

Heed my words, intruders all Or those who seek to raid my hall Thy fate is sealed, entombed forever Unless thou art both quick and clever Sitting right in front of thee Exist the tools to set thee free Place two urns of equal weights Upon the tables' trigger plates But 'ware, if thou should place them ill Thy stone-walled tomb with gas will fill And chok'd to death, thou shalt await For company to join thy fate In plainer text, I shall explain: The urns are of equal weight, but varying capacities - the largest can hold eight pounds of dust, the smallest three, and the middle vessel five. Mind thou dost not spill - my mechanism, ancient or no, is quite sensitive. Let this be a lesson to thee whether thou escapest or not - do not meddle in the tombs of thy betters. Oh, and as a final thought - the urns themselves are of insufficient weight to trigger my mechanism, and every ounce of the diamond dust will be required to make the door yield passage once more.

So, left entombed but with a hope - if you can only figure out how to place equal weights of dust on the two pressure plates, you can escape. But if you get it wrong, you and your mindless companion are doomed. Can you make it out alive? //PM me with your solutions, as before! // 5 minutes or less (unless you already know the solution) == DC 16 // 5-10 minutes == DC 14 // 10-20 minutes == DC 12 // >20 minutes = DC (2 / (time required - 19)) + 10

Faldred · 07-26-06, 06:33 AM

I don't think you intended it to be this easy --

Fill the 5-pound urn from the 8-pound urn. This leaves 3 pounds in the 8-pound urn. Fill the 3-pound urn from the 5-pound urn. Place the 3- and 8-pound urns on the plates.

I imagine the puzzle is supposed to only allow putting the 3- and 5-pound urns on the plates.

**LordCove** · 07-26-06, 07:19 AM

Same riddle is on Die Harder with a Vengance. I would have getten it easily and looked right clever.

You been watching Die hard films lately Faldred? *grins*

Desicardo · 07-26-06, 07:35 AM

Ok, this may be a stupid answer (I am known for that.hehe) but if the urns are of equal weight, put two empty urns on the scales since they will be equal and will meet the criteria set forth, then take the 3rd urn with the diamond dust as loot and sell it to an enchanter. Just my two cents worth..hehe

Dorganath · 07-26-06, 07:38 AM

Quote:

Oh, and as a final thought - the urns themselves are of insufficient weight to trigger my mechanism.

darkstorme · 07-26-06, 08:10 AM

@Faldred - very clever.. I hadn't thought of that one when I removed the restriction from the classic riddle. Actually, the original riddle called for the eight-pound and five-pound capacity urns to be the ones used.

And as Dorganath pointed out, the empty urns are insufficient. A brief edit, I think, is in order... and done!

Edit: Aieee! My beautiful divs!

Stephen_Zuckerman · 07-26-06, 10:44 AM

Yeah, that was pretty easy. MUCH lower DC on this one. Fill the 5 with the 8, leaving three, then fill the 3 with the five, resulting in two urns of three.

EDIT: Ah, I didn't notice the "every ounce of diamond dust" bit.

And since you've already given me the answer, I suppose I'm disqualified.

Rayenoir · 07-26-06, 11:13 AM

I claim automatic success due to my recognition of the Standard Galactic Alphabet.

Commander Keen for the win.

darkstorme · 07-26-06, 03:29 PM

Actually, it's the default "Fantasy" font-family on your computer. If it's Commander Keen, that's no business of mine. *cough*nerd*cough*

Stephen_Zuckerman · 07-26-06, 05:04 PM

You're just jealous, DS. *He grins.* Not everyone answers music jokes with theoretical physics jokes.

Diamondedge · 07-26-06, 10:06 PM

Diamondedge's longwinded description of his escape from the tomb.

-------------

I travel everywhere with my pickaxe. Rather than hacking away at the door, I begin tunnelling through the wall itself, around the warded portal and into the corridor outside.

I take the diamond dust and as I leave, I tell the feebleminded companion to sit on one of the pressure plates, before running like the dickens away.

I sell the diamond dust, buy a small island in some archipelago off of Dregar or perhaps that other continent whose name escapes me (Rilara? Milara? Which one was the villain? :P)

Content forever, I live out the rest of my days in absolute wealth, although I do mourn, quite often, the loss of my feebleminded companion, who would have made an absolutely wonderful butler/domestic servant/slave labourer.

...So, who wants to go questing!

**Acacea** · 07-26-06, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Stephen_Zuckerman - 7/26/2006 8:04 PM

You're just jealous, DS. *He grins.* Not everyone answers music jokes with theoretical physics jokes.

They so often go hand in hand, though...

Talan Va'lash · 07-26-06, 11:56 PM

The real answer:

1 - fill the 3 from the 8 - 3: 3lbs, 5: 0lbs, 8: 5lbs
2 - dump the 3 into the 5 - 3: 0lbs, 5: 3lbs, 8: 5lbs
3 - fill the 3 from the 8 - 3: 3lbs, 5: 3lbs, 8: 2lbs
4 - dump the 3 into the 5 - 3: 1lb, 5: 5lbs, 8: 2lbs
5 - dump the 5 into the 8 - 3: 1lb, 5: 0lbs, 8: 7lbs
6 - dump the 3 into the 5 - 3: 0lb, 5: 1lbs, 8: 7lbs
7 - fill the 3 from the 8 - 3: 3lbs, 5: 1lbs, 8: 4lbs
8 - dump the 3 into the 5 - 3: 0lb, 5: 4lbs, 8: 4lbs
9 - Place the 5 and the 8 on the plates
10 - I win!

Faldred · 07-27-06, 01:19 AM

Quote:

darkstorme - 7/26/2006 2:10 PM

@Faldred - very clever.. I hadn't thought of that one when I removed the restriction from the classic riddle. Actually, the original riddle called for the eight-pound and five-pound capacity urns to be the ones used.

And as Dorganath pointed out, the empty urns are insufficient. A brief edit, I think, is in order... and done!

Edit: Aieee! My beautiful divs!

I like my answer without the restrictions, because then I get to walk away with 2 pounds of leftover diamond dust.

lonnarin · 07-27-06, 03:03 AM

dwarf wins, Hands down.

darkstorme · 07-27-06, 04:49 AM

Well, Talan's posted the answer, so we're done. I suppose you could try to grab the urns and make a DEX check to see if you make it out the door before it closes and the room fills with toxic gas... but the question is, would the diamond dust really be worth it? *grins*

lonnarin · 07-27-06, 08:04 AM

If it's toxic gas, Bjorn's pretty much safe. Huge yellow snakes can't even touch him at a 1 and he's breathed far worse at the pull of a finger. Decent level druids and monks, as well as clerics with neutralize poison already have the solution too...

darkstorme · 07-28-06, 06:07 AM

Safe from poison, but still trapped in an enspelled stone room. I suppose it'd give you time to consider how you might escape... but only as long as your supplies would last, I'm sure. *grins*

Nook · 07-28-06, 05:53 PM

If you have 2 heavy daggers, just put them on the plates...they should weigh the same. Then you have all 8 pounds of the dust...and can buy 2 new and lighter daggers. Or...take you feeble minded friend, cut his hands off, put them on the plates (being really feebleminded, he should agree to this), and take the dust. Then you can buy him new hands and still have money left over...or get him a trained monkey and have even more dust left...or leave him in the room and have all the dust to yourself.
Oopps...someone has let me ramble....