The Best TD Run EVER (at least in my mind-2)

Lead up to the TD run
Part 1 rooms 1-3

He we go with Rooms 4-6...

While standing in the connector between rooms 3 and 4, I noticed Felicia was going to go in first and said "Hey, stop the wizard from going in first again" and everyone said something like "oh, yeah, get back wizard" and there was lots of laughter. So, with the wizard in the middle of the pack we entered room 4. It was set in the Elemental Plane of Air. We were located in clouds with a pedestal in the middle of the room. On top of the pedestal was what initially looked like a calendar with 5 different colored shapes on it. We noticed there was no 17, so we figured it must not be a calendar, but was that a clue or red-herring? We found the clue on the upper right corner of the board. It talked about this being our dimension minus 1. The group figured out almost immediately that we were looking at a 2-dimensional representation of the shapes on the board. The clue told us to place the shapes on the table where they would go if they were to grow. The key to the puzzle was the 3rd stanza, but that was ignored at first. Everyone agreed the shapes would grow, but we weren't sure how they would grow. The shapes were 3 triangles of different sizes, a square, and a pentagon. We all pretty much agreed that the square would grow into a cube and placed it on the 6. The DM told us it locked into place and was correct. "Yea!" Now for the rest of the pieces. There was lots of discussion and Sandeep being the rogue opened the rogue's test and took the clue. The clue said they were footprints. OK, so... Here's where the third stanza comes into play. It talked about the pieces controlling fate, dealing judgment, and chance being their sacred role. I think it was Wil who thought role may actually mean roll, like in dice. So we arranged the 3 triangles smallest to largest and took the 5 sided and placed it on the 12. The Dm said it locked into place and was correct. Now for the triangle discussion. We knew the 4 and 20 sided dice had triangular sides, but don't the 8 and 10 as well? We'll deal with that later. First, which goes on the 4? Biggest or smallest? There was some thought and then it was determined that with more sides would come smaller facets. So Wil grabbed the largest triangle (or so he thought) and placed it on the 4. BAM!!! we all take 3 points of damage. Then we realized he grabbed the middle triangle, argh! No problem, he grabbed the largest and placed it on the 4 and it locked into place. Next we placed the smallest on the 20 and it locked in. Now which number 8 or 10 for the last one. We were racking our brains, which had the triangular sides. Then we rememberred that the 10 sided has diamond sides, not triangles, so the last triangle was placed in the 8 spot and SUCCESS!!! We received our next puzzle piece and then off to room 5.

Room 5 was in the Elemental Plane of Water, but this area had been frozen over with a pedestal at the opposite end from where we entered. There was nothing going on until Sandeep got to close and an Ice Demon pops out creates an icewall and freezes our wizard, poor Felicia. We attack with range weapons and I go into singing mode (I start by singing Danke Schoen, but only the parts I know from Ferris Bueller). We did pretty well on the first round of attacks. Second round begins and, lo and behold, our wizard is frozen again. The demon actually offered to take the wizard and leave the rest of us alone. We thought about it, but we just couldn't give up a valuable member of our party, so we said "No" and attacked. Second round damage was pretty good again. Then the cleric(?) and I are targeted with freezing attacks. We both made our saving throw, defeating the spell, and continue the onslaught. Melee is fought and the wizard, breaking free of her icy prison, casts a magic missile. With the demon about down, our third round of attacks finish the deed. We get our final piece of the puzzle and put it together to see what it is. It represents earth, air, fire, and water with a connecting source at the center. We heal up with Mitzy getting the cleric's bead test right twice (she was worried initially, but did awesome). We are healed up and ready for room 6.

Room 6 is almost an exact replica of the first room with a different puzzle on the board. This one had a sliding puzzle. I think this is the room where we screwed up by all being involved. I tell people all the time, be aware of when you need to step back and let 1 or 2 people work a puzzle and stay out of it. I forgot my own advice. We were sliding and sliding and sliding. Whenever it looked good, we realized we were screwed again. Argh!!! Sandeep got the clue and it talked about being able to solve it in about 12 moves and the key move was halfway. We stepped back but just couldn't get it. We took push damage, but got the amulet to use against the dragon in the final room. We were bummed that we didn't solve it, but the dragon fight was coming up and thoughts quickly moved that way.

Next time we'll go through Room 7 - The Dragon's Lair...

Part 3 the final room