"I was wondering what Gale was.  And considering the first areas of the room seem to be pit traps, with a high possibility of more being so, I'm tempted to try and find a way to deal with as many hazards as possible before 'starting' the test and trapping us in an enclosed area.  Gimme a bit to see how much of a hassle these are."

  That said,  Joe started doing the obvious.

[ http://rollr.appspot.com/view/...CxIIRGljZVJvbGwYuDsM
Thievery: 19+11=30
Not much of a hassle at all, even without tools. ]
This message was last edited by the player at 03:34, Thu 27 Nov 2008.

(Darned if I know how you can disable a trap door with a lock pick, but Joe succeeds in jamming the thing somehow, making it unable to be triggered by... whatever it is that triggers these trap doors.)

Timothius looks to the others and says, "I could fly over to the tree to inspect it further. But I'll need a running start and a clear path..."

Timothius wiggles his wings as if to emphasize this fact.

"Could be our best option, Timothius," Gale answers, "Judging from what happened in the last room we shouldn't have to worry about a huge stone wall falling on us just for your entering the room...  only for solving the puzzle.  How hard would it be for you to fly back here if things get dangerous in there?  I still sense magic coming from the near corners of the room...  Could be a magical trap trigger."

  "If we were willing to take it very slow, I could systematically deal with pretty much every tile.  At the very least we should probably make sure we'll have enough safe standing room somewhere in here.  Which incidentally would include next to the trees...  But first"

  Remember that stealth roll?  Joe peeks around the corner to 'first time seeing em' notice the dog statues and which way they're facing.  If they were not facing the door, and nothing unpleasant occurs, Joe will do a quick attempt on the next down tile (with actual tools this time!), and the two to the right leading down from the entrance to the trees to clear out a 4 tile big square total in front of the entrance.

  Yeah, turns out they Dog statues are facing the door.  So Joe only deals with the remaining tile directly in front of the door without entering the room.

  "Well, there are two metal dog statues on either end of the room facing the door.  I'm not exactly a magical expert, but I don't think I'm being paranoid not setting foot in there quite yet."

OOC Style:

  http://rollr.appspot.com/view/...CxIIRGljZVJvbGwY-jkM
Thievery: 13+18=31
  http://rollr.appspot.com/view/...CxIIRGljZVJvbGwY-zkM
Thievery: 13+20= 33.  I love you rollr.
  http://rollr.appspot.com/view/...CxIIRGljZVJvbGwYvTsM
Thievery: 13+4=15 17, whatever.  Why must you mock my feelings?
  http://rollr.appspot.com/view/...CxIIRGljZVJvbGwYvjsM
Thievery, determine trap DC: 13+1=14  Good thing you can't crit fail skill rolls -.0  But amusingly, this will STILL answer Joe's question either way.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:46, Wed 03 Dec 2008.

The DC for disabling the a trap door in this room is 15.

Elric remains silent as the warforged realizes that no answer will be provided for his clarified question until someone reads the tablet in the room. The warforged cleric however, does ponder the significance of what appears to be four magical statues in the room, along with the tree, and how they must be part of the puzzle.“Is there anything I should be doing right now, or should I just continue to wait?”

(While technically Timothius got a higher arcana monster knowledge check, his doesn't tell him anything more than what Gale would tell the group.)

"Hold that thought, Elric..."

Gale steps forward to take a look at the statues Joe's talking about, while being careful to not enter the room.

"Iron defenders!" Gale exclaims when they come into view, "Those must be the source of magic I was detecting!"

She returns to the place she was standing before.

"Medium natural animate (construct, homunculus)," she quotes from memory, "A homunculus obeys its creator until he or she specifies a new owner, at which point the homunculus bonds with its new master. A homunculus is often tasked with guarding a specific creature, object, or location and gains powers that better enable it to perform this task.

"Given the track record of this place, my first guess would be that they've been ordered to 'defend' the puzzle at the back of the room we're supposed to solve...  Though I'm surprised they haven't attacked yet.  Perhaps we can shove the dead beetle in to see what happens?  Any other ideas?"

She looks first at Elric first as if that was the answer to his question of how he can help - think of ways to deal with the newly discovered threat - before glancing at the others.

"OH!" she blurts out, "I just remembered!  I've got a great new spell that'll make jumping easier!  Timothius, I'm sure it'll help you take flight.  Anytime anyone needs a boost, just let me know."

http://spreadsheets.google.com...xxmisVhZHQ&hl=en
This message was last edited by the player at 07:15, Wed 03 Dec 2008.

Timothius is temporarily distracted by Gale's sudden lapse of memory, but he says, "Putting something already dead in there is a good idea. No risk to killing anything or anyone."

With that said, he tosses a dead fire beetle into the room. He still can't help but be saddened some that those beetles had to die and thinks it entirely possible they were starved and tortured into the actions they took. But what's done is done and in nature, it's survival of the fittest. That and as Elric said before, Pelor would not approve of their actions, regardless of their circumstances. Well neither would Bahamut.

Regardless, Timothius is confident he can count on Elric and has made up his mind to defend everyone here with his life. Yeah... even the rogue he's still not entirely sure of that won't even admit to being what he obviously is even in this situation.

The moment the dead fire beetle enters the room, the iron dogs animate and charge at it!  It's still tough shell turns away the teeth of the first iron dog, but the second dog manages to bite into a soft spot!  (The dead fire beetle takes 6 damage.)  Then both dogs retreat deeper into the room.  Several faint but still audible "kerchink" sounds can be heard coming from inside the room.  [Private to Joe Darkthorne: Congratulations!  With your 18 perception, you're the only one who noticed that the sounds came from under the room's floor. One sounded like it came from the east corner of the room to Joe's left, the others from more diagonal directions: southeast, southwest.])

(I'm not going to bother with initiative rolls since the dogs already took actions.  Inititiative: Everyone else > Dogs.  Dog defenses can be found in their char descrip.)

[80] 08-12-03 07:01:37 - c_fewell@hotmail.com
Bite damage
1d8 +3
3 + 3 = 6

[79] 08-12-03 07:00:04 - c_fewell@hotmail.com
Dog 2 bite vs. Fire Beetle Corpse AC with +1 from charge. (this time with a d20 >.>)
1d20 +9 >= 13
18 + 9 = 27 ... success

[78] 08-12-03 06:58:57 - c_fewell@hotmail.com
Dog 2 bite vs. Fire Beetle Corpse AC
1d10 +9 >= 13
2 + 9 = 11 ... failure

[77] 08-12-03 06:58:20 - c_fewell@hotmail.com
Dog 1 bite vs. Fire Beetle Corpse AC
1d20 +8 >= 13
1 + 8 = 9 ... failure
This message was last edited by the player at 17:03, Thu 04 Dec 2008.

Upon seeing the Iron Defenders ruthlessly attack the corpse of the Fire Beetle, Elric's eyes dim, as the warforged cleric doesn't truly have eyelides. Elric stares at the remains for a few seconds before saying, “That isn't a trap we can disable like the last one as those things are going to attack anything that enters the room. Whoever set up this place obviously has a lot of resources, and no scruples. As the door didn't provide any warning about hostile constructs.”

_{[OOC: This isn't my action for the round so much as an immediate free action spoken response to seeing the Iron defenders attack the corpse... also when I click on the Iron Dog, the character description is blank.]}

*facepalm*

I blame work.  Got distracted.  HP 47, AC 18, Fort 16, Reflex 15, Will 13

  While Joe does have a tendency to point out the obvious, there are times when he doesn't see why you should bother.

  "Okay, so... That's pit traps that don’t open when walked over.  And the sounds from the four corners of the room can't have been a delayed switch for that, because then that beetle would have triggered it...  Ah man, there's probably four of those dogs if the other two corners are the same situation...  I'd open up some tiles deliberately to one side to prevent us from getting surrounded if we so much as enter this room, but I get the feeling they are unreasonable mobile enough to clear a few holes despite being made of metal.  So I'm going to do something else that's stupid that means we can't be surrounded."

  This said,  Joe heads across the hallway to the left and steps past the corner long enough to say "You suck and I hate you." To whatever dogs were on that side before heading back to his starting position, drawing his sword.  Well, provided nothing else happens that would prevent this.  But pressure sensitive tiles were thankfully ruled out unless they were magically selective about corpses and metal dogs.

  Which wouldn't surprise him at this rate.

  [ (Standard: Ready Action, Attack First Dog to move to Melee range.  Riposte Strike, +8 vs. AC; 1d6+4 / +7 Vs. AC; 1d6+3.  So if the first attack hits, I get to interrupt stab yet again before they bite me, provided the one I attacked goes for Joe.  Move: Duh.)

Edit:  As it would not take two moves to get into LoS of the dog, that my misunderstanding of the colored tiles made me think, Joe would only need his 6 move to go back and forth from LoS to his starting position, even accounting for extra time around hall corners.]
This message was last edited by the player at 03:07, Fri 12 Dec 2008.

"That's tell'n 'em, Joe!" Gale commends as she shifts over to her left to get a better shot at the dog to the southwest, but her magic fails to harm it.

"Let's see if they react."

(OOC: Apparently I somehow managed to roll twice while sneezing...  The first roll was a miss, and house rules say I must take the first roll.  Also - I checked that she has line of sight, which she does, but forgot to apply that it has cover from her attacks.  Oh well, I missed in any case.)

http://spreadsheets.google.com...xxmisVhZHQ&hl=en

(Elric and Timothius can also take actions before the Dogs can do anything other than bark.)
This message was last edited by the player at 01:10, Tue 09 Dec 2008.

Seeing that there isn't much the Warforged cleric can do that doesn't involve entering the room and likely being subjected to a barrage of attacks, Elric simply readies himself to cast Sacred Flame on the first Iron Dog that moves into a position from which he can get a clear shot at it. At the same time Elric asks, “So what is the plan if we have to go in there to deal with those creatures? Since I doubt they will come to us or leave the room.”

_{[OOC: Standard Action:Readied Action specified in post. Move and Minor actions are unused.]}

Timothius squirms a little and draws his sword before getting in front of the others again. "Whatever they do, they'll have to get past me first!" Timothius prepares himself as he takes a defensive posture.

(Minor Action: Divine Challenge vs Dog 1. Standard Action: Readied Bolstering Strike against any creature that should attack Timothius or his team.)

Elric was right.  The dogs retreat behind the great tree and the room goes back to being quiet.  The "kerchink" sounds can be heard coming from inside the room again.  [Private to Joe Darkthorne: One of which sounds like it's rather close to the east.]

http://spreadsheets.google.com...xxmisVhZHQ&hl=en
This message was last edited by the player at 03:15, Sun 14 Dec 2008.

  "Today I learned how things can be Anticlimactic in a good way.  As for dealing with them, if we leave the entrance completely than nothing is stopping them from surrounding us on both sides.  If they still don't come to us after Me and Tim edge into the room"  Hey, Gale shot things with magic and it would be a shame to waste Elric's spear perks.  This just unfortunately meant that Joe's close in stabby tendencies required him to be a bit more 'on the front lines' than was entirely plesant.

  "Of course, if they still don't come after us then, I'm open to suggestions.  I'm also trying to figure out what the deal with the corner tiles they started out on is."

  [ (Standard: Same readied as last time.  Move: Shift 1) ]

Seeing what Joe is doing, Elric moves behind him and readies to strike out at the first iron dog that moves adjacent to Joe with Righteous Brand to try to give Joe a bonus to hit on Joe's own readied action.

_{[OOC:
Move Action: Move 1 square SW to be behind Joe
Standard Action: Readied Action to use Righteous Brand on first iron Dog to move adjacent to Joe. If it hits, Joe is the target of the +4 bonus, also since Joe would be adjacent to the foe, Elric would gain the +1 to hit bonus from warforged tactics.
Minor Action: Not used.]}

"The Enrichment Center regrets to inform you that this next test is impossible," the mysterious voice chimes, "Make no attempt to solve it.  We apologize for this clearly broken test chamber."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:04, Tue 13 Jan 2009.

Gale face-palms.  She then glances around and scrunches her lips to one side.

"Broken she says," Gale thinks aloud, "That could be a good thing.  Considering how much trouble the operational test chamber gave us...  On the other hand, could be a lie to make us drop our guard.  Looks to me like we have 3 options.  Wait for something to happen, creep forward while Joe disables floor tiles, or have Timothius fly inside as he offered.  My vote is for both option 2 and 3.  Who knows what kind of time limit there is, and the more we can multitask the better."

Timothius crouches, "Prathen is going to sit and rot in that prison. Who knows what kind of drugs our host pumped him full of to make him go back to his cell to die, but he is at least one timer for us." he then charges forward and jumps before spreading his wings and flapping with all his might to get his flight started. Timothius may not like Prathen, but saying this much has reassured him the guy could even be someone he liked under normal circumstances and that it isn't his place to judge others too quickly. But for now, he concerns himself with a quick prayer to Bahamut to teach him how to fly true as a dragon.

The dogs remain hidden behind the great tree.  The "kerchink" sounds can be heard coming from inside the room again.  [Private to Joe Darkthorne: One of which sounds like it's coming from the northeast corner of the room.]

http://spreadsheets.google.com...xxmisVhZHQ&hl=en

  "...That's like, the third time that noise has come from that corner."  Said corner of the room Joe actually had a clear view of now, even if said view didn't show him anything noteworthy.

  "Though I haven't noticed any more from the southeast and west since the first time."

  Joe was understandably reluctant to venture further into the halls, considering the likely amount of metal dogs meant they could near inescapably surround whoever did so.  However, option 1 seems to have accomplished absolutely nothing.  So dealing with what he could actually take care of at the moment seemed as good a thing to do as any.

  [  (Standard: Disarm tile directly south with tools, +13.  Win. ) ]

http://rollr.appspot.com/view/...CxIIRGljZVJvbGwYzE0M 

Elric still stands ready just in case some of the iron dogs move to try and attack Joe, now that Joe has entered the room. “Be careful, those iron dogs may still attack. For all we know that voice was an attempt to lure us into lowering our guard. After all it is unlikely that whoever brought us here is going to let us go free because something of theirs has broken down.”

_{[OOC: Pretty much same actions as last round again.]}