need help designing a challenge to kill a statue

[edwee]

ive been designing a serise of elemental challenges for my players to go through. in each challenge, the players have to find a way to kill a statue of a person, which unlocks a door so that they can go to the next challenge, and finally to the boss of the dungeon.
for example, in the fire challenge, the pcs have to light a magical fire in a fireplace and use the statues torch to light it on fire, burning it and a magical book it has.

in the water challenge, the pcs have to find a way to melt a cage that will destroy one statue of a person, then dissapear. its footsteps create large chunks of ice that need to be melted, that in turn, drown another statue unlocking a door.

Ive made all the challenges for all the elements, except Earth. I cannot for the life of me think of what to do with earth.

also, for each of the rooms a hint at what to do is given based on what that element often does example "what does fire want to do? - consume" "water - flow" "wind - whisper" and finally "what does earth want to do? which is to Endure" and I have no idea what to do for that. the hint for earth can be changed to something different, but overall i want it to fit in with the rest of the challenges.
Any help i could get would be greatly appreaciated, so Thank you.

 

[jefgorbach]

The room in question has a hollow-glass statue full of loose soil standing near a small fountain. A small plaque reads "Earth endures".

Having passed the prior elemental tasks, the group should realize they need convert the soil into something more able to Endure the ages given the clue, in which case smashing the statue to release the loose soil then adding water to form mud and casting Transform Mud to Rock should suffice??

 

[jefgorbach]

The room in question has a hollow-glass statue full of loose soil standing near a small fountain. A small plaque reads "Earth endures".

Having passed the prior elemental tasks, the group should realize they need convert the soil into something more able to Endure the ages given the clue, in which case smashing the statue to release the loose soil then adding water to form mud and casting Transform Mud to Rock should suffice??

 

[edwee]

no, i dont think that would work.... when I said statues, i meant that they would be solid stone statues of people, that have to be killed in order to unlock the next door. the hint is given to them in a relative easy riddle by a elemental face in the celing. this is mostly the lair of the end boss

 

[Scott DeWar]

The statue being of stone has DR. If there is sufficient damage to 'Pebblize it" then at the heart is a ruby key that, when grasped the door makes its self seen (key ahs Invisibility purge once per day when grasped) and the key unlocks the door. They can keep the ruby key and its ability.

under the SRD Monsters i believe animated object can be found and stone is listed.
I am getting ready to check it right now .. .. .. ..

 

[Scott DeWar]

The statue being of stone has DR. If there is sufficient damage to 'Pebblize it" then at the heart is a ruby key that, when grasped the door makes its self seen (key ahs Invisibility purge once per day when grasped) and the key unlocks the door. They can keep the ruby key and its ability.

under the SRD Monsters i believe animated object can be found and stone is listed.
I am getting ready to check it right now .. .. .. ..

this is from the d20 srd
and

this is from the pathfindersrd

you can use a pathfinder monster in 3.5 and vice vesa, incase you did not know.
I recommend the following for construction point (CP) use:

Additional Attack (Ex, 1 CP): Gains an additional slam attack.
Additional Movement (Ex, 1 CP): Gains a new mode of movement (burrow, climb, fly [clumsy], or swim) at a speed equal to its base speed.
Stone (Ex, 1 CP): The object is made of stone or crystal. Its hardness increases to 8 and it gains a +1 increase to its natural armor bonus.

 

[edwee]

sorry, im not sure that would work for me either... i should be more descriptive... the doors are all portals to an elemental plane. once the statue is killed, the portal is dispelled, leaving a stairway behind. the statues are all impervious to damage, and can not be moved. they need to be killed in a way that ties in with the element governing that room

 

[Scott DeWar]

hmmmm. just a thought here: stone is affected by lava .. .. .. ..

 

[edwee]

maybe i should be more descripive. for the fire one, (fire wants to burn) the party has to burn the statue with magical fire. with the water one (water wants to flow) the party has to drown a statue. with the air one (air wants to blow, and to whisper) then the party has to whisper to one statue to kill the others. but for the earth one, i have no idea what to do

 

[Wycen]

maybe i should be more descripive. for the fire one, (fire wants to burn) the party has to burn the statue with magical fire. with the water one (water wants to flow) the party has to drown a statue. with the air one (air wants to blow, and to whisper) then the party has to whisper to one statue to kill the others. but for the earth one, i have no idea what to do

How about something like carving a statue to replace it, or a companion piece? That way you have to work with the element involved in the test.