Area 11. The Three Armed Statue
Let's backtrack. If you properly activate the Archway from Area 5, you are teleported to Area 11, from which you can make your way to Area 10. Yay non-linear design!
Area 11 is a small chamber, 10 feet wide by 20 feet long. Those who enter immediately see a broken, 8-foot tall statue depicting a four armed gargoyle. The fourth arm is sitting nearby.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic11.jpg
According to the module, "no amount of fooling around with the broken arm will enable it to be replaced, and the statue will do nothing at all meanwhile." So ho-hum. But, if you look close you can see that each of the arms still attached to the statue contains a depression just big enough for a large gem. Conveniently, the blue quartz stones available after the real gargoyle in Area 8 is defeated fit perfectly in the depressions.
What happens if the party puts three gems into the statue's three remaining hands? The hand smush the gems to powder and dump the once-valuable dust onto the floor! [Nelson Munz]Ha, Ha![/Nelson Munz]
The party has to go through the process until 10 gems are crushed. If you're keeping score at home, that's four activations of the gem-crushing statue. At that point, a helpful
magic mouth activates and gives you a clue: "YOUR SACRIFICE WAS NOT IN VAIN. LOOK TO THE FOURTH TO FIND YOUR GAIN."
An
invisible gem of seeing appears in the palm of the broken arm on the floor. You got to find it and wipe away whatever goo it is that makes it invisible before you can use it. Of course if you handle the broken arm carelessly the gem will "roll away." The module also says "
Detect invisibility or any other sort of searching except by careful feeling will be useless," but it isn't clear if this applies under all circumstances, or if the gem has "rolled away."
IMO: WTF? Who on Earth sacrifices watches 3 gems get crushed to powder and thinks, "Let's put three more gems in the crushinator?" And then does it again? And then again? 'Cause that's step one here. Okay, the gargoyle in Area 8 has 10 gems, they fit in the gem-crushing statue's hands, and you have to crush 10 gems to get the treasure here. As far as I can tell, that's the closest thing to a "clue" here.
And then the gem of seeing is invisible, and likely to "roll away" if you're not careful looking for it. That's just mean.
Folks who have played/DM'd S1: has anybody ever solved this puzzle? Please share.
Three other thoughts:
1. The module doesn't describe the exit to this room. Based on the map, it's a narrow crawlspace.
2. It's weird to me how some parts of the Tomb have garish, brightly painted walls while other parts (like this room) are left largely undescribed. What do the walls look like here?
3. I like how non-linear the first third of the module is. There are three separate ways to get from Area 3 to Area 10 -- The Arch, the Tormentor and the hidden passage from Area 7. You don't see that much anymore.