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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ve4grm" data-source="post: 5923935" data-attributes="member: 63492">Personally, I had the countdown start when Sokana tossed the amber rod into the furnace, as it seemed to me that that was what would trigger the massive overload.I think this interpretation would tie in well with your goal of not making the party suffer for that minute.(And yes, this means that, had the party been able to prevent the amber rod from entering the furnace, the countdown may never have started in my game. But it got in there on round 2 of combat anyways.)Alternately, as RangerWicket said, start the timer as combat starts. In either case, though, I wouldn't consider the time spent talking to be part of the encounter for the countdown.EDIT: As a note on what gideonpepys said, this can be a pretty brutal encounter if your group is still forming and getting used to each other. I ended up about 2 rounds away from a TPK when it ended.(That said, there was still tons of time left on the clock. The reason it ended up so close to a TPK, I think, is that the group focused a lot on the furnace and extending their timeframe, and not enough on the immediate threat of the enemies.)</blockquote>