I turned the wheel, going through the usual process with it sounding like it was going to break and then turning. The loud hissing sound to my left abruptly stopped, the left pipe went cold, and heat flowed into the one before us. I turned the wheel back to its original position, and the hissing resumed.
"Something must be to the left. I can hear it," I informed the party. I took off along the left pipe. A short walk later, the source of the sound was discovered: the pipe was open. Whatever was once at the end of this pipe was now gone, save for a few stray bits of metal and broken machinery, obscured by the jet of white smoke pouring from the pipe.
L33tz4n quickly slithered over to warm her hands in the white smoke. "What's this?" Faw asked, looking at what appeared to be the only intact machine. He poked the baseplate with his spear, watching the needle on the display move up a bit and fall back down when he released the pressure. "Nevermind. I figured it out."
Uberbob ran to a particuarly large, half-submerged chunk of metal. "Look at the size of THIS item! We need to take it!" He proceeded to try his hardest to unearth the massive piece of scrapmetal.

Help Uberbob to add scrapmetal to thirdnotescrapstrudel.

I must go to bed. Map tomorrow, sorry.

now what would a scale be here for??

The white smoke must be steam, right?

take your weight on the scale!

Speculation time!

The door at the dome might not have opened because there was not enough pressure. If we closed this valve and tried the door again, would it open?

Well, the scale is most likely there because of the plates with the numbers. As hints ( especially Uberbob's, I think ) and someone else's idea ( WR's? ) suggested, it depends on the weight of the people on it, not their number.

Have Uberbob and Shuri play rock-paper-scissors...
Loser tries to go north of the wheel-less valve...

Examine scale. Stand on scale and see how much you weigh.

Map updated: http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/5935/maphz2.png

Do as WR says, but get everyone else to stand on the scale in turn so we find how much each party member weighs. Weigh Fooruman and the canoe seperately.

Do as Torkell says, but tell Faw to take note of each members weight. Then search the srcap metal for the smallest part and see if it's portable. (Maybe a small part would fit into the claws)

For (-)s' sake...

I meant W (and not N) by the way...
Although it doesn't matter, since it seems
you're all ignoring my BRILLIANT ideas

Wallace, read this:

It looked like pretty long, frigid walk, and wasn't sure I wanted to do it without the warm pipe at my side. Heck, I wasn't sure I could do it.

That was when we turned the pipe off to the dome, and wanted to head back without turning the valve. I think it's safe to assume we would become icicles if we move away from the heated pipe.

Put my vote with torkell, xobium and WR. Let's play with the scale a bit (And keep UbErBoB happy with his $100/ton scrapmetal)

All the scrapmetal was pretty large; other kleptomaniac adventurers must have raided this pile. That or the wind blew all the small pieces away. Either was equally plausible.
The scale required further compulsive investigation. I stepped onto it; the noise of stressed old gears rang over the steam and wind as the needle jumped to life. 114 pounds. Thank you, Uberbobian "we just ate yesterday" diet.
"Fawriel, write down my name and 114. Then weigh yourself," I commanded.
"Wait, why?" he asked, baffled.
"It looks like the lock on the dome has some kind of weight combination," I explained, "it clearly didn't have to do with the number of people on each plate."
He nodded, pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and stood on the scale. "125 'lbs'." He proceeded to explain my hypothesis to the rest of the group, who went along with it too.
Araches next. "121"
L33tz4n. "135. I th1nk it's the tail."
Fooruman stepped out of the canoe so I could put it on the scale. "40".
Uberbob was strenuously dragging a massive piece of metal with him. "426, including inventory. Man, I really gotta lay off the... whatever I last ate."
Lastly, Fooruman dramatically lept onto the scale. "It says... NOTHING!"
"Fooruman, you can't weigh nothing." I looked at the scale, which read 0 lbs. "Okay, how do you weigh nothing? Shouldn't you... er... float around?"
"You see, my good doctor," he began, "I do have a weight. A grand weight, the likes of which you have never seen, felt, or even tasted. However, I also have a negative mass. In most scales, with the exception of metric, these two measurements negate eachother."
"Fooruman, that doesn't make any sense."
"I've actually been breathing helium. I usually sound like James Earl Jones."
"Fooruman, that doesn't make any sense eith... bah, forget it." I snatched the paper from Fawriel. Its final reading was:
Shuriken - 114
Me - 125
Araches - 121
L33tz4n - 135
Fooruman's Canoe - 40
Uberbob - 426?
Fooruman - ?

I quietly wondered to myself how a scale that evidently goes over 430 could be read down to the pound.

Tell Fawriel to get weighed too, and write down his weight.

Faw was weighed. Just, he wrote the list, so he's listed as 'me'.

Okay, I think I see a pattern here.

The 4 and 3 are the weights needed to open the door. They could be in hundred-point notation (Or something fancy, like the wieght is divisible by three...).

also, no wonder the door did not open! It was basically Shur and Foo's Canoe on #3! that's only 154 pounds. That also means if we use everyone (With mass) on the wieght panels, Foo can head in and find somthing to prop the door open.

So, a command? Examine the scale, then head back to the valve. Turn the valve, and head stright.

Ask Uberbob why he can carry an inventory more than twice his weight.
Weigh Uberbob without the giant piece of metal (if you can separate him from his inventory...)

Head back to valve, turn wheel, and go left (which is what Xobim said, except we can't go straight ahead from the intersection because there are no pipes in that direction).

I think you meant Puffie...

Funny thing is, that when you combine the wieghts of Faw, Shuri, Araches, Leetzan and the foocanoe that you get 400. Now, because Fooruman has negative weight, he can counterbalance the weight of Uberbob.

So: weigh Uberbob and Fooruman at the same time to see what the negative weight of Fooruman is. Then follow the command in the above post.

Originally Posted by Xobim

weigh Uberbob and Fooruman at the same time to see what the negative weight of Fooruman is.

Fooruman has 0 weight, not negative

Originally Posted by Xobim

I think you meant Puffie...

Funny thing is, that when you combine the wieghts of Faw, Shuri, Araches, Leetzan and the foocanoe that you get 400. Now, because Fooruman has negative weight, he can counterbalance the weight of Uberbob.

Yes, I meant Puffie.

And no, you get 535 pounds. Take away Araches and Shuriken, and you get 300 pounds. We could try having Faw, L33tz4n and the canoe stand on the plate '3', and Uberbob alone on plate '4'.

Originally Posted by White Rabbit

Yes, I meant Puffie.

And no, you get 535 pounds. Take away Araches and Shuriken, and you get 300 pounds. We could try having Faw, L33tz4n and the canoe stand on the plate '3', and Uberbob alone on plate '4'.

Yes, go with that. Fooruman is the only one that wouldn't affect the plates, so obviously he has to go into the dome.

Originally Posted by Cooba

Fooruman has 0 weight, not negative

Originally Posted by Fooruman

However, I also have a negative mass. In most scales, with the exception of metric, these two measurements negate eachother."

Either the word "negate" proves me wrong, or you just misread.

Originally Posted by WR

And no, you get 535 pounds.

Miscalculated, sorry...

"Two measurements negate eachother" = "two measurements added together equal 0"

Indeed.

I looked up from the list. "Uberbob, could you weigh yourself without the giant hunk of metal?"
Uberbob, who was sitting on top of his new trophy, looked baffled. "I don't see why..."
"It's throwing off the measurements. We need to tell what you actually weigh."
"None of you took your clothes off. Faw even has a backpack. Those would've thrown it off too."
"Uberbob," I began, trying to rub a headache out of my head before it could root, "you are dragging a three hundred pound chunk of steel around with you."
"And you have pants. What's the difference?"
The headache won. I decided to try a new approach, hoping that if I lost him he would believe I was right. "Okay, let's use physics. Let's say the average clothing weighs C. Fawriel's, though, weighs 2C because he has a backpack and Araches' weighs 1/2C because she dresses like a sl-" I caught a glare from Araches, "-orceress. Now we need to find out what C is. Faw, weigh the backpack."
"Shuri, that math doesn't make any..." he caught on, "... problems in my mind!" He threw the backpack onto the scale. "3 'lbs'."
"Good. Now, from that we know that all of us weigh three pounds less than our measured weight, except Faw, Araches and the canoe. However, we don't know how many C the metal weighs, weigh yourself without the metal."
Uberbob started to take off his shirt.
"What are you doing?"
"Saving you some math work!"
Winners can't be choosers and I didn't feel like fighting this much further. "Okay, anyone that really doesn't want to see this look away."

So, after that ordeal (resulting in the number 130, and, after which Uberbob decided that carrying a 300 pound piece of metal slowed him down too much and left it), we took off back into the cold, back down the pipe, turned the wheel, and went down the newly warmed pipe to our left. After a short walk we reached another split. The left pipe went into the wall of a cave, on which there was also a large metal door. The right pipe (the heated of the two) went further into the red mists.

You just love throwing wrenches in our gears, don't you Rad?

Should we continue following the pipe, or should be solve the dome puzzle

Dare Uberbob to run to the tower naked!

Examine door. Turn wheel. Try to open door.

Map updated: http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/8040/mapld9.png

Rad, you missed a command (underlined below):

Originally Posted by Xobim

...Funny thing is, that when you combine the wieghts of Faw, Shuri, Araches, Leetzan and the foocanoe that you get 400. Now, because Fooruman has negative weight, he can counterbalance the weight of Uberbob.

So: weigh Uberbob and Fooruman at the same time to see what the negative weight of Fooruman is. Then follow the command in the above post.

Again, we'll get but Uberbob's weight if we do that...

Do what WR said, then turn the valve once more and go "right" (N according to the map)

Remember that the weight of the whole party is only 665 pounds now that Uberbob has lost his scrap metal.

We should simply try standing on the numbered plates again, with perhaps a Mythslayer or AWA instead of the canoe.

Allright.
first: try to open the door.
Second: go back to the valve, turn it and go to the scale. Place Leetzan near the steam and ask her to summon the AWA and the Mythslayer. Weigh both the AWA and the Mythslayer.

Originally Posted by Xobim

Then weigh Uberbob and fooruman together.

Originally Posted by Wallace

Again, we'll get but Uberbob's weight if we do that

Well, because Uberbob did throw away the piece of heavy metal, it'll probably won't make much of difference if Fooruman would join him on the scale...

0 lbs won't make much difference, indeed.

Yes, but that negative mass still is interesting...

We could force Uberbob to drag his metal to the dome....

Or then we could do what we should and

1. Try to open the door
2. Turn the valve and do it again
3. Turn the valve once more and leave "right" (which is N according to the map)

*slaps random posters*

Fooruman claims to have negative mass (post #728). The scales cannot weigh negative mass. Hence to accurately find the mass of Fooruman, we need to weigh him at the same time as someone or something else.

The weight/mass (they're interchangable as far as we're concerned) of Uberbob is known to be 130lb (post #740). The weight of Uberbob's chunk of metal is 426-130=296lb (posts #728 and #740).

So, what would be the best idea here would be to weigh Fooruman *and* that chunk of metal at the same time. This will give us a value x, where x=296+Fooruman. Hence Fooruman=296-x.


Rad: return to scales. Find Uberbob's chunk of metal. Put the chunk of metal on the scales, note down the weight of it, and then get Fooruman to stand on the scales *without removing the chunk of metal*. Note down the combined weight.

so, if it is negative mass, it would take away from weight?

That's the idea, yes (given that mass = weight, which it does as long as you're not doing fancy physics).

But, as Fooruman said, his negative mass and his real wwieght negate eachother. So I'm not really sure if it would make any difference if he would stand on the scale with the chunk of metal. But it's allways worth a shot...

How hard is it to understand that Fooruman doesn't affect any weight in any way?!

Now do what WR plus what I said...