Drip-ladder passage · Velstraven

A small room of chapter 5. When you walk in, the room card reads: Water drips across the ladder rungs; the valve landing is out of reach.

Narrated walkthrough

Drip-ladder passage from its entrance — Drip-ladder passage: how to solve it

Getting there

Chapter 5, on the lowest floor. It opens off the choked cistern through the arch signed Drip-ladder passage, and leads on to the optional sealed keepsake.

What is wrong

Room card: "Water drips across the ladder rungs; the valve landing is out of reach." The collector above drips onto the smooth rungs, and the return stair's latch sits on the landing at the top.

What you can work

Collector: The drip collector high above the ladder; its outlet coupling is open and a lower drain stands beside the ladder.
Rungs: The ladder; handled, a cloth wipes water off the rungs.
Wall: Dry masonry beside the ladder that rises to the landing; it has no holds as it is.
Return: The return stair's latch on the valve landing; it can only be reached by climbing.
Reading lamp: Optional light to read by; it works none of the room's fittings.
Reading shutter: Optional second light angle; it works none of the room's fittings.

Solution

A nudge

The drip is fed water that has nowhere to go. A tube from the open outlet coupling down to the drain carries the flow away, so nothing re-wets the rungs.

The full solution

Cast Conduit (Growth, Water, Will) at the Collector.
The drip is fed water that has nowhere to go. A tube from the open outlet coupling down to the drain carries the flow away, so nothing re-wets the rungs.
What you see: "The falling tube carries the collector flow to the lower drain." The visible drip stops; the card shows: the drips are carried off the ladder.
Handle the Rungs twice.
Each wipe takes off about two thirds of the surface water, and two wipes leave them dry. With the drip still running they would film over again within a second.
What you see: "The cloth removes surface water from the rungs." The card adds: the climb to the valve landing is safe.
Face the ladder and walk forward (W / left stick up) to climb; keep walking forward at the top to step onto the landing.
The ladder only gives footing once the rungs are dry. Jump lets go of it.
What you see: Before it is dry, pushing into it gives "The wet metal rung offers no secure foothold."
Handle the Return latch.
The latch opens the return stair from the landing, giving a dry way back down.
What you see: "The upper return stair catches open." Then "Drip-ladder passage settled."

Other ways that work

Grip surface (Fire, Growth, Water) cast at the Rungs lays traction treads on the wet rung tops. The ladder becomes climbable at once, with no Conduit and no wiping.
Climbing growth (Water, Water, Will) cast at the Wall raises frozen holds beside the ladder up to the landing, a climb that ignores the wet rungs.

Watch for

Wiping without the Conduit does not work: the drip re-wets the rungs at a fifth of full wetness per second.
The landing is narrow. If the crosshair will not settle on the Return latch from there, step back onto the top rungs and Handle it from the ladder; it is within hand reach.
Heat, Chill, Slick surface and Cleanse surface do nothing useful on the rungs, and Grip surface on the wall gives no holds. The room says why in each case.

If it goes wrong

Nothing in this room can fail. Falling off the ladder only puts you back on the floor.

Achievements here

Rungs of Water: Solve the Drip-ladder passage.

Spells used

Conduit, Grip surface, Climbing growth.