A-to-Z Challenge Day 8Theta (Θ): Thinking from Teth to Theta

Entry 8 for The Lost Catacombs of Kadmos

Before you lays a 50'x50' room with a floor composed of 5'x5' tiles. Each of the tiles bears one of three symbols: an "X" in a circle, a "plus sign" in a circle, or a horizontal like through the middle of a circle. Opposite the entrance is a doorway into another hallway.

The floor tiles are teleportational in nature. Any creature walking through the room must step on a series of contiguous tiles in the correct order, or be returned to the hallway on the south side of the room; the magic will put the teleported individual in the "next closest open space" in the hallway (that is, it will not put the individual inside a wall or another creature). The correct order of procession across the tiles matches the development of the Greek letter Theta (Θ) from it's most archaic form (the Phoenician letter "teth") to it's most advanced form (progressing from "X-circle" to "plus-circle" to "horizontal-line-circle"), then repeats the pattern.

Since the contiguous pattern cannot be followed into the opposite hallway, the only safe way to traverse the room is to walk the pattern of tiles over to the secret door along the eastern wall. If characters make it near the other side of the room, they may attempt a broad jump over the remaining 3 tiles. Given that even the strongest, most agile human is only able to broad jump to a distance of 10-11', clearing this distance under normal circumstances should be considered impossible (causing the character to be teleported back to the entrance).