Ok...time for my $.02. The hints above are sufficient to get through the room, but only if you're efficient with your moves. It also helps if you've learned a few things about brained-roach behavior.
First, a couple of spoilers about how to get started efficiently (on the kill-3-mothers-SW plan):
Click here to view the secret text
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1) Enter the room with your sword pointing SW. It doesn't really matter where.
2) Move immediately to #1. You should get there just as Half enters the room.
3) Bump the door to your SW to get Halph moving.
4) Go immediately to #2. You'll need to wait a move or two for Half to open the door. If you
don't need to wait, you need to look at your move efficiency - are you taking proper advantage of diagonal moves?
5) When the door opens, move in and kill the mothers ASAP.
6) You should have time to exit the room and head for the western corridor with about 3 empty spaces between you and the roach horde. Again, if they're closer than that by the time you get to the first door, you've lost opportunities to move more efficiently somewhere.
Now...observations on brained roaches:
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Brains are good at making roaches go around obstacles. But they
don't make roaches smarter at close-in maneuvers. In fact, IMHO, the roaches are actually a bit dumber about surrounding you when they're brained.
For example, consider the following situation, where our hero is confronting two roaches with his back against a wall:
############
#....B.....#
#...R|R....#
#..........#
If the roaches are un-brained, Beethro is dead. He can't swing the sword, because one of the roaches will get him right away. If he steps west, killing one, the other will move diagonally and wind up directly to his east. Beethro can't swing fast enough, and can't retreat, so he's dead again. Same if he steps east - the other roach gets him.
Now, consider what happens if the roaches are brained. Now, if Beethro steps east, the roach to the SW
doesn't move diagonally! It winds up moving E rather than NE, and our hero can swing SW and kill it. However, if Beethro steps west, the roach to the SE
will move diagonally, and Beethro gets killed again.
I haven't made an exhaustive study of this phenomenon, but I've seen it happen enough times to be sure that it's real. Can anyone out there amplify on the movement algorithm for the brained roaches?
Anyway, you need to understand this idea to hold off the hordes long enough for Half to get around in this room.
Hope this helps some. I have also made a demo of my successful escape from the room using the strategy outlned above - see the attached file if you want the complete spoiler.
____________________________
"
What a useless scroll. It just says, HASTUR HASTUR HASTUR over and over again..."
- The final words of a great adventurer
[Last edited by Mistweave at 07-19-2005 04:10 AM : Ok..so it's Halph (not Half).]
it prevents me from enjoying the rest of the level...think i'm gonna warp if i haven't any idea 
dungan's dungeon was indeed easier for sure 
I can't see that running away will help, then...
