Hey- anyone experience this anomaly?

My pc died, got a new one yesterday, started playing again. Grabbed the activation stone in the dungeon, and the golem will still not respond to my character.

I tried it a second time with another new character to the same end.

What's up?

Are you talking about the "NPC is busy"-bug.
It's an WinXP and Win2K related bug, that is solved with the latest patches from Bioware (www.bioware.com - obviously).
You can also pickpocket the Golem for the Sewer key, but if you are experience the bug mentioned above, you should install the patch as it will be reappearing on a lot of quest related NPCs (Xzar, Mae'Var, enal Bloodscalp, Lord Jierdan, Lehtinan, ... actually almost everyone).
There is a (very annoying) workaround: You can quicksave and reload again until the dialogue works (This can take AGES sometime)