PaleMage
Mortal
(11/27/03 12:22 pm)
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Alternate Adamantine Door (access to the Black Spike)
My party stubled into the Black Spike after being at a higher level than expected... so I worked out an alternate and more complex way to get rid of access to the Black Spike via the Adamantine Door.
First of all, is clearly stated that there is no way to access the Black Spike via Planar Travel or spells like Dimension Door and the like than using a Tentacle Rod.
Due to being repeatedly beaten by Hedrack, my party was'nt in possension of neither a Lesser o Greater one.
But it seemed to me that this was a bug. If Hedrack can enter the Black Spike, so there would be an hole into the Spike's defense... this hole I imagined was intentionally intended to be the Adamantine Door.
Because is clearly stated that the Adamantine Door is perfectly set into that woundrous spell-protected iron tower that the Black Spike is, there must be a magical way to have the door open.
So I wondered that the Adamantine Door itself was an Artifact, stolen by the Temple Adepts from the Dwarven Cave located in the Crater Ridge Mines.
The Adamantine Door has been infused with psychic abilities (Int 9, Wis -, Cha 15) by the Dwarven God Moradin itself and donated to the ancient king of dwarves that dwelled the mines a long time ago. The Adamantine Door is infused also with a few special abilities: Detect Toughts, ESP, Ethereal Jaunt.
The Adamantine Door is under Geas/Quest by the Temple Triad, and respond only to Hedrack commands to guard the access to the Black Spike and let none unauthorized enter it.
The Adamantine Door has been forged by Moradin to defend the ancient dwarven city from underdark foes, thus follows a path of rules very similar to Asimov's "Laws of Robotics". [www.anu.edu.au/people/Rog...Rules.html]
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The Meta-Law
The Adamantine Door may not act unless its actions are subject to the Laws of Moradin
Law Zero
The Adamantine Door may not injure dwarvenkind, or, through inaction, allow dwarvenkind to come to harm.
Law One
The Adamantine Door may not injure a dwarf being, or, through inaction, allow a dwarf being to come to harm, unless this would violate a higher-order Law.
Law Two
(a) The Adamantine Door must obey orders given it by dwarf beings, except where such orders would conflict with a higher-order Law.
(b) The Adamantine Door must obey orders given it by superordinate commanders (Hedrack), except where such orders would conflict with a higher-order Law.
Law Three
(a) The Adamantine Door must protect the existence of a superordinate commander (Hedrack) as long as such protection does not conflict with a higher-order Law.
(b) The Adamantine Door must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with a higher-order Law
Law Four
The Adamantine Door must perform the duties for which it has been programmed, except where that would conflict with a higher-order Law.
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Due to the nature of the Laws the controls the behavior of the Adamantine Door, players have a lot of chance to interact with this Artifact and try to have it being confused, simply by casting spell against it [SR 30, no need to check for Will Save due to the fact the Adamantine Door has no Wis stat at all, but let PC try anyway... he he)], or by speaking a lot with it trying to aquire info about it's own story (the door has no specific orders regarding talking to people outside or inside the Back Spike), and to convince it that its acting is in conflict with some of the Laws of Moradin.
Having a Dwarf in the party will save a lot of time, anyway. Attempts to force the door activate the magical defenses stated in the module, but having it talking a lot and confused a little will set a Confusion like pattern into the Adamantine Door course of action.
Roll on the Confusion spell Table each round [1d10], having the Adamantine Door act at its given Initiative turn in the course of each round [INIT modifier +0], and on any result of attack have it cast one of the listed defensive spells, on a result of act normally have it talk to players trying to convince them they will be killed if countinuing to tamper/attack, on a result of do nothing simply do nothing, but on a result of wander away let the door activate its special ability to Ethereal Jaunt.
I left open a concept in previous explanation of travel into the Black Spike.
The door itself exist into the Material Plane, but NOT into the Ethereal Plane. The "hole" I supposed being into the Black Spike exists ONLY into Ethereal Plane and corresponds to the space in the Ethereal Plane the Adamantine Door would stay when ordered to open to let Hedrak accolytes walk trough. Hedrack itself need not to order the Adamantine Door to open, when travelling via its Tentacle Rod power, due to travel happens trough the Ethereal hole unoccupied by the door itself when closed into the Material Plane.
The Adamantine Door also has the ability and casts by itself a Break Enchantment/Greater Dispelling [caster level 17] contingenced by Hedrack to everyone's travelling trough the Ethereal hole when closed into the Material Plane, if not by Hedrack itself or others using a Tentacle Rod.
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My party's cleric of St. Cuthbert gone Ethereal and spotted the hole into the Black Spike after a lot of talking with the door, and for an unlucky roll of me, saved against the dispelling, and travelled into the atrium (level 0) of the Black Spike. After seeing the two Dragosaurus and a couple of accolites alerted by the door, he countinued to wander upstairs to see what more is awaiting inside... meanwhile the rest of party members, started a confused sequence of rounds with the Adamantine Door, ended in a Wander Away result the EXACT round the cleric decided to exit to explain the other what's waiting behind. The next round started with the two Dragosaurus fliyng out facing the party scattered outside abroad the bridge by the Adamantine Door confused reaction in the previous rounds (every defensive spells have been cast at least a couple of time), while the cleric was blocked into the Ethereal, seeing nothing of what's happening outside due to the presence of the Adamantine Door into the Ethereal itself as a result of its Ethereal Jaunt.
The combat lasted a lot more and they lost 3 of 6 party members due to swallowing, charge into lava and the like, but in the end the remining 3 worked out to save their lives.
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A lot of talking with the Adamantine Door followed the party entrance into the Black Spike, from where the Adamantine Door received orders for a long time. In the end the party convinced the door that its orders where in conflict with Moradin's Laws, but needed to cast a Break Enchantment to release the Adamantine Door from the Geas that controlled it. The Adamantine Door, now released from its enforcement agreed with the party that there were nothing more to spare with this place for it, and remembering that it should be able to Astral Travel, returned to Moradin for its reward.
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That night we all enjoyed a lot... I would appreciate if someone will try to use my alternative Adamantine Door if not met 'til now.
Enjoy with RttToEE.
P.S.: excuse for my english... I'm only Italian... Hello Gary, come to ModCon again: we'll spare a lot more of "gnocco" and "tigelle" again.
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PaleMage (aka Monty), mastering RttToEE from 10 day from the publishing, master of D&D, AD&D 1st and 2nd Ed., DD3E since 1984...
Edited by: PaleMage at: 11/28/03 4:28 am
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