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Copyright © 2001 Simon E. Phipp
Created On 8 February 2001
Last Updated On 8 February 2001

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# Behind the Golden Door

This scenario was written just in case the party became to big for their boots and decided to try and get Gbaji's Claws. I wrote it to be quite difficult and used creatures with quite heavy stats and I thought the party would not be able to complete it. I was wrong, they fairly breezed through it as they had been preparing for this kind of thing and had HeroPaths already set up so that they could be Invoked when required. In fact, they had given this a lot of thought and managed to get Gbaji's Claws back, something which Stuart believes was Derak's crowning achievement and the one thing that he would be remembered for.

## History

When Arkat and Talor were knocking on Nysalor's door he realized that his Empire was finished. To reduce the chances of being killed by Arkat he divested himself of that which Gbaji had corrupted. One of the things he removed were the Adamant Claws that Gbaji had used to tear open Korasting's Womb and cause the Curse of Kin Nysalor knew that Arkat the Troll could not forgive he who had wielded these Claws so he decided to remove them. Nysalor placed these Claws in a protected area beneath the ground, deep inside the UnderWorld, guarded by the Five Elements. However, he saw that the Claws were not the only tainted thing he had, so he struck off his own hands and placed them with the Claws. Afterwards he grew new hands to fight Arkat with. Ever since, the entrance to the UnderWorld was hidden behind a Golden Door hidden deep within the earth beneath the Tower of Lead.

When Arkat and Gbaji fought, Gbaji was killed and dismembered. Arkat sought the Adamant Claws but could not find them. He questioned the servants of Nysalor and Gbaji but to no avail. Eventually he left the area and the location of the Claws was forgotten by all. When the Vampires took over the Tower of Lead they explored the caverns beneath it and found the Golden Door. Even the Angel of Light, Mistress of the Fires of Heaven did not know what lay behind the Golden Door, even though she had been one of Nysalor's lovers. Over the years the Vampires found that nobody in Dorastor knew of the Golden Door, not even Ralzakark, and nobody knew how to open it. Eventually everyone but the Vampires forgot the Door.

## The Scenario

The only entrance to the Caverns beneath the Tower of Lead is to be found beneath the Status of Vivamort in the Main Temple. If this statue is toppled a staircase is revealed heading down. Beneath the Tower of Lead is a complex of caverns, tunnels and caves guarded by a vast number of Undead from the Tower. There are maybe 1000 undead here of various types but no Vampires can normally be found here unless they are chasing the party. There is at least one point where a cavern is hidden by being behind a tunnel beneath a pool of water so the party must swim beneath the pool water in order to discover the secret cavern otherwise they will never find the Golden Door. If they have the Golden Key it will point to this pool wherever spun in the cave.

The party must find the Golden Door and must find out how to open the Door. They will then pass through the Door and overcome each of the Elemental Guardians until they reach the Inner Sanctum. They must then defeat the Hands and the Claws and return with the Adamant Claws.

Looking through the Scenario it could almost be an Other Place Quest but that would involve extra work. If you want to make it a HeroQuest then feel free, after all it is a raid on the UnderWorld and has several properties that make it not a normal scenario.

The Scenario has several parts to it:

- Opening the Door
- Passing through the Door
- Travelling in the Complex
- False Turns
- The Guardians of Darkness
- The Guardians of Water
- The Guardians of Earth
- The Guardians of Sky
- The Guardians of Air
- The Guardians of Chaos
- The Guardians of Law
- Meet the Greeblie
- The Return

## Opening the Door

- The Golden Door may only be opened by a Rune Level who is Illuminated
- A Troll cannot open the Door, nor can a member of a Troll Cult
- Only the Great Key may open the Door [1]
- When opened the Door will swallow the Great Key and will open on the command of the person who opened the Door
- The door will begin to close 1 round after opened, it will take 2D6 + 2 rounds to close
- Once closed again it can never be opened as the Great Key will have gone
- Trying to burn through the Door (100 AP) or burning through the rock surrounding the Door will eventually reveal a cavern containing a golden statue of Nysalor that will Illuminate anyone who sacrifices 1 POW to it. It also changes them into an exact image of the Statue including being coloured gold. This could be sold in the Lunar Empire for around 100,000L.

## Passing through the Door

- Each PC can make 1 attempt to pass through the door per round
- Each attempt to pass through the Golden Door costs 1D6 Personal Magic Points
- Once a person has reached 0 MPs they cannot pass through the Golden Door
- To pass through the Door roll against the Bravery Trait, if this succeeds then the person can pass through the Door, if the person fails he must roll against the Cowardly Trait and if he succeeds this he will run from the Door as fast as he can, never to return

## Travelling in the Complex

- Each person may be hit by an overwhelming feeling that they have to conquer. The feeling is random and may be different for each person.
- This is called a Feeling Roll for this scenario and may happen more than once
- Each Feeling may be temporarily overcome by rolling the relevant character trait
- If the Feeling is not overcome the person will remain rooted to the spot and will refuse to continue unless persuaded to by his comrades, each person who has just overcome his Feeling may choose to attempt to persuade the person to continue. Each extra attempt is at a 10% reduction. If the chance to succeed is reduced to 0 or below the person has run out of attempts then he cannot continue and must return back the way he came.
- For example, Darrel the Pessimist goes past the Golden Door and is hit by a Feeling of Paranoia, he attempts to roll his Optimist Trait of 25% and fails. Three of his friends succeed in overcoming their Feelings and try to talk him around. His next attempt is at 25% - 10% = 15% which he fails, he then tries at 5% and fails again. Because his chance for the next attempt is at -5% he cannot try again and he returns back the way he came because "We're all going to die"
- The Feelings are:

Feeling | Character Trait
Fear of the Unknown | Bravery
Is it worth taking the risk? | Impulsive
Apathy | Energetic
Oh no, we're all going to die! | Optimist
Paranoia | Trusting
Why should I endanger myself for others? | Loyal

## False Turns

- Every so often the path will split into 2D3 paths
- Only 1 path will be correct, the others are long, convoluted dead ends filled with traps, monsters, horrors etc.
- It normally takes a day to reach the end of a dead end by which time the party must return back the way they came
- The correct path is the most dangerous path (for anyone with an ability to detect the most dangerous path)
- Passing through the Correct Path requires a Feeling Roll

## The Guardians of Darkness

- These are Demons to terrify Questors
- They include Hags, Shades, Wraiths, Trolls, Hellhounds, Ghouls, Dehori, Hollri
- They will attack a party containing Light Bearers, Fire Bearers, members of a Fire/Sky/Light Cult or anyone who attacks them
- If the party does not contain Fire/Sky/Light cultists and has no Lights or Fires showing then they may pass if they each agree to sacrifice a Sentient being to Subere within a Season. Anyone agreeing to this but not performing the sacrifice will show up as an Oath breaker and will detect as an Enemy of any Initiate or higher in a Darkness Cult.
- There are 2D6 encounters with Guardians of Darkness, each would require a sacrifice if passed without incident
- If the party does not want to fight and does not want to sacrifice a sentient and is not attacked then they must return the way they came

## The Guardians of Water

- This is a broad expanse of water that lasts for 10 miles
- There is a 0.5m space above the water for breathing purposes
- The party must swim for 10 miles
- If the water is swallowed it counts as Sleeping Draught POT 40 and knocks the person out for POT - CON turns
- The water reduces Fatigue Points by 1 per 5 minutes of swimming
- The water reduces Magic Points by 1 per hour of swimming
- The way is found by opposing the slight current in the water
- All False Turns here will eventually end up completely underwater and be full of underwater monsters
- An underwater creature will attack every hour, these include Sea Serpents, Undines, Mermen, Sharks, Water Dragons, Naiads and Voughs
- Each hour every person must make a Feeling Roll or tread water until he drowns

## The Guardians of Earth

- There are 8 Copper Warriors, 20 feet tall, carrying a Copper Axe and Great Shield guarding a huge pit in the soft earth of a cavern
- The pit is the way forward
- The pit is a huge gnome, if people enter leaving 1 or fewer people above the pit the gnome will close - SPLAT!
- The paths diverge at the bottom of the pit into 2D6 paths, of which all but 1 are False Turns

## The Guardians of Sky

- This is an arching bridge of polished gold, 6" wide and 1" thick passing through a curtain of Fire above a pool of glowing lava
- Anyone flying over the lave is hit by a stream of lava doing molten rock damage (8D6) to all hit locations each round they are flying. Armour protects until the cumulative damage overcomes the AP at which time it falls off. Armour held on by leather or flammable straps will fall off if the flyer fails a Luck Roll. The lava stream will attempt to drag the person down into the lava pool (STR 8D6).
- Crossing the Bridge requires a Feeling Roll
- To cross the Bridge each person must make 6 DEXx1% rolls if walking, 6 DEXx2% rolls if crawling, if a DEX roll is failed the person will fall into the lava if he fails a Luck Roll, if the DEX roll is fumbled the person will automatically fall
- Heroic Abilities may be used to make the crossing easier - for instance magic to improve Balance might be used as might HeroQuest Stations that improve Balance (e.g. Wallan the Walker's Rainbow Running HeroQuest Station)
- Falling off the Bridge causes the person to fall into the lava, taking damage as if falling from Number of Rolls attempted x 10m, then lava damage as normal. So, Steven the Sticky fails to live up to his name and falls having failed 4 DEX rolls, so he falls 40m and takes substantial damage then is burnt to a crisp
- The Golden Bridge will break if more than 1000 kg is placed on it at any one time. It will give loads of warning groaning sounds beforehand and will start to shudder and shake once 800 kg are on the Bridge. Fat or over encumbered adventurers beware.
- Passing through the Curtain of Fire causes 4D6 damage direct to each location, only Golden Armour protects and other armour falls off if a Luck Roll is failed
- Anyone Teleporting to the other side of the Bridge finds that they have Teleported into the middle of the Lava Pool (20 rounds to swim to the surface) and that they start to turn nice and crispy

## The Guardians of Air

- This is a Chasm 1 mile across and 1 mile deep
- A rope across it breaks on the first attempt to cross after 1 mile
- The Chasm needs to be crossed by flying or teleporting
- Anyone trying to cross the Chasm must make a Feeling Roll or stay on the near side
- Climbing down the sides is not to be recommended as there are many monsters of all types hiding in the crevices, on the chasm floor and up the other side, also all Climb rolls are at -100%

## The Guardians of Chaos

- The party will be attacked by 2D6 groups of Chaos
- Chaos includes Chaos Demons, Scorpionmen, Broos, Vampires, Sembraki, Fiends and any number of other Chaos Types, each group is normally of around 2D10 in number
- This is just a mega-hack, nothing subtle, but should separate the men from the boys

## The Guardians of Law

- 8 Guardians guard the entrance to a tunnel through the rock, each Guardian has the form of an Angel and is made from a transparent crystal, each holds a sword and a shield and has a glowing gem where their hearts would be. They can only be killed if the gems are removed from the chests, this takes a critical roll to the chest that does more than 20 points of damage to the chest.
- The party must travel through the small tunnel and must encounter 6 squeezes of SIZ 20, 17, 14, 14, 17 and 20
- On a Squeeze, if the person is smaller than the Squeeze SIZ he must make a Luck Roll or touch the rock. If the person is larger than the SIZ of the Squeeze he must fail a SIZ vs SIZ roll and make a Luck Roll in order not to touch the Rock. If the SIZ roll succeeds he is stuck and touches the Rock. Stuck people may not continue and stop other people from continuing.
- For example, Gerald the Magnificent (SIZ 18, POW 19) moves through the tunnel and encounters the squeezes, he is smaller than the first one and rolls 70 on his Luck Roll, on the second he has a 45% chance of success (17 vs 18) and rolls 30 and 15 on his Luck Roll, so far so good, on the third he has a 30% chance of success and makes it with a 12 but rolls 98 on his Luck Roll, touching the Truestone and getting all his magic sucked from him. He is now stuck and can't even Teleport out of the way. Oh dear, oh dear.
- The middle two Squeezes (SIZ 14) pass through an area of Truestone and anyone touching such a huge block of Truestone will lose all the magic that was cast on them and also will lose any uncast Divine Magic in his mind, as if he had cast them. This lost Divine Magic can be reprayed afterwards but is lost here.
- SIZ reduction spells will make this task a little easier
- Anyone stuck may cast a Teleport spell in order to move out of the Squeeze, but cannot use Teleport to avoid the Squeeze as he can only see the way forward once the Squeeze is encountered
- In theory, one person could pass through all the Squeezes and then use Teleport to bring everyone else out without danger but that would be boring and should be poo-pooed as an idea by the GM if it is raised, it will work though.

## Meet the Greeblie

- After passing through the Guardians and hopefully having had all Divine Magic sucked out into the TrueStone, the party will now meet the Hands and the Claws. Lucky them.
- They see nothing in the Darkness ahead, no light will illuminate the area but Cats Eye or Darksee spells will allow visibility
- They see a pair of Claws made from Adamant and two Hands holding the Claws. These Claws attack at 1000% and do damage of 3D10 + 6D6 each. Magic does not protect against this as Adamant ignores magic. Physical armour protects as normal as does enchanted armour. It is up to the GM whether he allows magically enchanted armour to protect or not, but I would (see I'm not that bad a GM). Any wound is made by the Claws poisoned and the poison POT is equal to the damage done and has an effect immediately. The poison is twice as strong against trolls.
- Each hand has 10 HIt Points and is held in a glove that is part of the Adamant Claws and can only be damaged by a critical hit
- Since the hands are moving around quickly they are quite difficult to hit - all attack chances on the hands are at -200% plus any negatives for fighting in Darkness etc.
- Only Adamant can damage Adamant weapons and the Claws have 50 AP each

## The Return

- If any party chooses to return without reaching the end they must fight there way back
- Any False Turns will show the True Path as the Least Dangerous Path
- When the Golden Door is reached the person may walk through the Door without a problem. The Door does not open but he finds himself outside the Golden Door
- Divine Intervention will move the party to the Golden Door and they may leave as they wish

## Divine Intervention

- This can be used to resurrect characters, heal, provide spells etc. as normal
- It cannot be used to take people past the Golden Door (in either direction)
- It can be used to move people backwards but not forwards, so it can move people from the Greeblie to the Golden Door
- Cannot be used to gain immunity from encounters
- Is at normal chance

## Statistics

- I have not written any statistics here because there are too many encounters
- If I can find the statistics for the Copper Guardians or the Crystal Guardians I will include them here
- The Huge Gnome has an unending number of Hit Points but does 20D6 to each location

## Notes

1. There is only one Great Key in Dorastor. This was created by Nysalor from the finger nails of his hands, each of which he made into a Talisman. Thus, there are ten Talismans that must be found and united in order to make the Great Key. When one person comes into possession of more than one Talisman he will wish to touch them together in which case they will change form into part of a Golden Key. When spun around on the floor, the parts of the Key will point towards the nearest Talisman and the person who holds the portion will know that a Great Key can be made. If the Golden Key has been reformed with all Talismans it will point to the Golden Door when complete. When Talismans are merged they cannot be unmerged but the portion of the Key formed retains all the properties and powers of each constituent Talisman.

### The Ten Talismans

- Ralzakark's Amulet
- Mistress of Light's Golden Ring
- One of the Golden Eagle's Arrowheads
- Golden Leaf from HellWood Great Tree
- Giant King of NeverDead's Crown
- First Age Wheel found in Mad Sultan's Treasury
- Man of Light's Fingernail (Index Finger, Right Hand, is made of Gold)
- Dorasta's Necklace
- Golden Dagger lost in the Ash Flat
- Golden Spearpoint hidden in the vaults of Castle Kartolin

Each Talisman is made of gold, detects as magical and shows an extra unknown property under Analyse Magic. The properties of each Talisman must be prepared in advance by individual GMs.

[End]