Canonfire!

Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:16 am The Silver Key of Portals

I'm currently running my players through the "return" to Maure Castle, as described in Dungeon #112. Because of character deaths, uncertain schedules, etc., I created Jakob Dworkin, cleric of Dalt to assist the players with the Unopenable Doors and some of the more mundane obstacles inside.

For various reasons, this party would never be trusted with the Silver Key of Portals, so I decided that Dworkin -- adventurer/follower of Dalt that he was -- would instead wield the less powerful Bronze Key of Portals.

I remembered seeing a throwaway reference to the Key at some point, and figured I could dig it up later to flesh out the magic item. Alas, it turns out the Key in question was created by Tenser as part of the Return of the Eight module, and was never actually statted out.

After some discussion, we've hacked out a version of the Bronze Key that I like and will do the job but it gave rise to the question: how was the Silver Key actually created? What was its relationship with the Circle of Eight ... and what other keys exist?

Maure Castle #112 says that the key was created by Dalt, and clearly it has been in Mordenkainen's possession earlier. But I don't have Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure so I'm not sure how he came to own it . Can anyone shed any light on these Keys?

Ken

Tue Jun 26, 2007 9:35 am Silver Key of portals

I am also running Maure Castle starting this sunday. I also figure that my players will abuse the silver key as well so I am going to lessen it to a 2 times per day usage.
also own Modenkainens fantastic adventure which gives slightly different info on the key.
"Silver Key of Portals: This item appears to
be a regular-sized silver skeleton key (silver
worth equals 33 gp). It is, in fact, a minor artifact
that was found in an abandoned chapel to
Dalt, the lesser god of portals and enclosures.
(It is conjectured by Mordenkainen that this
forgotten god led him to find the Key, for he
has learned that Dalt is of a chaotic good alignment
and gives generously to those he
favors). When the key is touched to any portal,
be it magical or other, the portal will slowly
swing open. This key may be used to open
four portals per day, and no more."

Let me know how your tour in Maure goes. I think I may limit my players to just one or two levels. Maure castle is pretty much a mini campaign all itself

Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:17 am

Was the bronze key really created by Tenser? I remember that it is found in his vault, but does it really state that he created it? IIRC the silver key was created by Dalt and found by Mordenkainen. The 3E Epic Level Handbook has a full description of this artifact among the stats for Mordenkainen. I would have thought that Dalt created all three in his search to free his long lost brother Vatun. Perhaps he started with the Bronze Key and then when he created better versions gave away the older ones.

BTW the existance of a Bronze and Silver key seem to imply that there's a Golden Key too. Palindrome of the dicefreaks site has indeed given his version of Dalt a Golden Key of Portals.

Also note the the Silver Key could be inspired by the H.P.Lovecraft short stories "The Silver Key" and "Through the Gates of the Silver Key".

Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:39 am

The dicefreaks site seems to be down..

Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:19 pm

Works for me...

Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:27 pm

Very odd, after some playing around I figured out my ISP's DNS server doesn't seem to be resolving dicefreaks.com. When I put in the IP I get from doing a domain whois I can get to the server just fine. Thanks for letting me know it still exists :)

Fri Jan 15, 2021 1:41 pm

Is anyone able to post that piece from dicefreaks about the golden key of portals?

With "Return to Dark Tower" coming out, it's weird that there's a bronze and a silver but absolutely zero mention of a brass or a gold, elsewhere, in context to a game world obviously influenced by the original.

I can't seem to connect to the link, either. It just goes straight to a domain for sale link.

Sun Sep 29, 2024 9:04 am