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Secret Doors and Hidden Keys
 

OK, here's a room I made for an area with an adjacent Monastery and Nunnery. It's full of secret passages between the two convents and in one of those passages is a cache, with a hidden choice object. To get the object the players have not only to find the key to the cache, but also to know the true name of the key to be able to get it from where it is hidden. To find the name of the key they have to read the extra keyword descriptions in this and other rooms. I dropped a hint about the special item at the entrance of the area. So far nobody has found it, though some have tried...
*evil grin*

Molly O'Hara of 4Dimensions

Room:
Name: Study
Description:
This is a small room, but well furnished and well lit, from a large leaded window in the north wall and a smaller one in the west, that stands slightly ajar. There are also some oil lamps, burning with a slightly smoking wick. You sense the fragrance of the perfumed burning oil, lingering in the air like the scent of incense. The walls are covered with floor to ceiling shelves, all filled and overflowing with ancient looking, leather bound volumes and yellowish parchment scrolls. There is a mahogany door in the south wall, and a simpler, oaken door in the east.

Extra Descriptions:

  • Keyword: scrolls
    Description:
    Most of the scrolls are very old and fragile, almost falling to pieces in your hands. Since they have been used as palimpsests, the parchment is worn thin as spider web in some places. The text is in Latin, so you can't understand a word of what is written on them.
  • Keyword: window
    Description:
    It is a leaded, stained window, showing an image of The Good Shepherd. Appropriately enough, you can see real sheep grazing outside, through the panes.
  • Keyword: message
    Description:
    The message reads: "The true name of the Key is Unholy". How strange...
  • Keyword: book
    Description:
    As you take the book to get a closer look at it, it falls open by itself. On the front fly-leaf someone has scribbled a message with a feather pen.
  • Keyword: volume
    Description:
    Most of the books are very old and very dusty.  It seems they don't get opened very often. However you notice one book, that is completely free from dust. Strange...
  • Keyword:volumes
    Description: Most of the books are very old and very dusty. It seems they don't get opened very often. However you notice one book, that is completely free from dust. Strange...
  • Keyword: button
    Description:
    When you push the button, the bookshelf slides silently to one side, revealing a secret trap-door underneath it.
  • Keyword: object
    Description: The object is a small stone, shaped like a scarab.
  • Keyword: shelves
    They look like ordinary shelves to you, but curiously enough you notice that one shelf is half empty.  You catch a glimpse of what looks like a button behind the remaining books. 
Directions:
  • North:
    Description:
    Through the leaded window you can see a pastoral scene, with grazing sheep under large oak trees. The window is fixed though, so you can't open it.
  • East:
    Keywords: oaken door
  • South:
    Keywords: mahogany door
  • West:
    Description:
    Outside the west window you see Convent Road. The drop down to it is about three meters though, so I'd be careful if I were you.
    Keyword: window
  • Down:
    Description:
    You see a secret trap door, leading down into darkness.
    Keyword: trap

Mob:
Short Description: Brother Assar
Aliases: Brother Assar
Long Description: Brother Assar winks at you.
Look Description: Brother Assar is a young and rather skinny novice.  This isn't because the novices don't get enough to eat in this monastery, though. On the contrary, all the novices get the same good and nourishing food as the rest of the Brothers. The trouble with brother Assar is, that he's got tapeworm.

object
Name: book
Short Description: a small book
Long Description: A small and evil looking book has been left here.

Extra Description:
Keyword: book
Description:
Beware! This book contains some ancient magic formulas, that are forbidden for mankind to read. Only the Immortals and the highest and most holy of the Cleric Class, are able to deal with the information given in this book.



 The Art of Building: Copyright © 1998-2002 Michelle A. Thompson