A novel way to destroy an artifact?

[Ancalagon]

Hello

So this happened in my game.

I was running Gates of Firestorm Peak (a 2e adventure) in 5e, and at one point the characters found the Eye of the Kraken (campaign specific item, not in adventure). They felt this large item was very dangerous but were unable to destroy it.

Then one player had a bright idea. In the adventure there is a gate that is a large silver disk (vertical) and it's slowly rotating. The moving edge of the gate is quite dangerous as it means if you don't go through the gate cleanly you can get cut in half. So the positioned the Eye and let the edge of the gate sweep over it...

I decided to allow it, and the artifact (and the actual eye inside it) was cut in half.

I know artifacts have specific means of destruction, but this seemed clever. But... do you think this would always work? If it doesn't destroy the artifact, what happens?

edit: I see a lot of answers that are specific to my campaign, but I'm asking in general. The ship has sailed, so to speak, in m game

 

[Laurefindel]

A clever idea from a player that moves the story forward? Yeah, I'd allow it in a heartbeat.

 

[Caliban]

The artifact isn't permanently destroyed, but cut in half (as you said) - one half remaining behind and the other sent through the portal, which sent it to a random location due to interference from the energies released when the artifact was sundered.

The lost piece may be found by interested parties and possibly reassembled at a future date. The piece remaining behind may be dangerous - leaking energies from the cut that mutate nearby creatures or causes other random effects, or something else. (Necessitating that it be locked away in a vault or dungeon somewhere...)

 

[Sunseeker]

I tend to treat "destroying" artifacts is either impossible (without the corresponding journey to Mt Doom so to speak), or worse than attempting to simply hide them away somewhere.

So I agree with [MENTION=284]Caliban[/MENTION] about how the "destruction" of this artifact should play out.

I don't mind players getting creative, but players have to likewise understand that these sorts of objects are "artifacts" (in a magical D&D sense) for a reason. They weren't created haphazardly or by circumstance (or if they were it was from something like the collision of two planes), but by the efforts of determined, coordinated, powerful beings. Beings who have created something that is beyond the mortal ability to "smash".

Plus, "I want to destroy the artifact!" is almost always a good lead-in for an epic quest!

Unfortunately I worry that, without any real consequences to the players for this action, they'll be inclined to take everything they don't want to deal with to this gate of yours.

 

[Nagol]

Would it always work? No, of course not. Nothing *always* works.

What could happen if it doesn't work? Probably a near-infinite list of things. Some of the more plausible environmental/item responses would be:

• The gate sweeps across the artefact. Unlike normal matter, it appears completely undamaged by the interaction.
• The item vanishes as the gate partially sweeps over it. Where did it go? Other side? Somewhere in-between? Somewhere else entirely?
• The gate touches the artefact and simply shuts down. It reappears once the gate turns enough that the circumference can form without intersecting the item
• The gate blinks out of existence. Can it be repaired? Will it return on its own?
• The area explodes in a fiery display of plasma as the item and the gate seek to destroy each other and incidentally obliterate anything else nearby. Only when the gate turns far enough to no longer intersect the item does the display end. The item can be seen by any survivors sitting unharmed.
• A powerful being directly associated with the item appears to (a) spirit it away to safety, (b) recover it for itself, or (c) punish the characters for being so reckless -- don't you understand what could happen?
• The sweeping gate pushes the item out of the way as if it were solid.

 

[MarkB]

I'm just getting the idea for a really powerful demigod-level bad guy who's fashioned himself a suit of armour composed entirely of powerful artifacts. He doesn't actually use any of their powers, he just uses them to block all incoming attacks.

 

[Ancalagon]

Unfortunately I worry that, without any real consequences to the players for this action, they'll be inclined to take everything they don't want to deal with to this gate of yours.

Well... given that they can't go for another 27 years....

 

[Sunseeker]

Well... given that they can't go for another 27 years....

Well that solves that then. Or at least, leaves 27 years of whatever half this artifact does on the other side completely uninterrupted!

 

[Eltab]

The PCs accidentally made two Artifacts that are half as effective as the original. Ooooppsss….

I think I'd have the remaining half become dangerously unstable and threaten to auto-do whatever it does to everything with in range X feet. Maybe it will explode dramatically?

 

[Mad_Jack]

I've always held that "getting rid of" an artifact (for campaign purposes, anyway) is generally not that hard if the party gets creative about it. Stash it in an impenetrable vault, toss it in a bottomless hole, banish it to somewhere else, break it in some cinematically interesting fashion, not entirely undoable.

Actually destroying one so that it doesn't just reappear somewhere else, get reassembled or otherwise come back to haunt the campaign world again (if not the party themselves) in X number of years/centuries isn't anywhere near as easy.