Freakohollik
First Post
The trick is use the Scepter from Area 25. Poke the gold end of the scepter into the cup like depression, and the doors swing right open! Poke the silver end into the doors, and you'll be teleported back to Area 6, naked as the day you were born.
Maybe the players decide to bash down the doors? Well, if the doors are cut with a sharp weapon they start gushing blood like the elevators in the Overlook Hotel. In 20 minutes, blood will fill the room to the ceiling. The module provides a list of several spells that players might cast at the gushing blood. Each has a different effect; some of them seem pretty far fetched. Also, any kind of fire, even the torch you've been paying your henchmen to carry around, turns the blood into poison gas that kills everybody in the room, no save.
IMO: Obviously, the players are expected to try the Second Key on the Mithral Valves. It won't work, and somebody will take a relatively trivial amount of damage. My guess is that lots of groups will get confused and burn a lot of time monkeying around with the Second Key here.
Acererak has told us that the Throne in Area 25 is "key and keyed." We've already seen the Scepter open one secret door. Arguably, those are clues showing the right way to get through the doors. The concavity could be a clue as well, particularly if the DM describes it in a way that connects it back to the Scepter.
How are the players supposed to know which end of the Scepter to use? The silver end worked back in Area 25, but it doesn't work here. The general rule in Area 25 seemed to be "like touches like." Touch the gold end of the Scepter to the gold crown. Touch the silver end to the silver crown on the throne. Mithril is silver, nothing in Area 29 is made of gold, so that pattern fails here. Am I missing something?
This is one of the few traps in the module that I don't like. I don't see anyway to know which end of the sceptor to use, and the penatly for doing it wrong is really harsh.
The second key is also strange. The antipathy effect is there for flavor, but you need the key later on. If everyone fails their save to use the key, you're going to need some really inventive play, or more likely DM leniency to continue.