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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6529104" data-attributes="member: 97077">THE VAULT<img src="http://i.imgur.com/8MZEYFu.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />If you've made it this far, then your player characters haven't been arrested by House Kundarak or eaten by manticores. That's good! But things are just getting interesting now...At the bottom of the lift shaft, two metal doors open to trapped hallways which lead into the vault proper. Once past those hazards, the adventurers will have to deal with a shortage of time, their own greed in the face of immeasurable wealth, a precarious pit, and a guardian in the form of a helmed horror (MM p. 183) The helmed horror is dwarf-sized, uses a battleaxe instead of a longsword, and floats silently above the pit and will accost anyone who is not affiliated with House Kundarak or in the company of the same. In addition to its normal abilities, it can also innately detect the keys to the vault and will try to take said keys as its primary objective.Remember, the characters have only a five minute window including the time they spent on the lift to successfully get what they came for and get out before a guard rotation comes around. If any traps are set off, however, the guard rotation shows up one minute later.FEATURES OF THE AREAThe Lift: There is a control panel on the wall northeast of the lift that can send it back up.Beyond the Northern Door: A 20-foot-long empty hallway ends at a locked metal door with no obvious keyhole, doorknob, or mechanism. Above the door is carved in Dwarvish: "The Wise Tongue of Lord Morikkan is the Key."  Along the walls are variously-carved dwarven faces, mouths agape as if talking, four on each side of the hallway (about 5 feet apart from each other). There is an obvious seam on the ceiling at the midpoint of the corridor.[spoiler]Inside each of the carvings' mouths is a stone button. If the correct button is chosen, the door at the end of the hallway unlocks and can be pushed open. However, the seam on the ceiling marks the edge of a huge block of stone, a 10-foot cube of dense rock that will fall when the wrong button is depressed. It also blocks further passage into the vault from this direction. The best way to avoid this from happening is to know what Lord Morrikan looks like which may be certain or uncertain (perhaps an Intelligence (History) check is in order here) depending on the established backgrounds of the PCs in the scenario. A clever rogue might also be able to detect and disable the trap with time (of which there isn't much) and effort. If anyone is standing under the block when the trap is sprung, they should make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 4d10 bludgeoning damage (half damage on a save) and is restrained until freed by an ally making a DC 16 Strength check to pull them out. While restrained in this fashion, the character takes another 1d10 damage per round.The carving that correctly depicts Lord Morikkan d'Kundarak is the second one on the left.[/spoiler]Beyond the Eastern Door: A 20-foot-long hallway ends in a door covered in sharp iron spikes that bears the manticore-sigil of House Kundarak. The hallway-side of the door leading to this corridor is peppered with holes. A groove runs down the walls on either side from door to door. Above the spiked door is Dwarvish script: "Know the Bloodlines or Bleed." Eight names are carved in the ground at regular intervals between the doors (left to right, closest to farthest starting from the lift): Tasdar, Durbannek, Ghedin, Veracer, Cerusk, Tuvodni, Naldra, Ingnal, all in Dwarvish script.[spoiler]The key to avoiding this trap is knowing which family names are among the nine bloodlines of House Kundarak and which aren't. Again, this might be certain for characters of particular established backgrounds and uncertain for the rest (and deserving of an Intelligence (History) check or the like). Stepping on the correct names (Durbannek, Ghedin, Tuvodni, Ingnal*) is safe and unlocks the door when the final one is stepped on. Stepping on an incorrect name activates the trap: The door closest to the lift slams shut and locks while the spiked door rolls along the tracks in the walls at 5 feet per round. If it makes contact with a creature, it inflicts 4d10 piercing damage and 1d10 piercing damage per round of contact. Once the spikes make contact with the holes of the door opposite it, the trap shuts down and waits to be reset by the Silver Keys.* The name "Ingnal" isn't canon, but the three others are. So if you have a particularly savvy Eberron player who knows the dwarven houses, he or she is not going to recognize this name and you'll have to help him or her out.[/spoiler]Minor Vaults: There are eight minor vaults here, each containing vast amounts of gold and the like stored in chests, sacks, and crates. The doors are locked iron portcullises. Once past those, a character trying to snatch treasure as quickly as possible can grab 100 gp for each container in the vault per round. (So that's 200 gp to 500 gp per turn depending on the vault.) The locks are increasingly complex, however, starting at DC 15 for a rushed lockpicking job on the least-filled minor vault and escalating by +2 for each step up thereafter to a DC 21. Remember, there is a half-ton weight limit to the lift too!Pit: A 20-foot-square pit yawns open here, the bottom 40 feet below. Falling in inflicts 4d6 bludgeoning damage and knocks the creature prone. At regular intervals, a magically-generated gust of wind blows downward from vents in the ceiling above the pit. This makes jumping across from one side to another uncertain in most cases, requiring either a DC 12 Strength or Intelligence check to power through or time the gust just so.Control Panels: Flanking either side of the pit are stairs that lead into chambers wherein a single control panel is mounted on north wall (in the east chamber) or the east wall (in the north chamber). In the center of the control panel is a keyhole. When the proper key is placed in each keyhole and turned at the same time, the main vault door opens and the bottom of the pit rises to become flush with the floor, providing access to the vault.The Vault: Inside the vault is a single dais upon which rests the Snow Ray, a pistol-like device that glows blue and hums with power now that Risia is coterminous with the world. It is there for the taking! There are also two doors in this vault, one marked "Confidential Records" and the other marked "Experimental Devices." Behind these locked doors (DC 20 for a rush job of lockpicking) are vast stores of knowledge both damning and valuable and coveted magical items, respectively.The Snow Ray[spoiler]This oddly-shaped device was created by a mad artificer in the service of House Cannith near the end of the Last War. It was said she created it after finding relics from an unknown civilization among wreckage that appeared in a cornfield in Cyre. It is essentially a laser pistol from the DMG (page 268) but it does cold instead of radiant damage. If the target's body is made of flesh, the creature must make a DC 15 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it is restrained as its flesh begins to freeze and harden. On a successful save, the creature isn't affected.A creature restrained by the snow ray must make another DC 15 Constitution saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If it successfuly saves against the effect, the snow ray has no further affect on it. If it fails this save, it is turned to a block of ice and subjected to the petrified condition permanently until dispelled.The snow ray has 1d4+1 charges and can only be recharged by being at a point where Risia is coterminous with Eberron at dawn.[/spoiler]</blockquote>

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