The Nirduk Vault

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Overview

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The combination

The main Vault has a 17-digit combination. While in principle one could set the combination to be anything at all, in practice most combinations result in loss of the Vault's contents. The only relatively safe combinations are so-called cyclic numbers (or cyclic permutations thereof), integers that, when multipled by a small integer, produce a new number that uses all the same digits as the old one. Large cyclic numbers can be built out of smaller ones, but the more "breaks", the greater the risk to the Vault's contents. Streck's combination was built from a 16-digit cyclic number and a zero and thus had only one break; Ganeth's new combination is less impressive, but it has the distinct advantage that Elbret doesn't know what numbers it's based on.

Incidentally, Ganeth has yet to tell anyone more about the Vault combination than that it requires "magic numbers", and I'm not even putting the combination on this page. :)

There's also a 6-digit combination to a small non-ethereal section of the Vault; we've never explored it, so the combination is still the less-than-totally-secret 714285 (from the cyclic number 142857) it was when Kalis was in charge of Nirduk base security.

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The entrance

The outside of the Vault looks like your basic metal vault door; it currently has some acid burns from a botched Shorin attempt to eat through the lock. According to Jenx, the door has a permanent combination death and insanity trap to discourage would-be safecrackers. The combination mechanism is behind a flap on the door. After seeing where the tumblers have randomly set themselves, one can attempt to enter the combination blind (with one's hand stuck under the flap) to prevent scrying of the combination; this requires a successful INT check to remember how far to move each tumbler. If the right combination is entered, something behind the door begins to mainfest on the ethereal, and the door iteself can be opened; if the wrong combination is tried, the lock resets itself and cannot be opened for several days.

Behind the main door is a black curtain, and many black gems are set into the doorframe around it. This curtain showed up on Derdriu's find traps, though Ganeth and Kelmin were able to walk through without incident. A book inside the Vault referred to this device as the Curtain of Death but gave no information about it.

Behind the curtain is a small entryway with an arch. There is a second combination mechanism and a pattern on the inside of the door. To "key in", one casts dimdoor on the pattern; at this point one can change the combination with the inner mechanism. The arch also becomes an archway, leading to a grey tunnel with a bluish light at the far end. (The walls appear to be a cross between metal and stone and are ethereally solid.)

The tunnel, called the Arch of Purity, has a programmed illusion of a high elf (who looks a lot like Streck, but with more effeminate features) in gleaming armor wielding a brightly shining longsword; the illusion says, "Only the pure may enter!" (Ganeth figured he was pretty pure, despite the efforts of Tot and the Lavender Bard, so he ignored the illusion with no ill effects.)

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The interior

The walls inside the Vault are of the same ethereally solid metal/stone material. Ventilation seems to be provided through unseen holes in the walls. The rear wall boasts a waste-disposal that looks like a cross between the usual metal/stone material (though a bit slimy) and a worm's digestive tract and trails off into the ethereal; this is tastefuly covered by an illusory tapestry showing a shifting star pattern.

Off to the right, there is a small sparsely (but elegantly) furnished bunk and kitchen area. The kitchen contains a magical smokeless fire, a few cooking ingredients, and a loaf of very heavy bread. There is hidden panel by the bed; the inside is labeled "emergency supplies", and it's empty. The sleeping pallet appeared clean and made, and there was a carved wooden flute beside the bed. (To Ganeth's knowledge, Streck never showed any musical inclinations.)

The main section of the Vault is the 20'x10'x7' study, containing bookshelves all around the walls, marble lab benches, and a writing desk. The desk has a magical light source, quills, stationery, and folders containing letters and correspondence; details about some of these letters are given in Streck's bio. The bookshelves have some books about elven history and one book detailing the Vault's assets; the rest of the library contains rare and useful references for magical research. The lab benches contain ink (5 vials of 60% ink are still there), empty spellbooks (one large, one medium, four small), a tome marked "Funjeel's Tome of Terror", an empty area labeled "spell collection", a small tube marked "backups", lots of random ingredients, and a crystal ball in an engraved golden fixture.

A 5'x10' storage space is hidden behind some of the bookshelves. This area contains:

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The heptagram

The heptagram is 7' in diameter and is etched into the floor in the center of the room. The lines are very fine and escape casual notice, particularly when they're partially covered by the desk, and detect as ethereal. It does not allow incoming teleports but can be targeted by teleport without error. It can be used for departing teleports and allows 5x weight capacity. There are emergency exists via the heptagram than can be accessed with knock or dimension door, but these may involve system shock and are "not recommended".

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Click around here to head back to:
the main Campaign page
the Nirduk clan page
the high elven clans page
the index for my piece of the Campaign site
my home page
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Maintained by Erich Greene; last changed 8-16-96

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