Magic Keys

From the Graphics Fairy

A few idea for magic keys you can drop into your campaign. All of them work in essentially the same way - a small, simple key of an interesting material that can open doors that are not there in different materials. To work, the holder of the key must close their eyes, hold their breath, stick the key out slowly, and then turn it slowly. The door then opens. The keys have a 1 in 6 chance of working, so they're not a sure thing.

Where do these doors lead? The key opens a door onto one of the following (D10):

1-3) An ornate room with furnishings and decorations dependent on the material in which the door was situated, and attended by like creatures. Thus, a black key opening a room into shadows will open into a room of black marble with gauzy black curtains and thicker, black velvet curtains and dark wood furniture with cushions in shades of grey attended by shadows. The room is safe, and can be stayed in for 1 hour before it fades back into the plan of which it is composed and sends the occupants back from whence they came.

4-7) A long tunnel that leads to a second door which opens back into the material world. This second door will appear in the same material as the first, so a door opened through fire can only lead to a second door situated in fire.

8) A long stair leading deep down into the plane (or a demi-plane) appropriate to the key that opened the door, thus opening a door in stone will lead to the elemental earth plane.

9) The door leads to the key-holder's childhood home, wherever it was (even if it is now a ruin, or just an open field).

10) A tunnel that leads back to the same door, but 1d6 hours later or 1d6 hours earlier. If it leads back in time, all that the characters had done in the world over that time has been undone, though the effects they suffered through remain evident on their minds, bodies and souls.

The material of the key governs what they key will work on, as follows:

Gold --> Natural stone

Amber --> Trees, hedge rows, brambles, thickets

Meteoric Iron --> Shadows and the night air

Copper --> Fire

Smoky glass --> Smoke

Silver --> Water, fog and mist

Green wood --> Spring Breezes

Bone --> Mausoleums and tombstones

Tin --> Laughter and thunderous applause (must "fill the air")

Porcelain --> Weeping and wailing (as above)

Folded paper --> Riotous anger and yelling (as above)

Tarnished brass and tied with a fairy lock --> Hillsides

Dessicated and twisted wood --> Sand dunes