Recently acquired Tales of the Yawning Portal and I'm making my way through the later edition adventures. Reading the introductory sections to Dead in Thay and I have to admit: I am completely baffled by the abstract descriptions of how the white and black gates work, and how the glyph keys fit into the mix.
Can anyone help explain in clear, practical language how these elements work?
They pretty much work like any other portal or door. You need a specific key to activate them in order to enter and exit various areas. When the adventure originally launched, it was sort of a "team" event comprised of multiple adventuring parties during in-store or convention play and different groups explored different parts of the dungeon finding keys, meeting up with each other's "team leaders" and trading needed keys to get around the dungeon.
Think of it like a video game like...say Doom or whatever. You need the red key to open the red door etc. Same principle applies here. The party starts in one area for free and explores it to find keys to access other areas and so on.
EDIT: Think of the White Gates as security doors that are new and have been erected to prevent easy movement throughout the complex. Black Gates are effectively old teleportation pads that circumvent the White Gates.
I'm reading through it now and it's slightly clearer. I get the overall concept but because I am not that clever I need the text to be pretty darn specific and literal. As long as the text tells me where the Black Gates take people and which doors/halls/etc. each White Gate blocks/unlocks, I'll be good.
Knowing it was originally a multi-group thing helps me understand why they're there.
Sure, so as an example, if you started your party out in.....say the Ooze Grotto, then they would eventually come across Sarkalla, who has a glyph key.
Glyph Key. Sarkalla has a glyph key attuned to this zone, the Immortal Caverns, the Spawning Pools, and the Temples of Nature (in the Temples of Extraction sector).
If they manage to get the key (probably by killing Sarkalla) then they can now use it to access the Augmentation Chambers (where they found the key), pass through either of the the White Gates that block off the Immortal Caverns, pass through either of the the White Gates that block off the Spawning Pools, and also use any Black Gate they find to teleport to the Temples of Nature.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
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Recently acquired Tales of the Yawning Portal and I'm making my way through the later edition adventures. Reading the introductory sections to Dead in Thay and I have to admit: I am completely baffled by the abstract descriptions of how the white and black gates work, and how the glyph keys fit into the mix.
Can anyone help explain in clear, practical language how these elements work?
They pretty much work like any other portal or door. You need a specific key to activate them in order to enter and exit various areas. When the adventure originally launched, it was sort of a "team" event comprised of multiple adventuring parties during in-store or convention play and different groups explored different parts of the dungeon finding keys, meeting up with each other's "team leaders" and trading needed keys to get around the dungeon.
Think of it like a video game like...say Doom or whatever. You need the red key to open the red door etc. Same principle applies here. The party starts in one area for free and explores it to find keys to access other areas and so on.
EDIT: Think of the White Gates as security doors that are new and have been erected to prevent easy movement throughout the complex. Black Gates are effectively old teleportation pads that circumvent the White Gates.
I'm reading through it now and it's slightly clearer. I get the overall concept but because I am not that clever I need the text to be pretty darn specific and literal. As long as the text tells me where the Black Gates take people and which doors/halls/etc. each White Gate blocks/unlocks, I'll be good.
Knowing it was originally a multi-group thing helps me understand why they're there.
Sure, so as an example, if you started your party out in.....say the Ooze Grotto, then they would eventually come across Sarkalla, who has a glyph key.
If they manage to get the key (probably by killing Sarkalla) then they can now use it to access the Augmentation Chambers (where they found the key), pass through either of the the White Gates that block off the Immortal Caverns, pass through either of the the White Gates that block off the Spawning Pools, and also use any Black Gate they find to teleport to the Temples of Nature.