This is a MUCH shorter submission that I wrote and,

again, had turned down. I hope that somebody out

there gets some use out of it.

Dikesha Cubic Gate

By: Xanadu

(LeisemannJ@infonet.watertown.k12.wi.us)

This adventure had nearly killed all of them, but they

had finished. The gypsies who had served the monster

that they had fought were gone now, leaving behind

only a strange pack of cards and a set of dice. While

the party's Diviner looked over the cards, trying to

determine their use, Jimmy, the thief, palmed the dice

and looked at them.

"Hmmm," he thought. "Ivory, nice designs - not like

anything I've seen before, but these things could be

worth some cash." Just then, he was overtaken with

the irresistible urge to throw the dice, and he did

so. As they landed, he noticed two things. First,

only one of the dice currently showed a face. Second,

a strange mist was enveloping the entire party. When

the mist cleared, they weren't in the city any longer

- they were in a strange, alien landscape, with

spirals of rock jutting straight up into the air. It

looked like something out of a nightmare...

Rationale: A Cubic Gate, according to Domains of

Dread, is utterly useless in Ravenloft. However,

there are the Dikesha dice, from the Forbidden Lore

set, they might be used in a similar fashion. Much

like the Tarokka Deck of Many Things, it seems logical

that those who have used the Dikesha dice might choose

to enchant them based on items that they have seen in

their years in other worlds. Also, it can be helpful

for GM's to have an item that can take their player's

from one domain to the next without having to travel

through intervening domains. In the interests of

giving the GM a method of doing this besides just

having the mist come up and envelope the characters

(which is, at times, difficult when the characters are

stuck in the middle of the domain), I have developed

the Dikesha Cubic Gate.

History:

Years ago, shortly after the Vistani first discovered

the Dikesha dice in the domain of Har'Akir, a set was

stolen by a cunning thief. The Vistani, despite years

of searching, were never able to find the set. The

reason for this is simple. The Thief was an ally of a

powerful Dimensionalist wizard, who enchanted the dice

in an attempt to create a Cubic Gate that could return

he and his allies home. He was, suffice it to say,

less than successful. He accidentally created an item

tied to the mists of Ravenloft, that could open gates

between domains, but would never be able to leave the

Demiplane of Dread. Unfortunately, the wizard didn't

realize this. He used the Gate and found himself in

Falkovnia - in the same cell that the prisoner who was

to be impaled that night was kept in. The prisoner

had died of fright when he saw the Gate open, and the

guards decided to use the strange man who had appeared

out of nowhere. He didn't have a chance.

His body was thrown out and, eventually, the dice that

he carried worked their way into the possession of a

different tasque of Vistani than had originally had

them. Since then, they have had dozens of different

owners, sometimes within the mists, sometimes not, but

always bound to go into the mists before too long.

Powers: The Dikesha Cubic Gate has the power to take

the user and place him in a domain of Ravenloft. At

times, he won't realize this. At other times, it will

be all too obvious. In order to use the Gate, all one

has to do is throw the dice, even in play. All the

dice but the one closest to the user will be blank -

and the Mists will soon take the user, and anyone

within 50 feet of him (excepting Dark Lords and the

like), to the domain indicated on the dice, as per the

table below.

Anger Modent

Cave L'il de la Tempete

Chariot The Amber Wastes

Commoner Borca

Courage The Shadowborn Cluster

Creation Odiare

Curiosity Lamordia

Destruction Necropolis

Fiend Vechor

Gem Invidia
Illusion Scaena

Innocent Barovia

Key Davion

Magister Cavitius

Mercy Verbrek

Metamorphosis Markovia

Mountain Bluetspur

Passion Nova Vaasa

Pharoah Har'Akir

Ring Forlorn

Road The Lonesome Road

Shield Valachan

Stasis Kalidnay

Sword Sithicus

Terror Dominia

Tomb Har'Akir

Town Richemulot

Transient The Nightmare Lands

Warrior Falkovnia

Of course, there is a bit of a curse involved with the

Gate. You see, whenever somebody gets their hands on

these dice for the first time, assuming that they stop

to inspect them, they have to make a Wisdom check,

with a -4 penalty, or be compelled to use the dice.

And, to make matters worse, the Gate only works

1/week. That's why their creator didn't simply use

them again to escape Falkovnia.

And, to make things worse, the Gate is incapable of

traversing closed domain borders, although they will

work as soon as the borders are opened (which can lead

to a surprise if whoever throws them is in a closed

domain at the time).

Wild Mages and Vistani

Because of the random nature of the Dikesha Gate, Wild

Mages have a 50% chance of controlling it - sort of.

They cannot control which face comes up, or whether or

not the Gate works, but they can control which die is

effective - for what it's worth. The decision must be

made before the dice are rolled.

Vistani, on the other hand, have a more potent way of

controlling the dice. They cannot control what the

result is, but they can limit who is effected by the

Gate. Thus, when Vistani have control of the Gate, it

becomes a potent weapon, as they can simply roll them

and use them against their enemies (although they will

never do this outside of Ravenloft). In addition,

they can control whether or not the Gate even opens.

Half-Vistani have a 50% chance of being able to do the

same thing.

You might be wondering how I chose the domains I did

(BTW: To determine where you will show up in a

cluster, just have your GM pick a portion). Well, I'm

not too sure myself. It has a lot to do with factors

of the domain that happened to come to mind while I

was thinking of it. For example, Nova Vaasa is the

domain that I decided Passion would lead to. This is

because of the fact that the start of the curse on the

Hiregaard family was caused by the passion of Romir

Hiregaard. Mercy leads to Verbrek because Alfred's

curse was given to him because he wouldn't grant the

mercy he had promised. Some of them have stranger

justifications - Ring leads to Forlorn because Tristen

goes through the cycles of life and death every day.

Creation leads to Odiare because the Darklord

(Maligno) was created by Guiseppe. The strangest one

has got to be justifying Gem for Invidia, so I'll tell

you how I did it.

In the history for the Blood Coin, it is mentioned

that the first to suffer its curse sold a (mildly)

magical gem to Gabrielle Aderre, before seducing her.

So, that's how the Gem fits Invidia.

You might also notice that Har'Akir can be reached

through two different faces of the die - that's

because the Gate is still tied to its home domain,

although it seems unlikely that it could possibly

care.

=====

Jason KW Leisemann

"Optimism - the belief that everything will work out for the best. Irrational,
bordering on insane."

K-9, "The Armageddon Factor"