Daern's Instant Fortress

[thedungeondelver]

Or is it Daern's Iron Fortress? Anyway...

Looking at the description, two things are unclear:

One, is there anything in it, or any provision for anything in it? That is to say, is it just a great metal box with windows, or is it a full tower made of iron with battlements, staircase, room(s), etc.?

Can you shrink it back down or is it a one-use-only item? If it can, must you take all the furnishings etc. you put in it out? Obviously it'd have to be unoccupied.

I ask as the party has acquired one.

Oh! Bonus third question, and this covers a lot of other items, too (including things like a Flying Carpet, Folding Boat, the Tower, etc.): Does dispel magic cause the carpet to not fly, the boat to fold up or sink or the tower to somehow malfunction?

[Welleran]

My players acquired one awhile back and I've been running into various questions myself - always a good opportunity for DMing on the fly! The DMG description is not bad on the physical characteristics, though there are, as always, lots of gaps an unanswered questions. For example, the entry door - can it be forced by might or magic? I assume there is a door or hatch from the inside to the roof - if flying buggers land on it, can they open it or does it lock? If the Fortress opens in a location where it hits a wall or roof, how much damage does it take? (the last I just make up and keep a running tally of HP damage - then I tell the party the fortress' overall damage is slight/light/moderate/heavy/massive - I don't tell them the exact number). Another one: can spells like Magic Missile, Fireball, or Lightning bolt go through the windows, or do they have shutters that prevent it? Do these spells damage the fortress itself?

My players have come up with some other novel uses for it. For example, the thing does tremendous damage to anyone caught by it opening, which they promptly used to their advantage by opening it in clear areas when enemies were attacking. They've also used it to completely block off a tunnel entrance in order to be safe from attack by pursuers (this worked out well since the pursuers nuked it with a Cloudkill spell and they were well clear of it). Prior to this during the same pursuit, they considered opening it in a normal 10' wide passageway in order to collapse it and trap their pursuers in a dead end, knowing that the Fortress would probably be destroyed in the process.

This has proven to be one of the funner items to play with!

[Tholianweb]

Does dispel magic cause the carpet to not fly, the boat to fold up or sink or the tower to somehow malfunction?

I always ruled the DISPEL MAGIC does indeed affect the aforementioned items in your post. They will not function for the time period designated by spell or DM. However, I would also rule that the caster of DISPEL MAGIC need be a significant level to affect such powerful magical items. I will also add that if people are inside the "fortress" when DISPEL MAGIC is cast on it would not be a very good thing. It will end up being their tomb.

One, is there anything in it, or any provision for anything in it? That is to say, is it just a great metal box with windows, or is it a full tower made of iron with battlements, staircase, room(s), etc.?

Can you shrink it back down or is it a one-use-only item? If it can, must you take all the furnishings etc. you put in it out? Obviously it'd have to be unoccupied.

I have always ruled it is empty. It is simply a huge metal building albeit a simple one with maybe some murder holes and the like. I would not let it have all the other battlements unless the party already had them. I swear to G-d that I saw an article one time about this item in a old Dragon Magazine that had a better description and other stuff but I could be mistaken. It might have been White Dwarf. Let me see what I can come up with on those two magazines...

[grodog]

I swear to G-d that I saw an article one time about this item in a old Dragon Magazine that had a better description and other stuff but I could be mistaken. It might have been White Dwarf. Let me see what I can come up with on those two magazines...

I wrote a piece about Daern's Instant Fortress for the Living Greyhawk Journal, back when it was in Dragon, but it was cut from the larger article for space reasons. It's over on Canonfire!, if you're interested: http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules ... le&sid=268

[Falconer]

Daern is a goddess? I always assumed Daern was a wizard.

[grodog]

Daern is a goddess? I always assumed Daern was a wizard.

She was mentioned as a quasi-deity in Dragon 71 and the 1983 box set, and was promoted to a hero goddess in Living Greyhawk, IIRC.

[thedungeondelver]

Thanks for the heads-up on the article, grodog, very interesting.

I've got some ideas about how to handle the fortress but they're probably best left for house rules.

[Tholianweb]

I wrote a piece about Daern's Instant Fortress for the Living Greyhawk Journal, back when it was in Dragon, but it was cut from the larger article for space reasons. It's over on Canonfire!, if you're interested: http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules ... le&sid=268

Very good reading. Hard to beleive that my memory is as good as it is for the many years that have passed. Thanks...