Wait, @TheEdVerse is poking around twitter… I see him. Lets see if I can get him to answer… 🙂
Hey, Ed, what's your favorite thing about Candlekeep?
— NewbieDM (@newbiedm) March 8, 2021
1)
Heh. The secrets I haven’t revealed yet. ;}
(I’m not just being flippant. There are centuries of lore in the place. I could only share a glimpse in THE HERALD, and a little more in the Candlekeep Companion. So there’s plenty to look forward to in the forthcoming… 2)
…official Candlekeep tome. I love the lineup of adventure writers, and Chris Lindsay is good people; Candlekeep is in good hands under his watch.
But here's a secret I've never shared with him or anyone*: Candlekeep has hidden rooms. As in, hidden in solid..#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2021
3)
…rock, with hourglasses that start trickling at any intrusion, to warn the arrival of how much breathing time they have left. Some of the most precious and powerful tomes are kept in these “Deep Chambers.” Anyone can leave one through a magical gate, by… 4)
…glowing pair of footprints on the floor. But to find the gate to get in, you have to peer at doorframes. As in, the right trio of doorframes, scattered among the many, many doors in Candlekeep.
And by doorframes, I mean the revealed-when-a-door-is-open edge…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2021
5)
…of the stone wall the door passes through, on the hinge side, right down where this edge meets the floor. A tiny word will be chiseled there, and a symbol. The symbol is a matching guide; it tells you which trio the word belongs to (and has no other meaning). 6)
So, stand in ANY doorway in the older stone buildings of Candlekeep and utter the words of a trio in the right order (if you don't know that order, you'll just have to experiment), and you'll be whisked to the corresponding Deep Chamber. Don't worry if you lack…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2021
7)
…a lamp; the glowing Footprints Of Return (well, that’s what Khelben calls them) will provide enough light to read by.
A Deep Chamber hosted a scene in my Realms short story THE LADY WAS NO UNICORN, written in 1967. (Yes, seven years before D&D first saw the… 8)
…light of day.
* = Except Dave Sutherland, Gary Gygax (who was delighted, and asked if he could steal the idea; I said yes, of course), and anyone at my Dad's workplace who read that early story.#Realmlore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) March 8, 2021