I am generally confused about how lock doors work. Does a player have to pick up a key and take it to a door to unlock it. For example, do you have to just discover the Rune Key in The Shadow Vault or physically pick it up and take it to the door? I assume from the wording that perhaps you only have to discover the key but this seems a little odd to me.

Hi Mark,

In Descent usually finding the key unlocks the door immediately, no need to take it to the door. Its one of those 'thematically divorced' game mechanics that can crop up.

Hi Mark,

In Descent usually finding the key unlocks the door immediately, no need to take it to the door. Its one of those 'thematically divorced' game mechanics that can crop up.

Yes- it's not a fixed mechanic, it depends on the individual quest rules. Some quests require a key to be brought to a door, some require a lever to be pulled, and some just require a key to be found (or a test to be passed.) The bottom line is that locked doors cannot be opened the way a normal door can, but certain conditions (laid out in the quest rules) must be met instead.

In 1st edition, locked doors were described as "runelocked doors", and you had to find a corresponding color of rune key. However, once obtained, the doors were unlocked, period. I guess you could say that with the runelock keys, you could magically just dispel the enchantment from anywhere.