Alignment key (SLASH'EM)
( The Key of Chaos/Neutrality/Law 
| |
|---|---|
| Base item | skeleton key |
| Affiliation | |
| When carried | (none) |
| When applied | Can open respective doors in Vlad's Tower |
| When invoked | (none) |
| Base price | 1000 zm |
| Weight | 3 |
The alignment keys are three artifacts that appear in SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM. Each key - the Key of Law, Key of Neutrality and Key of Chaos - is intelligent, and their base item is a skeleton key.
Generation
Each of the alignment keys can only be found in the possession of each alignment quest nemesis: Nightmare in the Lawful Quest, Beholder in the Neutral Quest, and Vecna in the Chaotic Quest. As they are guaranteed to appear in every game, they cannot be wished for.
Description
The purpose of the alignment keys is to open the central six doors at the top level of Vlad's Tower, which have been made indestructible: any two of the three keys can be used for this purpose, though there are also methods to circumvent the doors.
Unlike other artifacts that are 'required' to access the invocation items and win the games, the alignment keys can be put into containers - if a container is destroyed with an alignment key inside, it is lost forever; the game will often throw a "indestructible object free" error message. If more than one of the keys is destroyed this way and the doors on Vlad's tower are not yet unlocked, winning the game requires the player to use one of the alternate strategies to wake up Vlad.
Strategy
Outside of access to Vlad, the alignment keys can also be used as permanent unlocking tools, since SLASH'EM and SlashTHEM make it possible for standard unlocking tools to break - a character can keep the key of their own alignment around in their open inventory for this purpose, since the other artifact keys will blast them.
