Quest 10 Castle of Mystery Poll

[GimmeYerGold]

I also like how different Castle of Mystery is, but recognize the "bad" and "ugly" aspects of it too.

In light of those negative aspects, I find that the wandering monster is a saving grace: Ollar's ghost appears and laughs at you!

Another great feature of using Quest notes to their fullest

[knightkrawler]

Yeah, I almost forgot about LOLlar.

[cornixt]

I think it is great in that it shows how much variety you can get with the quests without using any new monsters or scenery. It was what made me start to think outside the box when making my own quests.

I always let the players finish the quest instantly if there is nothing new to discover - if they have been everywhere and found everything then I don't make them keep rolling to get back to the stairs.

[Goblin-King]

Oh yeah... there's not really any victory conditions.
If the players know the quest they can in principle just walk right back up the stairs.

I guess we just didn't find Ollar's fake goldmine...

[Anderas]

I would expect if the players already know the quest, that Zargon changes a bit here and there, no? Connect some of the random rooms with secret doors and such kind of change. And yes, change the quest objective as well, maybe removing the fake gold and replacing it by something real. I think this quest is the ideal place for an artifact to be found.

Cynthia, now you said what your group would do with such a dungeon I really would be interested what happens if you play this quest with them. Tell them that this is special before you start, but nothing else. At least they don't need to fear the treasure search here.

[whitebeard]

Oh yeah... there's not really any victory conditions.
If the players know the quest they can in principle just walk right back up the stairs.

I guess we just didn't find Ollar's fake goldmine...

What? And pass up the chance to search each room for treasure 4 times with no wandering monsters?

[cynthialee]

no thank you
When I said they might take the dungeon apart when they couldn't find the 'real gold' I wasn't kidding.
Keep in mind I allow Role Play at the HQ table. They would leave the dungeon, and return with Dwarven miners and a construction crew, even if they had to bank roll the entire affair. Heck...my wizard player would be fascinated with the weird of the keep and would insist on the deconstruction in the hopes of finding the heart of power in the place that makes it do what it does.
No. There are greener pastures and playing through a game of construction foreman wasn't fun for me the first time. The players had fun frustrating me with the affair, but I didn't have fun.

Edit to add: Every single time this crew have encountered a fake treasure there has been a real treasure and the fake was a dodge. It isn't a theme I use often, but the patterns are set. And when I am being the 'GM' nothing I say about the dungeon is trusted. Everything I say other than 'rulings' is treated as suspect. But then I have a long history of lying, telling half truths and equivocating with my NPC's...

[Decipher]

If I have 5000GP in a dungeon and it is fake, the first thing they would assume is that the fake gold is a dodge for the real treasure somewhere in the dungeon.
I'd have them soon plotting to take the building apart brick by brick if needed.
When I ran the AD&D classic Tomb of Horrors after I took a few heads...the party left, then returned with a construction company of Dwarves, a few hundred religious pilgrims and a handful of highly skilled mercenaries.
They "tore the mountain down, and brought it to the town and raised a cathedral to the gods in praise. Can I get an Amen?".
I got a handful of out of the box thinkers who can get obsessed with ease.
5000 fake gold would be just such a thing.

You have to know your players and choose the dungeons wisely. If a dungeon would not fit well with your players, then move on to greener pastures.

The thing with this quest is the players can rack up on some serious cash and treasure after they kill all the monsters because there are no wondering monster, just hazards. It's not 5000 gp, but the players should be able to get everything in the treasure deck.

[cynthialee]

As an aside:
When the player characters started to excavate the Tomb of Horrors and started to use the stone to build the temple there was no choice but to rule the Demi-Lich was aroused from his slumber deep in the dungeon.
The heroes were waiting for him. They over saw all operations of the excavation and as soon as the lich came out for a fight, they had been laying in wait the entire time. I think I got 2 melee rounds before the dude was nuked. They lost a couple second string PC's in the affair. Once the lich was dispatched the operation continued and the Town of Soddenville* still has a nice temple in the middle of the town. The heroes bankrolled the entire affair then took the majority of the treasure found in the tomb to pay to make the cathedral into an artistic wonder.

*Named after my brothers player character Sodden the Builder. Funny thing is that he wrote up Sodden with the max amount of points he could in Construction and Excavation, long before we played Tomb of Horrors. He had every intention of building a city. The Tomb of Horrors just happened to be conveniently full of pre cut stones and ancient stonework, and placed in an ideal location in my game world for a new city...

[Anderas]

The first dwarf to make a hole into a wall ignites a storm going from the inside of the room into the hole. He has one turn to leave the room and is obliged to speak with an extra high pitched voice.
Every later model that enters the room can't breath, loses a BP and has to go back the next turn or he dies.

The second dwarf to make a hole in the second room finds lava burning his tool and then filling the room. Again he has one turn to leave the room or he dies. Anybody after him to enter the room dies immediately.

The third dwarf to make a hole in the third room finds water pouring out of the hole. He has one turn to leave the room or he will drown. Everybody who enters must leave the room one turn later and lose a body point.

The fourth room has electricity sparkling everywhere as soon as the wall is damaged. Everybody who is in there or enters has to remove each and any kind of metal from his hero or dwarf in order to leave again. The metal equipment cards parts are magnetically fixed to the hole in the wall.

The fifth room has pure life pouring in through the hole. Wooden equipment starts to grow and bend and grows leafs, rendering it useless. Clothes of wool or things that hold together by yarn become... well... beardy and don't fit anymore, worse, they have to be taken off or they strangulate the person wearing it. On the other hand, hero's get one body point back each turn in this room.

The sixth room isn't very well built. If someone tries to make a hole in the wall, a falling block trap comes down in the very place.

The next room is controlling the numbers. After the dwarfs hack the wall, they indeed find it is a very thin wall. Behind there is a room with ten levers. If the hero's turn a lever, roll a d10 and move this number to the room a second roll with the d10 indicates. Let them try to solve the riddle, there is no system behind.

Apply this in any order you like. Mind, with the random jumping rule these rooms become quickly so dangerous they will likely stop their experiment.

The only room where they really find nothing, no matter how long and deep they are mining, they find nothing but more and more solid rock. The only magical or special thing is maybe the door.