Warlock of Firetop Mountain - Encounter Analysis 7

This batch of encounters covers the final section of the dungeon, including the Maze of Zagor! As well as just looking at encounters in this post, I've also looked a bit at how the maze is run in the book, and running mazes in D&D in general.

The Maze Of Zagor

The final area of the dungeon is dominated by a decent-sized maze, complete with dead ends, secret passages, and ways to get totally turned around and lost. While there aren't quite as many encounters in this section, there are some wandering monsters in the dungeon, which can be met when the player makes a noise, particularly when searching for secret doors it seems. The maze in the book is fairly standard, with a couple of nice additions. A particularly nice scenario occurs when the player attempts to search for a secret door, but inadvertently activates a knockout gas trap. When they wake up, they don't recognise the surroundings, but in reality they're only a short way from where they triggered the trap.
Now, I enjoy mazes. They're fun, and can give you time to think and wander. Unfortunately, this isn't really what anyone is playing D&D for. Your players will either spend an hour wandering aimlessly, going into the same rooms a thousand times and becoming quite bored, or they'll simply map out the root they take through the dungeon, checking everything methodically and basically removing anything the maze might have added in the first place. It just doesn't work very well, especially not on this scale. For any elaboration on this, a quick look on your search engine of choice should turn up a plethora of articles on just this topic. Given a maze in D&D, you really have to add more than just some corridors to make it interesting, like a puzzle, or the possibility for the players to make informed choices rather than swinging about randomly. Now there are a couple of ways you could try to run a maze to minimise player frustration and boredom, while getting the most out of your prep, and I'll go through a couple of these.

Fully Scripted

In this method, you present the maze as a proper scenario to the players, but in reality all of the choices they make regarding direction are totally arbitrary, as you will simply be moving them on to the next in a list of encounters they will meet in the maze before finding the exit. If the players ever turn back and take another route, they'll simply meet the same encounter they would have anyway.

This method is very simple and quick, and allows you a high-degree of control as to the flow of the session, as it is essentially a way to dress up a set list of encounters as something more. One possible issue here is if the players find the exit to the maze after going through all your planned encounters, then decide to go back into the maze to see if there is anything they missed, cause they just love dungeon-delving that much. In this case, you have a couple of cop-out options. You could employ a little railroading, simply describing how they leave the maze once they find the exit. Another option is to have the 'other passages' they missed merge into the encounters they already met in the maze. I mean, who knows? maybe all the passages they missed just happened to lead to eachother. The final thing I can think of is having a little reserve pile of encounters for your players to meet, but frankly that sounds like a lot of effort that could easily be wasted, and still just really delays the problem to when they complete the reserve pile. You could also run into an issue if your players attempt to map the dungeon, as they could pretty quickly cotton on to what is going on unless you get a lil' clever in your descriptions.

Random Movement

Start out with a list of encounters you plan for the players to meet while they are in the maze. You could include a couple of random encounters in the corridors, secret doors they can find, and pre-scripted encounters. As the players move about the dungeon, roll to see which encounters they find. If the players ever want to return to an encounter they've already been to, get them to roll for navigation, and on a success they get back to where they were, but on a failure they meet another random encounter instead. Once the players have met all the encounters, use the magic of the DM to let them find the exit whenever you deem fit.

This technique can provide a lot of the feel and narrative for a maze to the players, without the need to draw any map up, and is good if there are some encounters in the maze you definitely want the players to find before completing the maze. Essentially, it is the same as the last method but with a bit more player freedom. Furthermore, using this technique, you could still have a totally valid preconstructed map of the maze if you're all about having a proper map, but just not use it for navigation purposes.

Other Maze Improvements

Now these methods can remove a lot of the tedium in navigating through the maze, but what of the excitement and interest of the maze scenario as a whole? How can we really make it shine? A large flaw of a maze is that it doesn't really have much urgency at all, no real threat. The players could take it at whatever speed, taking as many rests as they want without any real penalty. It seems they need  something to hurry them along! Like I mentioned earlier, there are some wandering monster scenarios in the book, but we could really amp this up with one big, recurring wandering monster, that the players meet maybe 2-3 times before completing the maze. Now at this point I'm guessing most of the audience will know what I'm alluding to here. The Minotaur is a staple of maze encounters, ever since the Greek tale. Now, this maze technically already has a Minotaur (see Encounters, below), but there's nothing to prevent us adding a similar component to the maze. Maybe the Warlock has animated some sort of Golem to patrol the maze, or there is a Gelatinous Cube patrolling the corridors. You could of course get your classic 'Theseus and the Minotaur' story going on here, by replacing the monster in the Minotaur encounter and having the Minotaur patrolling the corridors.

We can also add a bit more of a puzzle dimension to the maze, in that the exit is in an obvious spot, having the players find it early into the maze, but having it in some way sealed off until the players succeed in some task within the maze. You can really go as crazy as you want here, adding all sorts of riddles to solve, traps to brave, and keys to collect for the players, as long as you aren't simply adding more tedious tasks. You can even tie in the puzzle dimension with the big wandering creature by having it carry something of importance to getting out of the maze, or having the door only unlock once the creature is slain.

Encounters - Within the Maze

The Dwarves

Summary: From a corridor in the maze, a short passageway to the north ends in a wooden door. Behind it, in a small room filled with smoke, sits four dwarves around a table. They are talking amongst themselves as they play a card game, an each is smoking on a long pipe. On the table, there is a number of scattered coins and four mugs of ale. As the player enters, they all stop talking, and the atmosphere becomes somewhat tense. One of the dwarves stands and comments on the players lack of manners, just barging in without knocking. The player can apologise and leave now with no further consequence, or they can stay and interact with the dwarves. If at any point the player attacks the dwarves, they each draw axes and fight back. If the player kills them all, they can collect the copper pieces on the table which total roughly 4 gp. If the player talks to them and tries to befriend them, they are eager to talk, mostly being happy that there is someone new to talk to in this dungeon full of evil. They will tell the player that the only way out of the maze is to continue deeper into the dungeon. They will also give the player some instructions for leaving the maze, however after a few turns they begin to get vague, seeming unsure about if it is correct. The player can also join in on their card game. If the player plays fairly, they throw 2d6, gaining the amount on the dice if it is even and losing the amount on the dice if it is odd (I checked the maths, and the intuitive answer that the average gain on this roll is 0 is correct). If the player tries to cheat and is successful, they throw 2d6 and gain the amount on the dice. However, if the dwarves notice the player is cheating they will draw axes and attack.

A nice social encounter with a potential minigame here, although requiring some background an expansion to run smoothly at the table. The players will likely come up with some additional questions for the dwarves, like how they got to be in the dungeon and why they are still there, so it is worth thinking about these beforehand.
For the card game, you can really run it as in-depth as you want. Personally, I plan to run it by having all participating players each rolling a d20 and adding their proficiency bonus if they have proficiency in the deck of cards gaming set (2 of the dwarves will have this), then going through the players in order asking for their bet. The next player will then have to raise (increase the bet), check (bet the same as the last person), or fold (give up their bet), until all players have either folded or checked. Then, the players reveal their initial die rolls and the person with the highest roll receives the amount in the pot. If a player wants to try and cheat, they will make a Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check contested by a Wisdom (Perception) roll from the other players, and will be able to re-roll their number, choosing the higher result. A player character can choose how to react if they catch someone cheating, but the dwarves will all be enraged if any of them catch someone cheating. None of the dwarves ever cheat. You can also have additional Wisdom (Insight) checks to gain information about other player's rolls, contested by their Charisma (Deception) check. On a successful check, a player could learn approximately whether their target has a high check or low check, but on a fail they may receive incorrect information. The dwarves will each start the game with 1d12 gp, and the initial bet will be 2 cp.
You can tailor how involved the game is to your players. Certain player groups won't be fans of running this kind of encounter, and it has the potential to eat into some adventuring time, whereas other groups may find this encounter the highlight of the whole adventure. The option I present above is fairly involved, and to strip it down bit you could forego the poker-style betting, switching in a fixed bet for each round.
As for combat, I would run the dwarves each as a Bandit (MM page 343, CR 1/8), with dwarf racial traits and switched up weapons.

The Minotaur

Summary: The player enters a large, square room, with broken pottery scattered about the floor. In a corner, one large clay vase is undamaged and is full of clear liquid, and beside it there is a large bowl full of gold coins. As the player moves further into the room, the door slams shut behind them, and they whirl around to see a large Minotaur, which charges the player immediately. The player can try to escape, or they can stay and fight the creature. After the creature is defeated, the player is able to search the room more thoroughly. The liquid in the vase seems by all measures to merely be water. In the bowl, the player discovers that only the top layer of coins are genuine (8 gp), and the rest are simply painted pottery discs. As the player searches the vase, it tips over and breaks, revealing a red-coloured key with the number 111 inscribed upon it. After the player is done searching, they leave the room.

A surprisingly bland combat encounter for this stage in the dungeon, offering no options other than fight and flee. It could be spiced up a bit by making the terrain in the room a bit more interesting, but I don't really see many options here. You could add some more unbroken pottery filled with different liquids which the Minotaur (MM page 223, CR 3) and players can hurl at each other to make it a bit more interesting. Otherwise pretty standard. The key in this room is one of the necessary keys for the final puzzle, so if the player misses it here they don't get their reward.

The Mazemaster

Summary: Inside a large, squarish room, there is a very old-looking man sat at a desk, poring over a number of pieces of parchment. In his hand he holds a long quill pen. Around the walls, there are shelves covered in books from floor to ceiling. As the player enters, the old man looks up and glares at them. The player can apologise and leave through either the doors in the west or south walls of the room. Alternatively, the player can talk to him, either being pleasant or aggressive. If the player is pleasant, the old man becomes enraged, and casts some sort of spell on the player, causing them to wake up in a corridor in the maze. If the player is aggressive towards the man, he quickly becomes terrified of the player, hiding behind his desk. He will tell the player that he is the Mazemaster, and is in charge of the Maze of Zagor. As the player assures the man that they mean him no harm, his demeanour changes again, quickly becoming self-assured and firm. If asked the way out of the maze, he will tell the player clear instructions, however if the player follows these instructions they will be lead to the crossroads outside The Minotaur room. There is also an entry in the book for if the player returns to the room at any point; he claims you are ruining his concentration and asks you to leave. The only options given to the player at this point are to leave through either of the doors in the room.

A nice social encounter, but probably requiring some expansion for a D&D setting. It's also very annoying that the Mazemaster doesn't give anything helpful at all. I would probably adjust it so that he sends the players to an encounter they haven't met yet in the maze the first time they arrive, attempting to trick them into death, but if they return he will attempt to bluff that the player's must have taken his directions wrong, and pleading for mercy if they threaten him, giving the players correct directions in this case. If combat somehow breaks out, if you've got access to Volo's Guide to Monsters I would run the Mazemaster as an Apprentice Wizard (VOLO page 209, CR 1/4), or a flavour-shifted Acolyte (MM page 342, CR 1/4) if you only have the Monster Manual. I would keep the CR of the Mazemaster fairly low, considering how scared he becomes if the player threatens him.

Encounters - After the Maze

The Dragon

Summary: A north-running corridor bends to the west, and begins to become quite narrow. At the end, there is a small stone archway which the player must stoop to get through. On the other side of the arch, there is a very large cavern, partially lit by natural light filtering in through a hole in the roof. In the distance, the cavern disappears into darkness. As the player shines their lantern around to search for a means of progression, a large blast of fire suddenly shoots from the darkness, singing away the moss on the all near the player. The player looks back into the darkness of the cavern, and sees a large Red Dragon stalking forwards from darkness, moving to engage the player. The player can engage the dragon directly, entering into a deadly fight, or they can attempt to find another means of attack. If they found the Dragonfire spell way back in the room with the drunk orcs, the player can use it here. As the Dragon prepares its next blast of fire, the player shouts the incantation, and suddenly the fiery blaze is unable to leave the dragon's mouth, remaining there and scorching the dragon, which subsequently squeals in pain and runs back into the darkness. After the dragon is defeated, the player can continue searching the cavern for a means of progression, eventually finding a passageway in the western side of the cavern, near where the player entered.

Okay. Whoa. A dragon. And I was intending for this to be a low-level dungeon. Based on the description, it seems to be at least a Young Red Dragon (MM page 98, CR 10), maybe even an Adult Red Dragon (MM page 98, CR 17). To keep things from being way too crazy, I'm definitely going to go with a Young Red Dragon here. This encounter is all well and good, as long as the players found the Dragonfire spell at almost the start of the adventure. This seems an awful lot to rely on to prevent a TPK. To work around this, you're gonna need some contingency plans in place for if the players don't find the spell. The simplest I can think of is simply having the cavern empty if the players don't find the spell, removing the encounter totally, or you could just have the dragon asleep when the players enter the cavern. Another potential workaround is having some sort of mechanism in place to stave off the dragon without the spell - I mean, the Warlock has gotta have some things in place to protect himself if the dragon goes wild, right? Especially considering he doesn't know about the Dragonfire spell. I'm talking maybe a ballista at the eastern side of the cavern, or a huge cage set up to trap the dragon if necessary. Thematically, I'd prefer the second option, but it still puts your players at a huge risk. On the one hand, I'd expect players to treat the threat of a dragon seriously, but on the other they would all be really annoyed at a TPK. I think I'm going to go with the direction of keeping the dragon in the cavern, since it can make a really nice encounter, and it would be a shame to leave it out. However, I would also make sure the players can escape easily and without taking much damage if shit does hit the fan.
If you really wanna totally avoid any risk of major damage to your PC's, you could always replace the Dragon with a Guard Drake (VOLO page 158, CR 2), possibly with an additional fire attack to keep the Dragonfire spell useful. However, this option does require Volo's Guide To Monsters, which many DMs may not have access to.

The Warlock of Firetop Mountain

Summary: Through the passageway on from the Dragon encounter, the corridor runs on for quite some length and ends at a large wooden door which is slightly ajar. Peeking through the gap, the player can see what seems to be a harmless old man sat at a desk, playing with a pack of cards. The player can enter the room in a variety of manners, such as bursting in sword drawn, or attempting to creep in unnoticed. Whatever the player chooses, the old man has been expecting them, and greets them. He appears to change before the player, no longer appearing as an old and feeble man, instead looking as a tall, young man with piercing black eyes. His robes transform from drab, tattered brown to magnificent golden velvet robes. He disappears, reappearing at the far end of the room in front of a door. The Warlock is prepared for battle. The player can engage him directly, beginning an extremely difficult fight. The player can also attempt to use an item to combat him, and is given the option of using a Potion of Invisibility, The Eye of the Cyclops, a piece of cheese, The Giver of Sleep, or a Y-shaped stick. The last three of these items are useless, though he does find an attempted use of the cheese quite humorous. If the player uses The Giver of Sleep with a silver arrow, he easily stops the arrow in mid-air before it reaches him. Attempting to use a Y-shaped stick reveals it has broken in two in the player's pack (what did you really expect?). If the player uses the Potion of Invisibility, it gives them several benefits in combat, as you would expect. However, the best item here is The Eye of the Cyclops, which shoots a magnificent beam of light at the Warlock, causing him to sink to the floor and shrivel up, seeming to age right before the player's eyes, until eventually the Warlock's robes are all that remain, defeating him instantly. If the player does not want to use an item or fight the Warlock directly, they can look around the room for another means of attack. If the player is lucky, they will notice the pack of cards the Warlock was fiddling with when they entered lying on the desk, and remembers the rumour they heard before entering the mountain that the Warlock's power is stored within his enchanted deck of cards. As the player grabs at them, the Warlock warns them to leave the cards alone or they shall face his "fullest wrath". The player burns them with their lantern, and as they do so, the Warlock visibly weakens and diminishes in stature. He croaks out something about his book, and runs to the far wall, trying to unlock the door, but the player can now engage him directly in a much easier fight. After the Warlock is defeated, the player walks over to the door in the far wall, which has two locks. Any two keys which the player has found in the dungeon will unlock the door, but if they have not found two keys in their quest they will have to break down the door, which is very sturdy and will drain a lot of their stamina. Through this door is the Treasure Room.

For the final boss of this dungeon, this encounter is fairly uninvolved. I mean, the Vampire fight had more complications than this! Nevertheless, run right this could be an extremely entertaining combat. I would certainly reduce the power of the Eye of the Cyclops here, which I will go into more detail on when I flesh it out as a magical item. As for the deck of cards, maybe they function as spell scrolls for the Warlock, or act as an improved arcane focus or something? They don't seem to fit clearly into a role for D&D 5E, so I'm going to think a bit more about their role before laying down anything concrete. Of course, the Warlock will receive his own statblock in the future, and he'll probably hover at around CR 4 if he's not weakened at all.

The Treasure Room

Summary: Inside this small, dimly lit room sits a chest in the centre. On the walls hang ornate tapestries, and in one corner a single flame burns, casting a dim-light across the room. As the player enters, a strange sound fills the room, a low rumbling like a distant storm. The player can attempt to hack the box open, but if they do so the sound grows louder as they approach and raise their sword, culminating in a crack of lightning from a corner of the room as the player brings down their sword. If the player drops their sword in time, they are unharmed, but their weapon lies shattered on the floor. If the player is still holding onto their sword when the lightning strikes, they are killed instantly, leaving only their charred remains on the floor. Alternatively, the player can attempt to use some of the keys they have found on their quest to unlock the box, however there is only one correct combination of keys to unlock the chest. The chest has three locks, and there are a total of 6 keys the player can find over the course of their quest (red #111 key from Minotaur, small #111 key from Iron Cyclops, bronze #99 key from Snake Box, bronze #9 key from the Ogre, gold #125 key from the gas trap, copper #66 key from the Boathouse), giving a total of 20 different combinations (although a number of these produce the same result) of keys if the player has found them all on their adventure. The player is instructed to choose three of the keys they have found on their quest, and sum the numbers written on them, and go to the book reference of the sum. The correct combination of keys is the red #111 key from Minotaur, the small #111 key from Iron Cyclops, and the bronze #99 key from Snake Box. All other combinations of keys lead to the activation of traps in the chest. If none of the keys are correct, the player is hit with three darts, and the quick-acting poison causes an instant-death. If one of the keys is correct, two darts fly from the chest, causing the player to leap back and...bang heir head on the wall? Yup. If the player is lucky, they dodged the darts and only take a little damage. If two of the keys are correct, the chest gives a small spray of acidic liquid towards the player, causing a little damage, but it will not instant-kill the player. When the player finally finds the correct combination of keys, the chest clicks open, revealing itself to be filled with gold and treasures, containing at least 1000 gp, jewellery, gemstones and pearls. Underneath all this treasure, the player discovers the Warlock's spellbook (so I guess he must have multi-classed), detailing how to control all of the secrets and creatures of Firetop Mountain. With the quest over and great power gathered, the player will be able to return home easily, or alternatively with this power they could take over as the master-in-residence of Firetop Mountain and the surrounding area.

This puzzle encounter really isn't up to much, but I guess they did what they could in the limited format of the adventure book. I'm currently in the process of working on my own puzzle for this encounter, which should work well at a D&D table and not take up too much time. I would also change the instant-kill from the lightning strike to just 2d8 lightning damage (possibly higher), to prevent player ire at getting so far just to get instant-killed, even though I doubt a player would actually go through with hitting the chest.
As for the treasure within, I would use the DMG Treasure Hoard tables (page 137) to determine the contents of the chest, and would also place some of the treasure outside of the chest, just to decorate the room a little bit. I would run the Warlock's spellbook as being a +1 Arcane Focus, with probably some additional magical effects. It will also contain all the secrets of Firetop Mountain; while a player has access to the book, they should be able to find out where all the traps and monsters are, and the best ways to avoid them. With this knowledge, I wouldn't be totally surprised if the players did decide to make a base out of the mountain!

Well we're finally done with looking at all the encounters in the book! I had a lot of fun looking at the book in-depth again and recalling past playthroughs from a while back. In the next post, I plan to look at the structure of the dungeon as a whole, comparing it to some dungeons designed for D&D and adjusting the structure where necessary. Generally, the dungeon should probably be made a bit less linear than it currently is, because as-written it is very easy to miss out on large parts of the dungeon unless you did some serious back-tracking. I also want to combine some of the encounters which are fairly small together into a single, richer encounter. See you next week!