Labyrinth of Madness by Monte Cook - Updated November 18, 2005

[dvvega]

I've run this adventure for a group after 3.5 conversion, they were very high level super-powered freaks of adventuring nature.

They completed it successfully, however they did die multiple times, and their main Fighter became a Yuan-Ti Abomination (slight modification I made to the dungeon).

One comment that came up unanimously was that the sigil thing was a pain in the arse. Get sigil X to see doorway Y, but you have to backtrack via level Z to get to that point.

Most players don't backtrack all the time.

I did have them thinking there was a dracolich in the dungeon (room witht he skeleton hanging there) just by describing the room first then the Dragon - its a long standing joke but ever notice how most prewritten room descriptions describe everything in detail, but leave the fact that there is a fricken huge big dragon in the centre of it. My players have stated categorically that they will look at the pretties AFTER they make sure there is no giant creature in the middle of the room.

D

 

[Rystil Arden]

I've heard the story about Elminster and the rest. I think they died due to overconfidence.

Yes, I seem to remember that as well. They figured that they were powerful enough that they didn't need to fear the Labyrinth, but boy, were they wrong!

 

[Kerrick]

Kerrick: I'm going to take the idea of expanding influence and run with it I think. The big enemies that were dead, will be back alive and the littles may be replaced. I'm aiming for level 40 or so, so everything will be scarier.

Mm... elder titan...


Okay, for those who are interested, I'm attaching the conversion to this post. Enjoy. And Sledge - let us know how it runs. I'd like to see how a 40th-level party fares.

 

[TroyXavier]

Sounds like a fun adventure. Would be good to see the 3.5 conversion even though I'd probably never run it.

 

[glass]

As for posting just to stay ahead of you, everyone is doing that

I'm not.

Oh wait, I just did.



glass.

 

[glass]

I vaguely recall being a player in this adventure way back when, but I don't recall it being particularly killer. It was very strange in places, but I assumed that was deliberate ('Madness' after all).

Was this the one where there was an emerald wall that did something funky to you if you touched it, and you had to make three saves to be free? We had one character make two saves, conlude they weren't working, and stab himself to death on the theory that ressurection would cure him of the problem! But he was always doing things like that, so I wouldn't blame the module.


glass.

 

[Dragon Mage]

Love it

I have loved this module ever since it came out. I planed on using it several times but the party never got the levels they needed in 2E. I converted it myself and ran it with a party of 17 - 18th level 3E characters and had a blast (dispite the 5 or 6 character deaths). It is a great diversion from the standard dungeon crawl. The sigils make the adventure unique and the traps and puzzles are fantastic. I had some concerns about the players getting frustrated with the need to backtrack at times to aquire the proper sigils but they seems to actually enjoy it when they figured it out. They loved it so much they are planing to go back to finish off Im-Ravin since they did not the 1st time through. I am trying to figure out a way to alter the sigils to make it fresh for them.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Epic Labyrinth of Madness

Hi Sledge matey!

I never got to play this one, but I do own it. A casual look over it would seem to suggest that your 40th+ level PCs will mince all the enemies.

You might consider:

Adding 20 levels to all the Yuanti NPCs.

A2: Change Trolls (through out the Labyrinth) to Pseudonatural Trolls.

B2: Change Blood Elemental to Primal Blood Elemental.
B3: Change Flesh Golems to Flesh Colossi.
B4: Change Statues of Summoning with various epic monsters?

C1: 4 Vytholus Images become 4 Atropals (Children of Vytholus?)
C4: Neo-Otyugh & Rot Grubs...not sure of a suitable epic replacement for these off the top of my head.
C6: Gelatinous Cube becomes a Living Vault.

D2: 2 Medusa & 6 Manticores become 2 Ha-Nagas & 6 Three-headed Sirrushes.
D3: Ogre Skeletons become Fire Giant Mummies.
D6: Iron Golem & Russet Mold becomes Adamantite Golem and Russet Mold.
D7: Snake becomes Jormungandr...only joking.

E1: Marilith becomes 27HD Marilith.
E3: Mottled Worm becomes a Nightcrawler.

F2: 3 Beholders become 3 Gibbering Orbs

G1: The Lamia Noble gains 20 levels, the Nine-headed Hydra becomes a Great Wyrm Dracohydra and the 3 Shambling Mounds become 3 Advanced 24HD Shambing Mounds.
G2: Giant Scorpions become Devastation Scorpions (perhaps characters without all 20 sigils are considered shrunken to 1 inch in height while within this room?)
G6: The Giant Sundew becomes a Mu-Spore
G8: Aerthun becomes an Elder Titan (The Avatar of Vytholus?)
G9: Salamanders become Paragon Salamanders.
G14: Change 20 Wights to 20 Lavawights (the Labyrinth is built in a volcano sort of, so it makes sense)
G15: 8 Spectres could become 8 Shapes of Fire.
G17: The Skeleton Warrior and 2 Wraiths become a Hunefer and 2 Dread Wraiths
G18: Mimic becomes a Protean.
G20: 3 Crypt Thing Abominations become 3 Crypt Thing Anathemas.
G22: Im-Ravin could become a demilich (as well as gaining 20 levels)...perhaps he could also summon Vytholus himself?

 

[Sledge]

Monte: you'll be pleased to know that the mind switcher will remain.

dvvega: The sigils will remain, but the players (at least the second run) will have the background knowledge that they need to backtrack.

re discussion on Elminster et al: bah Elminster sucks anyways.

kerrick: thanks for your file. I'll definitely keep this thread updated.

TroyXavier: see kerrick post just above yours for one conversion. I'll throw in mine once I have it done and also edited clean for the web.

glass: fond memories

Dragon Mage: I'm glad to hear it went well for your group. That's exactly why I'm leaving the sigils in. I'm also going through the same stuff with regards to subtle changes to keep it fresh and different.

Upper Krust: Thanks man. This should save me some time and let me focus on the modifications of the sigils and other changes (like the whole apparatus of kwalish)

To everyone out posting me... stop it right now. For the next 48 hours I am the only one allowed to post on ENWorld. I understand that there will be some problems with this, but I believe I can successfully run a piracy thread/flame war by myself.
Wait a second, did I just condense 9 posts into one here? Now I see why I never win.

 

[Majoru Oakheart]

I've played this adventures sort of twice and attempted to run it once myself.

All 3 times we didn't get that far into the adventure. The second time I played in it, we reached an impass trying to get one of the sigils and the DM made it harder for us by making us remember the locations of all the rooms ourselves.

We'd say "Ok, we go back to that room with the stairs, I want to search that one better" and he'd say "Well, there is a door to the east and door to the south, which way leads back to the stairs?"

So, we'd wander aimlessly looking for places we had already been. Until the game died after the group broke up. Still, we had spent about 2 sessions in a row looking for which way to go.

I think a couple of the sigils would basically be impossible to find without a lot of hints or some divination spells that gave some pretty detailed information.

SPOILER:

Spoiler

The one where you have to concentrate on NOT being teleported to be able to search the wall and the one buried under the ground come to mind. I might have missed something, but I didn't see anything in the adventure whatsoever that would even hint on how to pass these