Adapting "Ghost Tower of Inverness" for 13th level PCs

[Quickleaf]

In an unexpected turn my players have decided to seek out the ruins of Inverness.

IMC the story is Inverness was destroyed (~3 weeks ago) by the same red dragon that attacked the king's keep and the PCs slew. It was the tower and surrounding town of the great wizard Fastilbras. After deliberating on the problems facing their kingdom, and the lack of a court Mage at the moment, the decided to find the dead Fastilbras (assuming he isn't burnt to a crisp) and resurrect him.

Wow They surprised me!

So with that backstory, and knowing that D&D Encounter had a lower level conversion of the original C-2, how would you adapt C-2 for my players? I'm thinking a quick two session dungeon.

For starters, I'm thinking the Soul Gem at the end will house Fastilbras' soul, since he was indeed burnt to a crisp by the dragon, and once overcome can be used as a focus for the Druid PC's raise dead ritual...

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm probably going to nix the Water room stuff (areas 28-32), and try to balance the funhouse dungeon aspect with a bit of dungeon ecology/logic...

Why are fire bats and a fire giant still alive? Because they resisted the red dragon's breath weapon! Same for petrified monsters...

I am also thinking of including some kind of crumbling ruin hazard...

And possibly (a % chance?) having a rival green dragon come looting the wizard's tower, attacking PCs thru arrow slits or bashing down walls by spiral stairs, but ultimately flying off with whatever treasure it can manage if the PCs try to engage all-out.

 

[Herschel]

Those all sound like very cool ideas. Honestly, just run with it (but keep a bit of the funhouse vibe).

 

[Quickleaf]

Looking over the crazy variety of monsters found in C-2, I'm thinking the Mage. must have had some sort of monster menagerie that was released when he died. This might make an interesting twist: the Mage the PCs intend to resurrect had a penchant for some kind of dark summoning magic, and that can be revealed as they explore the ruins, presenting them with a bit of a quandary...Do we really want to rez this guy?

Another thing I want to change is the wandering monster table. I am thinking there aren't any ghosts in the "Ghost Tower of Inverness" and a powerful Mage is bound to have apprentices, so maybe there are...I dunno...Charred Apprentice Mage Ghosts (minions in 4e) roaming the dungeon halls along with Living Spells. They might become hostile only when certain triggers are met.

Btw, wasn't there some trick to the Ghost Tower? Like you were exploring it back in time or something like that?

 

[Manbearcat]

Hey Quickleaf. For whatever reason (perhaps lack of familiarity), it doesn't look like you're getting a lot of help/commentary here. I'm not familiar with the module but I'll try to familiarize myself a little bit in the coming days and post something constructive.

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

It's a difficult adventure to comment on because it's random. The maps are next to useless as well (as in, they make as much sense as those in Keep on the Shadowfell: ie, none).

IIRC, you had to find four keys and then join them together to summon the titular ghost tower or at least open it. Personally, I would go with this even if I am misremebering: have a ruined keep with a missing tower. Place the keys in the ruins or in adventures leading up to it and, once the PCs have all the keys, summon the ghost tower where the mage's soul is in the soul gem.

I think that outline is more 4E-able than the string of random encounters in the 1E version.

 

[Quickleaf]

Yeah [MENTION=87576]Scrivener of Doom[/MENTION] that's it.

For anyone curious here's the Wikipedia page: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_Tower_of_Inverness

It's basically a madhouse dungeon with chessboard puzzles, reverse gravity, and no rhyme or reason to things being there. I want to maintain some of that maniacal whimsy...to hint at the dead mage's questionable character...but my style of game is more about internal logic.

I'm redoing the map probably in much the same way I did for Dragon Mountain; i.e. a vertical section pencil sketch. It is pretty wonky the way they did it in the original C-2.

Having read the entire adventure over, it's actually not as interesting as I remember it from playing it in 1e. It must be one of those where it plays better and is more interesting on the player side than it reads.

 

[Mark CMG]

I let Allen Hammack know you were doing this and rather than create an account he asked me to -

post the following on my behalf:

Hi. I'm glad you're interested in C2.

When I wrote it, I was constrained by the tournament format--this is why it's a "rail gun" design that forces all parties to meet every challenge. The 4 parts of the key were a way to worry indecisive parties about whether they were wasting time by going down the wrong tower, as well as to disguise the rail gun aspect.

Have fun with it. My overstory, if needed to explain the ecology and monsters, was that the tower was unstuck in time and space because the magic was too powerful and the spell was imperfectly cast. At unpredictable intervals it would disappear and rematerialize, enveloping and trapping new terrain and creatures. Time doesn't flow in the Tower at the same rate as outside, so hunger, air, and water aren't issues. (It's a fantasy game!)

Dragons like gems, and I've always thought they had some aspect of time manipulation as well, so I can see a dragon stealing the Soul Gem, wearing it on a breastplate (a la Temeraire), and thus having the Soul Gem present during a dragon attack on somebody important to your campaign...

And what are ghosts but wandering souls? A previous party or a crying archmage could have cast the wrong spell at the Soul Gem, causing a brief lapse in the trapping magic of the Gem, releasing however many of the souls trapped inside as ghosts as the DM finds convenient. Have fun!!

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Thanks for posting that, [MENTION=10479]Mark CMG[/MENTION]. That was very cool of Allen to reply. I must admit, I always really liked the key idea and wanted to incorporate it into my homebrewed stuff.

 

[Mark CMG]

Glad to help. I played in a 1E run through of the tower last Gary Con and Allen stopped by the table to see how things were going. He really loves to see folks enjoying his work so long after it was written. It was one of the best convention games I played for many reasons and a real treat to get to know him.