Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
Hello
(spoilers for the module "Gates of Firestorm Peak)
I will skip most of the plot and outline what the problem is, so hopefully people who aren't familiar with the adventure can still lend a hand.
The adventures have gone through a gate that opens only every 27 years (for a 1 month period). This gate enters into a mountain, where a clan of Duergar lives. The Duergars are on the outlook from intruders from outside. The party has pushed through the guards at the gate and are now in side tunnels, and will eventually reach the duergar compound.
The Duergar compounds almost never gets visitors from the outside surface world, but there *is* a connection in the side tunnels to the underdark, so periodic visits from underground merchants do happen - in fact there is a bazaar!. Due to internal leadership problems, the Duergar "civilians" (miners etc) don't know about the risk of outside intruders, and simply assume that the party are simply another group of underground merchants.
There are 2 ways to enter the Duergar compound - and this is where the problem occurs. One, the "side entrance" is through a magical elevator that only the Duergars can easily operate (Particularly clever players might manage). The other is the "main way in" through a warded area into the bazaar - this ward is an alarm that will magically alert the guards and the Duergar leaders that intruders are coming, leading to a big battle with the party with the bazaar as a battlefield. The Duergars never use the main way in, instead taking the elevator.
BUT... this doesn't make any sense! How are the merchants coming in?!? (there are already a fair number of them in the bazaar). Most of them can't operate the magical elevator, and there is no "welcome committee" - they simply follow the main way into the bazaar, which would trigger the alarms all the time.
The easiest way to deal with this is hope that the players never notice, but ... suggestion would be welcome
(spoilers for the module "Gates of Firestorm Peak)
I will skip most of the plot and outline what the problem is, so hopefully people who aren't familiar with the adventure can still lend a hand.
The adventures have gone through a gate that opens only every 27 years (for a 1 month period). This gate enters into a mountain, where a clan of Duergar lives. The Duergars are on the outlook from intruders from outside. The party has pushed through the guards at the gate and are now in side tunnels, and will eventually reach the duergar compound.
The Duergar compounds almost never gets visitors from the outside surface world, but there *is* a connection in the side tunnels to the underdark, so periodic visits from underground merchants do happen - in fact there is a bazaar!. Due to internal leadership problems, the Duergar "civilians" (miners etc) don't know about the risk of outside intruders, and simply assume that the party are simply another group of underground merchants.
There are 2 ways to enter the Duergar compound - and this is where the problem occurs. One, the "side entrance" is through a magical elevator that only the Duergars can easily operate (Particularly clever players might manage). The other is the "main way in" through a warded area into the bazaar - this ward is an alarm that will magically alert the guards and the Duergar leaders that intruders are coming, leading to a big battle with the party with the bazaar as a battlefield. The Duergars never use the main way in, instead taking the elevator.
BUT... this doesn't make any sense! How are the merchants coming in?!? (there are already a fair number of them in the bazaar). Most of them can't operate the magical elevator, and there is no "welcome committee" - they simply follow the main way into the bazaar, which would trigger the alarms all the time.
The easiest way to deal with this is hope that the players never notice, but ... suggestion would be welcome
