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Message: <blockquote data-quote="plecostomus" data-source="post: 9583718" data-attributes="member: 7040041">In an effort to understand D&D better (I have only ever been a player in a long-term homebrew 5E campaign), I started reading Quests from the Infinite Staircase and the 2024 DMG. For Infinite Staircase, I've gotten through the first module, The Lost City, and I have a few questions.<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Unless specified, secret doors in the Lost City module "blend in with their surroundings". There are a few rooms where the secret door outlines are obvious. Beyond that, PCs have to examine a wall and succeed on a DC 15 Perception check to notice a secret door. Would you give more hints than the module provides for these unspecified doors, or rely on PCs actively examining all the walls? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">In Room B3: "Secret Room", there are 4 stirges sleeping on the ceiling. They are described as being engorged with the blood of their recent victim, whose corpse is on the floor of the room. These stirges are not included in the description box (that the DM should read from when PCs enter). <code class="bbCodeInline">[B3 Description] A shriveled humanoid corpse in blue robes and a brass mask lies in the center of this stale-smelling room. The corpse's stiff, wrinkled hand stretches toward a toppled leather pouch just out of reach. Glittering, blue gemstones have spilled from the bag onto the dusty floor.</code> The module specifies that bright light or any noise louder than a whisper will wake the stirges, who then attack. If a PC tries to retrieve some gemstones from the corpse in the room, they must make a DC 15 Stealth check to not wake the stirges. Room B3 is 20x20 feet, with a 15-foot-high ceiling. All rooms in the ziggurat have no light sources of their own; "Area descriptions assume the characters have a light source or other means of seeing in the dark." In the case that PCs are using torches or the Light cantrip to see, does this mean the stirges wake immediately when they enter? Or would you apply the triggers for the stirges only if someone approaches the corpse? Assuming the stirges are not immediately triggered, do you wait until a PC says "I look at the ceiling" to mention the stirges? They are tiny in size. Would you give hints like the sound of fluttering wings or blood dripping from the ceiling, or expect PCs to figure out on their own that they need to look up? The module specifies that a character can perform a DC 13 Medicine check on the corpse to realize it has been drained of blood. But based on the triggers as written, when a PC tells the rest of the party this fact at a conversational volume, the stirges will wake up. At this point in the module, based on milestone leveling, the PCs would likely be a party of 3-5 Level 1s. 2024 stirges are CR 1/8 with 2 HP each and AC 14. I'm guessing it's completely fine for them to surprise the PCs at any point. But is there anything you would change for presentation's sake, or something else I'm not thinking of? I really liked the lore of this particular room, so maybe that's why I'm so focused on how it appears to players. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">For people who have run Lost City, did you add anything to the empty rooms, like murals or hints to later parts of the module? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">One look at the stat block for the boss of the module will tell you it is not appropriate for the Level 4 PCs that might encounter it. The module specifies it will be a social encounter if PCs are below a certain level. But in that case, the PCs will simply turn around and leave and that's the end of the module until they have leveled up later. Or if the PCs choose to exit the ziggurat when given an earlier opportunity (the boss is on an optional floor), there is no particular resolution to the module at all, except that the party survived it. If you use Nafas as the framing device (i.e. Nafas sends the PCs to the Lost City), his instructions suggest this will be the case. He asks the PCs to simply "Return to me with [the Lost City's] story" rather than asking them to fix what's wrong. For people who have run this module, how did players react to there being no final boss or essentially not being able to do anything to the boss? In the homebrew campaign I play in, we know we are way off from ever seeing our final boss. But every place we go, we usually accomplish something. We change something about the place we went to. But we also don't do these multi-session dungeon crawls*, so this whole structure is pretty new to my experience.</li> </ol>*We did do 1978 Tomb of Horrors with the DCC system as part of a dream sequence.</blockquote>

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