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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 1462347" data-attributes="member: 177">You don't.  You cannot make them want anything.  Free will, and all that.  A DM can never count on exactly what actions the PCs will take.  Ergo, it is generally better advenure design to not rely on PC specific actions on the part of the PCs.  So, you can drop the hint and hope.  If the PCs don't rise to the bait, you need to have some NPC do it.  There's going to be servants and other visitors about.  Perhaps one of them is dumb enough to open the door.  I say "dumb enough", because while it's a nice piece, and it makes a good dramatic image, the song pretty much tells you that there's something imprisoned.  And when something is imprisoned, people are going to ask if there's a good reason for it.  We are quite used to the idea that many of the things that are locked away should remain that way.You've painted yourself into a bit of a corner, logically speaking - if the vampire had any ruses or tricks really good enough to get himiself free, he would already be free.So, enough of criticism.  Let's build a solution.  I think the solution hinges on that history you havent built yet.Consider - instead of keeping it secret, the wizard is at least partly up-front about it.  The wizard can lie a bit, and say that the amount of magic in the place leads to strange dreams, which they should ignore.  Or, he can tell the truth - "I got a beast of much magical power locked up, and it sends dreams to anyone who stays in the tower.  Please ignore the dreams.  If you open that door, the beast may well kill you, me, and/or cause much havoc in the city."  Why lock him up, rather than kill him?  Perhaps the bard is the wizard's brother, and the wizard canot bear to slay him?  Perhaps the vampire has some secret of arcane lore the wizard needs to learn?Anyway, depending how you play it, you can feed the players information that makes them more or less likely to open the door (lies from the wizard make it more likely the door gets opened, I expect.  But the wizard knows that).  But you still need a backup, just in case the PCs choose to leave the door closed.The vampire had a servant.  Said servant has been searching for his master for years (perhaps becoming rather potent in his own right in the process).  He happens to have finally followed the clues to the wizard's tower.  After the party has the dream, he servant breaks into the tower and opens the door.  The wizard now thinks the party is to blame for the vampire's escape... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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