Undefeated Dungeons
- Thread starter Quasqueton
- Start date
MetalBard
First Post
devilish said:
Maybe you should give it a few years for people to try and fail at conquering that one. Possibly decades, for that matter. My only experience with that one was hefting at my LGS and quailing at the sheer volume. I like my adventures and dungeons in courses, like a Dungeon magazine subscription.
Psion
Adventurer
Quasqueton said:
Yes.
I took Undermountian and Greyhawk Ruins into my game and reshaped their history to fit my world (for example, Undermountain became an ancient prison created by a race of benign wizards that is now controlled by a mage who has learned to use some of the ancient wards of the place, but which are exceeding his capacity to understand. Which makes more sense to me than the "a crazy mage dug out a dungeon and poured a bunch of creatures in because that's what crazy mages do explation.) Castle Grey was Greyhawk Ruins and also had a reshaped history, around a mage-king who soon decided that ruling a nation wasn't all it was cracked up to be and retreated to the depths of his grand keep.
The players did make it pretty deep into Castle Grey, but left several major stones unturned. Undermountain remains much less explored, and eventually became more a setting than a dungeon to me. There really is no end or final challenge or boss room about it AFAIAC.
Pants
First Post
Two different campaigns and the PC's never finished taking on the massive 'Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.' Just got bored with it, I guess.
Though, aside from that, they usually 'finish' dungeons, ie they get their objective mcguffin and leave. Though, they do miss some secret spots sometimes.
Though, aside from that, they usually 'finish' dungeons, ie they get their objective mcguffin and leave. Though, they do miss some secret spots sometimes.
Lots of "undefeated" dungeons in my campaign. I design the big ones to be used over and over again so there is little chance of a party cleaning one out. A big dungeon never has to be defeated it can be used time and time again if it is built that way.
dungeons in my camapign the players have visited and never defeated-
Spider Mt : was little boy mountain from theold Chagmat advenutre but the PCs did rather poorly. Every now and then a horde of "spider demons" ravages the nearby countryside and the PCs that recall thier earlier failure don't seem to want to go back. someday the "spider demons" will have to be dealt with by someone.
Horradic Ruins: a vast ancient ruin sitting near a magical portal that links multiple other spots in the campaign. It had become the seat of an army of darkness before that collapsed on itself long after the PCs got wrapped up elsewhere and is now the base of a sorceror reuniting the fragments of the previously mentioned army of darkness (so the PCs may have need to sort yhat out eventually)
Metal Fortress of Suffering: the party has a key to this immense meat grinder and only one PC ever even figured out a hint of how and why the dungeon was there. The surviving PCs avoid it like the plague. It is in truth a prison and what waits in confinement really want out.
Black Pit of the Darkmasters: an immemse necropolis occupied by a cabal of necromancers who were recently greatly weakened by multiple raids by the PCs, so weak the undead dragon gaurdingthe bulk of the treasure trove is no longer under thier control. The necromancers are in competition with the PCs with conflicitng goals so they and raids against them coem up again and again.
There are reasons the Pcs might want to go back and each dungeon is still part of the campaign.
dungeons in my camapign the players have visited and never defeated-
Spider Mt : was little boy mountain from theold Chagmat advenutre but the PCs did rather poorly. Every now and then a horde of "spider demons" ravages the nearby countryside and the PCs that recall thier earlier failure don't seem to want to go back. someday the "spider demons" will have to be dealt with by someone.
Horradic Ruins: a vast ancient ruin sitting near a magical portal that links multiple other spots in the campaign. It had become the seat of an army of darkness before that collapsed on itself long after the PCs got wrapped up elsewhere and is now the base of a sorceror reuniting the fragments of the previously mentioned army of darkness (so the PCs may have need to sort yhat out eventually)
Metal Fortress of Suffering: the party has a key to this immense meat grinder and only one PC ever even figured out a hint of how and why the dungeon was there. The surviving PCs avoid it like the plague. It is in truth a prison and what waits in confinement really want out.
Black Pit of the Darkmasters: an immemse necropolis occupied by a cabal of necromancers who were recently greatly weakened by multiple raids by the PCs, so weak the undead dragon gaurdingthe bulk of the treasure trove is no longer under thier control. The necromancers are in competition with the PCs with conflicitng goals so they and raids against them coem up again and again.
There are reasons the Pcs might want to go back and each dungeon is still part of the campaign.
ColonelHardisson said:
You know, that's what I thought too, given his soapbox articles in Dragon "recently" (seems like, anyway, but I don't know how long it actually has been).
So how DID it wrap up?
Until I know otherwise, I'm going to imagine something quirky, even anticlimatic. How about "Gary, being overworked and wrapped up in the new and quickly expanding business, writing the materials and folding boxes and attaching labels and shmoozing stores and public relations, etc. etc. finally succumbs to Greyhawk fatigue. Later that week, the mighty Greyhawk heros show up in a tiny closet, the last unexplored room, deep deep underground, to find a plaque nailed to the back wall that simply said....
"What, are you still here? Go outside, get some sun. Really, it's done!"
Something like Ferris Bueler's Day Off, after the credits (IIRC).
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