I was wondering if this double doored dungeon was one they’d already cleared out. Guess we’ll find out.
Xykon sounds oddly pissed off at RC. Or not grasping how this whole Ritual thing works. “We totally should’ve brought him along and bounced you!” Yeah, he’s said he could just rip the Crimson Mantle off RC’s shoulders and give it to some other goblin, but I didn’t think he was serious. If only because he didn’t want to waste the time it would take to sufficiently level up a goblin understudy.
Probably just trash talk.
Ok. Why aren’t the spoiler tags working? I’ve tried upper and lower case. They used to work…
I fixed your spoiler tags. Like the quote tags, they need to be on their own line, not on the same line as the text they surround. (At least, that’s what I did to fix them, and it worked.)
I’m guessing this dunegon won’t have been cleared out yet, delaying Team Evil and leading Xykon and Redcloak to figure out that someone has been messing with them. And since the MITD was the one doing the painting, the trail should lead right back to him…
So what happens with the MITD now? The rest of Team Evil is going to be busy, if that dungeon really wasn’t cleared out. Plus, he’s now available to be talked to by the Order, without TE overhearing, if that’s how Burlew wants to play this.
I thought the stone of this valley was ‘dimensional’, and therefore you couldn’t do things like Ghostform or Passwall through it? Or is that just for the walls of Monster Hollow, but not the valley floor?
I think this is more likely the point than that Xykon realizes MitD has been messing with him. But I suppose we shall find out. And I suppose they aren’t mutually exclusive.
I’ve read this from a few other people, but I have to ask, “How?” It’s been the same color paint for all of the doors, right? Would RC think that either Durkon + the others have been watching surreptitiously for awhile—enough time to find the paint that TE 's been using, borrow it, and mark doors? Or that Durkon somehow had something like a magic paint brush on him the whole time of the negotiation?
I love Oona noticing the snow in front of the doors had been disturbed.
You seriously think finding the right colour paint would be a problem? For a team with a Wizard, a Cleric and a Bard, not to mention any number of wands or other magic items. Changing an object’s colour is a 1st level spell, at least in in 5e, I presume there’s something similar in 3.5.
I doubt Xykon is going to say “It must be one of us, because nobody else has the right colour paint.”
Assuming Xykon and Redcloak get wise to MitD, it’s still an interesting question of what they do about it. MitD is supposed to be Xykon’s super weapon against the Order (or whoever tries to stop him) so it doesn’t feel like they’d want to attack MitD or anything. But obviously they gotta do something.
In the “Every possible answer except accusing MitD” camp though, wasn’t the implication that the monsters in the Hollow “respawned” after a time? Oona made it sound as though there was a sustainable harvest to be had, regularly delving into the cliff for magic item components. Maybe they’ll wonder why the tunnel repopulated so quickly rather than assume it was never cleared. Well, unless they find the Gate in there.
We saw that venturing into one of the tunnels is not a task that they take lightly. So when they enter this tunnel expected it to be empty and have to face the inhabitants with no preparation and without the MitD, it’s going to be more than just a reveal for them. They’re going to be occupied for several hours and drained when they exit. That may be part of Burlew’s plan to equalize the sides before they meet.
I agree that Clearing one of the dungeons works like you say, but does a brief foray into one work like that? I’d think TE could retreat after the first fight inside if they wanted to: Wall of Force to hold off whatever, back up around the corner, lay down a few Symbols, D.B. Fireballs, Traps (Say, where is their Rogue or other Trapbot?). Leave, and figure out who’s screwing with their marking system.
A rogue/trapper? What do they need one of those for? They have a slightly subepic cleric and an epic sorcerer, they can crush traps with but a thought!
