Gnolls re-entering the Unopenable Doors?

[morgue]

Hi,
I started running Maure Castle last night. Lots of fun, with the first party fatality in the first encounter - the barbarian up the front ran into the wandering bodaks and rolled a 1 on his Fort save.

Anyway - the answer to this might be somewhere in the text that I didn't see - but the wandering encounter gnolls are delivering a message to the outside. How are they planning to get back in once their mission is complete? How do the Seekers get in again when they leave?

There are, of course, a bunch of answers that would work without giving the gnolls magical keys of opening or whatever (for example, every day at x o'clock someone opens the Unopenable Doors from within to see if the travellers had returned). But if my characters catch the gnolls you can bet they'll pump them for the answer to exactly this question, and I want to have an answer ready.

What have you guys used, it it's come up in your games? And is there an answer in the text somewhere that I haven't noticed?

Cheers!
morgue

[farewell2kings]

This exact question was asked of a gnoll prisoner by my party. The answer I gave: "We wait for the next patrol."

"So you guys stay here for hours and hours waiting?"

"Yeah, sometimes days..."

"????"

[Infernal Osquip]

I used a set rotation of patrols. Frequency is up to you, but once every two or three days seems about right. The returning patrol then uses a secret knock to notify the next patrol they are back. The next patrol then opens the doors and takes their place.

[infomatic]

Keep in mind, the gnolls aren't part of a regular patrol. They've got a specific mission — get help and bring it back. The regular patrols, by my reading, don't set foot outside the doors at all; they barely even come up to the Chamber of Offerings level.

And since Yug-Anark, the gnolls' mistress, is a 15th level cleric, she has a myriad of ways to keep tabs on her lackeys. She could scry on them at a certain time each day, making sure if they're making progress or waiting at the door.

(Of course, she could also have cast Sending and contacted the Gnoll chieftain directly, thus saving her the task of sending out agents. I suppose the chieftain could've ignored her magical call, so she's doing something a bit more direct.)

[Infernal Osquip]

infomatic wrote:

Keep in mind, the gnolls aren't part of a regular patrol. They've got a specific mission — get help and bring it back. The regular patrols, by my reading, don't set foot outside the doors at all; they barely even come up to the Chamber of Offerings level.

And since Yug-Anark, the gnolls' mistress, is a 15th level cleric, she has a myriad of ways to keep tabs on her lackeys. She could scry on them at a certain time each day, making sure if they're making progress or waiting at the door.

(Of course, she could also have cast Sending and contacted the Gnoll chieftain directly, thus saving her the task of sending out agents. I suppose the chieftain could've ignored her magical call, so she's doing something a bit more direct.)

I preferred adding regular patrols in part to explain all the "food" present on Level 3. The patrols are in addition to groups sent out on specific missions to round up help. They have to get all those "piles of rotting meat" from somewhere (see rooms 59, 60, and many others on Level 3), so a patrol of nasty gnolls rounding up victims (mostly orcs based on the text) seemed plausible. Not a big deal in my mind, and your solution sounds just as good (using scrying to keep tabs).

[morgue]

All these posts have been very helpful, thanks!

I like the idea of scrying on the mission for allies - that's the kind of thing you want to keep tabs on anyway. And I also assume that there are semi-regular "patrols"/expeditions out from the dungeon to get supplies.

I also like how all the explanations are variations of:

(1) When finished, go to the Unopenable Doors
(2) Wait
(3) Wait some more

:-)

[Brandon Gillespie]

morgue wrote:

Anyway - the answer to this might be somewhere in the text that I didn't see - but the wandering encounter gnolls are delivering a message to the outside. How are they planning to get back in once their mission is complete? How do the Seekers get in again when they leave?

I just got my issue 112 last night (it was hard to find!) and I started reading it. I am by no means an expert on this but if I remember correctly, in the text where it was talking about how to get through the unopenable doors it said that someone who opened the doors from the inside to get out could later open the doors from the outside to get back in. I will have to take another look at the adventure and make sure that is correct.