The PCs opened the coin door that leads to the part of Thistletop where Malfeshnikor is... and then they turned around and left the dungeon, going all the way back to town. Does that mean Malfeshnikor is free to leave the dungeon? Does he get out and terrorize the countryside or just stay in his little room?
I believe Malfeshnekor is bound within the room itself and cannot leave with something as simple as an open door.
If there are any other intelligent enemies left in Thistletop though, they may find the place, and Malfy's continued presence is likely to continue drawing Thistletop goblins to him (it could potentially catch the attention of another goblin tribe in the hinterlands, and draw them to the place if the Thistletop goblins have been essentially defeated). Goblins aren't THAT smart but who knows... one of the might just stumble across the way to free Malfeshnekor from his prison, and then he might think to seek revenge against the ones who ruined his previous get out of jail free card, Nualia (i.e. revenge against the PCs for delaying his freedom).
Congratulations, you now have a nice recurring villain with some minions of his own that you can use at some point in the future.
I believe Malfeshnekor is bound within the room itself and cannot leave with something as simple as an open door.
True.
... but leaving the door to the room open is some rather cruel psychological torture. ;D
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He is bound, altho I ruled in my game that he is free somewhat after the door open up.
To be honest, that room was so tiny for a Large creature plus if PCs ran of, giving them free kill on door step would have been rather lame boss encounter. It ended up epic for me tho. 1/4 Player was standing at end and used CLW to bring wizard back, who waster barghest who had 1 or 2 hp left. Players are still talking about that fight :)
My group found Malfeshnikor yesterday and surprised me by how quickly they managed to reduce him to below 10 HP. I then had him collapse in a pool of his own blood and before the eyes of the players transform into a goblin who lay moaning slightly on the floor. His misdirection spell took care of the paladins detect evil and his high bluff skill never even got into play as the players blithely accepted his story that evil magicians had transformed him into a monster and imprisoned him. The players healed Malfeshnikor and took him up to meet Grogmurt. He has now been accepted into the Thistletop tribe (my group made a deal with Grogmurt to depose Ripnugget and view the goblins as semi-allies) and the players even handed over a few thousand SP of the loot from the hermit crab cave.
I'm now faced with having to decide what Malfeshnikor will get up to once he gets his bearings in the new world he has been released into. Clearly he is going to seize power in the tribe, and with the resources available to him Thistletop will once again become a a rallying point for local humanoids, but what then? Maybe I can try to do a Saruman with him so that when the players return to what they think is a safe place he ambushes them. I dunno really; any ideas and suggestions would be most welcome.
The PCs opened the coin door that leads to the part of Thistletop where Malfeshnikor is... and then they turned around and left the dungeon, going all the way back to town. Does that mean Malfeshnikor is free to leave the dungeon? Does he get out and terrorize the countryside or just stay in his little room?
He is bound magically, not by the doors. If left to his own devices he'd probably try to reach out to any surviving goblins.
In our first run, the group missed a large section of the lower level of Thistletop, including...
I was planning on having a couple of druids eventually move into Thistletop once it was cleared out, so I had them approach the PC's about returning (through Shalelu) and helping them remove 'the evil they still sensed within'. I threw in a couple of harpies from the Cormorants inhabiting the upper level and it turned Thistletop into a second great dungeon with a very different feel from the first incursion.