Why didn't the Roseguard ever find other levels?

[Grumpus]

I understand that in the main structure, the stairs down in area A12 were hidden well, and that the entrance under the dock may have been hard to spot.
But the building on the little island to the north has unhidden stairs down(A21), and on level-b also has unhidden stairs down (B5) (in addition to the hidden stairs in B2).
Did the Roseguard just never bother to explore the other building? Even though they built a town here, wouldn't someone be curious at some point to find out what was in that structure?

Anyway, just wondering if I missed an explanation.

[Haydriel]

I think they just went in, killed Belcorra and retired. No need to explore the ruins as the big bad was dead.

In the years after I think the legends of Gauntlight being a haunted ruin (?) kept most explorers away. Or maybe Tangletop/Mr Beak kept them at bay?

[Grumpus]

Maybe, but they weren't "ruins" at that time, right? I assume that the buildings were in good shape at the time of the final fight and contained possible valuables or insight into whatever Belcorra was up to. Surely worth a gentleman's peek inside at the minimum.

[aghull]

The entrances into the lower levels are hidden. Belcorra clearly planned to be able to hide parts of the gauntlight. She even murdered her own servants upon learning of the Roseguard attack in order to cover her tracks. She may even have deliberately gone up to the first floor to meet them just so that she could prevent the true nature of the Gauntlight in the lower levels from being discovered, even if she had to die to do it.

Why is there a "floor" on the level 1 "base" of the lighthouse itself, rather than just one giant open column. It seems like structurally there's no reason for it, but perhaps it is intentional that the lighthouse plausibly appears to be just a "normal" lighthouse with nothing underneath it.

[Grumpus]

aghull wrote:

The entrances into the lower levels are hidden.

Not in the small building to the north. The stairs down are just behind an unhidden door.

[Greyson]

Grumpus wrote:

... just wondering if I missed an explanation.

No, I don't think you're missing anything. There are no published, official reasons why surviving Roseguard members left the keep's dungeons alone. It does seem counter-intuitive to our own adventuring

The Adventure Toolbox says that, "Grieving their lost friend, the Roseguard left, sealed up the keep, founded what would become the town of Otari, and retired there. They never knew of the keep’s lower levels or the many creatures still remaining within them" (Abomination Vaults, page 75).

I imagine they saw the keep as a tomb, the grave of their friend, Otari. There may have been a conversation about respecting his grave site: they never did recover his body. And as it notes above, they "sealed up the keep." We don't know what that means, but it sounds like they made an effort to keep what was below ground trapped in the depths - which they accomplished. Never knowing something was below the swamp isn't the same as not suspecting. And, they stayed in town, perhaps keeping a silent and life-long vigil on the keep. Nothing ever bubbled up from the depths and the Roseguard survivors died in peace, always maintaining respect for Otari's final resting place.

I am rambling, but there ya go - another take on it.

[Razcar]

There's no good explination IMO, so I made one up for my campaign (that in turn tied in to some other additions I made). In short, Zarmavdian was in cahoots with Belcorra (he tricked his way into the Roseguard after having Fallowglade murder the group's previous mage, and then approached them with "evidence" about Belcorra being behind it - which was kinda true). Belcorra's motive for getting in with Zarmavdian and having the Roseguard delivered to her doorstep was of course paying Urevian with Rajani.

But Zarmavdian wanted the Gauntlight all for himself in his secret quest for lichdom, and betrayed Belcorra by fireball-in-the-back (when she though he would help her kill the heroes). Afterwards, a great fire broke out (which is in the book I believe) and when it had subsided, he lied to the others that he had searched for Otari's remains but had found nothing. He didn't want them meddling with "his" Vault or for them to find evidence about his real motives.

Another, albeit smaller, inconsistency is that the Vaults weren't explored more by other adventurers during 500 years (the top floor was visited by the thieves in A15 Nhimbaloth Shrine). It's half an hour's walk from a busy little town, it should have attracted generations of intrepid heroes. So I made up a reason for the Vaults staying largely unexplored during all this time as well.