Escape from Meenlock Prison question (Dungeon 146)

[Sarah Stewart]

I'm running Escape from Meenlock Prison and came across what seems like a glitch in the text. In Area 12 (Loading Bay), who is the "Awake Prisoner" pictured in the map? Area 12 is given an EL of 2, but there's no description of the prisoner. Also, does the elevator in that area work?

Sorry if I'm missing something obvious. Any insight would be appreciated.

[Rezdave]

Sarah Stewart wrote:

came across what seems like a glitch in the text. In Area 12 (Loading Bay), who is the "Awake Prisoner" pictured in the map? Area 12 is given an EL of 2, but there's no description of the prisoner. Also, does the elevator in that area work?

Wow ... I ran this a few months ago and never noticed the "Awake Prisoner" mark ... I guess I thought it was part of the "art".

You're not missing anything. I've found that the James Jacobs-era Dungeon text and maps are rife with revision errors and oversights. I guess things were pretty busy there and their proof-reading wasn't as good as it should have been. Anyway, you'll frequently find maps or text that hint at encounters that were removed either for revisions or space reasons.

Because Area 3 describes the doors being padlocked, there's no way a prisoner is within Area 12. Just "color in the square".

I remember descriptive text for some locations being under the "Development" text for other locations, making things more than a little complicated.

When I ran it I had the elevator operational, taking about 2 minutes to rise to the surface (it was slow, but strong) and was very loud. I placed the keyhole for the operator (the key is Area #3 "treasure") on the wall inside area 12 so that you could turn the key yourself then run down the hall and get on the slow thing, but a different operator would need to bring it back down.

Of course, the Con Men have barred the exit doors from the outside and the elevator rises all the way to the surface. You can decide if the doors are flush (potentially crushing PCs if the doors don't burst) or if they are angled like a western storm-cellar. I opted for the latter, so that a PC could ride up and not be crushed, but wasn't in a good position to apply leverage to bash the doors. They finally set the area 3 desk on end and sent it up with pressure from the elevator turning it into a battering ram.

The Con men knew they were coming (from the noise) so the three PCs crammed onto the elevator crouching and holding the desk on-end and positioned to burst the doors knew they would have to come out fighting. Of course, the doors burst before the elevator had reached the surface, so the Con Men were above the PCs stabbing down with spears while the PCs had to fight their way out of the shaft, jumping or climbing up about 2-3 feet wile the elevator continued slowly rising.

HTH,

Rez

[TConnors]

Sarah Stewart wrote:

I'm running Escape from Meenlock Prison and came across what seems like a glitch in the text. In Area 12 (Loading Bay), who is the "Awake Prisoner" pictured in the map? Area 12 is given an EL of 2, but there's no description of the prisoner. Also, does the elevator in that area work?

Hi Sarah,

My wife and I are the authors of Escape from Meenlock Prison. Sorry, we don't check the messageboards as often as we used to.
Indeed there was an awake prisoner hiding on the catwalk in the original manuscript. The editors (wisely) cut him from the text but forgot to remove him from the map. Here's the original text in case you're curious.

Original Text wrote:

12. The Mouth of the Wolf (EL 4)
Four 10’ diameter, 12’ tall fermentation vats dominate the corners of this well lit room. A few feet above each vat, a 3’ square wooden platform is suspended to the ceiling by long steel pins. A 2’ wide wooden walkway connects the wooden platforms, forming a catwalk around the perimeter of the room. On the west side of this catwalk, a fifth platform extends beyond the room into a shadow-filled space 10’ high by 5’ wide.

From a door on the east wall, a long ramp leads down 10’ into this sunken, 25’ square room. There is a door in the center of the north wall. A metal ladder affixed to the south wall provides access to the catwalk. A DC 15 Spot check notices the shadow of a young prisoner on the platform centered on the west wall.

If discovered, the cautious but friendly Pren Quickirons asks the PCs to help him figure out how to lower the elevator cage in the west wall’s alcove. The 10’ tall cage is identical in construction to that in Area 1. Once lowered, iron bars built into its solid ceiling snap into sockets in the alcove, locking the cage down.

Pren recently became a local hero when he defended his hamlet from a werewolf attack. Fearing (correctly) that he contracted lycanthropy, the hamlet’s elders incarcerated him while they gather funds to pay a high level cleric to remove the boy's dreadful curse. The night of his first full moon is two days away. Sitting on the catwalk next to Pren is a small burlap bag containing two vials of silversheen that he stole from the guard’s desk in Area 3. He mistakenly believes they will prevent his transformation. He does not discuss the circumstances surrounding his incarceration and dismisses the bag as merely stolen valuables.

At a budding unconscious level, Pren was drawn here through empathy for the starving wolves locked within the elevator cage outside. Once trained to harry prey into the assassin vine field, the wolves have become feral with neglect. As Pren renews his noisy attempts to lower the cage, preferably when the PCs are on the catwalk, Finneus decides to put an end to the PCs and begins lowering the cage from above. Three rounds after the two frothing wolves come into view, the cage completes its descent, and the wolves push the door open and attack.

A target of a successful trip attack must make a DC 12 Reflex save or fall off the catwalk. Those not falling into an open-topped, wine-filled vat instead take 1d6 damage from their 15’ fall to the stone floor below.

Wolf (2): hp 8 of 13; Monster Manual 283.
Werewolf, Human Form: hp 20; Monster Manual 175.

Tactics: One wolf targets Pren. If reduced to 15 hp, he falls from the catwalk (taking damage if appropriate), involuntarily transforms into a werewolf during the next round, and attacks the nearest creature thereafter. If no living targets are on the ground, the raging werewolf disappears into Area 11 and beyond, forcing the PCs into a tense predator/prey hunt scenario once they recuperate.

In this original version of the adventure, there is no key to this elevator. The only way to use it to escape is to stuff something under it while it lowers. This has two effects. First, it prevents the tall elevator cage door from opening and releasing the wolves, and second it allows the PCs to crowbar it open, climb in, and then up and out while it's "between floors." In the published version of the adventure, the elevator does function with the key.

[MrFish]

Actually I don't think that element is too bad, but I would say that it would considerably change the atmosphere of the prison situation. But interesting to see your ideas for the awake prisoner. Maybe I might find a use for it in some other adventure.

[Sarah Stewart]

Thanks so much for responding, TConnors. It's helpful to know what you and your wife intended for that passageway. I'm running the adventure this Sunday, and I'm looking forward to it.

[Jeremy Mac Donald]

So I'm working on my conversion of this masterpiece and I've noticed that there is no map of the upper level. This has me a bit confused as I'd think that the scene involving the final fight with the cons would presumably have taken place in the main floor of the chateau. For those that have played this - how did you handle this element?