Nov 16., 2017   /   Evidence, True Dungeon

True Dungeon in the Fae- The Moongate Maze

I posted about my experience in the Kingkiller-themed True Dungeon game at Gen Con, but it was all based on memory. I have now received my module books from True Dungeon themselves.

(as Pat would say, Click to embiggen)

So this is post 1 of 2 providing more detail about the adventures based on what is in these module books. The first adventure was called “The Moongate Maze.”  There were a total of 9 rooms in this adventure, although some rooms are only seen if you do a certain type of run (puzzle vs. combat). This post focuses strictly on the possible Kingkiller lore revealed by the module, it is not meant to be a replacement for running or reading the module yourself.

Patrick Rothfuss did participate in creating these adventures, although I am told he tried not to have much to do with the puzzle solutions so that he could play the game.  “Patrick Rothfuss has been very generous with his time, and we have shared several long but fruitful Skype sessions.” Overall I got the impression that True Dungeon designer may have been a KKC fan, but definitely not a deep lore nerd (like say… myself or probably anyone reading this). For example, they wrote Felurian’s speech with capital letters.

(Update Jan 2018, Pat recently said this on his blog:)  “I helped write and design the adventures, and they’re chock-full of creatures and lore from the books. Some of which hasn’t even shown up yet anywhere other than my own head.”

There were no photos in the module books, but True Dungeon has started posting videos here, and I am told they will likely post more: https://www.youtube.com/user/truedungeon/videos

Except where otherwise noted, the setting was a hedge maze with glowing vines.

Room 1- Entrance
The NPC’s in this room were Felurian and an unnamed Faeling. Felurian lounged on “a large willow-branch woven throne.”  The Faeling “is a somewhat wild creature who serves [Felurian].” She is “somewhat angry and upset with the party for having the impertinence to enter Felurian’s presence uninvited.” Felurian wore a flesh-toned bodysuit (ie she was supposed to be naked). The Faeling wore a dress and had dusky blue skin.

Room 2 -Old Holly
Upon entering, the Faeling said, “I have heard tales of the Moongate Maze. It was created by Fae nobles long ago to provide them sport to test captured mortals.” Old Holly was a big tree man. He spoke in a “low and almost child-like manner,” opening with: “Old Holly is happy. Old Holly will have fun. Old Holly will fight you. The battle’s begun.” According to his statistics, “Old Holly does not seek to kill anyone, as he is just there for fun.  “If an attack would reduce the character’s HP to 0 or less, he will pull his punch.” He was Neutral Good, with the creature subtypes: Plant and Fae.  Here and throughout the entire adventure, all Fae took extra damage from Iron.

Room 3- The Hallow
This was a star/constellation themed puzzle. In the center was “a statue of a fae woman pointing a drawn bow straight ahead.”  If the players got the puzzle wrong, they heard a woman’s laughter and were hit with lightning.

Room 4A- The Raven
This room contained a “birdman-like Daruna.” When we entered, “it is holding a glowing lantern while it studies a large stone obelisk.” Our Faeling guide was very scared of the Daruna and said to it: “We must beg your forgiveness for interrupting your study. We are only passing through to seek the Moongate, if you decide to grant us passage by your magnificent presence. May we please continue past, your imminence?”

His reply was: “I grow weary of my time within the Moongate Maze. Every time I begin to make progress, I am bothered by interlopers. Oh well, I suppose a bit of physical exertion would clear my mind.” Then he attacked us. According to his statistics, the Daruna had poor eyesight. He was Neutral Evil. He attacked people with his claws, and was a Fae subtype. If defeated, he didn’t die, just flew away.

Room 4B- Suitor’s Garden
This was a puzzle room full of flowers. it also had a hive of “deadly daggerbees.” The Faeling said, “I have heard of this Suitor’s Garden.”

Room 5- The Iron Rook
This room contained “a motionless, massive, roughly humanoid figure that appears to be made out of thick iron crude plates. Its belly is what appears to be an iron grate.”  The Faeling said angrily, “I will be a slave no longer! We are nearly at the Moongate and I will use it in private so one will know where I have gone. I will never again be your pawn nor that of the Fae nobles. This should delay you while I forge ahead. Good luck!” Then she placed a flame in the Iron Rook’s belly grate and fled.

The most effective way to defeat the Iron Rook was to extinguish the fire in its belly.  It was both a Construct subtype and a Fae subtype.  Yes, despite being made of iron, it was still Fae and took extra damage from iron. It was “programmed to attack knights first.” There was a typo on its alignment (it didn’t have one), but I assume it was Neutral based on other construct monsters in the 2’nd module.  There was also one line in its statistics where it was called “the Iron Rook Scrael.” instead of just “The Iron Rook.” However, I suspect this was a copy/paste error since the scrael in module 2 shared the same rule where this phrase appeared. None the less, it certainly worth noting that both the Iron Rook and the Scrael were creatures with the subtypes Fae and Construct.

Room 6A- The Shadow
This room was darker and “more sinister than the other rooms.”  The official name of the creature we fought here was a “Shadow Fae.”  Its entrance is described as follows: “First, the party will hear far off laughter, and then the maniacal laughter will grow louder until it ends with a few seconds of silence before erupting into a great evil roaring laughter.”  The creature appeared as a shadowy “humanoid figure with long, claw-like arms, and he will dance around the perimeter of the room while the combat is conducted.”  The Shadow Fae stayed at range in the hedge, attacking with a “Dark Blast” that did Cold damage, rather than its claws.  It also had the ability to trap characters in a “prison of complete darkness.” It was Neutral Evil and of the Fae subtype. It made a “wretched dying scream” if killed.

Room 6B- The Dark Room
This was a puzzle room where the challenge was to match a poem to some runes in a nearly pitch-black room. Everyone had to put out their lights. Questionable if any portions of the poem are reliable lore as they were most importantly about the puzzle.  But if they are lore-worthy, the interesting bits were: “The noble ten who built this maze / Their family runes on these walls lay.” And “The third is one that others hate / Repulsed by all a sinner’s fate.”

Room 7- The Moongate
This was  a puzzle that involved playing a song to the Moon to get her to draw close and open a gate out of the maze. This room was stone, not hedge. There was an NPC in the room, described as follows: “The Moon Fae has been imprisoned within this area for about 10 months, and the magical imprisonment has had a baneful effect on her psyche. Her demeanor is disoriented, and she is given to soft laughter.” As the puzzle was solved, the image of the moon went from a crescent moon, to a half moon, to a full moon. The Moon Gate led out to Temerant, where the second adventure (Dancing Among Stones) took place. If the party failed to open the gate, “the denizens of the dark places of the Fae attacked and killed them.”