The Maddgoth's Castle One-Shot
A sidequest that ropes in everyone at the table, involves a game within a game, and some not so subtle references to cannibalism. This one really informed how the game would be going forward.
Session Notes:
Maddgoth, an aged human mage with specific tastes, had some guests over for the feast of St Anthony. There was a tour, games, and heavy four course lunch.
Afterwards, Maddgoth excused his non-wizard guests, Karnur + Varlax, so that the mages could get down to some wiz-biz1 To do so he teleported them elsewhere underground, nearby some tracks that raised his curiosity.
Can you guys tell something’s off with Maddgoth?
The guy’s kind of strange. A helmet of invulnerability, giant Humonculus, all this lavish decoration… what’s he got planned? What’s like, his deal?
Well let’s talk about the man and the castle. Maddgoth’s place is opulent, the doors are like stain glass windows with fine ironwork, the walls floors and 20 foot high ceilings are made of smooth stone, there’s four rook towers with arrow slits and all that. I really like the design here: cramped, symmetrical, straightforward. It’s unlike the natural, winding tunnels of Undermountian. This is a structure. A home, just built in the middle of this place. And what makes it even stranger is that Karnur and Varlax access it by gate. So is it even connected to Undermountain in anyway?
[map of Maddgoth’s castle as the duo explored it, with context to the rooms they went to? a symbol for the rooms they explored and the rooms they’re about to explore]
So Maddgoth starts by having some guests over. I had the players be the characters they described from the wizard portraits Karnur and Varlax saw when they first got here, under the guise all these wizards would gather for some socializing. I tried not to overthink this one, I didn’t make the players roll up stats, I didn’t have them think of extensive backstories. I just focused on the roleplay aspect, the atmosphere of this level. Maddgoth gets this going by pulling the lever in his console room. He pulls a lever here, a button there, and the tour begins with ambient orchestral music and a soft light show. This the purpose of this house: Maddgoth bringing people together.
I’ve talked a bit about how so often these games focus on how people fight, and not enough on how people live. Maddgoth leads the party to his bedroom, and so here’s how Maddgoth lives: he gets mages together and they play games. This was one of the great opportunities to introduce another game I really like:. This card game is amazing because it’s so easy to teach, not everyone knows it, and adding it to a world where wizards wear fancy helmets and build statues of themselves in their foyers makes it feel a little more grounded.2 Quickly explained: Skull is a bluffing game, and the first player to win two rounds wins the game.3 In this case, we had something like 4 or 5 players (including NPCs) and the game ended up in a draw between Varlax and Maddgoth after Karnur and another mage were eliminated. Rather than drag it out, I decided Maddgoth would end the game where it was and bring everyone off to the dining room. This was sort of a tricky dance: My hope was to get Karnur and Varlax reunited with the rest of the party smoothly. That meant if they returned to the Troglodyte Warrens while the others were there, then yeah we could have them run into each other. But since they have left, now I have to subtly keep them in the castle a while longer. Here’s the tightrope, make the castle seem inviting, but with a bit of tension. Will Karnur and Varlax try to make a break for it? Or will they stay with their host, who — at least on the surface — is remaining gracious. And speaking of, let’s talk about our host:
Maddgoth is a real villain. According to the module, he’s a serial killer that lures other mages into his home, murders them, and takes spells from his spellbooks. I played this up in the session, describing him as a short Mads Mikkelson really not liking messes, and having them over for the feast of St Anthony (Hopkins). Yes I went so far as to serve them fava beans and I nice kiante.4 I remember Varlax eating simply because no one told him outright that it was people. And I remember Karnur trying not to eat because he kind of got what was going on and didn’t want to risk it. In any event, the meal is all the use Maddgoth has for them. Wiz Biz has to commence (maybe it’s just sharing spells, maybe it’s MURRRDERRR) but since neither Karnur nor Varlax use a spellbook, they can go. He teleports them close enough to the rest of the party for them to unite, which we’ll see in the next session!!
Wiz-Biz: (n.) The business exclusive to the purview of wizards. Yes, this is what we called it at the table.
You can even play it online!
A longer explanation is here: Skull is a really really fun game, almost every time I have a deck of cards I try to teach it someone. It has become a go to game for when I want a group of mercenaries, goblins, or skeletons wasting time in a dungeon.
I know writers who use subtext, and they’re all cowards!