Greed and Vague Evil: B1 and the Retired Adventurer as Dungeon-Brained Sicko

I did a fun little walkthrough of B1: In Search of the Unknown over on Bluesky. While you can read the detailed play by play over there (including my step by step stocking of each and every room per the module's instructions, with some interesting results), I thought I'd use the blog to discuss some more high-level impressions of the module's contents overall.

One thing that immediately struck me about this module is that it's essentially the embodiment of my blog post Retired Adventurers Long for the Dungeon. That is that high-level adventurers, upon retiring to their (typically) wilderness seats of power will, for whatever reason, feel compelled to construct "dungeon mazes thereunder." Dungeons are all that adventurers know. They stake their claim to power and wealth by plundering them, then apply that same wealth and experience to perpetuating their existence. Inadvertently or not, they create the proving grounds for the next generation of adventurers.

This is basically the premise of B1. Rogahn the fighter and Zelligar the magic-user built a single tower for lookout purposes, but it isn't detailed at all in the module and may not even still stand. Instead, the focus is on the mazelike dungeon beneath the tower, which contains all of the retired adventurers' living quarters and utility rooms.

But the dungeon isn't just a place where Rogahn and Zelligar once lived. It's also filled with impracticalities like needlessly long hallways, twisting corridors to nowhere, door labyrinths, pit traps, and portcullises which drop from the ceiling to trap hapless wanderers in dead end passages. The dungeon is not incidentally hazardous to plunderers, but intentionally so. Rogahn and Zelligar lived alongside these contrivances, presumably because they anticipated that one day, their spiritual successors would arrive to overcome the challenges they had created.

This can all be written off as dungeon weirdness typical of TSR modules of the time, but I think this would be a disservice to the legacy of the great Rogahn and Zelligar. The dungeon is not just a lair with some weirdness necessitated by gameplay expectations. Rather, it is a place that tells a story about who these two characters were - they had huge egos, were without moral scruples, and were massive trolls.

Rogahn and Zelligar are a perfect representation of the character of adventurers in D&D. "Their motives were based on greed and some kind of vague (or chaotic) evil." Using "the work of hundreds of slaves and laborers" they built their stronghold far from civilization, "since both men disliked visitors and intruders." 

They ventured out only occasionally to do adventurer stuff, until for some reason they emerged to defeat a barbarian horde which threatened the valley which the stronghold overlooked. This was either because they expected a substantial reward from the populace (which they did receive) or because their massive egos simply could not tolerate barbarians within their domain (this is my read on the situation). They then went on campaign in the barbarian lands, never to return.

But their stronghold, Quasqueton, remains, and it is a monument to both men's legacies. The place is thick with ego:

• The entrance corridor contains a pair of magic mouths which declare one after the other and then in unison: "WHO DARES ENTER THIS PLACE AND INTRUDE UPON THE SANCTUARY OF ITS INHABITANTS? ONLY A GROUP OF FOOLHARDY EXPLORERS DOOMED TO CERTAIN DEATH! WOE TO ANY WHO PASS THIS PLACE - THE WRATH OF ZELLIGAR AND ROGAHN WILL BE UPON THEM!" Then they both laugh as the enchantment fades away. Keep in mind that this effect would have been triggered any time anyone entered the stronghold even when Rogahn and Zelligar were still alive.
• Zelligar's chamber contains a 70-foot wall carving of himself casting the spell which turned away the barbarian horde. 
• His laboratory includes a wall hanging which reads "What mysterious happenings have their birth here? Only the greatest feats of wizardry, for which every element of earth, water, and sky is but a tool!" 
• The library has blocks of white granite in the floor which form "R&Z".
• Rogahn's mistress's chamber contains a tapestry depicting himself rescuing her from a burning village with enemies watching from afar.
• Rogahn's own chamber contains tapestries which depict him personally slaying a dragon (his companions are also there, but he is striking the killing blow), his and Zelligar's battle with the barbarians, he and his mistress holding hands on horseback, and him and Zelligar shaking hands atop the hill where the stronghold now sits.
• Rogahn and Zelligar gifted their advisor what is essentially an autographed painting of themselves which hangs in the advisor's chamber.
• The unfinished second level contains a museum dedicated to Rogahn and Zelligar's own lives and deeds. Who's to say how else the two would have managed to stroke their own egos had they lived to finish their construction?

Quasqueton is filled with indications of not only Rogahn and Zelligar's egos, but also their sinister nature:

• Rogahn and Zelligar used orc slaves in the stronghold's construction, and some of those slaves can still be found within the dungeon.
• Zelligar's laboratory contains a barbarian chieftain's skeleton hanging from the ceiling and also serves as a torture chamber.
• The stronghold's trophy room contains not just trophies from monsters but also a dwarf skeleton suspended in irons from the ceiling.
• The worship area contains an idol of a horned head with an evil visage.
• There is another barbarian skeleton on display in the museum on the second level.

Finally, Quasqueton contains many elements which seem to exist for the sole purpose of inconveniencing, annoying, or otherwise thwarting adventurers:

• The aforementioned needlessly long corridors, hallways to nowhere, and labyrinth of doors.
• The "wizard's annex" where Zelligar practiced his magic contains, for seemingly no reason, an illusory treasure hoard. It is not tied to a trap or any other element of danger which would justify its existence.
• Zelligar's laboratory contains a glass jar with a black cat in clear liquid. If someone opens the jar, the cat yowls, jumps out, and flees, even passing through closed doors, never to appear again. This is there explicitly "to surprise and/or mystify the adventurers."
• Two teleportation rooms in close proximity connected by winding hallways exist solely to confuse intruders attempting to map the dungeon.
• The room of pools contains some elements which might be of practical use, such as healing liquid, drinking water, and fish, but also acid, sickening syrup, wine which compels imbibers to drink to excess, liquid which puts the drinker to sleep, another illusory treasure hoard, and water which causes muteness.
• A guest chamber contains a false door which seemingly exists solely so that intruders will attract monsters while trying to open it.
• A hallway outside an empty utility room contains false steps which trick intruders into thinking they've descended a level.
• A statue on the second level points to a rocky outcropping of no significance.

There are other tricks and traps to be found in Quasqueton, but those which I haven't mentioned at least serve an apparent purpose in deterring intruders or meddlers who may have been present during Rogahn and Zelligar's lives. The poison needle trap on the nightstand in Zelligar's chamber is protection against thieving guards or apprentices. The portcullis or pit trap in the dead end hallways could be used to trap or kill visiting dignitaries or enemies. The treasure cave on the second level is guarded by animating statues because slaves working in the caves might stumble upon or know about and seek to plunder that room.

The tricks and traps listed above, however, seem to have been included with the assumption that one day Rogahn and Zelligar would be no more, and that upstart adventurers like they once were would come to rob the strongholds of its riches, just as Rogahn and Zelligar did to similar dungeons in their youth.

B1 is a good teaching module, not just for its advice for players and Dungeon Masters, but because it gives us a look into the psyche of the retired adventurer: reclusive, inscrutable, and egomaniacal. Maybe that's not the kind of retirement you as a player see for your character, and maybe as a DM you don't want all your retired adventurers to be this type, but it's an interesting place to start when thinking about what all those deserted castles are supposed to look like from a gameplay perspective.

As should always be the case when preparing to run a site-based adventure like a dungeon crawl, the place should tell a story. In the case of Quasqueton, with its elaborate tapestries, proudly displayed skeletons, and middle fingers to adventurers, B1 tells the strange story of Rogahn and Zelligar, dungeon-brained sickos.