Sunless Citadel Spoiler Question

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Hello, don't read ahead if you haven't played this module.

First thank you all for the help in the other thread.

If I want to run an easy enough but still time limited game to keep players from backing in and out of the Sunless Citadel dungeon to long rest, do you think a time limit of a week (edit: with one long rest allowed per day) is appropriate?

Just something to give my non-optimized party of 5 enough long rests to recuperate but not enough that we open a room, kill some Goblins then go back and spend the day in town and rest.

[Avonar]

If you think the party would do that, then yes. I've run this three times now and so far no group has had more than 2 or 3 long rests. Potentially give them a time limited quest, i.e. if they do not do something about the Gulthias Tree in time then something bad is going to happen.

[Unoriginal]

Maybe just point out to them that if they enter someone's home, kill a few guards, then leave, when they come back not only the guards will be replaced, but they'll also be on high alert because, you know, someone entered their territory and killed guards.

Monsters aren't going to stay in their boxes waiting for the PCs to come search for them. If their intrusion is found out, they're going to face the faction's whole forces at once (as soon as the alert can be given).

Now, there are many factions in the Citadel, so it's not like it was facing the whole dungeon at once, but still.

[dreast]

Plenty of places to put reinforcements of the goblin/kobold/skeleton variety. You can also rule that reinforcement monsters don't grant XP, which diminishes the long rest utility. (Also remember that only one long rest per 24 hours is allowed.)

Getting into and out of the dungeon is difficult as well... have the rope break that leads back to the surface and giant rats prowl the entrance below the rope to discourage this kind of thing.

I allowed my group to long rest with the kobolds after they retrieved the dragon for them. They did it 3 times total over the course of the adventure, which seemed about right balanced against resource constraints. (The gnome didn't much care for the racism, but it was hecka fun.)

[Sigreid]

The adventure has a built in timeline. While it's not written to expect it, the description of the tree indicates if the party can get there in 24 hours or less the lost adventurers could be saved.

Don't tell them 24 hours, just that the party could be saved, if they're fast enough...

[Avonar]

The adventure has a built in timeline. While it's not written to expect it, the description of the tree indicates if the party can get there in 24 hours or less the lost adventurers could be saved.

Don't tell them 24 hours, just that the party could be saved, if they're fast enough...

Actually, that's the exact opposite of what the book says.

If you kill the tree, anyone who was a tree-person will die in 24 hours. That's the only in built timeline.

[Sigreid]

Actually, that's the exact opposite of what the book says.

If you kill the tree, anyone who was a tree-person will die in 24 hours. That's the only in built timeline.

Don't have it in front of me but I could swear the transformation took 24 hours.

[Unoriginal]

Don't have it in front of me but I could swear the transformation took 24 hours.

True, but the NPCs have already been transformed before the PCs even show up.

[Sigreid]

True, but the NPCs have already been transformed before the PCs even show up.

I'd adjusted that so they had a slim chance if they move fast. So I'll cop to that but stand by my assertion that it's consistent with the OP initial post.

[ChampionWiggles]

For me, I had the group could cure them if they use the fruit on them (after having a different NPC offer gold for said fruit, which presented a moral dilemma), but the party had a paladin and it seemed logical to me for him to use Lay on Hands to purge an illness from the party. Could have easily made it that the condition was a curse and require "Remove Curse", but I'm a DM who likes happy endings. My group also didn't abuse the long rest feature. They did it three times I think and it was definitely when they were low on resources and NOT just from going nova in a fight and the times they rested were always set up in smart places. One of the times was behind the door you needed to cast "Turn Undead" on, their thought being the goblins and kobolds were probably USED to that door being locked and therefore wouldn't see a reason to check it. It was a well thought decision and so I rewarded it by having nothing attack them. For their other long rests, they retreated to not very well traveled rooms, which normally had 1 entrance/exit, so easy to post guards to watch. I rolled some dice to see if any patrols came wandering by and then left it at that.

As a DM, I don't think that there should be the logic of "Endless waves of monsters respawn when you leave the area" because that makes no sense. That's video game logic. I had a set number of goblins based off of the description in the book (with some additional ones for patrols) and my group had ended up culling them all in separate encounters and explorations. It would have made no sense for more goblins to show up if they happened to leave the Citadel and they had helped the kobolds. My thought is, just have the monsters react accordingly. Patrols will figure out that some stuff is killing their friends, whether the bodies are hidden or not. If you really want to prevent them from abusing long rests, have traps be reset every time they leave, NEW traps be installed by the people they left alive, and as people have said, have remaining monsters on high alert. As others have suggested, you can also put a time limit on the condition to be purged or for them to gather a fruit from the Gulthias Tree (if that's their motivation). You could even have the mother of the Hucreles badger the party about how they're taking too long to rescue her children because they keep coming back to town and either threaten to reduce their reward (or actually do it).