OOTS #1219 - The Discussion Thread

[Fish]

Since Team Evil arrived at this location, everybody has been talking about the idea of a double bluff. Mostly, this has centered around the statue, and whether the Gate might somehow be hidden inside it, or something. I think there could be a double bluff of a different nature...

I like the notion that it is a very powerful Teleport effect you don't notice...

...namely, how certain are we that there actually is more than one dungeon? Team Evil seems to have blindly proceeded with the assumption that 1 door = 1 dungeon. What if there only is one great big dungeon that resets with epic-level monsters, and everybody is teleported into that same space as they go in? A party could spend eternity checking and re-checking "every dungeon" and never reach the Gate.

And since the walls are made of multi-dimensional stone — whatever that is, it seems to block ghostform and possibly other kinds of wall-bypassing magic — the dungeon itself guards against anyone figuring out the trick. You can't just escape from "one dungeon" into the "next dungeon over" because there isn't a "next dungeon over" from this one. There's just this one.

Yes, I realize this would undermine the dramatic tension of MITD's clever ruse to keep Team Evil from finding anything. It doesn't undermine his character development, though, because he didn't know this wouldn't work.

And if you want to get really far afield in the speculation department, what if the statue is the key — literally — in that you have to take the statue with you in order to get to the gate? The statue just sits up there saying SACRIFICE FORGOTTEN and everybody ignores it. So not forgetting the statue gets you inside.

Yeah, too much speculation for one post. I know. Still, this is a fascinating turn of events.