Megadungeon Book Club 14: Castle Triskelion 11
I'm taking part in Studio315b's Megadungeon Book Club! We're looking at Castle Triskelion by Tim Stypinski for the next couple weeks. Studio315b compiled the rest of the dungeon and we've been reading along with that.
Check out my post from last week here.
The Grounds
The Grounds itself is actually roughly 10 or so minidungeons loosely arranged in the area right outside the castle. The dungeons themselves have strong fairytale-esque or whimsical theming, and each could easily be ripped out and run somewhere else. There's an attempt to make each dungeon be a faction that interacts with the others, but this really only seems like it would play out with the easternmost dungeons that are right next to the castle, as they're forced to interact by the layout of the hedge maze.
It's unclear why these dungeons are hidden away in a back area that the players are unlikely to go to unless prompted. Maybe these areas are meant to be taken and run somewhere else? Maybe its intended that the players enter the surrounding region of Castle Triskelion through the nearby Forest Perilous, thus necessarily walking through the Grounds to approach? The writing of the inner portions of the Castle not referencing the areas outside in the Grounds makes me think of them as an afterthought. The change in theming from "dark high-medieval prosperity" to "dark whimsical fairytale" between the Castle and the Grounds also serves to separate the two areas.
If anything, I think the areas of the Grounds are the best candidates for any re-packaging efforts that happen in the future.