Behind the Scenes at D&D in a Castle: Part 4 of 5
This time, we get a peek into what it is like to run a few of the many enchanting Side Quests at D&D in a Castle.
Learn more about the work that went into creating a magical One Shot for players during downtime and Nicci-Grace of Mystic Quill Collective's adventures with Riddle Quest, where she and many brave souls explored the magnificent Lumley Castle.
The Morrigan’s Veil
For me, one of the absolute highlights of staffing D&D in a Castle was the opportunity to run a one shot several times during the first round of the event. I’d chosen The Morrigan’s Veil, a Celtic choose-your-own-adventure style one shot, complete with decision flow charts and clickable navigation buttons. Think Bandersnatch but in a PDF one-shot format. As the editor on the project, I was already familiar with the material and I’d spent the month leading up to the event tweaking it, adding a puzzle complete with a new map, and running three practice games. Every spare minute in the days before my first game were spent perfecting the material and finally, the morning came to erect my DM screen, don my scarlet cape, and hit play on my Celtic playlist.
The first session went smoothly, with plenty of laughs and a few red herrings. But it was the second session, when I was too exhausted to entertain my own nerves, that I really came into my own. Despite DMing for guests who have been playing since before I was born, I was able to relax into my role and have fun embodying the various NPCs, building connections with individual characters, and creating an immersive environment of collaborative storytelling.
Riddle Quest
Perhaps my favourite part of the whole event, however, was the opportunity to lead the Riddle Quest each day. The schedule is arranged so that each “side quest” is available to adventurers once in the morning session, once in the afternoon session, and once in the evening session, so that every party (aside from the infamous Hardcore Mode party) has the chance to participate without conflicts with their campaign sessions. Seizing another opportunity to don my ram horns and scarlet cape, I wild shaped into an Irish tiefling, aptly named Jameson, and led my party of brave adventurers around the decadent halls of Lumley Castle, from clue to clue.
From party sizes of two to ten, each day a new set of faces congregated, ready to have a bit of a laugh and put their Insight and Perception skills to the test. As they read out clues guiding them from one location to the next, Jameson encouraged accents and the party (mostly) complied, much to my own amusement. Decoding the riddles through the lens of their own castle knowledge eventually led each party to the discovery of a scroll fragment that would contribute to our eventual victory over the beholder and the tarrasque threatening the castle.
Safe to say, by the end of the event, the three scroll fragments were recovered, the threat was obliterated, and Riddle Quest was recorded in the annals (or in my memory at least) as a jaunty little quest through the storied halls of Castle Lumley, albeit led by an over-eager, scarlet-clad, folk-song-singing tiefling with a somewhat exaggerated Irish lilt. Huzzah! (huzzah!)
For more of my photos and reels from the event, follow me @dndnomadgirl on Instagram, or for official photos and event announcements, follow @dndinacastle.
