Hey DMs.  Have yall ever run a labyrinth dungeon?  

I have the "Fantastical Folding Fortress of Jaffee the Mad" from the 2022 one page dungeon contest.  (Incidentally, worthwhile to buy).  The map folds horizontally and vertically, connecting and disconnecting hallways which are not present when unfolded.  The players insert magic items into slots around the map to fold the fortress.  This allows them to explore the entire fortress, which is impossible if it remains unfolded.

I love the idea but don't understand the monsters selected (ie why would they all be there just smoking cigarettes in their rooms, waiting to be killed?) nor do I understand why the PCs would go there.  Lastly, where would the tower be in the world?  If it just on the hill outside of town, how come the last 100 adventurers did not plunder it?  

So I want to keep the map but revise monsters and more importantly need to buttress the plot: how and why and the PCs enter the fortress.  Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!

I’m not familiar with the adventure, but it basically sounds like how 1e worked. There were ruins outside town that were basically a monster hotel. Kill things take their stuff and level up so you can kill bigger things. The monsters will wait patiently for their turn to die. The characters’ motivations were, because it’s there. No one plundered it before, because they hadn’t. What were the orcs eating and where were they pooping? Who set all the traps in random hallways that led nowhere? Doesn’t matter. Role play was when you remembered the names of other characters. Good times. 

Anyway, you could go full retro dungeon crawl like above and just kill things. Alternatively, this sounds like the kind of place where some kind of crazy wizard would set up shop so they can continue their research. The PCs need to stop the research, or maybe rediscover the research, or stop the research from being rediscovered. 
Or a cult meddling in forces they don’t truly understand, because that’s just what cults do. 
Or it’s a temple to the Great Old One warlock patron that’s been long forgotten.

Another option is if you trust your improv skills. Just let the characters loose in there and listen to what your players come up with. They’ll start inventing reasons why this place exists. Then just pick whichever of those you like and make there be something at the end that proves the theory was right all along. Your players will think you’re a genius for giving such subtle hints, and they’ll be happy they figured out the puzzle. 

It comes with a plot hook: People across the world are falling into hysterics (which I would read as laughing hysterically because of the premise). Jaffee screwed up imprisoning Prince Madness and got himself possessed. His family knows what's up. They reach out to the PCs and ask them to go to Jaffee's tower and settle things down. Sounds fine to me!

It gives a vague location for the tower but it doesn't really matter. It can be smack dab in the middle of a nearby city if that's convenient. Doesn't matter. Why would adventurers have gone in before? Even if there are 100 mid- to high-level adventurers nearby, have they really sacked every occupied building in the area? Just. . . all of them? Or even just the cool ones like towers? That's a hard world to live in. I would struggle with a campaign world where adventurers are so common that I had to justify an adventure existing at all, but I would totally be unable to manage a world where they're also all murderhobos.

As written, all of the monsters were bound or imprisoned in their rooms by Jaffee. Only Jaffee, the prince, and the hyenas can theoretically move around freely. Presumably they want to stay at the shrine because they're shrining some stuff right now. I could totally see revising this dungeon to make the setup a dynamic living space and that would almost surely improve it.

If you're looking to swap out the creatures inside with something that would make a bit more sense to find living unassisted in a dungeon, I'd say swap out any living creatures with Constructs or Elementals. Even if you keep the exact same stats, and just describe them as clockwork versions of whatever is in the list, or replace their damage type with a particular element and have them all just be elemental spirits.

I think to summarize the above thoughts would be, stop worrying about the details and let the PCs bash some monsters!?!  Probably not a bad idea.  Any dissenters?  I like the idea of the folding map.  Perhaps the wizard has locked them into their rooms with a magical amulet or shackles as suggested.  Removing the amulet would allow a non lethal way to win the encounter.  

We are running two campaigns now.  A very long campaign, actually a series of campaigns, that I know the final boss but we are multiple sessions from getting anywhere close to him.  There are three players who have been playing twice monthly since fall.  They play the same characters each time but one died and had to be replaced by a new character.  

I am also running a spiral campaign.  There are half a dozen low level, some what 2-D characters.  Any player can grab a character for a night and we play one or two one shot adventures in a night.  The setting is a town I made up for a previous campaign and is the same world, but different continent form the long campaign.  The town is a base and they can explore the surrounding areas and playing these one shots.  I plan on adding the "folding fortress" to the list of available one shots.  We play this on weeks when one of us is too busy with work and kids to play.  

Would be interested in other ideas...  

"A massive, dark fortress, one day appears just outside [insert convenient location] The locals are afraid and weary, the fortress seems to exude a sense of evil. Several adventuring parties have entered, the lucky have come out confused, and ranting, but carrying riches. The unlucky ones haven't come out at all..."

Is this fortress guarding treasure? Or is it a prison for an ancient evil? Are the players breaking in? Or unintentionally breaking something out?

The characters enter to explore and find treasure, even state that as the premise. Let them believe the maze and monsters are defences of this fortress dungeon crawl. More intelligent mobs give unspecific threats like "[big bad] will destroy you!" "You can not win against [big bad]" When they get to [big bad], layer action stuns the characters so the villain can soliloquy, (best evil villain voice) "Muah ha ha! For a millennium I've been trapped in this prison, and banished to another plane. Thank you for releasing me! Your reward will be the choice of becoming my slaves, or a quick death!" (The choice does open the possibility that the characters will simply become slaves, but I think most parties will fight)

Let the big bad escape after a hard fight, and this could be the start of a campaign to track them down and thwart them.

I thought some more about it.  

I still didn't love the start of the adventure.  What do yall think about this: PCs find a fountain and drinking from the water teleports them to another plane?  The castle is on the other plane, which is mostly empty and arid.  (Alternative hook if they don't drink from the fountain, a chest is upended on a road, with gold coins strewn about.  Touching the coins teleports you to the other plane).  The idea being that someone is actively trying to bring people to this place and entrap them.  

I found some artwork depicting insanity, which I am inserting into the art hall room.  (I usually show my players pictures of the environment or key items as we play).  The paintings in the room are actually entrapped souls.  Some can be rescued (including some hostile monsters) from the painting by solving the riddles on the brass plates on the frame.  Some are permanently locked in the frames.  The paladin is at the right place to get his war horse and his horse is gong to be locked into one of the pictures.  PCs can also be trapped in the art because the paintings induce madness and can charm them.  

To escape the last room, there is a dark pool in the center of the room.  Their world can be seen in they peer into it and jumping in will allow them to re-enter their world. 

Other ideas?