Using AD&D's Spying Table to Resolve NPC Missions

AD&D is a game in which the player characters are expected to overcome challenges themselves. This is made most explicit in the section on NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS, and is embodied by the guiding principle that dealing with NPCs "should be expensive and irritating" - that is, that player characters seeking aid from outside sources should be dissuaded from doing so by the mere fact that those DM-controlled characters will be extremely costly and annoying to recruit, convince, placate, and the like. This is made explicit in the section on HIRING NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS TO CAST SPELLS OR USE DEVICES:I'm sure that there are many other examples in the text, although my Ctrl + F skills are failing me at the moment to dredge up more evidence. You will have to trust that I've read enough AD&D to be an authority on the matter when I say that this sentiment is apparent in Gygax's writing even when he doesn't spell it out in so many words.Deserted castles dot the landscape, but do not exist solely…