The Campaign Builder's Guild

The mind-bending energies of the supernatural warp space and shift time, twist perception and reshape the very structure of reality. When those who utilize such powers twist the universe too far the consequences can be dire. Tears in the fabric of space beckon forth gibbering abominations and malfunctioning artifacts detonate, baking the land and boiling the sea for miles around. Where wizards play god, the god's play audience and find amusement in the foolishness of mortals. What remains of such experimentation is often a mind-bending blight on the face of reality.

The Contest:
In 500 words of less weave us a tale of magic gone mad in another member's setting. Whether it's a mystical staff with a mind of it's own stalking the land for fresh blood or a thousand tongued horror birthed from the eldritch womb of an enchanter's tower, bring it to life for us. Note that it need not be magical in the sense of fantasy, perhaps it's an artificial black hole that has ripped asunder the homeworld of it's foolhardy creator, as long as it is fantastical in origin and catastrophic in realization. Don't fret too much about the nitty gritty details, you might certainly touch on the history of its creation or the local legends surrounding it. What the primary focus of the contest is though is to describe the magical blight itself and how it affects the world around it. Please include the name of your entry and the name of the setting it is for. The contest will last through to the end of the month with voting at the end for the most interesting entry. I'd like to give a little shout out to our own Stryker25B who's entry in last month's contest inspired this one.

All entries should be submitted within this thread.

For Nomadic's Mare Eternus (http://www.thecbg.org/index.php/topic,67936.0.html) setting.

[ic=The Salt Tomb]Far from Indacus, across the Empty Quarter and beyond the Veld Drift, lies a region where nothing lives. Indeed, nothing could live in a place like this.

The Salt Tomb is thankfully very distant from civilized areas – even then, some worry that centuries in the future, it will intrude into other Quarters. For now, it is a small region that is avoided by all Maeri.

Once a small, but surviving worldlet named Resson, the Salt Tomb is now choked with salt. Navigation becomes more difficult the further into the region one delves, with saltbergs drifting randomly about, and the thickness of the water can slow ships. At the center of the Salt Tomb lies an almost pure sphere of salt, constantly leeching salt into the surrounding water.

Beyond the first trip to find it, no voyage has again been made to this intimidating and dangerous place. Its discoverer, the famed scholar and explorer Haran Indaci, was once a captain of renown, but retired from seagoing missions soon after returning to Indacus.

It is not known whether it was a curse by forgotten ancestors, angry gods, or merely malfunctioning machinery, but many Maeri take it as a lesson to always honour one's ancestors, and treat the cogs with respect.[/ic]

I initially wrote a short story, but it turned out to be almost a page, so I will save that for afterwards, in a different thread.

Everyone thinks of magical items, buildings, or devastating spells when they think of the creations of wizards. What about that which any man and woman together can create? What of a misguided child?

[ic=Fraedhilvar - Setting: Terra by khyron1144]
Fraedhilvar – The Mad Mage

Fraedhilvar is one of the most deadly, and mad, creatures known to roam the world of Terra. He is said to be the bastard son of the current Archchancellor of the Great University, Frater Gauge. When he was old enough to understand who his father was, Fraed journeyed to Arcanum to become the Archchancellor's apprentice.

Fraed was confident that his blood ties would be enough to grant him a prestigious position alongside his father. His initial application was accepted with all the pomp and circumstance of anyone else wishing to attend the academy, however, and it wasn't until a few years of training that he actually got the chance to meet his father. The meeting was disastrous for Fraed. Not only did he not achieve his dream, but his father refused to acknowledge that he could have ever had any children, much less a mundane runt such as Fraed. The young man's mind could not handle the complete disregard for everything he held to be true and he was ejected from the University a gibbering, incoherent mess.  

Since his disastrous application to the Great University, Fraed was consumed with learning enough about all facets of magic to prove himself worthy of his father's attention. Over the years, his fractured conscious allowed him to become a master of many schools of the arcane, especially those considered off limits to all but the wisest of mages. Fraed has conjured and made pacts with all manner of extraplanar creatures- his many personalities allowing him to easily circumvent and alignment detections they may employ. An angelic being sees Fraed as the purest of souls; perfectly able to handle holy powers in the wisest of manners. Demonic forces see him as the truest of evils in the universe and grant him their knowledge content in the fact that he will one day be able to repay their generosity tenfold.

The downside to Fraed's unique mind is that after decades of wandering, he has lost all track of who he really is. The mage's desire to join his father's side slowly warped into a need for revenge. In his mind, it was the world that spurned him, not just his father, and he would avenge himself upon it all. Under normal circumstances, anyone meeting Fraed would have to contend with any number of personalities. When the mad mage is in dire peril, a singular focus unites all of Fraed's personalities into a magical force so devastating that nothing can survive the ensuing onslaught.

Fortunately for the denizens of Terra, Fraed tends to wander all the planes of existence in a never ending search for magical knowledge. Should he ever focus enough of his mind to remember his deepest desires, the Great University would be in dire straits indeed. As things stand, the University is no more aware of Fraed than a fly is the web into which it is flying.
[/ic]