This is a little complicated, so please bear with me. I'd appreciate any advice or thoughts on this btw.
Context: For those who don't know, there is a war going on involving several nations in my homebrew world. The main stage of it is in a small country called New Edom, a republic. It is being invaded by a celtic kingdom called Drennan along with goblinoid, giant and dark elf allies. (distinguished from drow--in my homebrew dark elves look like regular elves except for some of them having corrupted or fiendish qualities) The New Edomite republic is aligned with some dwarves, gnomes, elves, merfolk, locathah and lizardfolk. Both sides have dragon allies as well.
The dark elves' main concern is this: they believe that humans have crowded elvish folk out of the world. Long ago the elvish people had hidden away certain powerful weapons they had lest they be tempted to conquer the world with them. The dark elves have sought to provoke a great war that will overwhelm remaining humans friendly to elves and force the elvish people to release a powerful spell holding the very memory of where these weapons are kept.
The actual holding place is known in a sense--there is a mysterious tower made of glass in one of the New Edomite cities. It is apparently invulnerable, and though it will now and then permit totally helpless or wounded people inside (wherupon they fall into an enchanted sleep and wake up healed) a particular set of rooms it will not open any other doors no matter what spells are cast upon it. The dark elves want in but cannot get in without a special key called the Book of the Dragon.
It is called the Book of the Dragon mostly because of the secret guardian of the tower--an ancient crystal dragon. The mysterious and powerful weapons are held in some form of suspended time.
What I had been thinking is that in order to either destroy or gain control of these weapons first the Book of the Dragon must be used to break the magical codes that control the tower. Then the guardian must be reached, who can permit those carrying the book to travel to a place where 'the realities join'. Essentially this means that a gate is opened and a plane can be accessed where a person has been waiting who holds one of a number of objects that must be brought to the tower in order for it to leave its suspended time and enter reality proper. The other objects are in another reality altogether and those seeking to bring the tower out of time must go there and collect them then bring them back. This is the only way to gain control of the tower.
This is sort of the climactic plotline for my campaign, which has been going on a little over a year now. By the time my pcs have gained the Book of the Dragon it is clear that the war will not end anytime soon, and that the dark elves will never cease trying to gain it in order to get to the Tower of Glass. Obviously the ancient weapons must not be permitted to fall into their hands.
The Other Reality
I'm still debating over what this is. Essentially the plane needed to get to in order to cross over is the Abyss/Hell (which are sort of the same in my setting). The person in question (bearing in mind that time has little meaning in the Tower) is apparently imprisoned there. The pcs will have to go into this awful place, acquire this person or at least the object they hold and then use a special gate spell in order to get to the other reality. For some reason Hell is a common joining place. I'm still trying to figure out who the person is--possibly one of the elves as stated below.
The other reality as I'm conceiving it thus far is a world very much like our own. However what little magic exists is very subtle. In order to scatter the objects that make the tower whole the elves had to remove them from a building that mirrors the tower. In effect those who completed this magic sacrificed themselves, cutting themselves off from their own world. In this world all the mythical creatures are either gone or are isolated lonely freaks. They themselves found that they began to wither and die slowly. In desperation some of them found that by consuming human fluids and through this their passions that they could still live. They became vampiric beings, living quietly and subtly among humans. There were few to begin with and in fact none remain who were involved in the original crossing. Only two exist who remember anything at all of their origins, and those two have become quite mad.
What has developed is that the corresponding building (I'm not sure what it should be yet--something like perhaps a hotel, church or other distinguished building) is known to have strange properties, though most ordinary people find their minds slipping around it, forgetting it or being too disturbed to approach it. A kind of cult has developed around it, people who realize that objects belonging to it have strange powers, believing that they must collect them all to control the building. Since magic is so rare it is much coveted, this power. There is also a rival cult that believes it is a place of great evil and must be destroyed, or at least prevented from 'coming together'. Finally there is this: the vampiric elves are occasionally drawn to it and will prey upon those who they find in what they consider to be their sanctuary.
that's all I have for now. I would truly appreciate any thoughts or contributions.
I really don't see what you need help with here, Tybalt. It seems to fit together nicely, and the parallel world, although a bit harsh, sounds like a good idea.
I've been following your campaign with interest, and it's incredible. Just keep doing what your doing.
I think one thing I'd definitely like is some help designing the cults in question. What kind of membership might they have, what might they be like? What objects might either group posess that are from the building in question?
I've been thinking that the building is a small museum say devoted to mystery novels or something quirky like that, and that it is semi public enough that a lot of caution has to be used in how it is approached.
Tybalt,
What tech level is the other reality? You mention that it could be 'very much like our own', but I need to get a handle on if that is the magic level, the tech level, the civilization tendencies, or racially.
Will the PC's magic work there?
I'm gettting the feeling (and it may be just a Meritage-induced variation) that this other reality is a place of great despair and red hunger.
Anyway, before I can think about cults, I need to get a hanlde on the first set of questions. Hope I can be helpful.
I was a little puzzled on the tech level myself. As for the cults (assuming this is modern day) it could have a front similar to what happened in Fight Club (I guess this is similar ot any criminal organization). They could pretend to be a book club or something while studying the building's magical properties.
Thanks for the questions, helps clarify for me. What I had been thinking is that it would be set in 1990s Earth somewhere. Priestly magic will not work. Those with inherent magical properties will find the very place toxic to them unless they are in some rare place that has some ambience left in it. Psionics will find it more costly to replenish themselves.
As for 'great despair and red hunger' in a sense that is what our world is meant to seem like for people or creatures from a more magically strong world, that is the impression I want to give.
I'm also not sure about language--I might prefer to make the language strange but that might make the adventure thread there almost impossible.
1990'S gives the players too much of an adavantage, since they (the players) will know too much about tech, etc. Even with names and situations changed, or by throwing it into a different country.
You've never minded before when I get really crazy on you. So here we go again...
Use a twisted version of Berlin, 1929, but but with the socialists and the democrats aware that something is strange in a huge, cavernous nightclub, in the center of the night-life part of Berlin. They are not aware of what exactly it is, but somehow, it is special. The Natiolists think it is evil, the nexus point for the strange perversions that are driving their country to the communists.
Beneath that, You could have the strange, aryan-mythos' of the time, Thule society fighting with Himmler's version, as well as having certain Jewish Kabbalahists, all feeling something strange in this nightcub district. The Vampire-types in their midst can belomg to all groups, including one group that still lives and protects the strange cabaret-like nightclub, some even as performers.
Brownshirts and the Weimar republic and the communists all ready to riot, all the insane chaos will drive your characters, who are used to lawful New Edom, absolutely nuts. And of course priestly magic only works for no one, and only a few kabahlistic locations can allow for magic use.
Just a weird idea. Take what parts of it you will. But I did write this dead sober in the A.M.
Magicians/bards could use influential music like Wagner or swing (popular at that time) as a method of spellcasting without rousing suspicion.
Quote from: So-KeherMagicians/bards could use influential music like Wagner or swing (popular at that time) as a method of spellcasting without rousing suspicion.
I did not even think of that. Very nice build-on.
The only problem I have with the music hall/concert hall idea is this: what about the idea of the scattered objects? Unless you have a very clear idea of how it could work I'd prefer more of a static environment that wouldn't be as wildly disturbed. I had been thinking actually of a sort of museum, one perhaps devoted to literature or to crime or something.
The Weimar Republic thing is an interesting idea, and one which tempts me. The thing that draws me to it is the idea that it is a sort of parallel republic but a chaotic one.
However I have an even more radical idea--based on a Harry Turtledove novel. What if it is still the 1990s but it is in a world in which Hitler won the war--one that is breaking down into chaos as the last of the old Nazis and quislings die off or retire into senility? Rather than having to worry about history I could then make up what I wanted, even perhaps have it set in the USA or the UK or Canada or whatever but have bits of surreal weirdness along with a society in struggle going on. That takes care of the environment for oddity.
I've read Turtledove. I like the idea, and I always have. The Weimar tickled both my own (justifiably infamous)love of wild factionalism as well as giving you a bunch of ready-made, maniacle cults. Not to mention giving someone's character the chance to mouth off to Hitler. But a current nazi-led US or Canada would be pretty cool to do.
AS to the location, have you ever seen a real prop-house under an Operehouse? I direct your eyes to the following:
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(//../../e107_files/public/1183663187_392_FT33562_palais_garnier__le_grand_staircase.jpg)
A proper Opera house, along with the prop warehouses and such that exist below it, provide hidden areas and splendor..and Vampiric transvestite performers, so I just CANNOT see how you can pass this up.
OK. Maybe I can.
I think I'm going to use that picture myself for the inside of the Hostem's Hall, in Igbar...
Okay, you're selling me on this...I'm very impressed!
More inspiration for the Opera house may come from the most cliche Phantom of the Opera. In the film there are many secret passageways and the underground and workshops and stuff beneath. It inspired many of my 'places of interest' in the past. If you haven't seen it I would suggest checking it out. It's a good movie too so it can't hurt.
yes, i agree w/ so-keher. also if you decide you like that tybalt, there should be some mysterious, inky colored doorway with a magic seal on it. also you might want to incorporate different time streams like 1 hour passess in worl w/ New Edomm while 1 day passes in "this world". Just an idea i got from stargate atlantis but the timestream thing would probably be extremely difficul to manag to manage
Did I mention the possiblity of Vampiric transvestite performers?
Oh. I did? Well...good. It will throw your players for a loop. It always does mine. Really.
Quote from: Atlantisyes, i agree w/ so-keher. also if you decide you like that tybalt, there should be some mysterious, inky colored doorway with a magic seal on it. also you might want to incorporate different time streams like 1 hour passess in worl w/ New Edomm while 1 day passes in "this world". Just an idea i got from stargate atlantis but the timestream thing would probably be extremely difficul to manag to manage
That's a great idea. I don't think it would be too hard. All the dm would have to do is keep track of time in "this world" and then translate that into days (it is already the same number of hours) in New Edomm. I think it would help layers, in their mind, separate themselves from New Edomm and make "this world" more strange to them. Strange doors are always a plus.
Interesting. I like the time door idea too, I had been wondering about that but that is a solid approach.
A few thoughts on the cults.
1. I'd like the first cult, the one trying to control things, to actually be a sort of fringe outside of the struggling parties. I'd like it to have a post Order of the Golden Dawn/Illuminati feel to it, with perhaps more influence in the Weimar state than say in the growing Nazi party or among the actual Communists. Thoughts? I had also thought of the leader of the cult perhaps being a member of government in some fashion. This group believes that controlling the objects will lead to them having some kind of connection with God/powers of creation etc. They have 5 of eleven objects and known what three of them do.
2. The second cult might actually be just a group of cranks and professors and so on, typical Call of Cthulhu adventurer types. Perhaps with a paranoid ex Freikorps member as well. They have access to one object.
This is getting really good.
[blockquote-Adenturous Tybalt]2. The second cult might actually be just a group of cranks and professors and so on, typical Call of Cthulhu adventurer types. Perhaps with a paranoid ex Freikorps member as well. They have access to one object. [/blockquote]
These guys were pretty much underground in '29', but they fit your bill really well for the second group.
The Thule Society (German: Thule-Gesellschaft), originally the Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum 'Study Group for Germanic Antiquity', was a German occultist and Völkisch group in Munich, named after a mythical northern country from Greek legend. The Society is notable chiefly as the organization that sponsored the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which was later transformed by Adolf Hitler into the Nazi Party. Hitler, however, was never a member of the Thule Society. (from wikipedia)
This is getting really good.
[blockquote-Adenturous Tybalt]2. The second cult might actually be just a group of cranks and professors and so on, typical Call of Cthulhu adventurer types. Perhaps with a paranoid ex Freikorps member as well. They have access to one object. [/blockquote]
These guys were pretty much underground in '29', but they fit your bill really well for the second group.
The Thule Society (German: Thule-Gesellschaft), originally the Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum 'Study Group for Germanic Antiquity', was a German occultist and Völkisch group in Munich, named after a mythical northern country from Greek legend. The Society is notable chiefly as the organization that sponsored the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which was later transformed by Adolf Hitler into the Nazi Party. Hitler, however, was never a member of the Thule Society. (from wikipedia)
A few thoughts of mine:
Cult #1.
The first cult, which we will call The Collectors, is made up largely of a small group of conservative rather normal seeming people--the leaders include a lawyer, a police inspector, a businessman, a religious scholar and a member of the legislature. They are leaders because they posess five of the items known to belong in the mysterious room. (an oil lamp, a cup, a wastepaper basket, a stone egg, a pair of spectacles and a key) This group has come to believe that they will have some way to contact God/the Divine and gain enormous blessing themselves should they collect all the items proper. The items are listed in a 'holy book' made from the fragments of ancient notes from something called The Codex Draco. There were originally sixteen items but five found their way one way or another back to the room and now are powerless and irremovable--somehow trying to take them (or anything else) out of the room is impossible, somehow the item will become lost and end up back there.
There is also a strange mirror in the room that shows it as apparently it ought to be--with all the items in it.
Three members of the group keep watch over the area--two are students, one is rotated on various pretexts. They keep tabs on who goes in and out, though very few people go in since it is a sort of memorial room.
While the group appears quite normal and conservative, holding down steady jobs and going to church and so on in fact they can be dangerous if provoked or if they felt someone was trying to rob them of an item or withold one, or ask too many questions. They have contacts among some rather dangerous and violent people and will not hesitate to call in favours. Furthermore several of them are willing enough to do personal violence if it comes to that. The one thing they are truly wary about is that the vampires hang out in the area. They don't know why and the creatures seem capricious and dangerous, so they try to avoid them and try not to show too much interest in their actual goals.
Group # 2:
The Watchers (as I'm calling them so far) are really more of a slowly gathering collection of people from various walks of life who have either been freaked out by an encounter with the room or else contact with the first cult. They have come to believe that monsters walk the night and that an evil cult is attempting to do some sort of weird horrific ritual. One thing that the Watchers know is that whatever goes into the room and has the door shut upon it ends up either as part of the room if it belongs there or else disappears.
A few thoughts about the era:
I MAY still try the Weimar Republic thing or something like it, but I wanted to suggest that I have a few very good ideas (I think) on how to make the modern era more like a journey into Hell than anything else. Still working on that but we'll see. If it ends up seeming silly then I'll try something else.
One thing I am definitely doing: the evil spriggans as a plot foil. Spriggans are warrior-servants of the elves, though in the current New Edom game few of them remain. They were never tractable servants and now are kept carefully away from human lands lest they prejudice the volatile humans. Spriggans tend to be good cunning fighters but are capable of great cruelty and malice if not held in check. Several were taken through the initial gate. However unlike the elvish guardians they did not lose their memories or get traumatized--they just broke free and began doing evil things as usual. Till rather recently they were resigned to doing bizarre and nasty stuff that kept up their sense of fae magic (they have all by now gone fully unseelie) but then they found out about the Order of the Collectors. Now what they want more than anything is to try to go back. They have begun to slowly try to take over the Order to steal what they have and learn about the other items.
The pcs are unlikely to be able to make an alliance with them--the Spriggans will be entirely suspicious of them and are the kind of creatures to stab first and ask questions later when in doubt. Because of their size changing abilities they have hiding places that are very difficult to get to. They have also been building constructs and using fae magics to build a small army of followers.
I've purchased a background area--the thought of doing work on in effect ANOTHER campaign made me feel tired, since I have to get ready for school and a job change in the fall. So instead I went and bought a Call of Cthulhu supplement, since Chaosium does great settings with full casts of NPCs. The one I got is called Goatswood and is set in the Severn Valley in the UK.
The Adventure (So Far...please let me know what you think)
The Book of the Dragon
This is the key to the Tower. It is a mechanical type book which has a number of metal picture plates in a movable frame. They flip over if moved to the very edge and depressed--sometimes the metal plates are totally blank. All pictures are etched onto a strange metal coloured like bronze but feeling hard as steel. There are three essential pieces to the book--the cover which enables the rest to be transported and which actually locks the rest into place, the frame is actually a series of wheels and discs contained in a hollow foldable rectangle, and two layers of picture plates that are delicately hinged and must be fitted into the frame.
The main pictures in it are:
1. A series of geometric shapes, starting with a line, a square, a cube, and a cube within a cube. related to: a person kneeling down.
2. Another Series: A person kneeling down; a person walking; a person running, a person moving all limbs at once.
3. Another Series: squiggly lines going up; squiggly lines going horizontal; staggered lines horizontal (related to a person running)
4. Another Series: a circle; two circles overlapping; three circles overlapping; four circles overlapping.(related to a person walking)
5. A candle gradually dwindling. The candle has a single dash like mark placed on it at regular intervals.
6. The Tower: this has a series of pictures:
- A single door open, related to a picture of a naked man with empty hands raised. (basically symbolically signifying that a person who comes without hostility and in need can enter the tower--they don't have to be naked or totally unarmed) However there is only one room shown. This is the healing room in the Tower. Once entering it people fall into a deep sleep, waking refreshed. If they entered during a time of danger the Tower will only release them once an immediate danger outside it has passed. They have no sense of the passage of time and in fact enter a period of suspended animation.
- A single door open with a room beyond the first one that seems to have a series of lines leading up to where it stands in the middle of the wall. (representing rungs on a fixed ladder) This is the second room and is detailed below. It will be noticed that whenever the book is configured to feature pictures from the series 1-5 and their related pictures that the picture with the single door and the room beyond the first is also in it.
- A door beyond the second door. Note that this is an entirely separate picture. If the book is moved to configure to this as the centerpiece the candle is down to the end and the rest of the pictures are blank.
What Does it All Mean?
The Tower really only has three main rooms. One is a rest haven and entry hall. One is a guard room. One is the prize--the room containing the secrets of the tower.
Essentially the plates 1-5 are clues about how to survive a series of traps and strange events taking place in the second room. Basically a person who is well balanced--both thoughtful and capable of action--can survive.
There is a false impression that the second room is hundreds--perhaps thousands--of identical glass rooms, each with four doors in it. In fact however they are all the same room.
In some rooms time is distorted--in others gravity--in others space. This creates confusion but is also at times dangerous--too much lingering and the Tower begins to attack. It will do the following attacks:
1. The squiggly lines going up and down: these represent a time attack--wavering light approaches. If the pcs do not flee the room they are swallowed up and withered by age, dying swiftly.
2. The squiggly lines going horizontally represent time confusion--events that have already happened might be repeated--people who were thought dead might reappear with no knowledge of how they died.
3. The line leading to square and cube and so on is a particularly violent atttack--the more people move the more permutations of the line's dimensions appear, as gradually whirling sharp edged glass that attacks with the strength of a golem. It cannot really be harmed, the only way to deal with it when it appears is to be perfectly still until it vanishes again.
4. Staggered lines horizontally. The room appears to change so that it starts to close in on itself like a collapsing Escher print. Remaining in the room means being crushed by the collapse of matter.
5. The circles overlapping: it will seem when this happens that every door opened leads to a room where something awful has happened--this shows possibilities of failure. The trick is not to give up but keep moving. Once each door has been tried then there will be a new possibility. Giving up means that there is an increasing possibility of an awful end.
(note: examples of these might include: seeing one's own body having died of dehydration/old age; seeing one's death due to one of the Tower attacks mentioned above, etc)
The candle represents time spent--it shows roughly six hours and 18 minutes. Once this happens then the room appears to be collapsing in on itself--all other rooms that can be seen are falling apart into what looks like swirling chaos. Whatever room a character is in however at this time will remain still though it begins to shudder. A single door is unlike the other possibilities--it shows a black void. If this is entered then the Third Room is achieved.
The Third Room
This is a much larger space, also made of glass, which has a glassy-steel like wavery perfectly circular pool in the middle. By the pool rests a great crystal dragon, a rather serpentine creature whose scales jingle softly, which has a head resembling that of a birdlike reptile with wise dark eyes. This is the guardian of the Tower.
The guardian if attacked is a very dangerous opponent--both psionic and great wyrm. Furthermore it has some measure of control over the abilities of the Tower and can invoke at will the defenses mentioned above.
(more to come)
so, effectively, you would need a very smart wizard, a dextrous rogue/ranger/ whatever, and many meatshields to get to the last room and defeat the guardian. Plus some psionic character/thing to defend against the great worm's psionic abilities. plus im guessing that there would be more defenses in the final room if the creaters didnt want anyone getting through. Couldnt a wizard just teleport past all of that? Maybe you should actually put the second and third rooms on different worlds than the main room so there is actually three towers.
I think I understand what you mean--what I would like to go with is rather that the different rooms are set to different times so that it amounts to the same thing, do you think that would work?
yes it is basically the same only it works better seeing as what i suggested allowed you to use some magic to do it but with this, what would happen if someone used timestop? are they different timestreams or alternate dimensions? or do they rotate through they tower from existing to nonexistent evry so often but you must get through one room, so they rotate to they second room but you would heve to use some spell to prevent yourself from being rotated out of existence with the first room then teleport from being suspended in time and space to the entrance of the second room and so on.
I have to admit that I haven't thought of it...I'm going to have to seriously think about the implications of your questions.