Disturbia - City of Wonders

[Ra-Tiel]

Inspired by Rihanna's "Disturbia", I got the idea of an ancient, deserted metropolis of a long gone decadent empire. Basically, my idea is to present the players with an "Utopia gone mad". Considering what a sick bastard I am and how much I like to mess with my players ( :P ), some ideas to include in my "City of Wonders" are:

Eternal Forest
The "park" district of Disturbia. A dark and gloomy forest, quickly crossing from the Prime Material into a pocket plane on the Feywild of endless size. Once a perfect place to relax and enjoy your private time, the magic of the Forest has turned into a dark shadow of its former self and transformed the forest into a dangerous death trap. The more you try to leave it, the thicker the growth becomes and the more dangerous creatures appear. However, once you settle with staying in the Forest, the way out becomes obvious and clear to you.

Temple of Flesh
Decadence was Disturbia's second name, and therefore it's no wonder that its inhabitants would look for new and creative ways to provide ways of fleshly pleasure. Nude stone statues of all common (and some not so common) races with perfect physiques are presented in the Temple, which is basically only a very long hall with podests on which the statues reside and a huge number of very comfortable private rooms. The touch of a sentient living being awakens the magic of the statues, transforming them into living beings, perfectly trained for providing maximum pleasure. However, the magic has become corrupted, and rejecting a statue's service will send them into a flying rage.

Recreation
The original inhabitants of Disturbia were masters of strange magic and even discovered the secret of eternal life. They researched a method to completely reform a creature's body after it died, even if it died of old age. The newly created body was always in the prime years for the respective race. However, the process was gruesome, as it involved storing the cut off head of the creature in a special magically prepared liquid in a jar. After the creature "died", the new bodies would just be magically cloned from the head. However, each time a new body was created, the creature loses a level and 2 points from each mental ability score. If the creature's level or one of the mental ability scores reaches 0, it becomes irredeemably mad. And now, the characters find a huge hall with thousands of disembodied heads eternally crying and screaming in utter madness.

Lifespace
The residential area of Disturbia. The rooms and hallways are clean and tidy, nothing would indicate a fight or any sort of unrest or catastrophe. Everything looks as if the inhabitants just left their rooms and could be back any moment. However, Lifespace hasn't seen the face of a living being for centuries. The whole area is a extradimensional place, once designed for maximum ease of use and convenience. The place would rearrange itself for each individual inhabitant, so that there wouldn't be any unnecessary walks any more. However, with the death of Disturbia, Lifespace has changed into a maze of scaled and intersected Tesseracts, confusing and trapping everyone who dares to enter.

And last but not least, the last inhabitant of Disturbia and reason why the city was devoid of life:

The Curse of Prime Madness
A "disease of the mind" created by Asmodeus himself, cast upon Disturbia and its inhabitants as a punishment for daring to interfere with his plans. The curse is actually an intelligent magical creature, being able to influence the imagination, creativity, behavior and morals of an infected creature. With increasing severity, the curse's influence and power grows, and he uses his malevolent cunning to manipulate the infected creatures into destroying themselves or each other. Even after having killed (or at least neutralized) all inhabitants and effectively destroyed the City of Wonders, the curse's presence still lingers in the lifeless ruins of the city.



I'm imagining this going to be a fun trip once the group's in the low to mid paragon tier. :D

[LordVreeg]

I know little of this 'paragon-ness', but I like the idea.

I think I would end up doing a lot of work with music with this, having some players (but not all) hearing bits and pieces of musics, and having manuals be found in some vivisectorum dealing with the surgical/magical procedures to create strange vocal freaks...

[Ra-Tiel]

I know little of this 'paragon-ness',

In 4E, the paragon tier is the level range from 11 to 20. ;)

but I like the idea.

Thanks. :)

I think I would end up doing a lot of work with music with this, having some players (but not all) hearing bits and pieces of musics, and having manuals be found in some vivisectorum dealing with the surgical/magical procedures to create strange vocal freaks...

Good suggestion! I definitively planned on using some handouts for Disturbia. Especially once the PCs are infected by the Curse (*insert evil plotting emote here*).

Hmmm I wonder whether I should create some sort of Asylum for player characters, considering that I'll definitively send them through the adventure "The Last Breath of Ashenport" when they're level 8. ;)

[LordVreeg]

I was only being my normal system-snob self in the paragon comment.  Ignore that.

I love the use of Asmodai's actual early roots here.  I normally dislike using such an over-used villain, but his original historical roots label him as a creature steeped in the huse of lusts.

He aslo was a patron of gambling halls...think that might fit in?  Maybe actually have temples with cards and other games of chance?

[Steel General]

Sounds very interesting, good luck with it. Hope it turns out the way you want it to.

[Ra-Tiel]

I was only being my normal system-snob self in the paragon comment.  Ignore that.

:P

I love the use of Asmodai's actual early roots here.  I normally dislike using such an over-used villain, but his original historical roots label him as a creature steeped in the huse of lusts.

Well, Disturbia wasn't really associated with big old A in any way (other that it was he who destroyed it). The inhabitants of the city were pretty much atheistic in their decadence and arrogance (see also how they rather searched for a terrible way to gain "immortality" instead of accepting an afterlife).

He aslo was a patron of gambling halls...think that might fit in?  Maybe actually have temples with cards and other games of chance?

If something's amoral and decadent, it'll fit pretty well with Disturbia.

Another comparison would be "what Rapture is for Bioshock, Disturbia is to my DnD world". ;)



@Steel General: Thanks! Any suggestions and comments are welcome. :) (And if someone wants to use this for his own game, feel free!)