Tower of Glass

[Tybalt]

For a while in my campaign some of my players have been fascinated by an ancient seemingly unbreakable glass tower that is in a small city named after it. One of my players believes it is in some way involving psionics, while others have believed it was built by some ancient magical race. However no one knows. It is known that once in recent history when a goblinoid invasion took place that citizens found the door mysteriously opened and found themselves able to get inside to save themselves. It apparently had several rooms inside though there were other doors they could not open. When they emerged it closed again and was impervious to spell or power.

I'm trying to figure out what the tower could be--I have to be honest and say that it was whimsy that put it there. It might make for an interesting objective for an adventure but I'm not sure.

The players kind of what to find out what it is and at the same time they are supposed to scout out the area--it is occuppied by an enemy force.

I'm also trying to figure out what the city is like. They briefly visited it before but didn't really get a good look--I had told them it was a major market time and so they had to camp outside the city with thousands of others. I want it to be different from Fineberg. It is about twenty miles or so inland by the River Alna, which is a slow, wide but somewhat shallow river, navigable only by small boats and barges. It is on a wide plain and the area around it is very fertile.

[Ravenspath]

Interesting. I have something similar in the my campaign world (I promise to post it soon.) There the tower is made of out a green glass or emerald that cannot be entered in any way. I am developing a new character class that is somewhat similary to artificer and the tower is the 'activation' point for someone to be able to become that class. The tower itself was created by the Lost Ones, a race of beings that the dragons decimated millenia ago. No one has been able to enter the tower for that long at least. The dragons tried to destory it, but were unsuccessful. A town has grown up around the tower, but it really more a camp of those who have come to activate their new found powers.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

If one of your players has an idea you like, go for it.  Not only does that answer your question, but the player will feel satisfied like they solved it.  They needn't know where you got the idea ;)

Perhaps the tower is a living being?  Sentient glass?  Some kind of glass golem?  A gateway to the Plane of Mirrors, run by those creepy nerra?  The home of an eclectic half-dragon were-hyena archmage?

[Tybalt]

How might the tower serve as an activation point? That's an intriguing idea but I'm not sure how I'd present it.

I agree Phoenix that it is cool to give players some wish fulfillment, though I don't just want to cater to the psion...

[Xathan]

I personally am a huge fan of long gone civilization theory, but here's a twist - what if the civilization had no magic, but built it all...with science! That way the players that guessed that get the satisfaction of getting it partially right, but it allows you to throw fun, interesting, and crazy things at them they aren't prepared for. (Why can't I dispell this trap? or that golem's fire shooting wand?)

Or, if you want to combine the theories, it was built by a long dead race of powerful psions.

[deadone]

Its part of a long dead wizard's plan to destroy the world (it was quite mad).  Throughout the world are similar artifacts, most of them long buried and lost, and their purpose forgotten.  However, if someone were ever to complete the array and activate it, it would forcibly merge the Prime Material with the Positive and Negative energy planes.

[limetom]

The first idea that came to my mind was that the tower itself was sentient.  For whatever reason, it has a vested interest in protecting those near it.  Perhaps some deity placed it there, or some long-lost magical or psionic civilization (an idea I actually think is too cliché) was the original owners/users.  In any case, the tower itself aids the populous in dire times of need.

The other doors would have some other kind of trigger for opening, perhaps housing construct guardians in case some hostile being managed to get inside.  Or perhaps some kind of artifact, to be used in dire times of need or by a specific "Chosen One" is housed inside one of the doors, waiting for the tower to recognize such a circumstance or being.

Or something.

I may steal this idea back, if it's alright with you, that is.

[Ravenspath]

How might the tower serve as an activation point? That's an intriguing idea but I'm not sure how I'd present it.

I haven't worked out all the details yet. I am still working on the class itself. What I forsee is that characters that take this class are 'called' to the vacinity of the green tower. They may have to touch it, or be bathed in the moonlight that shines through the tower, something like that. Once they do this they can start to progress along the path of their class. The underlying principle is that the character had an ancestor that belonged to the Forgotten race. Kind of like how one of the theories behind sorcerers is that they have dragon blood in them.

[Tybalt]

I would welcome anyone taking ideas from this...of course I think that's only fair since I'm asking for yours ;)

I don't really want to change the flavour of the campaign with this, I should add, so I want to avoid anything truly apocalyptic or the like.

One thing I am thinking based on some of your thoughts is this: the people who live in the city must have SOME thoughts about it. While the average person probably takes it for granted the fact is it is an unusual and legendary building. I was thinking that there might be a few different approaches to this:

1. Strange rumors and thoughts. I might use even some of the ideas here that don't fit together as theories that sages and philosophers might put about, based on fragments of old texts or something.

2. An expectant cult--with the war on, with the possible destruction of the Republic at hand, surely Those Who Are Expected will emerge!

3. A serious cabal of wizards/clerics/adventurers who have been trying to get in again based on some idea that they have--and perhaps have been captured for interrogation by the enemy force.

[Ravenspath]

1. Strange rumors and thoughts. I might use even some of the ideas here that don't fit together as theories that sages and philosophers might put about, based on fragments of old texts or something.

I think this is a great idea. I used to love the rumours section of the old modules where the party had to figure out what was true and not.

And this could really work to your advantage. Put out a few rumors and see how your party reacts and what they come up with. My GMing style is very improvisational and I always have a blank piece of paper handy to write down the idle thoughts of the players. They give you the best gaming material and it usually ties into their characters even.  Once you have your rumours it will cause the players to speculate even further and I bet they spark an idea in you that you will feel is perfect.

[Tybalt]

What if the tower is sentient because it is the reliquary (not by design but by some kind of accident perhaps) of a psion or group of psions who built it, and in fact is not acting by some perfect plan but by a series of events of happenstance?

What if it has a number of potentially deadly traps (a la "Cube") that will attack those who try to force their way in?

I'm thinking that the areas normally accessible are an area where people fall into a suspended animation like sleep and are healed, then released, and a sort of general hall where a larger number can rest and escape danger, but that other areas are not accessible.

However I'm at a bit of a loss as to what the tower is truly like inside and I'm working on that.