Wednesday, August 19, 2020

#RPGaDay Day 19 2020: Tower

           Tower is a tarot.

UPRIGHT: Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening.

REVERSED: Personal transformation, fear of change, averting disaster.

         In Season 3 of Dice Funk: Ilium, the Tarot cards came into play in a big way and Tower was pulled just before an incoming disaster. I was very into Tarots as a means to guide character development back in the late Earthdawn days. I had bought a Mage: The Awakening Tarot deck and was playing around with it as a way to read the fortunes of characters to create them.

That deck is still available here:

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/205864/Mage-The-Awakening-Tarot?affiliate_id=12615

         Tower is a also a fortress. Perhaps the greatest dungeon I have ever made all time never saw use. I had crafted a 22 level mage tower for Dungeons and Dragons 3e. It started out with Hanz and Franz, barbarian sorcerers on the first floor who run a surplus magic item shop for the 20th level wizard on the 22nd floor of the tower. You could buy magical potions, scrolls, etc. in preparation for ascending the tower.

"I am Hanz. And I am Franz. We are here to pump...your magic up!"--Hanz and Franz in Arnold voice

       Hanz and Franz were also the gatekeepers of the tower. Entering the second floor required adventurers to sign a legal waiver that put the blame for any death, injury, or maiming squarely on the adventurer, but it also said that getting to the 22nd floor with the signed waiver would earn them a prize. The waiver was also enchanted with a sort of Sanctuary spell which meant the wizard could not harm them unless they attacked the wizard, tried to steal his belongings, etc.
     
     The magical tower itself was supposed to be a rogue-lite kind of simulation. Every 24 hours it would reconfigure every floor 2-21 with shifting walls. So you couldn't just map it, rest, and come back. Because the map would have changed. This also meant it would have a lot of undead, constructs, slimes, etc. Because otherwise all these shifting tower floors would end the guardian monsters too, so they had to be resilient or malleable in some ways to getting moved around. The store was always closed every 8 hours for 2 hours to give Hanz and Franz some rest and one of these periods was when the shift occurs.

    The wizard at the top of tower was quite mad and would attack anyone without a waiver on sight. So if you thought planeshifting to the top would be cute, prepare to get time stopped and delayed blast fireballed. But if you actually succeeded in getting to the top with a waiver, the wizard would exchange a magical item for the waiver. That he would then sign, and would act as a sanctuary spell against the person who had signed the contract. The wizard remained friendly to them as long as the contract held. The wizard had been cursed by a devil of some kind that had made him delirious. 

   Sequels could have been the magical item they were given was cursed by the devil that cursed the wizard and would slowly drive them insane as well.  Which might have ended up with them going to Hell to confront this devil perhaps freeing themselves and the wizard.






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