A Place of Power
I wanted to share one of the Places of Power to showcase the kind of things that are hidden within the Wilds and lost to the Curse. This “Adventure” Found within the Erinbour: Places of Power campaign is deisgned to be a small campaign within itself. Each Place of Power will be designed to be fairly sandboxy within their own right to allow for players and GM to have a say in what goes on within Erinbour. So without much more I present…
The Shifting Tower
Background: The Shifting Tower is a magical building created by Lon the Long, a good-hearted mage of considerable power. Lon wanted to use the tower to travel to different dimensions, but things went horribly wrong.
As an accomplished mage, Lon developed spells that could bend space and exploit pocket dimensions, but his theories about other alternate dimensions were never proven conclusively. After years of study, he built the Shifting Tower and prepared to test it. In order to travel dimensionally, the Shifting Tower had to momentarily touch all dimensions.
Unfortunatly for Lon the Wild Magic elements of Erinbour caused his first shift to that of a Hellish Dimension. Lon’s tower appeared in the middle of the Ninth Layer of Hell in the fortress of a demon known as Baron Fleshrender. Furious, the demon and his minions laid siege to the tower, capturing the mage and torturing him for days. During this time, Baron Fleshrender was supposed to be in battle fighting for his master, the Dark Prince. When the prince found about the delay, he punished Baron Fleshrender and cursed Lon by turning him into a lich and binding him to the tower, forever shifting through the various planes.
The Shifting Tower: The actual structure itself is not particularly unique, although thanks to that visit to Hell, its exterior has been singed black. The tower is six stories, and each floor is ten feet high, fifty feet in diameter and contains trap doors to separate every floor. The doors are made of 1’ thick wood reinforced with steel bands. The ground floor door is made of bone and is enchanted with the strength of steel. It can also open, lock and unlock at Lon’s command and is Wizard Locked at his level when locked.
Meeting Lon the Lich: (Read this description once the PC’s enter Lon’s room. The tower is already traveling, and by the time Lon is done speaking the tower will be somewhere else.) In the center of the room is a strange contraption with interlocking square pieces slowly turning on its own. A skeletal figure sits at a table scribbling with interest on a piece of parchment. The skeletal figure finally looks up from his scroll. He seems surprised to see you. “Oh, hello. Visitors! How nice. My name is Lon. Lon the Long.” Lon puts out a skeletal hand in welcome. (If the PC’s shake hands, Lon’s paralyzing touch works on the first one. He’s forgotten that he does that. He’ll apologize profusely afterwards.) “Oh, my! Terribly sorry! That’s my fault, you see. I’m dead. Have been for quite awhile, but sometimes I forget. Ha! Everyone meet someone that forgot he was dead? No, I suppose not. Well, anyway, I suppose you’re wondering what this tower’s all about, eh? Me too actually! Oh, not that I don’t know what it is, but I am wondering where we are. Where are we exactly?” (Let the PC’s answer.) “Oh, dear. That’s not where I want to be at all. You see, I’m cursed. I wasn’t always dead. My tower is called the Shifting Tower and it can travel to different worlds.” Suddenly, the machine in the room surges to life. “Whoops. Well it does that. Nothing to be alarmed about, I assure you. Now where was I? Ah, yes! The tower. Originally, I built the tower some centuries ago to travel the various dimensions, but something went wrong. My first trip sent me directly to Hell! I was quite surprised, not being a very bad person in my lifetime, to be in Hell. The demon there, Baron Fleshrender, he was most upset when I appeared in the center of his palace. Tortured me horribly. Well, it turns out his master was even worse! Turned me into a lich and cursed my tower to wander the planes! Now, there is one catch and that’s where you come in. If I can find 8 Soul Gems for the Dark Prince, he’ll remove the curse! They’re full of demon souls or something. Makes sense, right, being Hell? If you fine people would help me, my curse will lift and I’d be sure to reward you quite handsomely. What say ye? Will you help?” (Even if the PC’s say no, it’s too late, the tower has shifted. Lon is not trying to trick the PC’s, but he is absentminded. As a reward, Lon can offer the PC’s almost anything. He knows that certain worlds are rich in mineral deposits and he has several extra magic items to reward the PC’s. He may even let the PC’s use the items during the quest if they have left their own items behind by mistake.)
There is much more to this story filled with quests, new adventures and enough to keep your gaming group moving for a while. Hope you enjoyed this preview as much as I do. This and many more places of power await your exploration in Erinbour. Remember the Kickstarter launches Monday AUgust 4th.