[Gimmie Inspiration] What is this?

[I'm A Banana]

So here's the scene:

Your characters are on their way down a river, floating on a raft. Perhaps they have just barely escaped their enemies. Perhaps they have found the wrong exit of a dungeon they thought was going the other way. Perhaps they got swept away in a goblin midden. Perhaps they're lured by legends of what lies in this hilly region...

...so they're on their way down the river, and they see this:

IRL, that's the Minaret of Jam. Not made of a tasty thing to put on toast, but instead what was left of a famous king who set up camp in the region long ago. It's a monument to religion and prayer, a tower from which a voice could echo throughout the valley, inscribed with geometric sigils and the name of God. Ruins of a once-great city lie, mostly looted, at its base.

What would it be in your game?

What treasures are there? What monsters? What lures the PC's there, what keeps them exploring it, and what do they find, when they've uncovered the layers of history behind it?

IRL, it's basically made to be a D&D site. Isolated. Ruined. All but forgotten by time and history, only known to local thieves and farmers. Sadly, IRL, it is not filled with dragons or undead or elementals or anything fun, just a lot of soil.

So screw real life. What is this (or, what would this be) in your game?

Gimmie inspiration.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

It is an Intercontinental Magic Missile silo.

 

[Cryptos]

• It's part of an Eladrin city... the part that stands in the world as a passage to the rest of the city in the Feywild, acts as a watchtower to those approaching the passage to the Feywild, and serves to mark the location to Eladrin as a passage to the Feywild.
• It's a beacon tower (like a lighthouse) built by a cult of worshippers of the Raven Queen, used to draw in the inhabitants of the Shadow realm into the world, either so that they could be summoned and pressed into service, or for a more benign cult, to commune with the dead. The beacon at the top of the tower does not shine in the real world, but casts its pale ethereal rays into the Shadow to attract ghostly servants or ancestors. (I guess this would make it a "darkhouse" rather than a lighthouse.)
• It's a giant key / puzzle that unlocks the tomb of a forgotten emperor that lies beneath with his army of dormant warforged soldiers that guard his final resting place (think of the Chinese emperors that had vast armies of terra cotta soldiers.) Each level of the tower corresponds to one of the rings of geometric designs on the outside, and a different task or puzzle on each level rotates that level of the tower. When the various levels are aligned correctly, an entrance to the tomb opens in the base of the tower, providing access. Unlocking the tower and then getting into the tomb and discovering the dormant warforged where they stand waiting to be reactivated to serve their emperor could be an interesting way to introduce the race to settings that don't typically have warforged, as constructs of the forgotten emperor that were buried with him in his tomb.
• It's one of the labors of a deity's earthly avatar, which the deity demanded the avatar construct to atone for a transgression.
• It's one of what was once a series of towers that ran from one end of the the ancient, fallen Arkhosian Empire to the other and allowed them to send encoded signals across the land by covering and uncovering the sections at the top, where a great fire would be lit.
• It's a prison created by a powerful, ancient ritual that holds in the power or essence of an ageless being from the Far Realms that tried to devour the world.
• It's a gilded cage where a king had kept his daughter, whose beauty and disobedience to her father were both legendary, to ensure that she would remain a virgin and kept from temptation until she could marry the prince of a neighboring kingdom, through a marriage arranged when they were both still infants. The kingdom fell in war, but isolation of the princess' tower kept her staff, attendants, and guards from learning of this. The wizard that served as her tutor and guardian placed her in an arcane stasis when they failed to receive word from the king for several years, to keep her youthful, vital, and ready for her prince - a prince that would never arrive to take her hand in marriage because he died in the war. The wizard animated gargoyles and golems to guard the tower. Horrifically, the princess has been aware of the passage of time and her surroundings despite the spell that locks her in stasis.

 

[El Mahdi]

I get a very Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom vibe out of it.




A little ways past the minaret, the pc's come across a small village. (I see at as an Indian or Persian type culture.) The country doesn't exist anymore, although the people and culture still do. They have been conquered by a neighboring country, and there lands absorbed by the conquerers (somewhere in the recent past - anywhere from 3 to 25 years ago - but no more than a generation - the older people should still remember the conquest). The resources and treasures of their land have been completely pillaged by the conquering nation.

The minaret was one of many surrounding the country at key points. Each was dedicated to the protector deity of their culture. In each minaret was a stone (gem, item, etc.) given to them by their deity. As long as the stones were in the minarets, their country was protected by the divine favor of their god. But, one was stolen.

One of the minarets had been left ungaurded (carelessness?, treachary?), and agents of the enemy nation stole the stone away. Their country was conquered soon after, falling into despair and ruin. Through the course of the conquest, the rest of the stones were taken also.

Recently, soldiers of the conquering nation have come through the village and taken all of the able bodied men and children away to be slaves. However, there is a prophecy that someday, heros would arise that would find the stones and return them to their proper place. On that day, the hold of their conquerers will be broken, and prosperity will return to the land.




As in The Temple of Doom, I envision the conquering nation to be worshipers of an evil deity, like the Kali worshipers in the movie.

 

[jdrakeh]

That is the ruined tower of a Sorcerer King, a powerful, near godlike, figure from an age and place that time has forgotten. That tower wards many secrets better left undisturbed and, it is said, seals a dark power more terrifying than any that mankind can imagine beneath its foundation.

 

[haakon1]

It is an Intercontinental Magic Missile silo.

Seriously. A rocket ship, unused, been there for millenia. Who built it, why, what it is, and how to get in have been lost to time, until . . .

 

[Jack7]

I liked that visual image so well KM that I have started writing it up as an adventure in my own setting. I have a party coming from the Orient who will pass right through Afghanistan on their way to Constantinople. Worked out great for me. So in my game this is how I’m going to write it up:

The Serpent Coiled at Midnight​