D&D 5E 5 Essential Encounters in a Wizard's Tower

[Dioltach]

One thing I've always meant to do with a wizard's tower: spells cast by the tower's master are automatically metamagicked. Or at least within specific zones (think magic circles around the lab or main hall).

 

[Scott Christian]

Lots of great ideas. Thanks everyone.

I think I am going to have the wizard have summoned a guardian to keep his stuff safe in Avernus, so I need a good anti-Devil creature.

Also, I think it is Deck of Many Things time. I do it once in every campaign I run, just because I like the chaos it imparts. At this critical juncture in the Avernus campaign it might just cause real havoc.

I like the idea of the place being populated by what at first appear to be animated object but turn out to be "domesticated" mimics -- ones that, at this point, are very, very hungry.

Right on. Sounds like fun! Enjoy the creation and the play!

 

[Blue Orange]

Very old CRPGs used to deal with you walking off the map by having you reappear on the other edge. This could easily be incorporated into a wizard's tower where walking out the west door causes you to reappear through the east.

Other aspects of non-Euclidean geometry such as rooms larger on the inside than on the outside may be usefully bizarre as well.

This gentleman tried to explain the occurrences in The Call of Cthulhu (the original story from 100 years ago) using actual physics:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1210.8144.pdf

 

[Reynard]

Right on. Sounds like fun! Enjoy the creation and the play!

Here's how it went:

The Avernus crew took a little side trek. They need to get up to the Companion to crack it open as the first action in trying to free Elturel, and to do so they went looking for a magic carpet. One of the PCs is from Elturel and he recalled an eccentric wizard named Weird Gimble that used to fly around the city on his carpet. No one saw the wizard fly away when the city started to get drawn into Avernus, so the party decided to look in Gimble's tower for the carpet.

(NOTE: This was an adventure I thought up as a way to a) have some levity prior to things getting all Deadly Serious, and b) get some real firepower into the PCs hands prior to the Big Showdown.)

The tower was a very ancient one, probably older than the city itself, made by some long lost empire of wizards. The door was arcane locked, but not especially dangerous. When they got in they discovered a rather unusual decorating style (giant dwarf statues) as well as a strange animated rug (not the magic carpet). A little investigation uncovered more animated furniture, all shy and uncertain of the new arrivals. It was all cute until one of the chairs licked the half orc ranger and started smacking its lips: the furniture was not animated, but rather all domesticated mimics. Some PCs made an attempt to befriend or even train the mimics but it wasn't especially successful.

As they continued to explore, one party member called out for Gimble and eventually got an answer. The strange old man threatened them with fireballs to "prove they weren't devils" but sense won through and eventually the PCs were standing before Weird Gimble. It was clear from the start that something was not right and while at first it seemed he was just addled, it turned out Gimble was not Gimble, but a shape-changed Ancient Brass Dragon called Azazel. Gimble had saved Azazel from Tiamat's prison on Avernus and in return bound the dragon to protect his tower while he zipped off through a planar portal. Poor Azazel did not even know he was still in Avernus in the tower, and quite cross with Gimble chose to help the PCs as best he could without breaking his binding oath (to protect the tower until Gimble's return).

Astonished, the PCs still needed to find the carpet so they continued to explore with the polymorphed dragon in tow. The dragon showed them Gimble's planar observatory and portal room but seeing as they don't have a tuning fork for any planes, they could not make use of it. They did open the doors to his private vault, which was trapped with some sort of portal. They used combinations of brute force and magical trickery (as well as sending the poor imp familiar through the portal trap; it returned babbling about "the screaming void") to extract the great treasures from the collection: a scroll of power word kill and one of true resurrection, a crystal ball with true seeing, and The Deck of Many Things. The carpet turned out to be sleeping quietly upstairs and they retrieved that too.

Now they are on the cusp of the final conflict and attempt to get Elturel back into the Realms. If they succeed, they now have any ally (Azazel) and a potential enemy (Gimble, whose vault they plundered) as well as a threat (Azazel told them Tiamat's cults are close to releasing her from Avernus and drawing her into the Realms). And there's the matter of the Deck in their possession. Can they resist drawing from it before facing Zariel? Should they?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Very old CRPGs used to deal with you walking off the map by having you reappear on the other edge. This could easily be incorporated into a wizard's tower where walking out the west door causes you to reappear through the east.

Other aspects of non-Euclidean geometry such as rooms larger on the inside than on the outside may be usefully bizarre as well.

This gentleman tried to explain the occurrences in The Call of Cthulhu (the original story from 100 years ago) using actual physics:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1210.8144.pdf

Better explanation here:

 

[Scott Christian]

Here's how it went:

The Avernus crew took a little side trek. They need to get up to the Companion to crack it open as the first action in trying to free Elturel, and to do so they went looking for a magic carpet. One of the PCs is from Elturel and he recalled an eccentric wizard named Weird Gimble that used to fly around the city on his carpet. No one saw the wizard fly away when the city started to get drawn into Avernus, so the party decided to look in Gimble's tower for the carpet.

(NOTE: This was an adventure I thought up as a way to a) have some levity prior to things getting all Deadly Serious, and b) get some real firepower into the PCs hands prior to the Big Showdown.)

The tower was a very ancient one, probably older than the city itself, made by some long lost empire of wizards. The door was arcane locked, but not especially dangerous. When they got in they discovered a rather unusual decorating style (giant dwarf statues) as well as a strange animated rug (not the magic carpet). A little investigation uncovered more animated furniture, all shy and uncertain of the new arrivals. It was all cute until one of the chairs licked the half orc ranger and started smacking its lips: the furniture was not animated, but rather all domesticated mimics. Some PCs made an attempt to befriend or even train the mimics but it wasn't especially successful.

As they continued to explore, one party member called out for Gimble and eventually got an answer. The strange old man threatened them with fireballs to "prove they weren't devils" but sense won through and eventually the PCs were standing before Weird Gimble. It was clear from the start that something was not right and while at first it seemed he was just addled, it turned out Gimble was not Gimble, but a shape-changed Ancient Brass Dragon called Azazel. Gimble had saved Azazel from Tiamat's prison on Avernus and in return bound the dragon to protect his tower while he zipped off through a planar portal. Poor Azazel did not even know he was still in Avernus in the tower, and quite cross with Gimble chose to help the PCs as best he could without breaking his binding oath (to protect the tower until Gimble's return).

Astonished, the PCs still needed to find the carpet so they continued to explore with the polymorphed dragon in tow. The dragon showed them Gimble's planar observatory and portal room but seeing as they don't have a tuning fork for any planes, they could not make use of it. They did open the doors to his private vault, which was trapped with some sort of portal. They used combinations of brute force and magical trickery (as well as sending the poor imp familiar through the portal trap; it returned babbling about "the screaming void") to extract the great treasures from the collection: a scroll of power word kill and one of true resurrection, a crystal ball with true seeing, and The Deck of Many Things. The carpet turned out to be sleeping quietly upstairs and they retrieved that too.

Now they are on the cusp of the final conflict and attempt to get Elturel back into the Realms. If they succeed, they now have any ally (Azazel) and a potential enemy (Gimble, whose vault they plundered) as well as a threat (Azazel told them Tiamat's cults are close to releasing her from Avernus and drawing her into the Realms). And there's the matter of the Deck in their possession. Can they resist drawing from it before facing Zariel? Should they?

Absolutely like the fact they tried to befriend the domesticated mimics. That would have been an epic success. But alas, the dice decide. Also good story on the brass dragon. He seems like a good NPC to come in during an opportune time and save their butts.

 

[robus]

I once made a magic book. Each time it was opened the pages would flutter, and then it would land on a page. (d20 table) Some of the pages were great, others dangerous, and others would trigger things inside the tower. The last part is so they would have to keep interacting with the book. There were ways (arcana checks and another companion book full of riddles) that detailed how to open the book to the right pages. But that was in another room. They had the same title, but one was printed in a different font and mirrored upside down and backwards (through Word). The players had a lot of fun with it, as some of the pages were very whimsical.

Sounds awesome, I started a wiki here to capture cool stuff just like this. Here’s the link in case you feel inspired to contribute It pays to enrich your Exploration pillar

 

[jonalex88]

I once made a magic book. Each time it was opened the pages would flutter, and then it would land on a page. (d20 table) Some of the pages were great, others dangerous, and others would trigger things inside the tower. The last part is so they would have to keep interacting with the book. There were ways (arcana checks and another companion book full of riddles) that detailed how to open the book to the right pages. But that was in another room. They had the same title, but one was printed in a different font and mirrored upside down and backwards (through Word). The players had a lot of fun with it, as some of the pages were very whimsical.

You couldn't send me that book could you? Would be AWESOME to use...

 

[Scott Christian]

You couldn't send me that book could you? Would be AWESOME to use...

Let me go digging and I will send it.

 

[Scott Christian]

You couldn't send me that book could you? Would be AWESOME to use...

Found it. Just so you know, it is pretty setting and game specific. (Uses a different system than D&D and is specifically about a wizard who is long dead. The adventurers are exploring the ruins of his tower, his laboratory underneath, and a secret cave with a spring nearby. He is the literal creator of a race of cat people that live on the continent.) But feel free to take the ideas, modify them, and use them as you see fit. I sent through our conversation.