Abandoned Magic Guild [My Players Stay Out]

[EricNoah]

Ooh, Phineas, your info reminded me that I also wanted to maybe use the concept of Living Spells from the Eberron CS. So one of the leftover effects might be a living fireburst, or a living gusting wind or something. Another idea -- AU has a nifty animate weapon spell; would be a shame if some polearms didn't attack the group.

Oh boy, also nearly forgot about runethanes -- there's no reason there couldn't be several visible or invisible permanent runes hanging around...

 

[Hypersmurf]

Another idea: magical constructs that are hanging around, still taking care of the place.

I'm thinking Sorcerer's Apprentice

All the floors glassy-smooth and slippery from where the flagstones have been worn down by constant sweeping. No dust or cobwebs anywhere.

And in the cellar, a construct was set digging a well, and never switched off... he's still down there somewhere, under several hundred feet of water, scratching at the bedrock with the nub of his shovel (and making glacially-slow but inexorable progress). One of these years, he'll break through the roof of a pocket of some sort, and dump all that water onto a lava flow...

For extra weird-and-creepiness, among the skeletons of whoever died when whatever-happened that caused the place to be abandoned is the skeleton of a baby... who is still changed, bathed, put to bed, and rocked by unseen servants every day...

-Hyp.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

You'll need a slew of magical traps ... especially teleport traps. They were originally used to reduce walking about the school of magic, but now will confuse any adventuring party. Some areas might only be reachable through using the right combination of teleporters.

For real deadliness, there could be open (or sealed) portals to other planes ... or even the Land Beyond the Magic Mirror.

Undead familliars roam the halls with their undead wizard masters.

Perhaps they don't even know that the building exists, to begin with -- it's cursed to be invisible until the power is turned off (cursed with the dying breath of the undead wizard who runs the place) -- all the locals know is that nothing grows in the dead space beyond the wall, and none who venture there ever return.

Lots of animated objects, still going about their tasks ... brooms, kitchen implements. Perhaps some are intelligent (Beauty and the Beast, anyone) and are happy/threatened to see living beings again.

An extremely powerful demon is still trapped in his pentegram; the wizard who summoned him dead before giving the dismissal (or else the demon roams the halls, trapped within the building).

Doors that only open to voice commands, with no other visible means of opening. Most doors are arcane locked, anyway.

There's graffiti on the walls in the students' area in arcane marks, perhaps leaving special clues.

The usual explosive runes and symbol traps.

Perhaps the ghosts/spirits/corpses of psat wizards, forever doomed to repeat the last tasks they performed in life before the guild was cursed/trapped/destroyed.

It becomes a murder mystery as the story unfolds ... a betrayal of the master by his star pupil.

 

[Gnarlo]

The magic used and abandoned in the guild has over time infused into the structure of the building itself. It is on the verge of becoming a living construct. While not quite sentient, it does have control over the creatures inhabiting it and uses them as a body would use its various cells: to attack intruders, to gather "food" (building items and magic), to repair its body (explaining why it's in such good condition after such a long time), etc.

Not being quite sentient (and a little insane), the building has developed what would in a living body be a cancer; it has begun constructing new sections that have no rhyme or reason at all (think Winchester Mystery House).

To defeat the building, the group must learn how to either kill it, or how to awaken it and then reason with it / cure it / dominate it.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Doors that only open to voice commands, with no other visible means of opening.

The command word is "schwsssh!"... at least according to Airplane 2.

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Not being quite sentient (and a little insane), the building has developed what would in a living body be a cancer; it has begun constructing new sections that have no rhyme or reason at all (think Winchester Mystery House).

That's starting to sound like something Simon Greene would come up with

Which is sometimes a good thing, and sometimes a bad thing

-Hyp.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I'm with Turanil on the non-evil/undead theme for the most part. A rogue construct or two and some traps could be fun. However, I think the power source ought to provide most of the problems in the place directly... some ideas:

Tapped sizable elemental to power and control the complex. 1 of each element. The now dead wizards were meant to regularly change the elementals... The current elementals have been held far too long and in too close proximity to their opposing elements. They have gone insane and are warring with each other. The elementals are imprisoned and can't affect each other directly, but each is using the areas of the complex they control to try and destroy the others. Obviously, they would like the PCs to help them, but their alien nature (and madness) makes it hard for them to interact with humans.


A joining machine (stolen directly from David Gemmel!) - I used this on my group in our AU game. The power source corrupts the area around it. The chamber it was in (and the coridoors around it) were gold lined to prevent this. Thieves stripped away the gold and unleashed the power of the device.

It fuses flesh and souls together to create abominations. Numerous animals, thieves, vagrants and so on have joined together creating some terrifying beasts. Perhaps the wizards kept a selection of sample animals nearby... lions, tigers, bears, oh my!

It's possible that the creations become unstable the further they get from the machine. Hence why they havn't overrun the surrounding area.

The last magister/mageblade could be one of these abominations - possibly having had their life extended by the process. They are trying increasingly nasty methods in an attempt to cure their condition.

 

[Whisper72]

Hmm.... as for shutting down the power generated by the Xag-yi/Xeg-ya combination, maybe as simple as putting a screen between the two so they can't see eachother anymore.

Could be cool to stay away from the undead / demon typology, and concentrate on constructs, living spells, permanently animated items and the idea of the now almost living building for a good creepy factor without the 'stale' undead/demons/devils stuff...

 

[Pielorinho]

Is this abandoned building in the middle of the town? If so, why has it been left undisturbed for so long? Surely there have been other groups of adventurers who've been in town in the last 500 years; why haven't they plundered its secrets?

Options:
1) It shifts in and out of existence somewhat randomly. When it's not there, there's an abandoned field. When it is there, it destroys anything else that was put in the abandoned field. More than one shantytown has been obliterated by the reappearing school. Adventurers in the past have gone into the school, but then the school disappears, and when it reappears, there's no trace of the adventurers at all.
2) The cool stuff is hidden somehow, and the school is currently occupied by shopkeepers and city workers on the mundane levels; only recently has anyone realized that the lower levels have got good stuf in them.
3) The building isn't in the city, but is rather in an isolated spot some miles away.

Daniel

 

[Hand of Evil]

Waves of Change - much like Zelazany's Dilvish the Damned the energy source creates strange magical effects and ramdom spell events. These waves are getting stronger and getting closer together!

The Other Guys - Somewhere during the adventure another group is discovered and they see the power source as a weapon!