Abandoned Magic Guild [My Players Stay Out]

[Laman Stahros]

I like big wizard's guilds myself, so I would use the first map as the above ground tower and place the second map under it as the real guild halls (upper floors are rooms and offices, lowest floor is the labs and studies and libraries. YMMV

 

[shadoe]

I also like the second map best, and as to an idea for the power source, and how to turn it off... I think in the central room have a large crystal, that is the source of the Power Cyst, and to turn it off/block the flow of energy, in one of the outer rooms, have a big lead cube that is covered in runes. If the party can figure out how to activate the runes, the box will teleport arround the crystal and cut off the power.

There should be runes left all over the place some still active, and some not. Possibly in the library, a set of runes in a card catalog that brings the book to a table, and then a set of runes in a bin that if you place the book in it, places the book where it belongs.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Very cool idea! I love this.

Some further thoughts.

Perhaps the power cyst drains ambient magic outside the walls? So the building is surrounded by a "dead" magic area. This is unnerving to the residents of town since most have some connection to magic because the Green is all around. It also explains why (partially) it's left alone. The destruction of the energons could re-energize it.

Do you have Legacy of the Dragons? This would be a perfect haunt for some arcane rune manifests to live and study. Those critters are weird and neat and different.

What if there are impressions left from the old guild in certain areas? The magic is so strong that scenes and images from the past appear? This could even be a form of an akashic node oriented to magic. (Which would set up an interesting dialectic if the local akashics found out and wanted to preserve it instead of helping magisters reunite a guild.)

It might also be fun to have different rooms dedicated to the different AU magical traditions. One with runes, another for mageblades to test their mettle against animated weapons and spells, another where the door only opens to someone with an aspect of power, and a garden where the plants still remember the greenbond that planted them and whisper things just out of the hearing range of the players....

 

[Imagicka]

Greetings...

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?

Well someone beat me to the punch... I don't like things that don't have a logical reason. Why hasn't it been explored? Why haven't the town's officials sent people to get rid of it? (Evidently it doesn't cause too much problems for the city.)

Good ideas Pielorinho...here's a couple more...
Personally, I wouldn't put it inside of the city. Or at least put the guildhouse on a demi-plane somewhere, where it is accessed only in one location in the city (if you want to get that high-magic).

Why haven't others plundered it for it's secrets? Well, perhaps they have, and failed. The more deadly traps keeping intruders out have been sprung and now is a good time for exploring.

Perhaps there is a secret way into the guildhouse. That members must have an amulet on their person and pass through an arbor that is located in a park that, interestingly enough, was donated by the guild when it still was in good standing with the city...
...and finding amulets for the party can be an interesting side-adventure.

And/Or there are a series of riddles/puzzles that are asked of the party when they enter the guildhouse to keep the uninitiated out. There was an excellent campaign that was put out for Ars Magica which dealt with a lost convenant (magi guild).
This convenant was underground, not that it mattered, because it was in the middle of a 'regio'.
A type of 'magical place' which would slip players into a magical other-world realm. You could walk through it...it would seem a little weird and eerie to you...and come out of it on the other side...unless you knew how to go 'deeper' into the regio. To get deeper into the regio, you had to do a number of specific things. Then a 'guardian' would come and ask the party a series of riddles. For each correct answer, the 'real world' would slip away, as they went deeper into the regio.

So, for the unknowing...it would seem like a 'creepy abandoned building' or whatever, that no one wants to buy, and vagabonds haven't squated there. Of course, places like this would also attract magic-sensative creatures. *grins*

Why don't you publish the finished campaign, when you've run it on the board here? Perhaps we can start a netbook of campaigns that are co-designed by all the members here... I've been toying with the idea of writing campaigns around Phineas' maps, and putting them up.