Adapting "Ghost Tower of Inverness" for 13th level PCs

[Quickleaf]

Glad to help. I played in a 1E run through of the tower last Gary Con and Allan stopped by the table to see how things were going. He really loves to see folks enjoying his work so long after it was written. It was one of the best convention games I played for many reasons and a real treat to get to know him.

Wow, how pleasantly unexpected! Thanks Mark for bouncing my question off Allen

In fact, he has given me several fun ideas. Maybe the PCs risk releasing ghosts by improperly handling the Soul Gem in search of just the wizard? Good stuff!

 

[Mark CMG]

That's great! I had hoped some behind the scenes perspective might spark some additional ways to approach the adaptation not only to the newer rules but more particularly to your own campaign and DMing style.

 

[Quickleaf]

I've thought a bit more about the direction I want to go with this (since I've got 3 weeks to get ready). My idea is to keep the basic setup but reframe it...

Fastilbras (the Mage) was a goetic wizard, meaning he summoned devils and angels and other things to test his weaknesses and improve his moral standing as a form of spiritual practice. So I'm thinking of him as a "grey wizard" with good intentions, perhaps having down some wicked deed in his past (being fooled by a devil?) that he undertook penance for, leading to him dealing with some nasty monsters. Monsters that now run amok thru the ruins and tower. It makes him an interesting NPC and might explain why he had the Soul Gem (eg. to right a mistake that cost lives, to study eschatological questions, or, more dubiously, to barter with summoned devils/angels).

With that in mind, the rest of the Ghost Tower takes shape. It won't be about random centipedes and strange monkeys...rather enemies will be devils & ghosts, with the possibility for encountering an angel. I'll maintain the puzzles and most iconic encounters. The tower becomes a symbol of the mage's moral development, and instead of elemental themed levels I'm going with devils that focus various human foilbles (im trying to do something a bit more specific than the 7 sins, but those could work).

For example #22 The Medusa. There's a robed medusa singing in an indoor rose garden laden with treasure, but the rose thorns are enchanted to put anyone touching them to sleep. Ok...so the medusa was summoned by Fastilbras to overcome the temptation of art/beauty/philosophy. Maybe she wears a large golden mask in addition to her robe, and is restricted in that she can only petrify (show her true nature) to those who fail her challenge. Not sure what that will be yet... Of course, PCs might opt to avoid and not get any of the treasure, which would be a valid choice.

EDIT: Besides giving the tower an overall "dungeon theme" it works as a good hook for the tiefling warlock player.

 

[Quickleaf]

Revising another iconic room...

9. Crystal Pendant

Instead of summoning seemingly random monsters, these are bound devils and a Religion check can potentially connect the various names to the function/type of devil bound. Speaking the name releases the devil temporarily within a magic circle. Instead of fighting (keeping in line with the theme I'm developing) they offer deals:

IXAM (imp) - offers to serve as book imp familiar for a spellcaster in exchange for feeding off of one of the PC's stats each night.

ALRASTIL (Succubus) - offers to seduce an enemy of a PC's choosing and deliver information or even the enemy to the PC, in exchange for harvesting the PC's soul in 13 years.

PENTUKO (red Abishai) - offers a spellcaster a single use of a daily spell (up to 9th level), but neglects to mention that the casting always has harmful collateral damage.

MYRG (hellhound) - disembodied voice offers this hellhound as faithful servant to a PC, on the condition that any creature it kills has it's soul delivered to the Nine Hells.

 

[sabrinathecat]

OK, I just found this thread, and what I see looks really interesting. I'd say you were on the right track.

 

[the Jester]

Sounds cool. Wish I'd spotted this thread earlier- I did a mid-level conversion of the Ghost Tower in a low-magic 3e setting and it was great.

Good luck- it looks like you've really developed this into a cool scenario.

 

[Quickleaf]

So as I've spent a bit more time adapting the Ghost Tower, I am thinking of using the dungeon pretty much as written, but completely redoing the tower part.

Basically, in the original the tower was roughly divided into four levels according to element, with some fun transition scenes between each level involving reverse gravity.

Since the context IMC is more about devils, summoning circles, and goetic theurgy, I am thinking of redesigning the four levels according to four moral challenges/tests of character the wizard designed to safeguard the Soul Gem.

As an aside, since the dungeon below is more of a traditional Old School crawl (if anything can be called traditional about the Ghost Tower!), I'm thinking the 4 rooms of the tower will be more set pieced since that's 4e's strength anyway.

Any cool ideas what I might include?

Some ideas I'm thinking...

Stoppered Bronze Ewers, some kind of puzzle like the grail scene from Indiana Jones where you need to unstop per the right ewer(s), or perhaps transfer spirits between Ewers.

Burning Angel in Magic Circle, this would be a roleplaying challenge with an angel of dubious virtue who seeks to convince PCs to free him, gaining a potential ally within the tower...but leading to complications down the road.

Succubus/Erinyes in a Wishing Well, attempts to lure one or more PCs into some kind of bargain. This would need an impending threat of some kind to make it more interesting and encourage split-second deals with the devil.

Hall of Lingering Spirits, ghosts of apprentice mages & living spells, there would be a logic puzzle to figure out which of the apprentices betrayed their master. Making this one more interesting is a current NPC companion (named Morakh) who was one of the Wizard's apprentices and is anti-elf. Also, there are signs of necromancy, with wights wandering the ruins so it's likely that one of the apprentices knew some necromancy.

Any other ideas?

 

[Balesir]

Burning Angel in Magic Circle, this would be a roleplaying challenge with an angel of dubious virtue who seeks to convince PCs to free him, gaining a potential ally within the tower...but leading to complications down the road.

I like this. You could do it as a Skill Challenge that is ostensibly a simple "free the angel" task, but each success reveals a clue about the angel's true nature. By the time the last success is being rolled for, it should be possible to see that the real question is not "can you roll the final success?" - it's "do you want to?" Even failures in the challenge might give clues - maybe they cause radiant damage?

As for a new idea, how about some sort of individual challenge as the characters go through some sort of portal between tower "levels"? Suppose that passing through the portal causes a cut scene for which you take the player to one side and ask "Do you swear not to let any of your companions take the Soul Gem from this place?" If they answer "no" they lose a surge (they should know this up-front, probably), and if they say "yes" they will be cursed in some way if they break the oath. If all or most of them swear the oath, they will have to either get creative or take some consequences.

 

[Quickleaf]

[MENTION=27160]Balesir[/MENTION] Great ideas on the angel in a circle, thanks!

I like your other idea too, and generally I am a sucker for those sorts of "pit the players against each other" sorts of secret side conversations. My current gang might be too meta-game oriented but it sounds fun so I might give it a shot

 

[Mark CMG]

I've let Allen know that there have been further developments, to see if he has any additional thoughts. Fingers crossed!