Help Me Create My City's Mage's Quarter (my players please stay out)

[Laundreu]

Seriously, I mean it, stay out. Please?

OKAY! So I am resurrecting a campaign from the death known only as 'oh crap school started again', in which my PCs have just arrived in a town situated on the confluence of two rivers - making it a prime river port.

Some notes on my world, before we reach the meat of my question: The world is divided up into an unknown number of islands floating in the sky, orbiting a ball of molten rock some thousand miles below. About a hundred and some years ago, the Elves (think nasty Fae/Pratchett Elves, not DnD/Tolkien elves) put together an artifact capable of slaying a god, and used it to kill the Sun-God and raise their leader to the god's station. The rest of the world wasn't too keen on this, and a brave team of heroical types managed to wrest control of the artifact from the elves' mortal pawns long enough to fire it off again, killing the elf-turned-God. Two massive expenditures of magic in such short succession - something like a week between the two, albeit an essentially sunless week being assaulted by shadowy fae-creatures and the undead - shattered the world's delicate magical balance.

Or, in other words, the planet said 'well screw you guys, I'm going home' and exploded.

The other deities, perhaps feeling a bit abashed at the complete and utter failure to protect their followers in their time of need, intervened and stabilized the situation, as much as possible, leading to the 'islands orbiting moltenland' thing.

The other effect of this magical cataclysm is that every magic user not involved in the second use of the artifact died messily as the world's magical field went haywire. In the ensuing chaos, nobody was on hand to shut down those magic-users' projects, experiments, and the like...

Now, the city has walled off that entire section of town, and no longer speaks of it - or even, really, thinks of it. Nobody has been there for more than a century (officially), and only those in the highest positions of power have any idea of what's behind those walls and gates.

Sadly, neither do I. The influences of the place are basically Half-Life 2's Ravenholm ("That? That's Mageholm. We don't go there anymore.") and Silent Hill. What I'm looking for are good non-combat encounters - psychological horror stuff - as well as some combat encounters, for a group of three to five level 5 PCs - Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, ??? (don't know what one of the players is playing yet). Any and all help will be appreciated.

 

[Agent Oracle]

nasty Fae/Pratchett Elves, not DnD/Tolkien elves) put together an artifact capable of slaying a god, and used it to kill the Sun-God and raise their leader to the god's station.

For starters, big props on using Pratchett's parasite dimension elves.

You're gonna have a tough time with the non-combat creepyness. But I think i know where to start at least.

1. Death surrounds it:
An island in a rotunda surrounded by derilect homes and tarnished cobblestones has a strong, vibrant tree growing in it, surrounded by a field of lush green grass. The flowers on the tree are in full bloom (out of season). If the players approach the tree, stepping onto it's knoll, it will wither and die, as the grass dries up and turns to bare earth around their feet. The tree was in a old, nearly deceased time bubble. when the players entered, the magic self-terminated, resulting in the sudden death of a centuries old tree.

2. Slow the Tempo, not stay the dancers
As players move through the city, they will hear a mournful melody coming from somwhere ill-defined nearby. Listen checks will give a direction, but chasing the sound will simply lead them deeper into the mage's quarter. as they start approaching the center of the city, they will begin seeing flits of illusionary dancers, moving to the music.

 

[Puskara]

One way to to have stray magic effects that mingle. For example consider a mozaic courtyard that has been inbued with a confluence of Animate Object and Hypnotic Pattern. It subtly captivates and changes its pattern to lead characters into dark corners where they tread over the skeletons of others who have failed to break away from the cursed floor.

Basically they try to leave the courtyard but the pattern in the floor changes from when they walked in to suggest that they are always going the wrong way unless headed into one of the courtyards corners to waste away trying to leave until they starve. Walls need to radiate Darkness or Deeper Darkness.

The shadow creature template woudl be good as well for some sort of cat and mouse game.


Puskara

 

[Eridanis]

Depending on what you're going for, liberal use of the pseudonatural template may be called for - especially on mundane creatures. Frogs and birds with goopy tentacles minding their own business might help set the tone.

Also, think about what a half-finished magic item might look like when you're making a twist like this:

- An incomplete immovable rod handing in midair where it fell off the table during the cataclysm.
- A ring of wizardy is turned inside-out, tesseract-style, waiting for the enchantment that will allow it to hold other spells; you can see the light effect of a multi-dimensional object perceived with eyes on a three/four-dimensional plane.
- A spellbook, left alone for so long, might have each page taking on an aspect of the spell scribed on it; the pages holding a fireball spell might be warm to the touch, with visible heat distortion rising off the page (think of a hot highway in the summertime).

 

[Laundreu]

For starters, big props on using Pratchett's parasite dimension elves.

You're gonna have a tough time with the non-combat creepyness. But I think i know where to start at least.

1. Death surrounds it:
An island in a rotunda surrounded by derilect homes and tarnished cobblestones has a strong, vibrant tree growing in it, surrounded by a field of lush green grass. The flowers on the tree are in full bloom (out of season). If the players approach the tree, stepping onto it's knoll, it will wither and die, as the grass dries up and turns to bare earth around their feet. The tree was in a old, nearly deceased time bubble. when the players entered, the magic self-terminated, resulting in the sudden death of a centuries old tree.

2. Slow the Tempo, not stay the dancers
As players move through the city, they will hear a mournful melody coming from somwhere ill-defined nearby. Listen checks will give a direction, but chasing the sound will simply lead them deeper into the mage's quarter. as they start approaching the center of the city, they will begin seeing flits of illusionary dancers, moving to the music.

I like both of those ideas, though the dancers may be replaced with bustling wizards going about their research - perhaps reaching a frantic crescendo...before starting over again.

One way to to have stray magic effects that mingle. For example consider a mozaic courtyard that has been inbued with a confluence of Animate Object and Hypnotic Pattern. It subtly captivates and changes its pattern to lead characters into dark corners where they tread over the skeletons of others who have failed to break away from the cursed floor.

Basically they try to leave the courtyard but the pattern in the floor changes from when they walked in to suggest that they are always going the wrong way unless headed into one of the courtyards corners to waste away trying to leave until they starve. Walls need to radiate Darkness or Deeper Darkness.

The shadow creature template woudl be good as well for some sort of cat and mouse game.


Puskara

I intend to use Shadow-y creatures as the Elves' servants - less DnD strengthsucking shadows and more like exceedingly creepy Heartless from Kingdom Hearts. Either way, this place would be a good one to start using them; only later will the PCs learn of the fae connection.

Depending on what you're going for, liberal use of the pseudonatural template may be called for - especially on mundane creatures. Frogs and birds with goopy tentacles minding their own business might help set the tone.

Also, think about what a half-finished magic item might look like when you're making a twist like this:

- An incomplete immovable rod handing in midair where it fell off the table during the cataclysm.
- A ring of wizardy is turned inside-out, tesseract-style, waiting for the enchantment that will allow it to hold other spells; you can see the light effect of a multi-dimensional object perceived with eyes on a three/four-dimensional plane.
- A spellbook, left alone for so long, might have each page taking on an aspect of the spell scribed on it; the pages holding a fireball spell might be warm to the touch, with visible heat distortion rising off the page (think of a hot highway in the summertime).

I like the sounds of those. Especially tesseracts, because it's such a fun word to say. Any excuse to say 'tesseract' is a good one, to me. The Pseudonatural template may suit - if there was a Non-Eucladian template, I think it'd work even better.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

- A spellbook, left alone for so long, might have each page taking on an aspect of the spell scribed on it; the pages holding a fireball spell might be warm to the touch, with visible heat distortion rising off the page (think of a hot highway in the summertime).

Along with that, you might consider using "living spells" from Eberron. You touch one of the pages in that book, and it erupts into the spell itself.

 

[Kafkonia]

Have you looked at some of the suggestions over in the "what do you find in a city of aberrations?" thread? Some of the less gruesome ones would work in an abandoned mages' quarter.

Here are some more ideas:

Slow Glass -- like from the classic sf story, glass through which light passes more slowly. You look through it and see what was going on days, weeks, years before.

Living Spells -- using the MM3 template, applying it to any spells that would be interesting. While the focus of the template is on combat spells, I see no reason you couldn't have a living "rock to mud" or "ghost sound" spell, say.

Animated Objects -- books flopping on the ground like fish out of water, children's toys wandering aimlessly, and the like. You could even give some an animalistic intelligence -- perhaps a small wagon starts following the PCs around like a lost dog.

Shifting City Streets -- a la Dark City, periodically the buildings could move around, turning former thoroughfares into dead ends and vice versa.

Voices -- a magic mouth speaking, swearing, and screaming at nobody in particular.

Misfit Animals -- if you have access to Advanced Bestiary or similar resources, try mixing and matching animals; if not, just use the mechanics of one animal with the descriptor of another.

 

[Conaill]

Oh, you simply *have* to include an animated broom, carrying buckets of water...

 

[Kafkonia]

Oh, you imply *have* to include an animated broom, carrying buckets of water...

Yes, definitely! Even better if it's encountered near the former abode of a master wizard named Yen-Sid.

 

[Rolzup]

A demon, or some kind of outsider, trapped in a summoning circle would seem de rigeur.

I'd be inclined to make it a celestial of some sort, just to buck tradition. Depending on whether the PCs have access to "Detect Evil" or not, they might assume that it's a shape-shifted demon trying to decieve them.

And there's nothing to say that a genuine celestial can't go murderously insane, is there?