Abstraction
First Post
This is kinda a continuation of the threads asking for plot help with kobolds in a ruins and what kind of plants and animals you would find in a cool, damp, lush forest.
The group got ahead of my planned material and got into the vaguely thought-out area. Here's the background: a couple thousand years ago, some magical researchers were exploring interdimensional "knots" in reality where one can cross between dimensional barriers easier. They pulled many of these knots to a single location for research. Unfortunately, this created some kind of dangerous or unstable situation (not sure yet). So they closed and abandoned the buildings. They placed spells to prevent people from exploring. The entire area was in a time stasis field, which should have froze anyone in time if they entered (although it actually only slowed them extremely. This is also the reason that this area remained a fern tree, mossy, damp forest when the rest of the topography changed to by dry scrub. Wards were also placed to make it impossible to tunnel up from below to the ruins.
Enter modern day. The group, guided by dreams, has found where the Forbidden Forest, as it came to be known, was. The entire area was sunken in about 70 feet. They find kobolds in there and quickly learn, after fighting, that at least one of them had a green slimy ball on the back of its neck. It doesn't take long for them to figure that this little slug was controlling the kobold. When they threatened the kobold enough, the slime jumped free and escaped and the kobold fell down dead.
After some more investigation and talking with the kobold resistance, they learn that the slimes, which the kobolds call “The Ancient Ones,” controlled their leaders and made the kobolds mine out and cause the collapse that brought the ruins below the level of the stasis field. This collapse killed several hundred kobolds. The group makes an agreement with the resistance and sneaks in from the back while the resistance attacks from the front.
The group gets into the main building. Note, the group hasn't seemed to notice yet that none of the buildings have doors. They have a little minor skirmish, then find a stairway that leads down. It is covered by a force field. There is a broken key on the floor. They get the kobolds that accompanied them to hold the key together long enough to let the group through the field. It snaps back up behind them. They don't know that the kobolds flee and there is now no way back.
At the bottom of the stairs is a circular room. It has eight equally-spaced doors around. Above each is a symbol in the Pre-Omnus text. (The language Omnus in my game was that language that was spoke in antiquity, the language that all races at the time spoke. Pre-Omnus is a language that actually predates any races having language. So, very ancient, mysterious and powerful). The wizard uses Decipher Script and, of the eight symbols, she deciphers three. Hope, Joy and Terror. This was pretty much where we stopped.
I was thinking of making a slight change in the symbols between games. I was thinking that in Pre-Omnus, a single glyph has multiple meanings that depend on context. So, with just a single glyph over the door, the glyph might mean Hope, Book or Simple. I was thinking of going with emotion/noun/adjective. Note that the character will get a second chance at deciphering these glyphs as they are gaining a level between games and the wizard will be putting more points into Decipher Script. If someone is smart, they might take Pre-Omnus as a language and make it all auto-success.
So my idea is that each of the eight doors leads to another circular room with eight doors. This should quickly lead the group to realize that the rooms should overlap and thus must be extra-dimensional. One of the first things they find (no matter which room the check) will be a young elven girl of about the equivalent age of eight. She will let them know that she encountered kobolds who were looking for "the Key" and they were mean to her, hurt her. In reality, she is the key. She can naturally open dimensional rifts at knot-points. This is the reason why she was left here when the place was abandoned. The group shouldn't find out/realize this until later.
So how should I map this? How many rooms? Some should be dead-ends, some loop back to other rooms. There will be encounters with wandering kobolds and some rooms may have dimensional interlopers. How can I tie in the glyph-words to lead to specific outcomes? I was thinking something along the lines that the door Curiousity leads to a room of eight doors, one of which is Questioning, which leads to a room that had a door Discovery, which leads to a room that has a door Answers, which door leads to a terminal-room which should contain the "key", but actually an empty stasis-chamber. Of course, that also means that Curiousity leads to seven other things. Actually, one of those doors leads back to the original room and one is Questioning, so six other doors.
Help with concept? Help with emotion (or idea) / noun / adjective glyph words?
Thanks! By the way, the game is tomorrow, so no time to pick up any new materials. I have to work with the things I have.
The group got ahead of my planned material and got into the vaguely thought-out area. Here's the background: a couple thousand years ago, some magical researchers were exploring interdimensional "knots" in reality where one can cross between dimensional barriers easier. They pulled many of these knots to a single location for research. Unfortunately, this created some kind of dangerous or unstable situation (not sure yet). So they closed and abandoned the buildings. They placed spells to prevent people from exploring. The entire area was in a time stasis field, which should have froze anyone in time if they entered (although it actually only slowed them extremely. This is also the reason that this area remained a fern tree, mossy, damp forest when the rest of the topography changed to by dry scrub. Wards were also placed to make it impossible to tunnel up from below to the ruins.
Enter modern day. The group, guided by dreams, has found where the Forbidden Forest, as it came to be known, was. The entire area was sunken in about 70 feet. They find kobolds in there and quickly learn, after fighting, that at least one of them had a green slimy ball on the back of its neck. It doesn't take long for them to figure that this little slug was controlling the kobold. When they threatened the kobold enough, the slime jumped free and escaped and the kobold fell down dead.
After some more investigation and talking with the kobold resistance, they learn that the slimes, which the kobolds call “The Ancient Ones,” controlled their leaders and made the kobolds mine out and cause the collapse that brought the ruins below the level of the stasis field. This collapse killed several hundred kobolds. The group makes an agreement with the resistance and sneaks in from the back while the resistance attacks from the front.
The group gets into the main building. Note, the group hasn't seemed to notice yet that none of the buildings have doors. They have a little minor skirmish, then find a stairway that leads down. It is covered by a force field. There is a broken key on the floor. They get the kobolds that accompanied them to hold the key together long enough to let the group through the field. It snaps back up behind them. They don't know that the kobolds flee and there is now no way back.
At the bottom of the stairs is a circular room. It has eight equally-spaced doors around. Above each is a symbol in the Pre-Omnus text. (The language Omnus in my game was that language that was spoke in antiquity, the language that all races at the time spoke. Pre-Omnus is a language that actually predates any races having language. So, very ancient, mysterious and powerful). The wizard uses Decipher Script and, of the eight symbols, she deciphers three. Hope, Joy and Terror. This was pretty much where we stopped.
I was thinking of making a slight change in the symbols between games. I was thinking that in Pre-Omnus, a single glyph has multiple meanings that depend on context. So, with just a single glyph over the door, the glyph might mean Hope, Book or Simple. I was thinking of going with emotion/noun/adjective. Note that the character will get a second chance at deciphering these glyphs as they are gaining a level between games and the wizard will be putting more points into Decipher Script. If someone is smart, they might take Pre-Omnus as a language and make it all auto-success.
So my idea is that each of the eight doors leads to another circular room with eight doors. This should quickly lead the group to realize that the rooms should overlap and thus must be extra-dimensional. One of the first things they find (no matter which room the check) will be a young elven girl of about the equivalent age of eight. She will let them know that she encountered kobolds who were looking for "the Key" and they were mean to her, hurt her. In reality, she is the key. She can naturally open dimensional rifts at knot-points. This is the reason why she was left here when the place was abandoned. The group shouldn't find out/realize this until later.
So how should I map this? How many rooms? Some should be dead-ends, some loop back to other rooms. There will be encounters with wandering kobolds and some rooms may have dimensional interlopers. How can I tie in the glyph-words to lead to specific outcomes? I was thinking something along the lines that the door Curiousity leads to a room of eight doors, one of which is Questioning, which leads to a room that had a door Discovery, which leads to a room that has a door Answers, which door leads to a terminal-room which should contain the "key", but actually an empty stasis-chamber. Of course, that also means that Curiousity leads to seven other things. Actually, one of those doors leads back to the original room and one is Questioning, so six other doors.
Help with concept? Help with emotion (or idea) / noun / adjective glyph words?
Thanks! By the way, the game is tomorrow, so no time to pick up any new materials. I have to work with the things I have.
