Need help! How would YOU find an invisible tower?

[ThoughtBubble]

How would I find a tower full of evil clerics and wizards who have kept themselves from getting found for likely a long period of time from people who probablly know better how to find them than I do? I wouldn't. I'd make them come to me.

Do you have anything you can bait them with? Something or someone that someone in there wants?

 

[mythusmage]

I was going to say, look for evidence of absence. Places where plants don't grow, the wind doesn't blow, and animals don't go. But then it hit me…

Look for dead birds. Invisible things (such as plate glass windows) and birds are natural enemies. Birds fly into invisible things. Birds die when they fly into invisible things. Dead birds fall to the ground and pile up unless disposed of in some manner. So along with dead birds, look for unusually high scavenger activity. Any place where swine, dogs, crows and ravens etc. congregate in unusual numbers. And are well fed for the local conditions. If the tower staff disposes of the avian corpses, look for signs of that. Routine chores rarely hold the attention of the worker the way special projects do, and so mistakes are made and things overlooked that would not be overlooked otherwise.

In the same vein, look for places birds fly around. Places where there is nothing visible, and yet the birds still detour.

In a case like this a Speak with Animals is a wonderful tool. But you need a Druid, so if you don't have one…

Anyway, I wish you and the rest of the party luck.

 

[Strutinan]

You have access to so many clerics? The tower is shielded from magical detection? It is populated by clerics and wizards? AND its stayed hidden for HUNDREDS of years?!?!

OK, the answer seems obvious.

Problem: you can't find the place. Given it's size and reasources it is a totally self-contained (or heavilly teleport-using) location, so looking for evidence of it's preasence is pointless at best, and a death-trap at worst ("hey bob, lets TP all our waste to this one spot we can fill with area-effect mass destruction spells, and cast a permanent Invisibility spell on a huge rock in the middle. THen idiots will scry the garbage, see the invisible 'tower' and die en masse.".

Solution? Don't scry for the tower. Scry for the ABSENCE OF TERRAIN! Carpet-scry the area until you hit a spot that you CANNOT scry. By dint of fact that it is impenetrable to divination, it gives itself away (and avoids nasty death-traps like above).

 

[kengar]

Call up every environmental charity group you can and tell them you want to make a 100,000gp donation. Tell them all it can be picked up at the "Invisible Tower of the Wastes", then follow the Volvos.

 

[megamania]

heh- you beat me too it. When in doubt, look for what is missing vs for what is known. Think outside of the box theory.

A good ranger would be helpful. I suspect the towers's users teleport/fly in to keep it secret but something of that sort the local animals would know of. Study them, ask them. Gmome with speak to borrowing animals has p[ossibilities also. The animals would know and may be overlooked at "spys" by comers/goers of the place.

 

[WattsHumphrey]

Wow, that's a pretty cool problem... invisible tower...

Well, I don't have many unique suggestions. I think Detect Magic would be easier than True Seeing, Blindsight or See Invis. I'd have to agree that searching for it yourself isn't terribly smart, though. If you decide on a searching method, I would use the Planar Ally or Dominate/Charm spells.

Do you have access to a graveyard with someone who's been there in it? I know it sounds morbid, but digging up a corpse and casting Speak with Dead could be effective. I suppose Commune and/or 'Find the Path' could be useful spells.

I'd have to expect that scrying is blocked, but trying that anyway might be helpful. Speaking to animals might be useful too, either through a hired Druid/Ranger or through a Rogue with UMD.

Have you considered the idea that the tower may move around? I wouldn't put it past the GM that something of that scale may teleport or fly or move around somewhat randomly to keep passersby from just finding it. Legend lore/Bardic Bull may be the best ways to determine such other useful details.

 

[Piratecat]

Have you considered the idea that the tower may move around? I wouldn't put it past the GM that something of that scale may teleport or fly or move around somewhat randomly to keep passersby from just finding it.

Rule One: don't give the DM any ideas. BAD WattsHumphrey, BAD!

Seriously, I think our biggest challenge is finding the correct locale in that great big wilderness. One thing I just noticed is that find the path is a cleric spell. With that, hunting for dead bird skeletons or human waste suddenly gets a lot easier.

For reasons I can't describe (to avoid giving away spoilers for Sagiro's story hour), we don't have a lot of time and we can't count on any allies. This is bound to be tricky. My only hope is that they've gotten sloppy over the several hundred years they've been hiding, but I'm not betting on it.

 

[WattsHumphrey]

Rule One: don't give the DM any ideas. BAD WattsHumphrey, BAD!

*sob* sorry.

But if I don't hand out interesting ideas to other GM's, I wouldn't feel right stealing ideas from them on occasion. And this is a pretty cool idea to steal, in my opinion

Either way, good luck with the hunt for the invisible tower

 

[Kaffis]

A crop duster and lots of flour.

Alternatively, have your clumsiest/unluckiest character wander aimlessly till he walks straight into it.

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Enlarged several times Locate Object looking for Spell Component Pouches, Holy symbols to a particular deity, or Familiars , cast Fly or Windwalk and move around quickly....