Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Lonely Tower

Since the Lonely Tower has proven surprisingly popular, I thought I’d post the ideas I had while designing this dungeon.

Mechanically, the way the dungeon functions is this: everything starts off inanimate. Rooms 8 and 9 are hermetically sealed (and, should the players be skillful enough to notice, are the only rooms with airtight doors and no windows) and filled with a nefarious gas. If the party moves into the Chamber of Horrors (8) without shutting the doors behind them as they go, the gas will move into the rest of the prison, animating whatever various corpses and skeletons it comes across. I don’t think opening the Salon (9) would wreck as much havoc, since the gas is probably lighter than air and therefore couldn’t access the rest of the prison.

That’s about it, except to mention there’s a skeleton under the dock (11). This skeleton has a key which unlocks the ‘backdoor’ hatch (10).

The little story I made up about the place goes like this:

A while ago – after Fallcrest burned and/or after the fall of the Empire – there was a political purge, a not uncommon pattern. The lonely tower was where the Inquisition prisoners were incarcerated, tortured, and usually executed.

Eventually, some especially frisky ne’er-do-wells got into some dark stuff and set up a salon within the prison itself! With the aid of some magical runes and slapdash alchemy, they constructed an infernal device which would refine the agonies of the condemned into a recreational drug. Prisoners below would be tortured and the hedonists above would be able to toke off the distilled, etherized suffering of the condemned.

Everything was fine until everything went wrong and now, 90 years later or so, we have this chamber of horrors waiting for our heroes.



Fallcrest's own, dilapidated Gitmo. From a previous administration.

Friday, April 17, 2009

A Random Encounter


Rungo Halfmoon, his cousins Bosco and Bolo Halfmoon, and their hired toughie Bargie Leadloch, hit the King's Road hoping to expand the franchise to Winterhaven.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Friday, April 3, 2009

Mapping the Nentir Vale



I only know a few things about the Nentir Vale, geographically speaking.
  • The Nentir Vale is a "northern land".
  • The "Vale" is situated between two mountain ranges; the Stonemarch and the Dawnforge.
  • The falls at Fallcrest indicate an elevation change.
  • Don't order the "mutton" at the Fiveleague House.
  • South of Fallcrest are the Witchlight Fens. We also know that the towns beyond the southern edge of the map are "coastal towns". To me, these are indications that South is "down".

I'm imagining the Vale as a "saddle" between the two mountain ranges with a major elevation drop clearly defined by the White River in the southeast.

So what can we conclude?
  • Harkenwold isn't really in the "vale" proper.
  • The Woodsinger Elves of the Harken Forest, being at a higher elevation, may have a tactical advantage over the Daggerburg Goblins.
  • The Kingsroad must really be quite lovely, what with the view and all.
  • Winterhaven is in the ass-end of nowhere.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Winterhaven take 4



Here is probably the final Winterhaven map. If you look closely, that's Valthrun smoking a pipe on his porch.