Rhynn
2013-03-02, 05:00 PM
I'm constructing the ziggurat of Kalak (of Tyr, Athas, Dark Sun) as a dungeon, and trying to figure out what all to put in it. (AD&D 2E, as if that really matters.)
For background, Kalak is an immortal sorcerer-king who may or may not be partly a dragon, and who may or may not be working up to becoming a dragon (or more of a dragon) - but he sure is planning some kind of evil sorcery (involving using special orbs fashioned from obsidian that may drain and store life energy), and the ziggurat plays a key part. It's occupied the majority of his attention and consumed the majority of Tyr's resources for years and years. Also, forget all canon pre-history about the Blue and Green Ages (and the genocidal wars of Rajaat were fought with psionic powers, sorcery, ray guns and hydrogen bombs).
It's a bit of a weird special case. There's really no room for typical wandering monsters - it's in use by Kalak himself (although infrequently - it's mostly waiting for the right time), so it's pretty much traps, extraplanar servants, constructed servants, and undead. There's also no human or demihuman presence - Kalak's own high templars are basically allowed in a few outer rooms, and that's it.
Mostly, I'm trying to come up with purposes for rooms and sets of rooms, and would love some ideas.
So far I've got:
- Libraries (history, philosophy, natural history; sections of magica tomes)
- Summoning chambers, gate chambers, teleportation chambers, rooms for binding fiends and elementals
- Cells for keeping fiends and monsters
- Lots and lots of obsidian orbs, in weird life-draining experiments; I really need to come up with something specific and interesting here
- Elemental plane nodes (Kalak's templar-priests gain power for him because he has made himself a conduit for power from the Inner Planes)
- Laboratories (alchemical, magical, necromantic, magibotanical)
- Magical forges (for weapons, armor, golems, items, etc.)
- Magical greenhouse gardens (potion fruit) powered by continual light
- Storerooms and repositories for magical supplies (everything from corpses to seeds, rare ingredients and metals)
- Magical pools or fountains (of the good ol' "roll d20 to see what happens when you drink" variety, and possibly of the "a nymph shows up and steals your grey dragon scale mail" variety...)
- Scrying chambers ("living" painted murals of specific locations, mirrors, reflecting pools, fonts)
- Murals, engravings, and tapestries depicting Kalak's history from his point of view; probably even more untruthful than the current official versions, pure propaganda depicting him as a Gilgamesh-type character
- Shafts and pits forming one-way connections between levels
- Sub-levels within levels (a section of a level connected to one other level, but not to the level it is on)
- Secret passages from the lower levels to various places (Kalak's Golden Tower, the arena floor, Under-Tyr, etc.)
I need ideas to fill 7 levels (the 8th is a relatively small shrine on the top), so I've definitely got a ways to go. The lower levels are huge (the bottom level's inside dimensions are more than 700' by 500').
For background, Kalak is an immortal sorcerer-king who may or may not be partly a dragon, and who may or may not be working up to becoming a dragon (or more of a dragon) - but he sure is planning some kind of evil sorcery (involving using special orbs fashioned from obsidian that may drain and store life energy), and the ziggurat plays a key part. It's occupied the majority of his attention and consumed the majority of Tyr's resources for years and years. Also, forget all canon pre-history about the Blue and Green Ages (and the genocidal wars of Rajaat were fought with psionic powers, sorcery, ray guns and hydrogen bombs).
It's a bit of a weird special case. There's really no room for typical wandering monsters - it's in use by Kalak himself (although infrequently - it's mostly waiting for the right time), so it's pretty much traps, extraplanar servants, constructed servants, and undead. There's also no human or demihuman presence - Kalak's own high templars are basically allowed in a few outer rooms, and that's it.
Mostly, I'm trying to come up with purposes for rooms and sets of rooms, and would love some ideas.
So far I've got:
- Libraries (history, philosophy, natural history; sections of magica tomes)
- Summoning chambers, gate chambers, teleportation chambers, rooms for binding fiends and elementals
- Cells for keeping fiends and monsters
- Lots and lots of obsidian orbs, in weird life-draining experiments; I really need to come up with something specific and interesting here
- Elemental plane nodes (Kalak's templar-priests gain power for him because he has made himself a conduit for power from the Inner Planes)
- Laboratories (alchemical, magical, necromantic, magibotanical)
- Magical forges (for weapons, armor, golems, items, etc.)
- Magical greenhouse gardens (potion fruit) powered by continual light
- Storerooms and repositories for magical supplies (everything from corpses to seeds, rare ingredients and metals)
- Magical pools or fountains (of the good ol' "roll d20 to see what happens when you drink" variety, and possibly of the "a nymph shows up and steals your grey dragon scale mail" variety...)
- Scrying chambers ("living" painted murals of specific locations, mirrors, reflecting pools, fonts)
- Murals, engravings, and tapestries depicting Kalak's history from his point of view; probably even more untruthful than the current official versions, pure propaganda depicting him as a Gilgamesh-type character
- Shafts and pits forming one-way connections between levels
- Sub-levels within levels (a section of a level connected to one other level, but not to the level it is on)
- Secret passages from the lower levels to various places (Kalak's Golden Tower, the arena floor, Under-Tyr, etc.)
I need ideas to fill 7 levels (the 8th is a relatively small shrine on the top), so I've definitely got a ways to go. The lower levels are huge (the bottom level's inside dimensions are more than 700' by 500').