Dr paradox
2021-09-09, 07:56 PM
Heya. I'm designing a castle that used to belong to a Wizard. The players are trying to stop an Oni from plundering the MacGuffin inside. I'm looking for evocative ways the wizard might have secured this object, which is an irregularly shaped heavy metal case a little more than a foot cubed.
Feel free to just use that as the prompt, but for more details, here are the caveats:
The vault is not totally watertight. Liquid must be free to seep down out of it.
The vault is located on the third or so floor of a castle, immediately above the great hall.
The wizard who secured it was fifteenth level at most (D&D 5e rules). You don't need to adhere to RAW or anything, I'm a big fan of esoteric wizard stuff, just giving you an idea of relative power.
The wizard who built the vault has been dead for about two years, with her former prisoners occupying the castle. The vault's security must have remained relatively intact for that time without maintenance.
And if you really want the context...
In my setting, Trolls aren't exactly a species: they're more like an infection derived from some unknown giant in the distant past. If a humanoid is infused with blood directly from a Troll's heart, they gain regeneration, increased strength, and heightened pain tolerance, but they will eventually lose their mind and become a troll. A high price to pay, but in this region of the world, there is a tradition of berserkers who accept this practical death-sentence in exchange for a few years of martial prowess. So far, nobody has reliably been able to make use of a fully-transformed troll in a military context: they just don't care, no matter how much you pay them, and they will eventually start eating their allies or wander off to the mountains.
To feed this demand, learned folk will capture a troll, belt it down, and laboriously extract their still-beating heart from their body before securing it in a container that prevents the Troll from regenerating. If done properly, this produces what's called an Undying Heart, from which a practically unlimited amount of Troll Heart Blood can be taken. It's difficult to make and fairly easy to kill, so there aren't many of them, but those who have them can command a high price for access.
Among these was the wizard Tasya of the Four Chambers, whose Undying Heart was renowned for produced better results and slower transformations than other leading brands. She moved into a decrepit castle and set up shop, using mercenaries to abduct test-subjects so she could improve her methods while supplying local warmasters with all the berserkers they could find volunteers for. A village grew up in the shadow of the castle called Tasyagrad, and the fortress itself was named Krovzamok, also called the Castle of Monsters. Tasya turned the great hall into a large laboratory, and secured her Undying Heart in an enchanted vault above it, with a chain she could pull to pierce the heart anew and siphon the blood she needed without risking the heart's theft or destruction.
She went on accruing a fortune and conducting her experiments for another forty years, until one of her test subjects finally broke her neck in an inattentive moment. The rest of her prisoners were freed and butchered the rest of the castle staff. Several trolls broke free and attacked Tasyagrad down the hill, forcing the villagers to abandon their homes and leaving the whole place a ruined wreck. The test subjects remained in the castle, infecting first Tasya's apprentice and then whatever physicians or magicians they could abduct with the Troll Blood in the hopes of finding a cure for their affliction. It's been two years since the uprising, and many of the test subjects have completed their transformations and been locked in the dungeons again in the hopes they might be saved when a cure is found - though the possibility is starting to look remote indeed.
Now, an Oni pirate known as the Demon of Kharkel has been sent by his pirate fleet to buy or steal the Undying Heart for their benefit. The party, being opposed to that fleet, wants to thwart his plans and interrogate him on the fleet's next move. Along the way, they may try to retrieve the heart, either to bait the Oni into attacking them directly, or to hand over to the test subjects to improve their research, or to destroy to keep from falling into the wrong hands. Because of this, I ought to know exactly how it's protected.
I look forward to your ideas!
Feel free to just use that as the prompt, but for more details, here are the caveats:
The vault is not totally watertight. Liquid must be free to seep down out of it.
The vault is located on the third or so floor of a castle, immediately above the great hall.
The wizard who secured it was fifteenth level at most (D&D 5e rules). You don't need to adhere to RAW or anything, I'm a big fan of esoteric wizard stuff, just giving you an idea of relative power.
The wizard who built the vault has been dead for about two years, with her former prisoners occupying the castle. The vault's security must have remained relatively intact for that time without maintenance.
And if you really want the context...
In my setting, Trolls aren't exactly a species: they're more like an infection derived from some unknown giant in the distant past. If a humanoid is infused with blood directly from a Troll's heart, they gain regeneration, increased strength, and heightened pain tolerance, but they will eventually lose their mind and become a troll. A high price to pay, but in this region of the world, there is a tradition of berserkers who accept this practical death-sentence in exchange for a few years of martial prowess. So far, nobody has reliably been able to make use of a fully-transformed troll in a military context: they just don't care, no matter how much you pay them, and they will eventually start eating their allies or wander off to the mountains.
To feed this demand, learned folk will capture a troll, belt it down, and laboriously extract their still-beating heart from their body before securing it in a container that prevents the Troll from regenerating. If done properly, this produces what's called an Undying Heart, from which a practically unlimited amount of Troll Heart Blood can be taken. It's difficult to make and fairly easy to kill, so there aren't many of them, but those who have them can command a high price for access.
Among these was the wizard Tasya of the Four Chambers, whose Undying Heart was renowned for produced better results and slower transformations than other leading brands. She moved into a decrepit castle and set up shop, using mercenaries to abduct test-subjects so she could improve her methods while supplying local warmasters with all the berserkers they could find volunteers for. A village grew up in the shadow of the castle called Tasyagrad, and the fortress itself was named Krovzamok, also called the Castle of Monsters. Tasya turned the great hall into a large laboratory, and secured her Undying Heart in an enchanted vault above it, with a chain she could pull to pierce the heart anew and siphon the blood she needed without risking the heart's theft or destruction.
She went on accruing a fortune and conducting her experiments for another forty years, until one of her test subjects finally broke her neck in an inattentive moment. The rest of her prisoners were freed and butchered the rest of the castle staff. Several trolls broke free and attacked Tasyagrad down the hill, forcing the villagers to abandon their homes and leaving the whole place a ruined wreck. The test subjects remained in the castle, infecting first Tasya's apprentice and then whatever physicians or magicians they could abduct with the Troll Blood in the hopes of finding a cure for their affliction. It's been two years since the uprising, and many of the test subjects have completed their transformations and been locked in the dungeons again in the hopes they might be saved when a cure is found - though the possibility is starting to look remote indeed.
Now, an Oni pirate known as the Demon of Kharkel has been sent by his pirate fleet to buy or steal the Undying Heart for their benefit. The party, being opposed to that fleet, wants to thwart his plans and interrogate him on the fleet's next move. Along the way, they may try to retrieve the heart, either to bait the Oni into attacking them directly, or to hand over to the test subjects to improve their research, or to destroy to keep from falling into the wrong hands. Because of this, I ought to know exactly how it's protected.
I look forward to your ideas!