No evil shall escape my sight....

[locutus]

I've got my players on a archaeological expedition. They're going to find what turns out to be a watchtower for an Elven Empire that got wiped out by a volcano about 600 years ago. In the basement of the tower is a divination mechanism that somehow can be "read" to divine threats to the empire. I'm a bit stuck though as to the nature of the mechanism. I'm trying to get it to point to the fact that the BBEG is out and about, or that there is some impending doom they need to worry about, or even that an ancient sentient sword once again needs a wielder.

I've kind of got the idea that the spot is a confluence of ley lines, or something that makes it easy to spiritually percieve the entire empire from this one spot.

Could there be an eternal flame that changes color or can't be kept lit if theres a threat? Maybe a crystal or something? I'm looking for mythological references to divination that depend on some natural phenomenon, but I'm drawing a blank.

[Sipex]

Quick idea which hit me upon reading your description.

The tower is made up of segments piled atop one another (ie: a tower), maybe a foot high each, which can freely rotate themselves. I don't know how many segments, however many you need to convey your message.

Each segment is attuned to something, maybe one is threat level or something. As the fates change the segments slowly rotate themselves to orient to a particular cardinal direction, each direction meaning something different. Maybe a segment which is mid-way between two directions (NE, NW, etc) means something as well, or a combination of both.

Check the segments, figure out which one means what and what the direction it's pointing to means.

[Xefas]

It's a basement, right? How about some kind of mindless but creepily accurately predictive network of unexplainable mold.

It seems like the kind of thing some funky elven druids would come up with for their divination device.

[Anxe]

Stars are all about predicting the future, right? Maybe the location is a place where the stars are lined up just right for accurate predictions. Or maybe the elves just stored all their star charts there. The top of the observatory has a vast skylight with different stars marked. One of the stars is marked DOOM and is glowing fiercely.

[hymer]

Volcanic activity, eh? Maybe somebody needs to get nearly suffocated on some fumes, which will cause them to mumble weird and strange things that the wise can interpret into answers.

[Anderlith]

A map of the world is draw in light upon the wall. It shines there because of specially tuned crystals. But parts of the map are dark & draw in shadow, there lies evil, the shadow marks the influence of the BBEG.

It could be a shallow pool of water, when performing a short ritual, images appear. The images are symbolic, they don't show actual things. Let's say the sword was the sword of a knight whose family crest was a winged lion, & the BBEG is a serpentfolk, The pool would show a winged lion fighting a great snake, that is strangling the world. I don't know enough about your game to suggest images but you should be good if you take inspiration from fairy tales & novels & such

[therakishrogue]

What's the character of this empire, and how important was this tower to it's defense? If they are both powerful and on the domineering side, you have the building itself as a powerful diviner, and have an interface in the basement like this onehttp://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20071008

[Asheram]

... Have you ever played skyrim and is familiar with the Mzark or Mzluft Oculory? I could imagine the elves building something similar...

A great machine constructed out of living wood, collecting sun and moonlight through enormous crystals and mirrors, projecting beams of light onto a large grid set into the stone floor, set to predicfuture events occuring in and near the empires borders.

[therakishrogue]

Oh, I missed the "natural phenomenon" part. What about something similar to the Mezoamerican method of divining? There could be a huge, ancient knot of vines in the bottom of the tower, that drips holy sap or some sort of fruit. Whoever eats it has a series of prophetic visions that reveal the threat.

[locutus]

Mmmm Girl Genius. That's one of my favorite scenes, thank you for reminding me of it! This is the party's first contact with the elves, though, and I'd like it to be fairly benign and enlightened seeming. I will keep that idea though, and use it to communicate with some elder evil. Or Elder Guardian.

I'm likeing the idea of rings, and I think I'll use something similar. Perhaps floating in water or highlighted by moon/starlight. Thank you all! you've given me some good ideas!

[nedz]

You could model it on the Oracle of Delphi.

In the basement there is a stool which is placed over some cracks in the floor. Through the cracks drifts volcanic gas which smells of ether.
People who sit on the stool may succumb to the gas and start experiencing visions.
The visions are cryptic warnings of things which are to come.

[Gildedragon]

Pool of water, a la Odin
Patterns in the cooling lava
No a device, but an immortal creature that speaks (gibbers) when dire things are to happen

[nedz]

No a device, but an immortal creature that speaks (gibbers) when dire things are to happen

Ooh - Shoggoths maybe ?

What happens when the PC's decide to kill it because it's there ?

[locutus]

Ooh - Shoggoths maybe ?

What happens when the PC's decide to kill it because it's there ?

Improved Gibbering Mouther

Perhaps this particular location would allow such a... I hesitate to call it a creature... to feed on the fear of the entire empire. Perhaps its this natural concentration of the psychic emanations of the region that causes the thing to slide into the trap. Once entrapped, someelf figured out how to ward against it leaving again. The creature seems to gibber about regional fear sources to come as much as about those present and past.

If they kill it, a new one will slide in. Maybe it'll be a matter of days, maybe months, maybe years or decades, but a new one WILL show up.

That kind of means that the more you listen, the more you can learn about the past and future of things that cause fear an horror in the region, but also, the more you risk your sanity..... Though this is a 3.5, and I'm not quite sure how to represent that mechanically.

Depending on how goody goody I want the elves to seem, I might go with a Ouija board powered by starlight, possibly with a book of interpretations nearby. This Outer Evil idea is growing on me though.

[Gildedragon]

The Outer Evil is, I think, particularly neat as it alludes to hubris being the downfall of the empire; and sociopolitical explanations for societal decline be damned, hubris and divine wrath are much for fulfilling from a narrative standpoint.

The loss of sanity can be represented as wis drain/damage + stages of fright

[Asheram]

Improved Gibbering Mouther

Perhaps this particular location would allow such a... I hesitate to call it a creature... to feed on the fear of the entire empire. Perhaps its this natural concentration of the psychic emanations of the region that causes the thing to slide into the trap. Once entrapped, someelf figured out how to ward against it leaving again. The creature seems to gibber about regional fear sources to come as much as about those present and past.


That kind of means that the more you listen, the more you can learn about the past and future of things that cause fear an horror in the region, but also, the more you risk your sanity..... Though this is a 3.5, and I'm not quite sure how to represent that mechanically.

I can see this... A rift opened beneath the tower to Somewhere Else. A realm where all of space and time exists in one single moment and all answers can be found... but venturing there brings madness.
Wisdom checks are required to gain answers to a single question you have and after every check you are also permanently drained of two points of wisdom no matter if the check succeeds or not.

Elderly volunteers were sent into this rift as one final service to the empire, sacrificing their spirit since their bodies were no longer fit to defend the land.

[nedz]

Ahh — it's a wormhole to ...

[locutus]

Less of a wormhole, and more of a place where, if your psychic and listen closely, you can hear the internal screams of fear from everyone in the region. This has been magically enhanced, and trapped. One of the things about the Mouther, as describe din the post I just referenced, is an undefined ability to slide through time and space to locations of great fear, where they might feast. The warning oracle just prevents them from getting back out again. Or perhaps such a creature doesn't need to be locked in, and is content to sit and feed off the fear that the trap concentrates.


Now I just need a soundtrack for the thing.

[Wraith]

Less of a wormhole, and more of a place where, if your psychic and listen closely, you can hear the internal screams of fear from everyone in the region. This has been magically enhanced, and trapped. One of the things about the Mouther, as describe din the post I just referenced, is an undefined ability to slide through time and space to locations of great fear, where they might feast. The warning oracle just prevents them from getting back out again. Or perhaps such a creature doesn't need to be locked in, and is content to sit and feed off the fear that the trap concentrates.


Now I just need a soundtrack for the thing.

I can't see how you wouldn't use the At The Mountains of Madness album, by Erdenstein.

[nedz]

Anything by Schoenberg — and I mean anything.