Help Needed: The Metamorphing Castle

[Climowitz]

Hello everyone, i came today to ask for inspiration or even results.
I will be awarding my players with a Castle that shape shifts into different styles.
It will work with a Foundation Stone, that will allow players to set up 9 Different Stones there.
Each stone will have a specific effect on the castle, depending on what pillar is put.
1 Pillar defines the Castle's Shape or Design.
1 Pillar defines the Location of the Castle, specifically the geography around (Sea, Mountain, Forest, Air, Etc.)
2 Pillars defines Defenses the castle have, for example (Magic barrier, Invisibility, Siege Weapons like ballistas, Lava river around, etc.
5 Pillars defines Special Rooms the castle have, fully operational, though not fully equipped, for example, Training Grounds, Laboratory, Workshop, Forge, etc.
Setting is medieval fantasy.

Each stone should have a different outcome on each different type of pillar. So i need help filling those voids. Whatever you can think of, any idea you have is welcome. Not necessarily a full stone, but whatever part you feel you can contribute will help. Also if you have any idea besides the stone's effects, feel free to comment.

Thanks in advance for the help. Much appreciated.

[GaelofDarkness]

OK, so we need nine styles, nine terrains, nine defenses and nine facilities.

For styles, I'd honestly look up pictures of fortresses and other buildings with distinctive architecture from all around the world from castles of Bavaria to the onion domes of Russian architecture to the pagodas of East Asia to the Great Mosque of Djenne. Lots of fascinating styles to apply to a defensive fortification. That'll be a lot easier than trying to find nine different distinct kinds of Medieval European castles. Add in some fantastical architecture too, like an elven style that has towers with delicate, upside-down butresses that make the building look like a flowering plant.


For terrains, I'm assuming that the castle can't change huge chunks of the map - just it's immediate estate. Or does the castle teleport to the different locations. Sorry, if I misunderstood! Here's some suggestions for consideration:

• The castle sits on a raised, rocky outcropping like the iconic Neuschwansen castle.
• The castle is surrounded by open grassland that's perpetually full of wildflowers in bloom (so it's not just a plain old plain).
• The castle lies at the heart of a dense, dark forest, maybe a bamboo forest?
• The castle is in the midst of a swamp.
• The castle lies on an estate that has been blasted by volcanic activity - covered in black ash spewed by volcanic vents.
• The castle sits next to a picturesque, azure lake - or a bay if it's plausibly coastal.
• The castle is at the bottom of a great ravine.
• The castle experiences a permanent winter - so it could be a tundra or whatever suits the general region.
• The castle experiences a permanent summer - so it could be a desert or whatever suits the general region.

If you wanted these to have a bigger impact on the castle, they could define a kind of resource they could cultivate over the seasons from the environs: stone, flowers for markets or their pigments, wood, creatures for meat/fur/taming, minerals/sulphur, trade route by boat, metal ores, idk what permanent summer/winter gives you.


For defenses, I've got fewer interesting ideas. Yours are very cool - and I'd love to see what happens when a lava moat meets a lake/the sea (unless the same stone causes both so they can't). What about a roving pack of blink dogs loyal to the castle's masters? Or a flock of talking ravens who report on the goings on in the domain? Ooh, one stone turns the pillar into a storm generator that launches lightning strikes all around on activation.


For facilities: armory, smithy, arcane research lab, a diviner's observatory, a library (maybe combine some of those options), a temple/shrine ready to be fit out to your cleric/paladin's needs, a herbalist garden that could be fitted out as a druid grove, a dungeon, a falconry, stables, infirmary (or would that be the shrine?), an amphitheatre (that can be training grounds, a place for the bard to perform to entertain/increse reputation and a place to give speeches to call the locals to action for your case all in one).