A Wizard's Tower

A Wizard's Tower

 

 

 

I recently stumbled upon an image of a wizard's tower from one of my old home games. It was a fun environment for the players to navigate so I thought I'd pop it up here.

I often style my wizards as obsessively nerdy about a particular field. The wizard who built this tower is really into creating animal-human hybrids a la The Island of Dr Moreau. Continuing the Moreau theme I placed the tower on a floating island entirely populated by the wiz's bio engineered monstrosities. Even the plants were designed - as the players walked through the tangled mangroves I described the canopy of leaves turning in unison to catch the wind and steer the island on its mysterious course.

In classic mad scientist fashion the wizard has been eaten by rebellious frog people and their tower is... dormant. This set up left the players relatively free to poke around and put together the situation. 

From bottom to top here's a breakdown of the rooms. 

 

The Foyer 

Big open space with a passage to the kitchens on the other side.

 A large cage in the center is full of illusory birds. A small mirror hangs
on the lowest rung of the cage. Moving it to a higher rung teleports anyone
inside to the corresponding level. The cage in the Laboratory is locked
and the cage in the Sanctum requires the wizards breath on the mirror or a
password for the teleportation to take effect otherwise the chandelier
above forms a flying swarm of glass shards and attacks.  

The Kitchen

A short, squat, chameleon thing makes meals here. They can't talk and will most likely
blend into the walls to avoid being seen. If PC's befriend them they can hiss, rasp
and gesticulate to communicate and also fix them a meal. They don't know where
the wizard has gone but they haven't seen them in many moons.

Dining Room

Kind of a breakfast nook/bathroom. A fountain splashing to one side is clearly used
as a bath. The small table is set for one with the morning's breakfast sitting uneaten.
The chameleon thing makes their way between here and the kitchen via a flight of stairs
There is a teleporting cage here too. 

Laboratory

The cage here is locked. Anyone picking or breaking it may want to first
disarm the hidden magical wards. When triggered they teleport anyone inside the cage sideways
to the exterior of the tower where they will most likely fall 20ft to the ground.
Beyond the cage the level is divided by walls into four sections...

1. Storage
2. A laboratory full of recipes, reagents
   
3. A row of glass chambers in which animal human hybrids sleep, suspended in viscous fluid.
   There is a nearby control panel with 6 levers*
   
4. Stairs up to the Library
   

*Roll to determine the animal part of the experiment inside:

1. Bird 2. Reptile 3. Crustacean 4. Amphibian 5. Piscean 6. Insectoid

Just take a basic stat block and give it one trait/ability that fits
e.g armor or walking on walls or breathing water etc.

Roll to determine what mood any awoken experiments are in.

1. Murderous 2. Clingy 3. Indifferent 4. Dead 5. Fearful 6. Darkly Ambitious

 

 

 

Library

Lots of books. A magic carpet that can replicate things like grass or a warm fire.
A globe contains a pin marking the island's destination. A writing desk contains a secret draw
with a vial of blood in it. Pulling one of the books on the shelf does indeed a open up a secret stairway
to the Sanctum above.

A raven/macaw or other winged creature pecks at the windows seeking entry. If let in it indicates
its desire for treats. If fed it helps uncover secrets in the room or caws out the password for the upper
level. 

 Note:  I use any library or similar space to tell players stuff I want them to know. There could be scribbled notes here hinting about the growing aggression of the frog people. There could be some preliminary designs for the resurrection sarcophagus in the Sanctum or instructions to a trusted apprentice on what to do with the vial of blood in the writing desk.

Sanctum

The interior of the bulb atop the tower is a lush garden. There is a bower for sleeping
and a mirror that can scry through any reflective surface in the tower.
There is a teleportation cage here.

Hidden under the lush growth is a strange sarcophagus with the likeness of a robed
figure on the lid. It contains a recess into which the vial of blood from the library fits. 

Inserting the blood within the sarcophagus begins the process of resurrecting the wizard.

In my game I had the wizard's half raven apprentice, (buffed by some purloined magical gear), try and prevent their creator's reconstitution by mimicking the wizard's voice to trigger a number of defensive measures such as grasping vines and suicidal fruit monsters that sprouted from the surrounding garden and exploded in clouds of acid when killed. You can have the hidden apprentice impersonate their master and attempt to intimidate the party into leaving in a Wizard of Oz style encounter. Or possibly the Frog people swarm the tower to prevent you returning their hated despot? 

This doesn't need to be a combat encounter. If I was running it again I'd give a little more thought to this final chamber. What arguments might the apprentice make to dissuade the party from resurrecting the wizard? What boons might the party expect to receive if they do return the wizard to life?

That's all. My group had fun poking at things and trying to communicate with the half animals in the tower. I think I might run something like this again for a one shot in a system like Trophy or Troika.