To reach the second floor, you must have the key to open the locked door:
The Second Floor
The second floor contains a round room with five doors: the one you stepped through; a door with three locks; and three more doors, each with an odd characteristic. In the center crouches another gargoyle, a gaudy purple wizard's hat perched on its cracked skull. "Lo!" It booms pleasantly, if a bit dramatically. "Tis a merry wanderer before me! I am the guide, Dirk Bladegod the Excellent. Thou must be on a mission of great import to hath wandered so far and found mine castle!" It pauses for a long moment and then continues a bit awkwardly, as if it's trying to remember something, "Yon locked door needs three keys to open, all turnt upon the same breath. Moving forward is not a task for a solo adventurer, so thou shall needest to keep a party of fellow heroes!"
It leans forward, the star on its hat bobbing excitedly, "But worry not! Though it might seemeth empty of souls, many other travelers are on the same path as thee! We've just used the arcane majicks to summon the Power of the Instance to keep such company from crowding, littering, and throwing parties in our sacred halls! Just look inside and reflect upon thy need, chant the spell Ell Eff Jhee, and thou shalt soon findst a group of like-minded warriors to aid you on your quest. And now..."
The gargoyle's expression crunched up in thought until finally it reaches under its hat took out a book. Several many-sided dice drop and scatter on the floor. "Aw s**t," he mutters, Flipping through the book, the creature began to grumble in thought. Something about Dungeons and Humans. He's too distracted now to be of any further use, and doesn't even offer up a key. Hopefully the other three doors will be more helpful.
The OOC
About locked doors: - they lead to the next level - once used to unlock a door the keys do not disappear, they remain in your inventory. - the lock colors correspond to the keys needed. - any black key can be used for the black locks. - all the locked doors will now have 3 or more keys needed, that you'll have to turn at the same time. One key per hand! This means one person alone can only turn two keys! That's not enough! Do some math. Come back. Figure out how many people you need to proceed and go find them here. - create a journey thread for your group! - once you have unlocked a locked door, that door remains unlocked to you. Meaning you can go back to lower levels without having to screw around with keys and locks to get back up.
Rooms, Keys, and Infirmaries: - Rooms all have a key you can win through luck, lore, and battle! - Have fun! - If you don't currently have the key from a room, you can redo it as many times as needed. Meaning if you should lose a key, you can redo that room to get another one. - Bosses do not reset if you die in the fight (meaning you don't have to start a new fight, just come back and continue the last one) but the other rooms do. - Another boss spawns for every person in the room. You can attack them separately or together, but if there are 3 people fighting, there are 3 bosses to defeat. - You only get to roll once for loot per room battle, no matter how many enemies are there. - If you should die:
You awake feeling wonderful in an incredibly plush bed. Your clothes are sitting in a nearby chair, freshly washed and folded. A small but nourishing meal is beside your bed. Once you're ready to leave, a gargoyle slides in front of the door to look you over. "Oh yes, yes. You're looking quite well aren't you." It gives you a stony smile. "I'm very glad my meagre skills could be of use to you. Now of course, I would never ask for payment for those services which have seen to both your health and your comfort. Those are a duty and privilege, such an honor, really. But..." it hisses, smiling wider to reveal several sets of shark-like teeth, "...as they say, if you think you're getting a free lunch, most likely, you are lunch."
To leave the Infirmary, you must pay by giving up a key of your choice. If you have no keys, you can pay with your limbs, your senses, or your weapon (which can still be used for the minipet and post-event artifact, but no longer during this event.)
The Power of Instance and Ell Eff Jhee: - All characters within the Tower are there at the same time, but in separate instances. Meaning they can't see or interact with each other though they are essentially going through the same things in the same places. - The solitude of the Instance can be countered by the Ell Eff Jhee spell (aka: the Looking For Group thread here) which merges your instance with that of others so that you may all adventure and interact together as a group (max of 5 members!) - As part of the group you can choose to get keys from rooms together or separately. Everyone can do all of the tasks or you can split them up.
Mysterious Strangers: - You can go back down to lower levels and help other groups as a Mysterious Stranger. A Mysterious Stranger is automatically dressed all in black, is extremely dashing, and holds a slight edge of danger. No one knows who a Mysterious Stranger really is, and they don't count as group members. If your group needs such assistance (only one allowed per group at a time!) then just put an (M!) in your group's journey thread title.
A black door with a pool of water at its base.
The door swings open and you are faced with a huge pool, its waters a clear and inviting shade of gold. At the other end, lounging in a high lifeguard's tower, a gargoyle lounges while sipping a large umbrella drink and singing off-key pop songs. You see a dark key glinting around its neck as it ignored any attempt to call across the water. If you want to get the key, you'll have to swim for it!
Fortunately the water is quite warm.
To swim:
You'll need to swim 30 lengths to get across the pool!
Roll 1d6 1 - a shark bites you, taking one fourth of your full health 2 - you swim 3 lengths 3 - you inhale the golden water and it chokes you, taking one fourth of your full life 4 - a piece of whatever clothes you're wearing slips off, you now have less water resistance and you swim 5 lengths 5 - you get a cramp and only swim 1 length, you probably should have done a better job of stretching before entering the water 6 - a shark appears behind you, inspiring you to quickly swim 10 lengths
When you reach the end, the gargoyle lift's his sunglasses and gives you a Cool Guy thumbs-up before tossing you a key. You have to swim back to get to the door, but at least this time you're warmed up and able to quickly cross it without incident.
A black door that emits a wonderful smell.
Writing Prompt:
You open the door to find yourself in a place from your former life. On the table sits your favourite meal, the one you never got tired of. If you could only have one last meal, this would be what you'd ask for. Memories of this meal well up and fade away with every bite your take, each one becoming more of a compulsion than the one before it, forcing you to keep eating until both food and memory are gone.
When you finish your meal, a gargoyle dressed in clothes to match the setting appears with a purple platter in their hands. On it sits an after dinner mint and a black key.
Should you eat the mint, the memory of those meals will return to you. And you will have fresh breath as well.
A red door with the soft sounds of a child crying behind it.
The sound increases as you open the door to reveal a small mirror, about half your size. As you approach it, you see a child-like version of yourself within. A moment it later it looks up at you, eyes wide with emotion and lunged out of the mirror to attack you.
You are fighting a younger version of yourself. It holds all your true memories and is quick to judge you, to bring up any disappointments, failures, lost dreams, and accusations based on them. HP: 20 Auto-damage: 3
Loot (1d4)
[1] [2] [3] [4]
At the final blow, cracks begin to appear on the child's face. Its chest soon follows, cracking like glass and falling inward, revealing a hollow that's empty, save for a red key.
Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:24 pm
To reach the third floor, you must have the keys to open the locked door:
The Third Floor
A black door with music coming from behind it.
The music swells and fades as you step inside. Instantly you a greeted by a small, rather excited gargoyle. Its wings flutter in delight as it takes you in. "Oh excellent! Excellent! I've been just dying to see some knew blood here, all the others are lead-footed and have terrible taste in everything. Now what's your style? I can keep up with anything, and wow! A new routine! We're going to have to make a whole new routine for this, how exciting!" It claps its hands and then gives you a very firm hug. Because it's made of rock. See what happened there?
"Go on you! Go touch the record-o-thing-player-whatsit, and it'll find a good song for us all to dance to!" It beams happily and urges you with an impatient hand gesture. "If you do well, I'll give you a nice reward! And if you do badly," the room seems to grow a bit dim, "...well you know what they say, no gain, get pain. Because grievous bodily harm is an artist's greatest motivator! I'm Dreary Day Raven Sway, by the by, I'm sure we're gonna be great friends!"
How to Dance
Group Dancing - Pick a song and style of dance. - Everyone Roll 6d8 - Use The Maths to figure out the average roll total for your group. - Anyone below average is forced to do extra painful stretches with Dreary Day, costing a fourth of their full health, before trying again.
Solo Dancing - Pick a song and style of dance. - Roll 6d8 - If you roll less than 24, you are forced to do extra painful stretches with Dreary Day, costing a fourth of your full health, before trying again.
Once you've successfully danced one time, Dreary Day gives your butt a bruising slap and slips a key into one of your pockets.
A black door with bright lines of light shining from its frame.
Writing Prompt:
A near blinding spotlight hits you as you enter the room, and you're met with a lazy sort of applause. You're standing on a stage, and through the lights you can just barely make out about a dozen or gargoyles in theatre seats, staring up at you. Another stands nearby on the stage, a microphone in hand, "Aaaaaaand now! Our next act it the wonderful, fabulous, extremely entertaining..." it leans over and asks, "...uh....This Guy!" It jazzhands off the stage and leaves you standing there in front of the crowd.
It takes a moment, but something familiar and special begins to creep into you. You find your body moving almost on its own and suddenly you're showing off a talent or skill from your previous life. It may be a large thing, it make be a small thing, but it's yours and you're damn good at it. When you need a prop or instrument, you find one suddenly in reach at just the right moment.
It begins to feel good to be up there, amazing even. The gargoyles sit up and pay attention, and soon enough applause and cheers fill the air until finally everything stops and your performance is done. Confetti rains down from the ceiling. The emcee places a plastic crown on your head and hands you a trophy featuring a single black key and the a placard that reads: You're Super Talented!
A gold door with several feathers sticking out from under it.
A wall of fog blocks your sight for a moment before a burst of wing clears it just enough to give you a nice view of the monstrous raven as it dives down to attack. Its eyes blaze with a familiar madness.
You are fighting an Insanity Raven! HP: 20 Auto Attack: 3 Extra: this enemy is evasive and skilled at hiding! Increase your damage modifier for regular attacks by 2! (ex: if rolling 2d8, subtract (6+2) = 8 instead of 6 from your total)
Loot (1d4)
[1] [2] [3] [4]
With one last dying scream, the raven dissipates, leaving a golden key in its place.
lizbot Vice Captain
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lizbot Vice Captain
No Faun
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Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:25 pm
To reach the fourth floor, you must have the keys to open the locked door:
The Fourth Floor
A black door emitting tortured screams.
You learn a new thing about yourself: if this were a survival horror scenario, you'd likely be among the first to die. The chamber is aggressively dim despite the multitude of torches that attempt to light it. However, you're perfectly able to see the impressive array of torture devices and instruments of pain that litter the room. It's a bit of a mess really.
A pained cry comes from somewhere in the clutter, "I'm here! It's me, Bloodraine! I was just...cleaning my beloved maiden, and she swallowed me whole." A dreamy sigh followed by a whimper of pain follow. "C-could you be a bro-lder and help me out?"
You've lost count of how many glinting spikes and blades are waiting eagerly to maim you.
"I'll make it worth your while?"
To find Bloodraine
Collect 3 clues! Roll 1d10 1: you narrowly miss a pendulum blade 2: you notice fresh gravel on the floor, you've found a CLUE 3: you fall into a pit of spikes, causing you to lose a fourth of your full health 4: you narrowly miss getting a hot poker in your eye 5: you notice that a rack it suspiciously splintered, you've found a CLUE 6: you lean against a wall, which flips over, dropping you into a pit full of broken glass, causing you to lose a fourth of your full health 7: you nearly sit on a spiked chair 8: you get caught in a stockade, it's somewhat embarrassing 9: you shout, "MARCO!" and Bloodraine shouts back, "WHAT?" You've found a CLUE 10: rocks fall and you die
When you finally find the iron maiden and get Bloodraine out, the gargoyle is blushing in a mildly disturbing way. "Thanks! S-sometimes she gets really affectionate, especially when I start to polish her...you know...hinges." It giggles and then gropes around the inside of the torture device, eventually pulling out a black key that's only slightly moist.
A black door with gentle light shining at its base.
Writing Prompt:
The door opens and you're greeted with the somewhat dismal view of purple sky and lilac clouds. A huge window takes up nearly an entire wall, but it's a bit wasted on the island's total lack of landscape. Sitting slumped on a stool, a slumped gargoyle sighs, "Not much to see today, I'm afraid." It looks away from the window and over to you, perking up slightly, "Oh...oh you're new here, aren't you? You've...you've been places right? Seen things?" Leaning forward, eager now, it continues, "Say do you think you could share some of them with me? You won't be sorry, I promise! Just come over to the window and touch it!"
Once you make contact with the window it shimmers and snaps into a new size and shape, a familiar one. Outside, the scenery has changed to a window view you once had in your former life. It could be a view you cherished, or one you took for granted, or even one you loathed. Beside you, the gargoyle sighs happily at the sight. "That's marvelous, I never get to see anything like that. I think I'll keep this one for a little while, thank you!"
Carefully it places a black key into the palm of your hand before turning back to the window.
A blue door, you can hear a voice much like your own talking behind it.
The inside of the room is filled with fog and whispers. Near the center you find the mirror, a soft glow pulsing within it. The mirror cracks and shatters, the fog around it taking on a more humanoid shape. Before you stands another version of yourself, one that had awoken out of the fog of Insanity without memory or a true name.
You are fighting a version of yourself from Legacy: Part I! HP: 30 Auto-damage: 5
Loot (1d4)
[1] [2] [3] [4]
The fog dissipates with the final blow, leaving you clutching the glowing core of the other. Within moments it shrinks down into a blue key.
Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:26 pm
To reach the fifth floor, you must have the keys to open the locked door:
The Fifth Floor
A black door with the soft clinking of coins behind it.
You enter the room to find it filled with treasure. Piles of golden trinkets and jewels tower above you, glinting and sparkling in an enticing display. Beside you, someone clears their throat, and you look down to see a small, rotund gargoyle in a white shirt, tie, and glasses. In one hand it holds and abacus with a distinct air of menace.
"Leave or be useful," it greets you pleasantly. "And by useful I mean wrangle some of the coins down. Damn things get the idea to float around sometimes and collecting them back again decreases productivity by..." the beads of the abacus are snapped aggressively, "...5%. Unacceptable." It gives you a stern look and snaps the abacus again. "Don't damage anything. Except yourself. That is an acceptable loss."
Gathering the Floating Coins
Gather 10 coins!
Roll 1d8 1 - you awkwardly jump from one pile of treasure to another, collecting 1 coin 2 - you leap up to grab a coin but fail to reach it and land badly, you're crushed by falling treasure and lose one fourth of your full health 3 - you manage to do a barrel roll, collecting 2 coins 4 - you can on what appears to be a platform of ice and lose your footing, you also lose one fourth of your full health in the fall 5 - you find and eat a mushroom, it causes you to hallucinate growing into a bigger version of yourself, somehow you collect 3 coins 6 - you are swallowed by a plant, losing one fourth of your full health 7 - you find and wear a raccoon tail, it makes you feel confident in your leaping like you could fly, you manage to collect 4 coins and ignore the gargoyle's furry comments 8 - you find a small castle, but fail to find a coin or princess within it. You proceed to mope
When you successfully deliver the coins, the gargoyle tosses you a black key and waves you away without a word of thanks.
A black door that somehow seems black than all the other black doors, as black as the bleak desert nightscape that it your soul.
Writing Prompt:
The room is painted black. All the furniture is black. The window is covered in black-out curtains. Squinting you can just barely make out the figure of a gargoyle, staring off into space. It has a black scarf, glasses, and wig all artfully arranged to appear very deep and also deeply mysterious. And a little sad. Miserable even. Something about its emotional pain draws you in, sparking something within you that answers with a similar sort of misery. "Yes," it sighs as you approach, "...I suppose you would be here in this den of sorrow. Not that it matters. I'm sure you're here to use me, just like everyone else in this wretched stone wasteland." It holds up a black key delicately in its claws, "You can have it, I don't need material possessions, they just lead to suffering for worldly vice. But first I need to know you're like...a kindred spirit, you know?"
That feeling surges up within you, something both vulnerable and embarrassing. You open your mouth to ask what it means, and what spills out instead is poetry. Darkly emotional poetry that's probably not very good, full of purple prose and the adolescent angst of your previous life. When you're done, the gargoyle sighs and looks away, "Oh well...it's not like I had hope for better." It drops the key in your palm with another sigh and goes back to staring into the dark abyss of its life.
A green door that shudders and groans as something fierce screeches from within.
You're barely in the door when a talon swipes at you. Enraged the hippogryph lunges, its beak tearing into you with ruthless abandon.
You are fighting an Insanity Hippogryph! HP: 30 Auto Attack: 5 Extra: You have been poisoned! Every post you make costs an additional 1HP of damage.
Loot (1d4)
[1] [2] [3] [4]
In its death throes, the creature moves to strike at you one last time, but dissipates just before snapping its beak around you. A green drops to floor with a loud clatter.
lizbot Vice Captain
No Faun
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lizbot Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2013 5:27 pm
To reach the sixth floor, you must have the keys to open the locked door:
The Sixth Floor
A black door with a warped mirror set into its surface.
You step into a maze made of mirrors, all of them displaying a different version of you. As you wander through it, you see yourself from your prior life. The ages and styles vary, a few may even show strange status effects, but one and all you can see that all of them have been you.
Navigate the Maze
Make 4 successful turns!
Roll 1d8 1 - you run into a dead end 2 - you run into a trap, a vicious version of yourself darts out and stabs you, taking one fourth of your full health 3 -a helpful version of yourself shows you a shortcut, you make a successful turn 4 - you break a mirror, slicing yourself bloody and losing one fourth of your full health 5 - an angry version of yourself runs out and begins chasing you, you manage to escape and make a successful turn 6 - you follow a young version of yourself with a poor sense of direction 7 - you fall into a mirror that is not a mirror, but a hidden door, you make a successful turn 8 - an exact version of your current self pulls you into a mirror and replaces you, the mirror is painful to stay in, you eventually escape, but it costs one fourth of your health
When you finally reach the end of the maze, you notice a gargoyle carefully placing them more mirrors down, expanding the structure. Turning to you it smiles brightly, "So what do you think of the new bathroom? He likes to look at himself you know, and I figure, go big or go boom. So mirrored the living hell out of this place, who knows, maybe it'll cheer him up! You certainly look like you've had ah..." it takes in your appearance, "...uh, fun. Or an adventure at least. Maybe I should um...revise a bit." Flustered it hands you a black key, "For your er...beta testing services."
A plain black door.
Writing Prompt:
You step into a giant library, filled top to bottom with neatly organized scrolls and books. A gargoyle bent over a book, quill in hand, glances up at you with mild interest. "Ah, well this is both unique and redundant. You are a story within a story within a story currently surrounded by stories, of which, some may relate or reflect upon your own." Leaning an elbow on its desk, it continues conversationally, "He calls me Darkest Knightsbane, but everyone else simply refers to me as the Librarian. It's accurate, at the very least, though they'll never understand the unintentional reference."
The Librarian sits back and studies you, "It should be obvious what I will require of you, but don't feel rushed. Take your time and try to tell me a decent story, hm?"
The story may be simple or epic, its subject ranging from half-remembered mundane incident to flighty fantasy built on the limitless imagination that can result from a recent stint as a total blank slate. But not matter the story, the Librarian listens patiently, faithfully writing down every word. When you finish, it smiles at you in approval, and hands you a small black key. "Thank you, and good luck."
A pristine white door.
You step into a room of pure white, the only bit of color to be found is the mirror at the center. Looking into it, you don't see anything unusual in it. It's you as you are at this very moment. You step closer and the reflection steps out, still mirroring your expressions and movements.
You are fighting yourself. HP: Your HP at the start of the fight Attack/Heal/Guard/Special: When you perform an action, roll twice the required dice. The first set is yours, the second set belongs to your reflection
Loot (1d4)
[1] [2] [3] [4]
As you deliver the killing blow, your reflection disappears. Looking down you notice your fist within in your own chest. Pulling it out you uncurl your fingers to reveal a white key, sticky with blood.
