JK1 Assault on Skywatch

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kerc
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JK1 Assault on Skywatch

Post by kerc »

Working title for the adventure I'm writing. Also, I used my initials for the code, but let me know if there is any standard. I'm posting this here to keep myself accountable and not let the project drop lest I drown in public shame.

:D

Seriously now, here's the rough draft of the concept. Most names are placeholders:

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The Skywatch Tower is a extremely tall building build by the Kingdom of Alerine in conjunction with the Mages Guild. It is about 300' in height [still in flux], with a base of around 100' in diameter; the structure narrows quickly from the base and then continues on more or less the same size (around 40' in diameter). The tower is built atop Mount Godschair, which is around 2,000 feet in height [in flux]. Godschair has very particular geological characteritics, being oddly narrow. There is one main, wide, paved road that goes up to the Tower with many guard posts; the remainder is all forested.

At the top of the tower sits the Skywatch, a magical device of incredible power that allows a group of mages called the Overseers to watch for the kingdom, and warn of any dangers and attacks from very long distances; in fact, the Skywatch reaches all corners of the kingdom. This has allowed for almost a century of peace.

However, one of the oldest Overseers, named Saelar, has studied the device for decades, and has learned all the intricacies and nuances of how it works. With this knowledge, he has learned how the device can be manipulated to perform other functions... Anything that someone with the right knowledge wants it to do, it will.

Saelar concocted a plan, where he would take over the Skywatch together with a small group of traitorous Overseers and the help of the cunning Wyrmancer of Ggant, who controls a vast army of soldiers and flying creatures. The Wyrmancer (an elf) has always dreamed of conquering Alerine, but since the Skywatch has been in place, his chances were reduced to nothing.

Saelar's plan changes everything. His purpose is to execute a ritual that will let him use the range of the Skywatch to control the minds of all the citizens of Alerine, and with this have untold power to start a conquest of the continent.

The kingdom could send an army to battle Saelar and The Wyrmancer, however, since they are in control of the Skywatch, any attack will be easily repelled in time and way before the kingdom armies can reach the Tower.

However... A small group of talented adventurers could penetrate the tower and stop Saelar. It seems almost impossible, but there doesn't seem any other option, and time is running out.

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There are a few adventures here that can take place as separate units:

1) Travel up Mount Godschair
1) Infiltrate the enemy camp.
2) Infiltrate the tower and go up through it to stop Saelar.

The ritual to change the Skywatch takes several days to perform; probably even a couple of weeks. That would allow players to have decent-size adventures before getting to the meat and potatoes of the Tower and the final combat. Thinking that this would be at minimum an adventure for levels 4-6.

If the characters never arrive in time and the Skywatch is changed by Saelar, they will need to find a way to revert the ritual; this will probably require some McGuffin, and the heroes will be able to avoid being controlled by the Skywatch by traveling out of the mountain through the hidden dwarven mines that lie underneath it; these mines were used for the building of the Tower, and they reach for miles away from Mount Godschair; that could also be another adventure.

One of the interesting features of this adventure, especially at the tower, is that the structure has outside stairs as well as inside; so there are options on how to go up. Outside stairs are dangerous and narrow, and the Wyrmancer's creatures patrol the tower flying around it.

Here we go...
Kerc | Dice Pencil & Paper | @dicepencilpaper
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chiisu81
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Re: JK1 Assault on Skywatch

Post by chiisu81 »

Interesting concept 8-) I look forward to seeing how this develops.
Temporarily moving to General until material is attached, then I'll move back to Workshop.
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Boggo
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Re: JK1 Assault on Skywatch

Post by Boggo »

You know this made me immediately think of the DIO song Stargazer! (and I love that song!)
No matter where you go...there you are
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kerc
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Re: JK1 Assault on Skywatch

Post by kerc »

Alright, so I got some stuff written (and some drawings done) for the concept. The tower is going to be around 380 ft. tall, with a base 100 ft. wide that rapidly narrows. All the floors are octagonal in shape. The tower's rooms will be distributed as follows (subject to improvements/change as I draw the maps):

## Rooms per floor

- 1st: Lobby, visitors rooms, visitors lavatories, meeting hall.
- 2nd: Kitchens, supplies.
- 3rd: Mess hall, living quarters.
- 4th: Armory, forge, powder room.
- 5th: Maintennce, warehouse.
- 6th: Dining hall, library, lavatories.
- 7th: Laboratory
- 8th: Dungeon, interrogation room.
- 9th: Ritual hall.
- 10th: Visualization hall.
- 11th: Skywatch platform.

I like my maps to make some sense and not just be random rooms and passageways.

Regarding monsters, I just went through both the Rulebook and the Field Guide and wrote anything and everything that is remotely wyrm-like. Doesn't mean I'll use them all (some are just too powerful), but it's a start that will make it easy for me to narrow down things.

## Main enemies

### Saelar the Wise

Saelar is one of the oldest Overseers, and the main instigator on this new terrible plan to overtake the Skywatch. He is a powerful wizard, and very cunning, although physically relatively frail.

### The Wyrmancer

No one knows her real name. She is some sort of fighter/druid that has learned to communicate and cooperate with wyrms, creatures that relate to dragons.

## Possibe monsters

### Rulebook

- Basilisk
- Cockatrice
- Dragon (young)
- Flame salamander
- Frost salamander
- Giant rattlesnake
- Pit viper
- Python
- Spitting cobra
- Tentacle worm
- Wyvern

### Field Guide

- Couatl
- Dragonne
- Grick
- Iron snapper
- Komodo dragon
- Linnorm
- Pseudodragon
- Shocker lizard
- Giant two-headed snake
- Vort

Some of you might have noticed... yes, I do my notes in Markdown. Makes it so easy to have basic formatting while using plain text!
Kerc | Dice Pencil & Paper | @dicepencilpaper
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kerc
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Re: JK1 Assault on Skywatch

Post by kerc »

chiisu81 wrote: Thu Feb 02, 2023 11:08 am Interesting concept 8-) I look forward to seeing how this develops.
Temporarily moving to General until material is attached, then I'll move back to Workshop.
Sounds like a plan!
Kerc | Dice Pencil & Paper | @dicepencilpaper
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