[HEADING=1]THE TOWER OF DRUAGA[/HEADING][HEADING=2]Spire of the World[/HEADING]
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One of my favorite settings. Easy to get into, but massive in scope and potential.
The game takes place inside a giant tower called "Druaga". The Tower rises thousands of miles into the air, and each level is a different environment, with it's own civilizations, lifeforms, and challenges. People who traverse the different levels are called "climbers", competing against not only each other, but the deathtraps and guardians within the level itself. In addition, armies from each city-state within are periodically unleashed to fight their way upwards.
As a climber, you join a group of others like yourself to scale the tower. Whether seeking treasure, the rush of being inches from death, the desire to see new worlds and map them, your goal is the same: pass every level, reach the top. At it's apex, the climber is given the power to become a god, and undisputed master of the world.
As a climber, you join a group of others like yourself to scale the tower. Whether seeking treasure, the rush of being inches from death, the desire to see new worlds and map them, your goal is the same: pass every level, reach the top. At it's apex, the climber is given the power to become a god, and undisputed master of the world.
Due to the sheer enormity of the structure and world, it is likes that virtually any culture concept you could think of exists -somewhere-. Worldsetting is high medieval. Magic exists, but to learn how to use it asks for nearly complete dedication on its studies, and mostly even then you specialize in certain aspect of it: some element, certain types of spell, and so on. Magic items are rare and difficult to create.
The location of the whole game. A tower so vast that it's upper levels are beyond human sight. The interior depends on what level you are on. Be it strange crystalline tunnels that are actually flaws in a gigantic diamond; A massive abyss filled with the rumbling thunder of a tidal sea far below; Humid Jungles brimming with life; A system of dungeons coated in a dull green carpet that comprises a sentient fungus that infests the whole zone, killing climbers with it's spores; A volcanic complex of lava and bridges; Mazes, grasslands, places with no gravity, places where you can walk on the walls and ceiling, and places that take you to the ends of the earth. And then there are levels no one has crossed yet. Unknown levels, and everyone who traversed them has died.
The game will begin on the fifteenth floor. You've been in the city of Minalca for six weeks. Other climbers have joined your group. You know and trust each other at this point, and don't need to meet.
The game will begin on the fifteenth floor. You've been in the city of Minalca for six weeks. Other climbers have joined your group. You know and trust each other at this point, and don't need to meet.
Really, you are going to die. Your climber must embrace and be empowered by this. The point becomes not to reach the top, but to go as far as they can before succumbing to Druaga's dangers. To meet new races along the way, to help people, fight monsters, amass wealth, and see things no other man has seen in an epic tale of survival and adventure is the essence of this game, and the true motivation for anyone attempting to scale it.
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HOW THE GAME WORKS
Every player is both character and DM. Each person makes 1 climber and 1 floor. As the group passes a level, the next person DMs the floor above, and so on. I will be the first DM, to give you a feel for the game. It works because each floor is it's own "world", and the environment and what we encounter can be wildly different. No single person knows how the whole campaign will go, and it evolves with each player.
Floors you can make are highly varied. Here are some example floors:
Hurricos
Hurricos is constantly ravaged by rain and giant thunderstorms (which partially explains the name). The people of Hurricos don't mind this however, because the lightning bolts power their machines. Bizarre creatures called the electrolls build machines for the humans here, and cities on this level are technologically advanced compared to others. Unfortunately, inhabitants are frequently harassed by the Gear Grinders, large muscular brutes who feed from the energy of the machines. Some Gear Grinders have created automaton warriors to do their work.
The grass is a greenish blue tone and trees are scarce. Predators are much less concentrated here than in other parts of Druaga, and there are few places to hide and take cover. A few avian predators take advantage of that to swoop down and snatch climbers away.
A subzone of the floor is Teferis Forest, also named Flashbolt Forest. It is, despite its name, not actually a forest but instead several close growing patches of a strange plant. It is a truly alien environment, with bolts of lightning that can be seen arcing between the "trees", creating a constant screeching background noise, and the air itself appears thick with static electricity. The ground appears broken and ruptured due to the numerous roots that lay exposed near the surface. These roots are literally trip wires, and should something step on them an arc of lighting is sure to zap down upon the intruder. More dangerous are the stormseeker birds building their nests here, as well as the storm sprites who view the area as a playground.
The Infinite Hall
A maze of open, brightly-lit chambers. Most of the walls are covered by mirrors, giving the maddening illusion of an endless space. These mirrors are actually very dangerous: as long as you walk down a real hallway you are "safe", but if you ever mistake a reflection of a hallway for a real hallway and try to walk through it, you will enter the mirror! Once in the mirror, all physical and logical laws are irrelevant, creating a chaotic and dangerous environment. In some places you can walk on the walls and ceiling, and gravity can reverse itself seemingly at random.
Some mirrors are empty reflections. Others contain deadly traps. The unfortunate lost climbers trying to escape will most likely wander between mirrors, imprisoning themselves deeper and deeper in as they walk through reflections of reflections, and eventually starve to death or are killed by one of the many dangers within the mirrors. To counteract this, climbers tie ropes to themselves to find their way back.
Most creatures roaming these halls are strange, unpredictable, and voracious. They all possess instinctive illusion spells that greatly increase the chances that you will enter a mirror. Once inside, their power and size increases tenfold. Among the mirrors, even armies can be scattered and slain. The tychos prowls between reflections like a big cat, rays move flat among the walls and floor, and the mirror maw waits hidden- the climber walks straight to suddenly find teeth snapping shut on them, appearing from nowhere.
That anyone would build a city here seems unthinkable, but they did. Milkadis stands at the entrance to the floor. It is not a budding metropolis, it's very siege oriented, spending it's resources on city defense. As such, the community is tolerant of all religions, nations, and sentient species.
The Driller's Hives
This layer is a blasted wasteland punctuated by volcanic activity and sudden bursts of flame. The hellish red sun blazes above the landscape, baking everything underneath. Plumes of smoke forever rise into the sky from the depths of canyons. Within them are ruins that are reputed to hold great treasure.
The land is constantly being showered by the sparks and embers that shoot through the air at high velocity. These sparks rain down upon the earth, scorching any living things with painful burns. This is a prison floor, and the weak are chained to rocks and left at the mercy of the choking plumes of smoke, and showers of burning embers.
Dominating the layer are the gargantuan hives which serve as home to violently hostile insect-like beings that appear as twisted wingless wasps with stings that drip with venom; they are simply known as "the drillers". There are two factions of the creatures, both engaging in a genocidal war with the other. Drillers of either side look identical to one another, thus it is presumed they can tell enemy and ally apart by pheromone or other more subtle means.
The drillers are not fond of visitors, and neither is the layer itself. Providing you are not immediately hunted by the insect soldiers and "drilled" to death, they also take men as slaves, cannon fodder, or worse- food for their larval young.
The Last Floor?
Only one man has ever defeated the tower. Eighty years ago, King Gilgamesh reached the apex and was never seen again. It is speculated that, rather than attaining godhood, he somehow became a final guardian of the Tower itself. The last floor he described was this: It is the universe, the whole of it, laid before the climber's eyes. There is no way to describe the emotion that you feel when your eyes turn on it. Every human lifetime, all history combined together and experienced at once cannot equal the slightest fraction of the full expanse. All illusions are stripped away. The climber sees everything for what it is, knows everything about every facet of existence. All of the climber's ideas, desires, faults, and virtues were simultaneously nothing to this orgiastic infinite space, and infinitely large- whole universes of cells, atoms, and what was beneath. There were always more. Always.
Only one man has ever defeated the tower. Eighty years ago, King Gilgamesh reached the apex and was never seen again. It is speculated that, rather than attaining godhood, he somehow became a final guardian of the Tower itself. The last floor he described was this: It is the universe, the whole of it, laid before the climber's eyes. There is no way to describe the emotion that you feel when your eyes turn on it. Every human lifetime, all history combined together and experienced at once cannot equal the slightest fraction of the full expanse. All illusions are stripped away. The climber sees everything for what it is, knows everything about every facet of existence. All of the climber's ideas, desires, faults, and virtues were simultaneously nothing to this orgiastic infinite space, and infinitely large- whole universes of cells, atoms, and what was beneath. There were always more. Always.
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Character Creation
Name: What your character is called.
Age & Gender: Quite clear, too?
Height & Weight: More simple questions. Optional, though at least height would be good.
Appearance: What your character looks like.
History: What your character has done until now, wanting to climb the tower? What kind of life he has lived until now? This is good place to explain a few facts of the topic below this one.
Reason to be here/things to do: Why, against all odds, you want to test yourself against each level of Druaga? This could be simple, "I want to explore and become rich" or "I want to get the power to revive my dead father", or something more complicated, like "there is supposed to be this person who I want dead here in Tower. I seek to obtain his death."
Personality: Well, again, this is maybe quite complex, but lets other people to see more clearly the reason behind your actions.
Notable skills: Both in combat and outside of it. Do you swing a sword, cast spells or silently sneak around? Maybe you know how to apply healing herbs, how to cook, or how to climb rocks? Or maybe you have good knowledge in historical artifacts, or understand cartography?
Equipment: Note anything worth mentioning on your character. Food, shelter, hunting/fishing equipment, survival in general, location devices, medicine, other equipment you might need on a extremely long & dangerous trip. Surely some money, whether it be precious metals or items of interest to barter.
amien Daresh
