The TOR of a THOUSAND TOWERS is a one-shot Changeling LARP scenario I wrote after being really, really mad at a directionless, plotless Cam game several years ago in Portland. I have since been to one fun Cam game, which the ST busted his hump over, in Pueblo, CO. Just one.
This may seem a little simplistic to some, but I think it's still too complex. Players need simple motivations. They can complicating things all by themselves.
The actual scenario can be reached by clicking on the title above.
This page just contains useful suggestions for imaginary places, places only visible to changeling eyes, and their anchors in the mortal world (what anybody else would actually see.) Changelings can see both. Aren't they lucky?
In order to use these tidbits, pick a mortal location and then draw a card (from a regular poker deck) to see what it really is (at least to Changelings. Because this was written for Tor of a Thousand Towers, each spot is expressed as a magical minaret.
| ACE... | ...a stack of 8-track tapes in the center of two cast-iron spiral stair cases. The steps form a double-helix around the teetering pile of 70s favorites. It must be a mile high and illuminated entirely with track lighting. |
| TWO... | ...a vast crawlspace, lit only by thin streaks of yellowish light running crazily along the low ceiling. If you look closely, you can see that the ceiling is made up of the underside of hundreds and hundreds of normal kitchen floors. Faint voices, as of families and homes comes from above, providing stark contrast to the endless, musty shadows. Anything could be out there, skittering in the gloom. The shuffling and flickers of light from above as people creak around their kitchens might also reflect something stickier and ickier in the cramped, dirty, endless blackness around you. |
| THREE... | ...a spire made entirely of stained glass. It has been inlaid with scenes from Alpine villages, which get more and more bleak as you climb. Faint creaks and groans of metal come from everwhere as the scenes play themselves out, animated by some unfathomable magic or clever trick. Sometimes, you can talk to the stained glass people, but they see only their village and their own semi-transparent delimmas. |
| FOUR... | ...an alabaster tower which doubles as an enormous fountain. Its top, far above, is a pool of clear bluish water that pours between a ring of archer's slots. The tower is hugged by other blindingly white outcroppings and ramparts, each one pouring its cool little waterfall onto the top of the next. The base of the tower is lost in a gentle mist for none of the cascades tumbles far enough to make a very big splash. |
| FIVE... | ...a cascade of knotted strings. Cat's cradles, knitting snares and jumbled thread of all sorts hangs from high overhead, possibly even from one of the soaring, cottony clouds which muffle the sky. The tangles seem to hold even the heaviest weight, but there are no floors, just an endless tunnel of knots dangling from some unknowable height. Here and there, useful objects of antiquity are ensnared in the threads. You can find ornate beds to sleep upon, tables creaking with piping hot feasts and even whole libraries full of books (with jumbles for shelving.) |
| SIX... | ...a pit, made of rusted iron and interrupted every four or five feet with the slow, heavy spinning blades of an enormous fan. A crooked pole runs up the shaft from far below, where the steady and ominous clank of machinery never seems to stop. The name of every Sidhe who has succumbed to the Cold Iron of the mortal world is engraved in a separate tarnished brass plate around the circumference of the pit. The pit itself is set in the floor of a stone room with a single, frayed string hanging from the low plaster ceiling. Pulling the string changes the speed of the fans, but never quite turns them off. |
| SEVEN... | ...a huge, stone minaret with an onion dome on top. It is painted green and has very badly worn steps, but is otherwise unremarkable. |
| EIGHT... | ...a squat pole with steps running up four sides. A terrible red light shines from the top of the pole, illuminating a very low ceiling. Red paint seems to have been poured on top of the pole and allowed to run down the sides (and even some of the steps.) The pole itself is in the center of a vast, round chamber with a jagged line (like one of those pictures of a sound vibration or a heart monitor) painted in yellow, running the circumference. Every now and then, a heavy pall of smoke seeps from vents in the ceiling, flits about the room and disperses. If you climb the steps and look into the light, you can start to hear a faint rumbling, very far off and getting no closer. You'll also start to get a migraine. |
| NINE... | ...a parapet made entirely out of folded paper, attached to the floor like a giant pop-up book. You can't climb the tower without bending it out of shape. If you walk around the base of the tower, you can see the crease for the binding and even find the edge of the pages. It would take several Trolls all their might to turn even one page and there's a book mark reading Sephiroth two sheets down. |
| TEN... | ...a totally smooth cylinder almost fifty feet high with stylized paw prints all around the sides. It is adorned with a giant coon-skin cap and it smells just awful. |
| JACK... | ...a garden laid out entirely in a tile mosaic. The garden is a miniature version of the city, with buildings forming benches and parks being represented by potted plants or flowerbeds. There is a fountain at the very center which corresponds to no known building, not even a freehold or sacred grove. Looking into the fountain reveals the current location of a seemingly random item you once searched for fervently. Often, the item is in your own pocket, but not always of the clothes you currently wear. |
| QUEEN... | ...a veranda which resembles the porch of an antebellum mansion in the deep south. There is a huge swing with a canopy, cool lemonade and mint juleps and a silver tray with spanish fans. The sides are lined by doric columns inlaid with gold at the top and bottom. These are made of smooth, cool marble. The entire thing is entirely bricked in with old cinderblocks, except for a cheap wooden door by which you can enter and leave. Opening the grand double doors across from the main steps only reveals another wall of cinderblocks, just far enough away to allow the doors to open and close easily. |
| KING... | ...a mobile home made from the inside of a living whale. There's a squishy feeling to everything and two screen doors which open out onto what may well be the Marianis Trench. No water seems to be seeping in, though, except for the distant echoes of a drip in the shadowy recesses of the ribs. They have foosball. |
Ha! It's October, 2002 and I'm finally working on this! Originally posted in 2000, updated in May, 2001 and cut up into bite-size chunks in October, 2002. If you like it or if you hate it, contact me, Rp Bowman, at yokeltania@yahoo.com.