C13.
This is part of the #Dungeon23 challenge in which you make one room to a dungeon every day for a year. In an effort to link my memories to the creation, I am also writing a personal journal entry with each room that may or may not be related.
You don’t have to read that part.
C13.
The disc to this room is heavily damaged. Making it more difficult to get in.
However…
In C11 there are some discs that serve as operation manuals to this research facility. Finding them will take time and studying this ancient tongue of Law. Or you could get lucky and randomly insert the right disc.
Either way getting the right disc will explain what some of the buttons on the consoles in C10 do and how you can “magically” open the doors from a desk.
What’s inside?
A red glass dome is at the center of this room. The inside of which bubbles with plasmatic energy. The walls of the room are covered in glass tubes that appear to be filled with lightning.
What could be described as a metallic lectern stands at the south end of the room.
If someone has done their research they can use this console to send a summons to a species from the outer reaches of space. They will send someone shortly.
This facility is ancient. The people who landed here and set it up may not be the people who hear the summons. Perhaps their civilization was taken over by another. Or technology has advanced that instead of reaching a government officially you reached what amounts to a Ham Radio operator from outer space.
Either way, your adventure is about to change.
My suggestion is that a giant glowing whale shows up. It is not literally a whale but a space colony that choose to pattern their spaceships on aquatic animals. But that’s just me.
Bro. What if this just flew in over Omaha?
3/13/23
Okay, so the research facility shouldn’t come into play until much later, and should serve as an evolution of the game. We can go from dungeon delving to space jamming.
Additionally I want it to be something that players may keep coming back to to study during downtime.
Someone might learn how to use computers here, or understand space travel. They would need to be Lawful to have a chance of understanding the tongue, and their Lawful oath may drive them to learn more.
You could also use the greenhouse in C12 to study herbalism and create new potions and noxious powders.
I think there are some players who will get a kick imagining those little moments between fighting, where their character is trying to improve themselves AND actually succeed at it. I mean how often have we tried to learn a new language or a new skill like knitting and just fail at it? I personally find something satisfying about playing a character who can actually focus long enough to learn how to code a computer, particularly if that skill becomes important in my character’s or the party’s goals. That’s perhaps even better than rolling a Natural 20 on any combat roll.
So I wanted to make spaces in the world that encourage that, in hopes that players who feel the same way as me know they can play that way.
See you tomorrow.
-jae
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