Brainstorming Places
The Slumbering Castle will need plenty of hazardous places, and places with treasure to be looted. In an adventure with basically no NPCs, I also want to have quite a bit of environmental storytelling. To this end, I went about brainstorming things I want to be included somewhere in the castle and its surrounding kingdom:
In the Castle:
- Dry moat surrounding the castle with a rotting drawbridge leading across (the drawbridge has iron reinforcement bars beneath the rotting wood which can be walked over somewhat safely) a rope leads down into the moat which is filled now with thorns.
- Collapsed section of wall with claw marks and scorch marks on the stones. (Plenty of crushed bones) A large felled tree has been used as a makeshift bridge over the moat here.
- Magical talking object (Maybe a mirror) hidden in a deep, dangerous location.
- Well with a ledge and secret passage leading to the alcove where the offering was made.
- Castle kitchen where uncooked lobsters sleep alongside the cooks.
- Undercroft leading to an ancient cave around which the castle was built (A holy site of the Goddess)
- Castle stables. A collapsing hayloft hangs just past the entrance.
- Great Hall (Fallen into sleep during a feast. Hot spot for dream illusions, one of the most dangerous locations in the Castle)
- Cellar room with barrels of foul mead. A guard sleeps here with a keyring and a wooden cup.
- Dungeon with crumbling tunnels. The deepest cell is empty with an open door. Two skeletal guards lay slain before it with blood staining the ground.
- Treasury (Ceiling is close to falling in)
- Armory (All sorts of weapons and gear, much of which is rusting)
- Chancellor's chambers filled with great wealth. Letters discussing the king's mental decline can be found here as well as letters with the Princeling plotting his rise to power.
- Princeling's chambers (love letters from admirers, cool magic sword?)
- Heir's chambers. (Unicorn's horn, books of magical lore, the sacred text of the Goddess, relics) The floor is buckling and crumbling.
- King's chambers filled with tapestries and fine things.
- Barracks.
- Invocation channeling focus for the Dragon's curse. (I don't know what this is yet.)
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| George Henry Boughton |
- Campsite outside the kingdom where a company left much of their supplies before venturing in.
- Ditch surrounding the ancient boundaries of the kingdom which marks the edge of the enchantments
- Guard post and rotting gatehouse at the entrance to the kingdom
- Yarn path leading out, left by a sleeping party (leads through multiple zones)
- The Law Stone (A stone whereupon all the laws of the kingdom are recorded, including the specifics of succession to the throne) The Law Stone was used as an Invocation Focus for the invocation which forever erased the names of the kingdom, its monarch and heir. All references to the kingdom's name appear scratched out.
- Numerous sleeping parties and the supplies they brought with them and notes they took
- Ancient circle of rough stone obelisks.
- Runic spell circle. A wizard sleeps within.
- Barrow of ancient kings where the dragon rests and hoards the bones of intruders it has killed.
- Pond. (Fisher's cabin)
- Inn. (Cellar with a lockbox. Rotting second story with numerous holes where heavy things have fallen through.)
- Cobbler.
- Stables. (Dreams of wide pastures, bright sunlight, apple trees, information can be found about the orchard)
- Crumbling watchtower.
- Temple to the local Goddess.
- Apple orchard. The trees have grown wildly due to the plant growth spell and produce large apples.
- Alcove where the offering was made to the Goddess and the enchantments were laid.
- Burnt corpses with claw marks of the dragon nearby.
- Shepherd's hut. A small stone wall pens in sleeping sheep.
- Barn (Rotting away and at risk of collapsing)
- Gardens. (Overgrown with flowers and root vegetables)
- Location of a fight between two adventuring parties. The winning group fell asleep shortly after.
- Small Ancient Quarry.
- Hidden Grotto.
- Rock Pile. (A good place for hiding)
- Foxes asleep in a foxhole whose dreams leak outwards.
- Path of moldy breadcrumbs leading out of the kingdom and to a small hiding place.
- Map to a location filled with heavy treasure left behind by an adventuring party.
What I'm Currently Working On
- Building an overloaded event table for time spent in the Castle which models the Dragon's random movement through areas as well as steady stamina loss.
- Creating a set of universal behaviors for the Dragon as well as a flow chart determining how it acts, how effectively it can find adventurers once it has smelled them or their torches, traps it may set for them, how its behavior changes upon sequential visits, etc.
The Slumbering Castle Devlogs: 1, 2, 3
Current Inspirations
Cahir Castle - This is a cool place I visited around 2 years ago. I like having reference images for any environment I'm working on. I found some reference pictures of it here, here and here. I want to use fairly realistic proportions for the Slumbering Castle and avoid having grand gothic architecture that veers from the fairy tale-ish vibe.
Pagans Hill Roman Temple
How Level Design Can Tell a Story by GMTK
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