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Barrok
27th April 2008, 01:11 PM
Crag Spire's Pool of Shadows
Magical Location

The tall rocky outcrop known by the locals as Crag Spire has been rumoured to be the site of a great evil which tainted the very foundations of its rock, poisoning and corrupting it to its core. The crag is the home of a vicious pack of fiendish manticores who keep most people away from the hidden pool of shadows at the top of the crag.

Lore: Characters can gain the following about the Pool of Shadows and Crag Spire by making a Knowledge (local) or Knowledge (the Planes) check of the appropriate DC given below.
Knowledge (Local)
DC15. The Crag Spire ishome to a group of fiendish manticores but also they have been seen with a robed figure from time to time commanding them.
DC20. Over a thousand years ago the Crag Spire was the site of a horrendous mass murder. Where a Balor demon ritually sacrificed a hundred kidnapped paladins, filling up a huge recess with blood.
DC25. It is said that this is the Pool of Shadows.
Knowledge (The Planes)
DC15. The Pool of Shadows is an active one way portal to the plane of Shadows, every night except the nights of the full moon.
DC25. During the Full Moon a person can enter the pool and meditate. If they are lucky they become infused with power of shadows. If they are unlucky they become an undead shadow forever guarding the pool until slain.

Description: On top of the Crag Spire is a large deep pool, full of shadowy dark water. On the north side of the pool is a small stone alterwhch is angled down towrds the pool. On it their are two sets of adamant manacles and a central groove which has been stained with a crimson liquid.

Prerequisites: Only a non good character with at least 15 character levels, the ability to cast 3 5th lvel necromancy spells and to have at least 10 ranks in Knowledge (the Planes). If they do not have the above prerequisites then they take 2d6 points of STR damage per round, if the STR falls to 0 or below then they are instantly raised as a shadow, who forever exists to stop anyone using the pool. To draw the power you must walk into the pool and submerge yourself for 1d8 rounds, every round you take 1d3 points of STR damage, if your STR falls below 0 before you get the power then you immediately rise up as a shadow.
When the power has been drawn the pool has no effect on you until the duration of the power has come to an end.

Recharge: The pool can be recharged after 3 months by seven good aligned humans being fully drained of blood into the pool on the night of the new moon. Only by doing this blood sacrifice after at least 3 months can the pool be recharged

Special Abilities: (EX) Adept of Shadow. If the character casts any spell with Shadow or Evil discriptor the spell is counted as being +2 caster level
(SP) Shadow Lord. You may use the following spell like abilities only when you are in at least partial shadow or darker. DC=10+Spell Level + CHA bonus. At will: detect good. 3/day dimension door, ray of enfeeblement, vampire touch. 1/day shadow walk, shadow conjuration - greater.
Duration: This special ability lasts for 30 days.

Aura: Strong Conjuration

Ability Value: 30,000gp

Scorch
28th April 2008, 12:57 AM
Very VERY nice. Though its a rather steep and risky process to aquire the powers for 30 days. Would lengthening this duration unbalance the effect?

Barrok
28th April 2008, 02:45 AM
most magical locations have lesser powers with no real danger to them when drawing off powers. I wanted this one to have incredible powers whcih would be worth the risk. Especially as it concentrates on a spell user's usually lowest stat - Strength.

Scorch
28th April 2008, 12:03 PM
Oh so do you still become a shadow? q_q

Im so confused, could you explain to the ever so humble Scorch what happens exactly if the process is successful?

Barrok
1st May 2008, 08:02 AM
f your STR falls below 0 before you get the power then you immediately rise up as a shadow.
If before you finish drawing the power your STR falls below 0 you rise up as a shadow.. therefore your character is dead....

When the power has been drawn the pool has no effect on you until the duration of the power has come to an end If your STR is higher than o when you draw off the power - no longer does the pool drain any more STR and you can regain it normally - you have all the shadow powers the pool imbues.

Scorch
1st May 2008, 01:29 PM
Ahh ok, how do you use shadow powers? Does it change your appearance etc.

Barrok
1st May 2008, 09:14 PM
Basically they are special spell like powers which when used take a standard action except for Adept of Shadow which is a continuous effect and only comes into being when certain spells or spell like abilities are used by the individual.

So a DM could rule you become more shadow like or even more sinister is that the use of the powers leaves a certain taint on your soul which no one can really see but it is there - which could be a prelude to using certain taint rules from Unearthed Arcana or Heroes of Horror.

MindForge
7th May 2008, 07:26 PM
I like this one.

This would be a great layer for some sort of evil shadow wraith big bad.

This also creates a great center piece of a side quest... 5 humans have gone missing near Crag Peak... legend says that 7 must be killed in the pool of blood yadda yadda.

Barrok
8th May 2008, 03:54 AM
Thanks for that. I must admit I do actually think that magical locations are good to use instead of always giving a party treasure and its a way to curtail the natural treasure hoarding that some parties do. I must admit in my games from now on I may have magical locations be parts of side quests, so characters can bolster themselves up temporarily before certain main quests.. much better than giving them a permanent +3 sword of smashing main baddie to pieces.

MindForge
8th May 2008, 06:03 AM
I have a small trove of magical locations. I have posted a few here in the past. I made them long before even 3rd edition was out. It all started with magic fountains that would give a +1 to strength... then I started to alter stuff and create durations for the effects, most of them would last random amounts of time and I would remove them.

With DMG2 I fell in love with the fact that they actually did a good job bringing the locations a standardized format - which I had never done. I went back and pulled out my old 'Fantastic Locations' random tables and made new ones. I used to have all these huge lists of random tables. Today, I don't have as much some it being lost to a flood and all.

This is a great one though. We should do one dozen special locations together or something sometime and make a little 16 page book with them.

Barrok
8th May 2008, 06:16 AM
Its a good idea that.. with an easy to copy template locations can be made very quickly. The main time constraint is trying to think up a half decent fluff story for it.

But I think quite a few low powered locations with of course the scale up to something insanely powerful but incredibly dangerous to use.

MindForge
8th May 2008, 06:36 AM
Well, start with race...

Then organization type locations.

Remember my 'House of Sand' assassin guild. I could create a ritual area for them easily that benefited assassins for the most part. I think making them more loose and action oriented instead of alignment, class, or race would be better though.

Kind of really loose, action based requirements.

Barrok
8th May 2008, 06:52 AM
I may try to make one which is item activated where to gain something they need to have a certain keyed item. The keyed item apart from this function is non magical but one of a kind - a bit like in the Sinbad (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071569/) film where Tom Baker starred as the nasty villain was throwing bits and pieces into a fountain to gain powers.

MindForge
8th May 2008, 07:01 AM
Yeah, cool stuff like that. But also, stuff like the Dwarven Stand one in the DMG that is applicable to the players standing for good and all that stuff...

I think that most of these places need to be applicable to players in some manner. Sure, the NPC ones and evil ones are cool for evil games.

We should start a thread up to talk about this more instead of muddying your post with it :)

Barrok
8th May 2008, 07:21 AM
As if by magic and through the Power of Greyskull

Magical Location Discussion thread (http://barroks-tower.net/forum/showthread.php?t=3401)

Canis
8th May 2008, 07:37 PM
Only by doing this blood sacrifice after at least 3 months can the pool be recharged

Who is doing the cutting?

Barrok
8th May 2008, 09:06 PM
The person trying to recharge the pool would be the person doing the sacrifice

Canis
8th May 2008, 11:40 PM
"Hummm? You could chang the setting to a less inaccessable location, perhaps a place stumbled upon when a party takes the wrong road. Then you could entice them to stay the night and waylay them for the dirty deed. You know, seize the pretty one and make the others rescue her. Err, or him."

*Pauses* "On second thought, no, it would probably be best just to make that varient of the original. Nevermind."