The Turning Tower (Patreon)

The Turning Tower is a stout three-tiered tower on the Plains of Dross. An ugly black blight upon the landscape, highlighted by brass doors; every hour or three the three rings of the tower rotate to a different configuration, changing the internal structure of the tower. No matter the configuration, however, if one can breach the massive brass front doors of the structure, it leads into a great hall directly to the centre of the structure (through a number of other brass doors, some of which are trapped, all of which are locked).

From that central point, a set of brass levers allows the tower configuration to be manipulated manually. However, the magics that allow the tower to turn only allows it to be reconfigured at most once per hour – needing a full 60 minutes to recharge the energies required to rotate again.

Upper levels of the tower are accessible via brass stairs within the middle ring of the structure, and form the second level the top spire of the tower can be reached from the central area. The controls for manipulating the tower configuration repeat again on the second floor of the central tower section, but the time required for a new configuration remains the same (thus allowing for scenarios where groups on the two different levels conflict over the configuration of the tower – and some configurations prevent inter-accessibility between the levels).

The Turning Tower was suggested in part by Rick Sharp when I ask patrons at the $2.50 level and up for ideas for maps that they would like to see on the blog in the coming months. While his idea was for a circular rotating dungeon, I got hooked on the idea of a squat tower surging up out of the dry ruined plains because of the visual appeal of seeing the tower reconfigure itself as the party approaches it.

You can download high resolution full-sized copies of the Turning Tower maps with and without grid from the blog post at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2016/03/29/the-turning-tower/