Parthenon's Tower of Many Ways Lose and confuse your party in this Wizard's Tower for Dungeons and Dragons. Created by @Jetshroom All maps and artwork are provided under Creative Commons Licence created by @Jetshroom All maps and artwork are provided under Creative Commons Licence created by @Jetshroom Other artwork has been developed based on work made available on Pexels.com under Creative common Licence

Parthenon's Tower of Many Ways Centuries ago, the great wizard Parthenon, tired with the petty squabbles among the residents of the Academy in Hub, moved to a remote coast on the western end of a popular trade wind. Here he founded the town of Westport. It was here that Parthenon built the most sophisticated sewerage system ever seen, using this as the foundations for the town. Rumour is, that Parthenon used the town to obscure his tower, the sole repository of all his wealth and knowledge, nobody however, has ever found it. On the content herein This Wizard's Tower, while heavily inspired by the House of Many Ways, is my own work, and was specifically designed to fit and function within my campaign, for my players, to fit my methods of DMing. I encourage you to adjust and manipulate everything to fit your own party, campaign and style. Often, I have just made notes to add encounters. This is because while I have ideas, I cannot predict what my party will do when faced with different stimuli yet. The Concept Parthenon's tower is built like a combination of Howl's moving castle and the House of Many Ways. Players will enter through the "Westport Door" and be able to exit through one of many doors magically placed at the entrance to the tower. Other locations for the door are: Hub, Beachhead, The edge of the Calming on the Godspire, and anywhere else I feel like. Additionally, the tower will initially appear to be nothing more than a small cottage. The front door opens into a small entryway with doors leading to the living room, kitchen, and a dining room. They won't be able to navigate to other rooms until the butler takes the opportunity to instruct them on how to make use of the ways. It is intended to function as a convenient base of operations for the party, while also providing a couple of interesting hooks and acting as an introduction into how strange magic can be in this world. Finding the Tower Parthenon's Tower is a wizard's tower found in the sewers beneath Westport. Hidden by a number of powerful spells, entry requires placing a crystal Cyclops eye on a stone pedestal carved in the shape of the Wizard Parthenon. This statue can be found in a large cavern. The floor is covered with a shallow lake, about 5cm deep. The ceiling, is covered in some sort of mirrored surface. In the centre of the lake, the party will see the statue of Parthenon. Placing the Cyclops Eye on the upraised hand will trigger the dispelling of an illusory lake floor which will allow the players to swim down and enter the tower, when before, there was no down to swim. At the bottom of the lake, the party will find a normal wooden door in the base of the statue of Parthenon. The door is not locked and will open without resistance. The Magician's Glorious League In their explorations and adventures around Westport, the players may encounter The Magician's Glorious League. A guild of wizards from the Academy in Hub. The guild were formed with the express purpose of finding Parthenon's Tower, they have, through research, identified that Westport is a likely location for the tower, and suspect that the tower is located in the sewers because "Well, do you see any towers around here?" The League will happily offer the party a job to find the tower.

The League know how dangerous the sewers are and have failed to explore more than a couple of rooms.

It hasn't occurred to the League that the tower might be difficult to find or enter. 1

Denizens of the tower There are a number of interesting beings who reside within the tower when the party find it. This is an opportunity to add some weird and mystical creatures, as well as some beings that may have an alien perspective to the players. The Butler (Name unknown) The butler is the first, and most important denizen of the tower. Parthenon's long-time servant, the butler is an enchanted suit of armour containing the soul of Parthenon's butler. The butler has been encased in the armour for so long he has begun to lose track of time, and is displeased with his situation. He will speak quite passive agressively, always respectful, but clearly disdainful, and definitely arrogant. Being a suit of armour, the butler is unable to see in a standard sense and so, will assume the first person to speak to him is in fact Parthenon. He will introduce himself with something along the lines of: "Welcome home sir, I regret to inform you that, as I predicted, a number of your experiments have gone awry. I have engaged the containment protocols, but you might wish to deal with them sooner rather than later." Should someone else speak, the Butler will recognise that multiple people have arrived and suggest something to the effect of: "Ah, I see you have returned with guests sir. Would you care for me to activate the Guest Protocols?" If given the go-ahead, he will acknowledge that it has been done, but not offer further information on the protocols unless asked. If asked, he will direct guests to rooms they might wish to go to, and will explain how the ways work, but will not lay out a map of the ways. The Protocols The tower has a number of protocols that can be engaged should the situation warrant it. When the party first enters the tower, the Containment protocols will be engaged. Containment Protocols: Access to all ways are disabled. Only direct paths are enabled. Access to Underdark and Feywild is disabled. Direction enchantments are disabled. Main entrance is disabled without key.

Access to all ways are disabled. Only direct paths are enabled. Access to Underdark and Feywild is disabled. Direction enchantments are disabled. Main entrance is disabled without key. Guest Protocols: All ways and paths are enabled. Maintenance enchantments are enabled in the guest rooms. Direction enchantments are enabled. Access to Underdark and Feywild is enabled.

All ways and paths are enabled. Maintenance enchantments are enabled in the guest rooms. Direction enchantments are enabled. Access to Underdark and Feywild is enabled. War Protocols: Main entrance is disabled. All ways and paths are disabled to any without key. Armour in the amoury will take up arms to defend the tower. The Cleaners There is a host of Faerie cleaners that maintain the house for Parthenon. They will remain invisible unless an elf is present who speaks Sylvan. If they interact with the party they will be spiteful and unpleasant because they have been trapped within the tower since the Conatainment Protocols were turned on. As soon as the Guest Protocols are turned on they will leave. Should this happen, the Butler will say something along the lines of: "Sir, it appears the cleaners have left. They were somewhat displeased at the extended period of containment. I shall have to negotiate a new contract, I would expect that until that time, there won't be anyone to clean up your mess." The new cleaners will start work after a period of time that is deemed appropriate. If asked, the Butler can reveal that they are being paid out of the Vault. This might be an excellent opportunity to start players trying to find the vault if they're interested in that. The Garden Gnomes There are a small number of gnomes working in the garden maintaining the plants and keeping the outdoor area looking nice. They are nocturnal and will be quite happy to chat with the party if spoken to. Friendly and affable, they don't seem to have noticed that the containment protocols were active. Mostly they live out of the garden shed, and have no need to go inside the tower, and certainly have no interest in travelling to the Feywild. The Mind Flayer (Name unassigned) Deep in the dungeons, on the third level, in an isolated cell, consistently cared for by the Cleaners and the magical protections that have been setup is the Mind Flayer. An Illithid, captured by Parthenon and imprisoned, I envision this NPC to be a dangerous threat that sits in the player's home, too dangerous for them to release or remove, slowly gaining more and more emnity towards them. I envision playing this character like Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. Impeccably polite, but absolutely waiting for the chance to strike. Manipulating those around him to serve his own needs. The Mind Flayer is very knowledgable about a great many things. Particularly the tower. If he was able to get out of the cell, he would be able to easily navigate the tower, and turn it towards his own ends. He is not knowledgable about things touching on the divine. He has an alien perspective and the gods do not interest him. He will always act politely with the party, but will attempt to manipulate them into letting him out of the cell, or entering the cell and thus affording him the opportunity of escaping. This Mindflayer will present a psionic image of himself and his cell to the party and won't drop it until he has the chance to escape. He is never actually where he appers to be, preferring to project an image of a clean, well maintained cell, and himself, neat, tidy, and not desperate, dirty and deranged. 2

Navigating the Tower In this section, you will find descriptions of the rooms within the tower as well as maps of the paths and ways between rooms. Paths: These are direct lines between rooms. From the entryway, you can see, and walk directly into the lounge room. Ways: These are the indirect lines between rooms. As you go through a door or archway into a room, you might turn left or right and take a Way to a different location. There is a map detailing the Paths and Ways of the Tower, but this is a special item and will need to be interpreted by a person proficient in Arcana. The Entryway The entryway to the tower is a simple, rectangular room, timber floors, stone walls, warm rug on the floor, an archway in each wall, a coat rack (2 coats hanging on it) A door in each wall. As you enter through the main door, on your left is an archway leading to what appears to be a lounge room. In front of you, is an archway that appears to lead to a kitchen, and on the right is an archway that appears to lead to a formal dining room. Next to the door, is a small knob, with a number of coloured notches on it, and a small dot above the knob. Turning this knob and opening the door will open the door to different locations around the world. Red - Hub The Hub entrance will lead to a small, side street somewhere in Hub. The looking at the house from Hubside, it is a rundown, boarded up brick house, sandwiched between two buildings. Blue - Beachhead The Beachhead entrance will lead to a well to do neighbourhood in the old part of Beachhead near the keep. This is a well appointed house where all the furniture is covered by cloths. Yellow - Westport The Westport entrance will lead back to the underwater tower in the sewers. Black - The Calming The Calming entrance leads to an isolated doorway on the very edge of the calming. The doorstep is half dissolved from the storm of divine particles that makes up the Calming. When this entrance is opened for the first time, the butler will check the step and say something encouraging about there being no change in the rate of dissolution which means the door is safe. (This hasn't been the first door to the calming, the others have all been dissolved over time.) Because it is an isolated location, there is no house, just a doorway. Lounge Room Door: Turning left - Hallway to bedrooms

Turning right - Study

Straight ahead - Lounge Room Kitchen Door: Turning left - Garden

Turning right - Washroom

Straight ahead - Kitchen (Entryway Door) Dining Room Door: Turning left - Museum

Turning right - Armoury

Straight ahead - Dining Room Simple Paths Ways 3

The Lounge Room The Lounge Room houses a number of large, comfortable sofas arranged around a fireplace with a nice warm rug on the floor. There are pictures on the walls of landscapes and still life, and a number of small end tables and a coffee table, all of which will serve tea and biscuits if tapped and asked. Entryway Door: Turning left - Kitchen (Garden Door)

Turning right - Dining Room

Straight ahead - Entryway (Lounge Room Door) Simple Paths Ways The Dining Room The Dining room is a well appointed formal dining room that will comfortably seat 8 people around the large oak table. There are a number of china hutches and other cutlery and utensil storage facilities around the outside. Entryway Door: Turning left - Lounge Room

Turning right - Kitchen (Entryway Door)

Straight ahead - Entryway (Dining Room Door) Simple Paths Ways 4

The Kitchen The kitchen is a small kitchen, it has a simple wooden bench, a window overlooking the garden with a door to the garden. There is a wash basin that when tapped will fill with hot or cold water on request, there is a pantry which is empty unless tapped and food is requested. Entryway Door: Turning left - Dining Room

Turning right - Washroom

Straight ahead - Entryway Garden Door: Turning left - Shrine

Turning right - Lounge Room

Straight ahead - Garden Simple Paths Ways The Garden The garden is a small, flowery garden on the side of a hill overlooking a valley in which can be seen a dense forest. There is a small garden shed, a clothesline and a stepping stone path to a small seat overlooking the valley. There are wild flowers and shrubbery everywhere, all immaculately maintained. There is a small iron gate in a stone wall surrounding the garden. Looking back at the tower, it appears to be a small brick cottage with a thatched roof. Leaving through the gate will take you to a path that will lead down the hill to the forest, where you will notice it quickly gets very dense and dark, and eventually, you can cross over into the Feywild. Leaving the garden gate you will turn and no longer see the cottage, nor be able to access it. Kitchen Door: Turning left - Dining Room

Turning right - Entryway

Straight ahead - Kitchen Garden Gate: The Feywild (No turning back, you will have to return to the tower via other means.) Simple Paths 5

Bedroom Hallway Perhaps the most fascinating room in the entire tower, the Hallway to the bedrooms is a mobius strip of hallway. Entering the hallway from any door other than the bedroom will place you at the same point, entering the hallway from a bedroom will place you directly outside that bedroom. All the bedrooms are identically appointed with a large, 4 poster bed fitted with an immensely soft mattress, half a dozen pillows and thick, woollen curtains. There are no ways or paths beyond straight into the bedrooms, however, leaving the bedrooms, there are, by necessity ways and paths. Hallway Door: Turning left - Washroom

Turning right - Entryway (Entrance Door)

Straight ahead - Hallway Simple Paths Ways With the Guest Protocols active, the butler will advise the party to select their bedrooms in sequence as it gets quite difficult to remember the correct bedroom if you aren't aware it's the 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc bedroom. I feel like there needs to be some sort of mechanic for wandering the hallways, perhaps a combination of skill checks to determine if the player can handle the repetitive nature of the hallway, some sort of time check, and then of course, if they can actually make it halfway along the hallway they'll find themselves walking along the ceiling towards their party or something like that. Even I have trouble visualising how this hallway works, don't @ me Point of interest here, that the players may discover on their own, though there is a huge number of bedrooms, and this is Parthenon's tower, there is no bedroom appointed for Parthenon. I feel like this is a good opportunity to hint that there are areas that the party are unable to get to, and that there are mysteries in this tower that they may never solve. 6

The Washroom An elaborately appointed washroom with large, polished steel mirrors, two hand basins and a large tub. These will be filled with Cold, Warm or Hot water if tapped and such is requested. There are hand painted tiles decorating the floor and walls, and a large wardrobe that is perpetually full of particularly fluffy towels. Garden Door: Turning left - Kitchen (entryway door)

Turning right - Bedroom Hallway

Straight ahead - Garden Simple Paths Ways The Vault The Vault is off limits to anyone except the Wizard Parthenon. This room should be difficult to find. Should a party member find it, they will be faced with an enormous locked door. The door cannot be picked, and cannot be opened using a spell other than Wish. The contents of the vault remain a mystery but the assumption can be that there is a large amount of gold that is used to pay the grounds workers or other tower staff. Study Door: Turning left - Bedroom hallway

Turning right - Dungeon level 1

Straight ahead - Study (Dungeon Door) Simple Paths Ways 7

The Study The study is a large room, dominated by a large desk. The desk is covered with various papers, notebooks and scribblings, as well as quills, ink, charcoal, a lantern etc. Behind the desk is a large green leather chair, that has clearly seen a great deal of use. A successful investigation check will find a map of the house. The map: The map will require a reader proficient in arcana to make A successful AC20 intelligence check to be able to decipher It. Succeeding will allow them to navigate the tower without The need for directions from the butler. Around the walls there are shelves packed untidily with books, relics, rarities, oddments and miscellany. You might find strange looking skulls, a pile of rocks, books in foreign languages, notebooks, stacks of papers covered in charcoal drawings. Any notes found here are written in a difficult to read, scrawled hand, in an ancient sylvan dialect. There is a book on the desk, specifically talking about a combination of "Sparks of Divinity","Holy Shards" and their impact on the mundane world, specifically on a micro and macro level. This book is too intellectually dense for party members to understand, though someone proficient in religion will recognise it's holy significance, they will need to take it to a religious scholar. (Ariadne?) Simple Paths Dungeon Door: Turning left - Entryway (Lounge room door)

Turning right - Workroom

Straight ahead - Dungeon Level 1 Library Door: Turning left - Dungeon level 2

Turning right - Dungeon level 3

Straight ahead - Library Downstairs Ways 8

The Workroom The workroom is a medium sized square stone room with wooden benches around three walls. The benches have occasional implements or tools affixed to them. Around the walls there are shelves and cupboards filled with various tools and other implements. There is also a central stone table upon which sits a massive dwarven hammer. There is a stack of notes next to it that are basically a readout of the specs, but not what the item does. Again, the notes are in an ancient sylvan dialect. A successful intelligence check (DC15?) might reveal something that looks like a call number. Corresponds to a book that has been removed from the library. Can be found in the study. It's a book of notes and prophecies relating to the Godwar. Armoury Door: Turning left - Study (Dungeon Door)

Turning right - Teleportation Circle

Straight ahead - Armoury (Workroom Door) Simple Paths Ways The Hammer of Moradin This is a 2H hammer, intensely magical, but an identify spell will fail to fully identify it. Upon attuning, the wielder will immediately, constantly, sense the presence of the Pillar of the World. Moradin's hammer has a powerful curse, placed there in the previous Godwar by Shar? It draws the wielder to the Pillar of the world and will attempt to take control of the wielder in order to attack the pillar. Doing so will crack the pillar and split the Godspire, which will cause the City of the Gods to be sundered. I think has multiple levels of expansion. Level one is +1 to hit, maybe AOE 1d6 within 10 ft or something. 9

The Armoury The armoury is a large, long hallway, with a series of shelves and racks along one side, packed with weapons and armour of all kinds. Players can find 1 of any kind of armour or weapon they are looking for here as long as it is non-magical. The War Protocol The armour in the Armoury will come to life in defence of the tower should the War Protocol be enabled. These constructs will spread out through the tower, ready to defend against any intruders. Museum Door: Turning left - Bedroom hallway

Turning right - Library Upstairs

Straight ahead - Museum Workroom Door: Turning left - Entryway (Dining room door)

Turning right - Library Downstairs

Straight ahead - Workroom Simple Paths Ways Armouring Up Because I'm a mean and harsh DM, so far, my level 3 party have not been overwhelmed with loot and gold. (They have some amazing magic items, but they are quite poor.) This means that they've not had any chance to upgrade their arms and armour. This is a large part of why I've added an armoury. This will provide the party with a more mundane reward for both finding the tower, and slaying the Cyclops they've encountered. This is an excellent opportunity to add in any types of armour you'd like to reward your party with, or, you could place strict limits on what's available. Maybe, any armour taken, will still animate if the War Protocol is engaged. 10

The Museum The museum is a large room, with a haphazard collection of various items and relics from across the world, across the dimensions and across time. This might be a fun place to put some hooks. The items are arranged on shelves, tables, benches, hanging on walls, and hanging from the ceiling. Epic Loot Being a wizard's tower, there's a strong implication that this place would be packed to the gills with magic items. The way I look at it, the museum is a storage room of obscure and strange magical items. The weirder the magic items the better in my opinion, so this is where you might put items such as the +1 Wardrobe of Fire, or the Earhorn of Truesight. I think here what you want are items that are of interest, but not necessarily loot for the party. It's also an idea that you might not enable any of the items to be touched. Simple Paths Shrine Door: Turning left - Library Upstairs

Turning right - Kitchen (entryway door)

Straight ahead - Shrine Armoury Door: Turning left - Library downstairs

Turning right - Entryway (Dining room door)

Straight ahead - Armoury Ways 11

The Library The library is a large, two story, room with walls covered with books. There is a spiral staircase in the back corner, and a number of comfortable leather sofas and coffee tables. In this room, it is likely that with a high enough investigation check, and the capacity of the party to read the titles (which are in various languages) that the party will be able to find a book on any topic they might be interested in. Downstairs Door: Turning left - Armoury (Workroom Door)

Turning right - Museum (Armoury Door)

Straight ahead - Study (Library Door) Upstairs Door: Turning left - Armoury (Museum door)

Turning right - Museum (Shrine door)

Straight ahead - Dungeon level 2 Simple Paths Ways Parthenon's Books The Magician's Glorious League would be quite distressed to know that the collection of books in this library contains NONE by Parthenon himself. Obviously, Parthenon has no need to keep stacks of his own works about, he wants to learn what other people know. It is also of note that the library contains no contemporary books, they are all centuries old. This will likely have no impact on my campaign, but might impact yours, or future campaigns. 11

The Shrine The Shrine was clearly an afterthought in the development of the tower. A stone room, that, to become a genuine shrine, will need to be consecrated, furnished etc. Museum Door: Turning left - Study(Dungeon Door)

Turning right - Garden

Straight ahead - Museum Simple Paths Ways The Teleportation Circle A round stone room largely filled with the glyphs required for a teleportation circle. Entryway Door: Turning left - Workroom

Turning right - Study (Dungeon Door)

Straight ahead - Entryway (Entrance Door) Simple Paths Ways 12

The First Dungeon The Dungeons are joined together with a stone spiral staircase. This functions as a path between dungeons. Dungeon level 1 is a good place for some weird encounters. It's a good idea to theme them I think. This one might be oozes. The entire room is filled with various dripping oozes and gelatinous cubes etc. Come up with some experiments that the Wizard could be doing and dump 2 or 3 hard - deadly encounters in here. The room is a completely contained circular dungeon made of stone. This might be a fun opportunity to have a labyrinth here, with a reward and gooey boss fight at the end. Dungeon Door: Turning left - Vault

Turning right - Study (Dungeon Door)

Straight ahead - Spiral staircase down to dungeon level 2 Ways Simple Paths 13

The Second Dungeon Dungeon level 2 is an identical room to level 1, but without the labyrinth. Instead, a series of cells or laboratories. Some of these, have open doors. Dungeon level 2 it's time to amp up the weirdness. Probably another 4-8 encounters. These should probably range from easy to deadly. Everything here should have unusual magical properties that could be studied. There should probably be something invisible in here. Invisible and clever. Make the party roll regular perception checks. Just to mess with them, but don't reveal the enemy until the party try to leave. Dungeon Door: Turning left - Library Upstairs

Turning right - Dungeon Level 1

Straight ahead - Spiral staircase down to dungeon level 3 Ways Simple Paths 14