Emergent Event: Fractal Towers

or The Stairway To heaven

A Fractal Tower is the name given to a randomly encountered building type that your players can explore. Its a one shot encounter/ adventure/ long running campaign depending on how the GM and players want to go about it. This is an encounter of my own design and if used in your own games I'd love to hear how it went. Also, do credit please! The maps and adventure are my own, any art used is credited in the standard way.

The Fractal Towers are near infinite dungeons that appear and disappear all over the world. Players will hear no rumors of them, and must find them by accident. This is a must. The towers cannot be intentionally found because they do not want to be found. The following is a series of ways to deal with each tower you may have to build, and options on various ways of running it, as well as my experience while using this little encounter.

Randomness is the name of the game here. If your players are on World Anvil and stumble across this. its unlikely that they will be able to metagame it. Each tower is different, and what dwells within is just as much so.

What is it to the players?

Fractal Towers are anomalies that can only be found by accident. They are massive is size, the top vanishing in a ring of clouds no matter how far away you are. The Towers are always beautiful, seemingly carved from gold and marble. They are decorated with massive arrangements of precious stones, all impossible to remove due to the arcane forces that allow the tower to exist.

The towers come in different shapes. Some are shaped like squares, some are round, and some are triangular, but it will always maintain a 45 by 45 foot interior. You're players will pick up on this information if they visit more than one.

What is it to the GM?

The Fractal Towers can be whatever you want them to be. In the beginning it may just be a one shot encounter, but later on it becomes a full blown campaign or subplot to the main quest line the players are on. Many strange things can be found inside, and the doors will open and welcome the players, almost eagerly.

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Infinite Floors

What makes the tower easy to run is a rotation of floor plans that invert and reverse as the player ascend. If a player realizes this at any time, the enchantments break and they immediately progress to the top floor. Below is where the floor plan will be once ive drawn it up on computer, as well as several variants of the floor plan. You can use any combination or make your own as well, but you must have at least 4 to make it work. The floor plan follows a rotation of floors. Floor 4 is the top of the tower. Any other floors are simply added to the rotation. The rotation is in the side bar to the right.

The Goal

The goal varies from tower to tower and from GM to GM. Generally, the goal is to reach the top floor. You're players will likely realize this as they travel. You can even skip floors for effect to really drive the point home if you need to. There are three ways that guarantee reaching the top floor.

• Realizing that the floor plans are reused over and over, but in different ways. Make a point every now and then that each floor is unique and special. If its taking to long, leave some previously cleared floors on the mat, table, whatever so they can see it.
• The players have a chance to kill the source of the enchantments. This can vary, but is usually an antagonist who resides on the top floor. This antagonist will not just lie in wait. It will seek out those who enter the tower and try to kill them. Killing it will reveal the top floor, though you want a plan B for the finale if this occurs.
• Using certain spells that dispel or negate magic can break the enchantment, though many players may not even think to attempt it. The difficulty is fairly high, regardless of arcane skill. In d20, it requires a natural 19 or a natural 20 to succeed.

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Gm notes

I would suggest ensuring players have the ability to try and steal the precious stones. Make a point to note the massive emeralds and sapphires that line the base of the tower, maybe even say that the characters can reach out and touch them. This does 3 things.

1. It gives them a moment to be cautious, since you're offering such treasure so easily. Cautious players wont touch it.
2. It gives the more bold players a chance to learn that they cant be removed without having to climb to dangerous heights, thus preventing a needless casualty.
3. It allows you to prepare them for the arcane nature of the tower. Either the gems are traps, or you suggest the gems can't be removed because of magic after a failed attempt. It starts to show off the weirdness of the towers. Whether the gems are traps is up to the GM.

Floor Rotation

1-2-3
2-3-1
3-1-2 > 4

If players have not solved the tower by the time you reach full circle to 1-2-3, inverse the maps and follow the same rotations. You can inverse by reversing the map or rotating the map in any way. The players cannot reach floor 4 until they solve the puzzle, Get lucky, or achieve the goal.

Hazard Rotation and Staircase Rotation

The stairs, ladders, portals, or whatever you decide to use to progress to the next floor will always match the entrance on the next floor, as shown in the maps. An entry point in A7 will come from an exit point on A7 on the floor below. The exit point is random and you can place it wherever you want.
Hazards are different. Traps should be used sparingly, and never in the same place if you can help it. Be sure to have a list of traps you can use if you chose to use them. They can really spice up a floor. Other hazards include environmental hazards and antagonists.

Your players are not storming a castle here. Many enemies they face have been lost in the tower for some time, and the option to talk to other sentient beings shouldn't be off the table. Monsters are common enough but not throw too much at the players. There is no indication of how long they will be stuck here, so keep combat quick if you want to rush it.

Environmental hazards don't come in till your players end up in floors beyond 25, if they make it that far without solving the goal.
See Effects for more info.