The Fool's Tower

Diss Ocak 29, 2022

Like this, but a little taller. Credit Maksym Harahulin

When you see it come over the horizon, you can't help but rub your eyes. It's a little like having an eyelash slowly drop down into your eye, but no matter what you do, it doesn't go away. It stretches up to the clouds and beyond, a flaw in the sky, an error in reality, an impossible structure that should collapse like a castle made of needles stacked point-to-point.

But it endures. Cannon has been brought to bear against it, once. Just once.

The nobility hate it. Peasants will drop tools and wander over from a town across, and flood in through whichever snarling visage the gate presents itself as that day. A couple come out bearing obscure trinkets or bizarre pieces of furniture. Some come out scarred and torn, missing limbs, missing memories. Most don't come out at all.

The rules:

Each room contains a small golden key and a wooden door
Touching the key to the door causes both to be destroyed
They key is immune to all spells, and breaking the door reveals only solid rock
The first floor has one obstacle (a pair of elements) the tower adds an additional obstacle every three floors
The key will usually be visible, but not always. The door will usually be visible, but not always. The room will usually be well-lit, but not always. Enemies will usually stay on their floor, but not always
No floor is a puzzle, there is not a hard-coded solution, merely things that are in the way of you getting the key and getting to the door
The Tower and everything in it resets each visit
A few items are specifically "loot" items, you will be told if this is the case
Everything else is "furniture", and will crumble to ash when removed from the tower
"Furniture" especially includes trap components, enemies, recruited allies, corpses and chunks of wall
Each entrant is permitted to bring a single item of "furniture" out of the Tower without it being destroyed
Speaking your true name has greater magnitude equivalent to the highest floor you have reached