I’m planning out the interior of an evil wizard’s massive fortress and laboratory, and I thought I’d share some of my own ideas for what could be in it as well as hear others suggestion.
Room with Tanks for Cloning
Prison Cells and Cages, obviously (I almost forgot to add this)
Golem Creation for anything from Flesh Golems to Iron Golems (exact layout and materials to be determined)
Scrying Chambers, potentially with a partially broken crystal that can only scry on 7 locations
Planar Summoning and Binding Chambers. Has all the signs of being used for fiends but when discovered there is a single deva (or other angel) present in a seven fold circle. Clues reveal this to be a fallen angel.
A vivisection and grafting chamber. A random idea would be to have an Illithid secured and opened up against a wall, it’s flesh stitched and nailed open. Sketches show suggested ideas for extending the torso with metal and changing out the hands and arms for more savage extremities. A picture or book shows the Despoiler of Flesh and wistful notes on acquiring it.
A large Library, maybe might have a table with a map of the nearest large city
A small armory and adjacent supply room for mundane items as well as a few rare spell components.
A separate study
Research on the Panacea.
Grates covering pits full of discarded bodies, backed up for being thrown into furnaces
Gates leading to many places and realms of reality.
An underground garden featuring trees and fruits in darkness is a must
Depends on what the wizard specializes/focuses. The "Jack of all trades" evil Wizard (tm) is a bit much to me.
For a large fortress in general: (if the wizard is a necromancer, much of this would be probably abandoned)
a comfy study
a private suite (probably with a bit of luxury, like a conservatory to grow herbs in winter - if they're no ascetic, maybe they also have family or a harem who live there)
guest quarters
a secret escape route
a decent sized ritual room (if you have to draw a 30 ft magic circle) + storage room for paraphernelia
an alchemy laboratory (because it's convenient)
a general library
a vault (might also contain an extra library on magic & the occult)
a shrine/chapel to which worshipped entity ever (maybe with a crypt underneath)
a grand hall or throne room (depending on how pompous the evil wizard is)
a war room (fitting for a fortress)
a mess hall (alternative to using the grand hall for this purpose) with kitchen
Don't forget Weird Stuff. Eclectic things from all over the planes, illogical or nonsensical puzzles. A golem that only smashes blue rocks, a giant checkerboard room with strange magic effects depending on which square you end on, a dungeon cell of prisoners captured from the future, laser guns piled in the corner, etc. No wizard gets to a certain power level without acquiring a singular collection, and not all of it makes sense to us mere mortals.
An ayrie - I dunno if that's the right word, or spelled right, but where the wizard keeps his sportscars flying mounts
An aquarium - because he just happens to like exotic, colorful fish (in his sushi)
A bathroom, complete with jacuzi big enough for 5-6 people
A bedroom, complete with a bed large enough for 5-6 people
Because why would evil wizards hate life?
Also:
Guard room
Training facilities
Security gates
Armory
Guard captains office
Surveillance room - well, maybe, with cctv crystal balls to watch everything
Holding cells
Interrogation room
Prisoner disposal facilities - like maybe an otyugh
I also feel any evil mage should have an escape shuttle of some sort. Who ever built an evil lair without some way to escape into space? So maybe it should be a planar thingy, a sphere with a handle you pull and it drops you - *poof* - right into the astal space.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I don’t know if it matters to choices people suggest since I’m getting a bunch of good ones for this adventure as well as others, but this particular Wizard fortress is actually a structure floating through the darker parts of the Astral Sea (abutting the Lower Planes).
And yes, any good Wizard has an Otyugh. Just like old school gangsters and pigs.
I don’t know if it matters to choices people suggest since I’m getting a bunch of good ones for this adventure as well as others, but this particular Wizard fortress is actually a structure floating through the darker parts of the Astral Sea (abutting the Lower Planes).
And yes, any good Wizard has an Otyugh. Just like old school gangsters and pigs.
Oh - so the escape mechanism wouldn't really do anything, unless it dumped the escapee literally anywhere else. Maybe it goes to the wizard old evil lair, on some tropical island paradise (with an active volcano).
Otyugh ... with friggin' lasers on it's head? Or are we moving outside respectable boundaries for references?
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Well, for escape and transit my guy has multiple Gates around his place, most of which are sealed of when the PC’s escape, but with one still active which leads to an empty warehouse in a Large City. The Wizard does have an old Castle elsewhere in the kingdom now ruled by a subordinate but he himself has moved past such a provincial life and is a plane hopping wheeler dealer. And he still has malignant plans, I promise (no retirement for him).
Otyughs with lasers. I imagine suddenly Cadaver Collectors just marching through the halls and dumping bodies off with the Otyugh, or throwing them into oubliettes when the Otyugh is full up. Maybe incinerators (with lasers :p)!
A collection room filled with things like the lower torso of a Manananggal, a centaur skeleton with a horn protruding from its forehead, dragon claws, cracked teapot with a furry tail, etc.
A closet full of skeletons
A smoking parlor with a thick layer of smoke covering the ceiling. This is there to cover the multitude of eyes that watch those below it.
An otherwordly communications room. The walls are covered in mounted deer heads that all face the center of the room. You can call upon a spirit who will possess the heads along the walls and talk to you through them.
This is going to sound tangential, but I'll get there.
So, a water elemental is water. Right? The elemental - is - the water. Hence, if you had a water elemental, you could step into it (hold your breath), then step out, dry. Because the elemental literally is the water, so it's not leaving any behind, unless it choses to.
In other words, the elemental could wash and dry the wizard - and his clothes - instantly.
The elemental would propably consider this disgustingly awful, and want for a bath itself. Like 'urgh, get your disgusting organic flith out of me!'
But thus, an elemental powered bath/laundry. And strike my earlier suggestion.
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Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
This is a very powerful wizard with fingers in allot of pies.
Demons
Divination
Teleportation
Golemancy
Cloning
Enchanting
etc...
Instead of having a room for every possible kind of magic there is also an option to narrow down on a specific one and have multiple rooms for a few. You can make a whole dungeon for any one of the magics you listed. For example with a specific process like cloning you can have rooms like:
A study describing aspects of the process
A surgery for grabbing the flesh needed or modifying/ dissecting clones
A storage for flesh samples from different creatures and figures
A dungeon or pit with failed or dead clones
A bank of completed clones in cryo
An area to train or equip clones
A prison for people who have been cloned
A torture chamber to get information and flesh from prisoners.
This paints the picture of a rather elaborate cloning operation that is replacing people in society, creating monsters and trying to avoid death.
This paints the picture of a rather elaborate cloning operation that is replacing people in society, creating monsters and trying to avoid death.
The difference between "experimenting" and "serial production" XD But you're absolutely right, a lot can be turned into a whole facility with chambers for the different aspects of a project.
This paints the picture of a rather elaborate cloning operation that is replacing people in society, creating monsters and trying to avoid death.
The difference between "experimenting" and "serial production" XD But you're absolutely right, a lot can be turned into a whole facility with chambers for the different aspects of a project.
Yeah what I described is an evil wizard lair with a specific cloning related plot but I don't think research lab would be much smaller. They often have allot of specialized equipment with dedicated areas often the equipment is so fragile it requires it's own room and new equipment is added over time resulting in many small labs. So a research lab for magical cloning may have:
A soul experimentation area with a soul extracting and viewing device
A wet storage with preserved things like flesh or samples
Dry storage with a wide variety of chemicals and materials
Live animal storage for test animals or clones
An area to grow a clone and put a soul in it
A disposal/ cleaning area to get rid of toxic materials, clones and clean equipment
Some where to test the clones like a gym or a dissection area
They'd all need a dedicated space and while theoretically you could try to fit that all in one room it would need to be a very big room and crowded room.
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I’m planning out the interior of an evil wizard’s massive fortress and laboratory, and I thought I’d share some of my own ideas for what could be in it as well as hear others suggestion.
What about you?
Depends on what the wizard specializes/focuses. The "Jack of all trades" evil Wizard (tm) is a bit much to me.
For a large fortress in general: (if the wizard is a necromancer, much of this would be probably abandoned)
Add one or two specialized laboratories/workshops and you're good to go.
Incorporated some of those to my personal at home list, thanks Varek.
Don't forget Weird Stuff. Eclectic things from all over the planes, illogical or nonsensical puzzles. A golem that only smashes blue rocks, a giant checkerboard room with strange magic effects depending on which square you end on, a dungeon cell of prisoners captured from the future, laser guns piled in the corner, etc. No wizard gets to a certain power level without acquiring a singular collection, and not all of it makes sense to us mere mortals.
sportscarsflying mountsBecause why would evil wizards hate life?
Also:
cctvcrystal balls to watch everythingI also feel any evil mage should have an escape shuttle of some sort. Who ever built an evil lair without some way to escape into space? So maybe it should be a planar thingy, a sphere with a handle you pull and it drops you - *poof* - right into the astal space.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
I don’t know if it matters to choices people suggest since I’m getting a bunch of good ones for this adventure as well as others, but this particular Wizard fortress is actually a structure floating through the darker parts of the Astral Sea (abutting the Lower Planes).
And yes, any good Wizard has an Otyugh. Just like old school gangsters and pigs.
Oh - so the escape mechanism wouldn't really do anything, unless it dumped the escapee literally anywhere else. Maybe it goes to the wizard old evil lair, on some tropical island paradise (with an active volcano).
Otyugh ... with friggin' lasers on it's head? Or are we moving outside respectable boundaries for references?
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
Well, for escape and transit my guy has multiple Gates around his place, most of which are sealed of when the PC’s escape, but with one still active which leads to an empty warehouse in a Large City. The Wizard does have an old Castle elsewhere in the kingdom now ruled by a subordinate but he himself has moved past such a provincial life and is a plane hopping wheeler dealer. And he still has malignant plans, I promise (no retirement for him).
Otyughs with lasers. I imagine suddenly Cadaver Collectors just marching through the halls and dumping bodies off with the Otyugh, or throwing them into oubliettes when the Otyugh is full up. Maybe incinerators (with lasers :p)!
A collection room filled with things like the lower torso of a Manananggal, a centaur skeleton with a horn protruding from its forehead, dragon claws, cracked teapot with a furry tail, etc.
A closet full of skeletons
A smoking parlor with a thick layer of smoke covering the ceiling. This is there to cover the multitude of eyes that watch those below it.
An otherwordly communications room. The walls are covered in mounted deer heads that all face the center of the room. You can call upon a spirit who will possess the heads along the walls and talk to you through them.
Recently seen "the dark crystal" again. a chamber like that would fit an evil wizard hunting for eternal life.
This is going to sound tangential, but I'll get there.
So, a water elemental is water. Right? The elemental - is - the water. Hence, if you had a water elemental, you could step into it (hold your breath), then step out, dry. Because the elemental literally is the water, so it's not leaving any behind, unless it choses to.
In other words, the elemental could wash and dry the wizard - and his clothes - instantly.
The elemental would propably consider this disgustingly awful, and want for a bath itself. Like 'urgh, get your disgusting organic flith out of me!'
But thus, an elemental powered bath/laundry. And strike my earlier suggestion.
Blanket disclaimer: I only ever state opinion. But I can sound terribly dogmatic - so if you feel I'm trying to tell you what to think, I'm really not, I swear. I'm telling you what I think, that's all.
This is a very powerful wizard with fingers in allot of pies.
etc...
Instead of having a room for every possible kind of magic there is also an option to narrow down on a specific one and have multiple rooms for a few. You can make a whole dungeon for any one of the magics you listed. For example with a specific process like cloning you can have rooms like:
This paints the picture of a rather elaborate cloning operation that is replacing people in society, creating monsters and trying to avoid death.
The difference between "experimenting" and "serial production" XD But you're absolutely right, a lot can be turned into a whole facility with chambers for the different aspects of a project.
Yeah what I described is an evil wizard lair with a specific cloning related plot but I don't think research lab would be much smaller. They often have allot of specialized equipment with dedicated areas often the equipment is so fragile it requires it's own room and new equipment is added over time resulting in many small labs. So a research lab for magical cloning may have:
They'd all need a dedicated space and while theoretically you could try to fit that all in one room it would need to be a very big room and crowded room.