Hi all — I’m stuck for inspiration for my next session and could use some fresh perspectives.
In my campaign, a castle has appeared overnight out in the far wilds. The design is clearly ancient — far, far older than the region (which has only been inhabited for about 100 years). I’ve got a few possible directions but wanted to hear what others might suggest or build onto.
Here are my ideas so far:
1) The Land Mimic
The castle isn’t a castle at all — it’s a colossal mimic, a sort of “land mimic” that imitates terrain features or buildings. Because of its massive size it’s slow, more like a giant Venus flytrap: it waits for prey to walk inside. Inside, the party slowly gets ensnared by charming effects, shifting rooms, and digestive traps. (It would need extra abilities so it’s more than just a scaled-up mimic.)
2) The Philadelphia Experiment / USS Eldridge Scenario
The castle is real — it disappeared centuries ago and has just popped back into existence unaged. No people remain, but there may be monsters that came with it… or gnarly side-effects like:
people fused with walls
time distortions
rooms that phase in/out
a collapsing structure pulling the PCs into whatever dimension it was trapped in
The castle becomes more unstable as the party explores, forcing a race to escape.
3) The “Metallic Rose” Ghost-Castle
Inspired by Metropolis / Metallic Rose: A grieving noblewoman spirited her entire castle away into another plane. Now it has crashed back into the world. She “haunts” it — not a standard ghost, but an intelligence woven into the structure itself. She fixates on one or two PCs, trying to shape them into the image of her lost lover, while isolating or tempting the rest. If the PCs escape, one of them might continue to dream of the castle… or fear they never actually left it.
(I’m considering letting players not in a scene temporarily play illusions/dopplegangers of themselves to make it extra eerie.)
I’d love any thoughts, twists, or additional ideas for ‘castle that suddenly appears’ scenarios.
I prefer of your three, the USS Philadelphia story. But I do think some people/npcs are there. But the people/NPCs can speak, be heard, but do not see the PCs. Once the party thinks that is what is going on, let an NPC walk through them.
I personally like the idea of walking through a castle, walking into a kitchen, spending some time, and then trying to take the door to leave, only to discover that it leads into a different room. "wait, that's odd" players will think. "wasn't this bedroom meant to be the hallway? lemme go back into the kitchen, see what happens." then they get D I G E S T E D.
number one, definitely a fave if you like to mess with your players heads.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Sadistic DM throw an unbeatable BBEG at you? Maybe you're out of spell lots too? Just cast Command: begone, and pray real hard that the other guy rolls a nat one...
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi all — I’m stuck for inspiration for my next session and could use some fresh perspectives.
In my campaign, a castle has appeared overnight out in the far wilds. The design is clearly ancient — far, far older than the region (which has only been inhabited for about 100 years). I’ve got a few possible directions but wanted to hear what others might suggest or build onto.
Here are my ideas so far:
1) The Land Mimic
The castle isn’t a castle at all — it’s a colossal mimic, a sort of “land mimic” that imitates terrain features or buildings.
Because of its massive size it’s slow, more like a giant Venus flytrap: it waits for prey to walk inside.
Inside, the party slowly gets ensnared by charming effects, shifting rooms, and digestive traps.
(It would need extra abilities so it’s more than just a scaled-up mimic.)
2) The Philadelphia Experiment / USS Eldridge Scenario
The castle is real — it disappeared centuries ago and has just popped back into existence unaged.
No people remain, but there may be monsters that came with it… or gnarly side-effects like:
people fused with walls
time distortions
rooms that phase in/out
a collapsing structure pulling the PCs into whatever dimension it was trapped in
The castle becomes more unstable as the party explores, forcing a race to escape.
3) The “Metallic Rose” Ghost-Castle
Inspired by Metropolis / Metallic Rose:
A grieving noblewoman spirited her entire castle away into another plane. Now it has crashed back into the world.
She “haunts” it — not a standard ghost, but an intelligence woven into the structure itself.
She fixates on one or two PCs, trying to shape them into the image of her lost lover, while isolating or tempting the rest.
If the PCs escape, one of them might continue to dream of the castle… or fear they never actually left it.
(I’m considering letting players not in a scene temporarily play illusions/dopplegangers of themselves to make it extra eerie.)
I’d love any thoughts, twists, or additional ideas for ‘castle that suddenly appears’ scenarios.
Thanks in advance!
I prefer of your three, the USS Philadelphia story. But I do think some people/npcs are there. But the people/NPCs can speak, be heard, but do not see the PCs. Once the party thinks that is what is going on, let an NPC walk through them.
I personally like the idea of walking through a castle, walking into a kitchen, spending some time, and then trying to take the door to leave, only to discover that it leads into a different room. "wait, that's odd" players will think. "wasn't this bedroom meant to be the hallway? lemme go back into the kitchen, see what happens." then they get D I G E S T E D.
number one, definitely a fave if you like to mess with your players heads.
Sadistic DM throw an unbeatable BBEG at you? Maybe you're out of spell lots too? Just cast Command: begone, and pray real hard that the other guy rolls a nat one...