It began as many things do, with a wizard in a tower. A star, laid low by the stellar wars above, plummeted to the earth just as the wizard was looking through her telescope. The wizard spared no time in rushing to the location of the fallen star and imprisoning it in a Fractal Prism before taking it back to her tower. A star is a source of great power, and the wizard used this to lift her tower into the air, connected to the earth in mighty chains.
As the years past, the wizard grew bitter in her isolation as the planets churned in the velvet dark above. She decided to cast off her mortal flesh with the power of the star, separating her skull and alchemically transforming it into crystal so she could live forever. But this ritual caught the attention of nearby celestial bodies- the Aurora Borealis, ever hungry, seeks to devour the fallen star, the Dark Star seeks to take it as a prisoner of war, and the Moon seeks to protect and save the young star (or does she?).
As these celestial forces collide, the PCs, mundane farmhands, are thrust into a science-fantasy, folkloric, psychedelic Neil Gaiman fever dream. Will they escape the Chained Metropolis of the Crystal Skull?
WHY ARE THE PCs GOING TO THE METROPOLIS?
1-2 They simply got lost while doing some mundane task
3 They’re seeking the star as a gift for someone else
4 They think the ground-up Fractal Prism will cure Granny of her cough
5 The moon asked them to
6 A gaggle of witches has made their home in the Metropolis
HOW DO THEY GET THERE?
1 Getting lost in their hometown
2 Entering the hollow mountain
3 Jumping onto the North Star
4 Entering the cursed cairn right outside of town on Hallow’s Eve
5 Punching through the Glass Lake
6 Bargaining with the Nebula Troll for a ride on his comet
GENERATING THE METROPOLIS
Drop a small handful of dice on a piece of paper or whiteboard. Doesn’t have to be any particular number or size. Of these dice, half should be blue, half should be red, and exactly one should be gold.
The red and blue dice are standard rooms. The gold dice is either the room where the star is kept, or, if you’re running a multi-level dungeon, the entryway to the next floor. The number on the dice dictates not only the type of room it is, but the encounter you have in that room. Once you drop the dice, draw some astronomic-looking room shapes and connections, reference the encounter in each room, write it all up and tweak to taste, and get to gaming!
ROOMS
1 Skull Node. On a rune-covered plinth, a small icon of a crystal skull sits. If three of these icons throughout the Metropolis are destroyed or removed from the plinth, the chains holding the Metropolis in place break!
2 Stellar Crucible. This heated forge, painful and blinding to behold, has the power to melt down or destroy most anything, including a Fractal Prism...
3 Atheneum. Towering stacks of books spiralling off for what may well be miles. Gravity pulls whichever way you will it, and spiraling walkways cross the intersecting tunnels of books. Pull out a book at random and it will become useful later in your life.
4 Observatory. Looking through the massive telescope sees an impossible star feld, the center of which shows a pure black star eclipsed by the moon, surrounded by the shimmering green borealis. Perhaps the massive telescope could be exploited?
5 Lunar Node. This room has french windows that look out to a lunar landscape. Breaking the doors down is near impossible, you would need a key, or perhaps a poker heated in a Stellar Crucible, to walk on the moon. Hang on, is that a city on the horizon?
6 Gauntlet. An extension of the wizard’s will. Some form of complicated puzzle or fiendish trap hinders intruders, or perhaps guards some hidden passage or treasure.
7 Labyrinth. The Metropolis twists back on itself, winding in obfuscating loops and forking impossibly, all while illusory eyes blink from the walls. Close your eyes and walk straight to leave the terrifying maze, lest you meet the Beast Below.
8 Gallery. Art and taxidermy from across cosmic history are on display. Be careful, if you steal one of the priceless artifacts, perhaps one of the taxidermied monsters isn't as dead as you might suspect!
9 Illusion Room. The strongest will in the room dictates how this room looks. In each iteration, there is a single incongruous object hidden in the simulation- destroy it, and the illusion fades.
10 Wizard’s Crypt. A massive coffin in the center of the room contains a false version of the wizard, whose deeds and titles are inscribed all over the sarcophagus. The false version is a spell-slinging, mutant, undead monster, and attacks if the coffin is opened. Perhaps there is treasure in the alcoves, or in a hidden compartment under the coffin?
11 Spiraling Tower. A narrow spiral staircase swirls around a virtually infinite fall. At the very top of the tower is a skull node (see 1). This room works best when connected to many others and escape relies on dashing up or down stairs to evade a pursuer.
12 Key Room. Every key in the known multiverse has a copy here, so long as you know where to look. The directory, infinitely large, will not give the location of the key the reader seeks unless the wizard’s name is spoken aloud- could be a massive time waster. Then again, the keys it does give usually have some utility, no matter how obscure...
13 Metropolitain Madness. The wizard is mad, and this madness is reflected in the growing architecture of the place. Walls clip at odd angles, non-euclidean geometry hinders, furniture warps through 4d space, nothing makes sense.
14 Specimen Room. All species of all shapes and sizes are represented, frozen in pickling brine for alchemical and anatomical investigation. Empty aquariums lie about… perhaps another specimen could be added to the collection!
15 Portal Network. Filled with a dizzying array of doors, many of which are sealed with chains or marked off with chalk, each of them leading to disparate places not only across Prima Materia, but across the multiverse.
16 Alchemy Lab. Stocked with every piece of equipment imaginable and with shelves of alchemical formulae. Perhaps a valuable potion needs a resource from another room?
17 Feast Hall. The massive central table is piled with absolutely delectable food. Those who begin to eat cannot willingly stop until they burst. However, if they are led out of the room and out of sight of the food, their desire to eat fades. The food self-replicates.
18 The Quartz Computer. Hooked up to a dizzying array of cables and arcanomechanical circuitry is a massive, glowing chunk of quartz. It knows the Metropolis perfectly, and will help the PCs so long as they agree not to destroy any skull nodes (see 1) or steal the star. It is a potent foe- it can lock any door or activate any trap!
19 Shrine to the Arcane Mistress. This towering mass of candles is a shrine to the goddess of magic. If honored properly, the shrine grants permanent detect magic. If stolen from or disrespected, the candles animate into a wax golem, and the coins and gems scattered about melt into puddles.
20 Wizard’s Hoard. Go crazy. What sort of strange guard or puzzle defends this massive collection of sundry artifacts and hyper-powerful magics?
RED DICE: THE DARK STAR
Red odd: Dark Star Gions, foot soldiers of the Dark Star’s stellar armies. Look like multicolored platonic solids warping and shifting through space, inverting flesh on a touch. At large enough volume, sound can banish them back to the void between stars.
Red even: The conniving, immortal Children of the Dark Star: Meridian (the Mithril Tower, always tells the truth), Mercury (the Blade of the Dread Pits, always lies), Magisterium (the Arcing Light, always silent). How can you stop that which cannot die?
Red min: The Dark Star rises, blazing red light through all the windows. It burns and melts flesh, but all illusions are made apparent in the eerie glow.
Red max: Make up your own sinister emissary of the Dark Star!
BLUE DICE: THE AURORA BOREALIS
Blue odd: Naergandra Nettle, a witch with stars in her eyes and a voice like hissing bellows. She commands magic, even other’s, intuitively, but is weak to iron and the sun.
Blue even: Refractor Automata, walking mechanical lightbulbs with a fraction of the Borealis trapped in their bulb, powering them. Fragile, but deeply intelligent, and always found in groups of 2d6+.
Blue min: The Borealis tries to manifest itself through roaring, electric wind that dispels magic and the potential to destroy magic items
Blue max: Make up your own villainous agent of the Aurora Borealis!
GOLD DICE: THE STAR AND THE MOON AND THE CRYSTAL SKULL
Gold odd: The Headless Wizard, a shambling body with a paralytic touch and a gaping wound that spews poison gas
Gold even: The Crystal Skull, a flying, psychic entity capable of powerful magics
Gold min: Roll for one red dice encounter and one blue dice encounter
Gold max: Make up your own climactic encounter!
NOTE: If you’re doing the multi-level variant, hold off on rolling this or choose another encounter at random.
If the rooms are too busy for your tastes (as sometimes you get the blue/red/gold encounter AND an extra monster in the room), don’t hesitate to cut, alter, or add in your own encounters. This is a framework for fast and easy prep, but it’ll take a little bit of extra elbow grease to get it to work to your tastes and specifications.
TWISTS
1 The wizard genuinely seeks what’s best for the star, and the Fractal Prism is intended as a defense, not a prism
2 The Aurora Borealis seeks to put her back into the night sky, and the star is simply a draft-dodger
3 The Moon actually wants to eat the young star to regain her youthful beauty
4 The Dark Star only wants the Fractal Prism, if the star can be safely extracted, the Dark Star has no problems with letting it fly free
5 There is no star in the Fractal Prism, the wizard was bluffing
6 The Metropolis actually exists halfway into the Plane of Dreams, and if the star is taken, it will be fully pulled into that realm, never to return
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| Magisterium, Mercury and Meridian stand in front of the Metropolis of the Crystal Skull |
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