Lost Citadel

[red scare]

My players seem interested in the citadel after hearing rumors of it being the last bastion of the gods and the building never ages. Anybody else's players went to the citadel or have you got any expanded ideas off of the info they give in TOD?

[Carl Cramér]

I used The Palace of Plenty (Dungeon #130), changing the setting from Japanese to Aztec.

Spoiler:

The Olman princes hid away from the coming cataclysm, but the eventual price of this escape was that they turned into ape fiends.

The original backstory, where a great spirit turns apes into civilized and good beings threw a wrench into my player's view of Demogorgon as evil, something I don't mind one bit. Demon lords are after all chaotic. Giving apes sentience and civilization, only to ruin their descendants hundreds of years later, seems quite demonic.

[MrFish]

I've had thoughts of the rumors about it being just that, and that in fact there is a kind of time wheel going on there, with the olman princes really thinking that they are still in their present time, about to wage a final battle against the Savage Tide. It could also be another means to deal with circumstances if the pcs fail in some area.

[Hierophantasm]

My thoughts on this so far include an elite ruling caste of "superior" Olmani, who isolated themselves after divining Thanaclan's fate. Though they regard themselves as "The Princes of Thanaclan", they are little more than despotic tyrants with mighty arcane power who have fled their land in its time of need, to preserve themselves in a type of temporal stasis until they can return to reclaim their empire.

Should my PCs venture their, I hope to leave some idea that they are the sort of "overlords" of the Olman, and that their dominating attitude and power would only prove to create yet another threat to the future if Farshore and the Isle of Dread.

Spoiler:

Why do I feel like I just gave some ending away... ;-)

[red scare]

What about those 9 stone archways and the two pools one for beauty the other for truth. I was thinking of having the archways be gateways into different episodes in the Olmec empires past. And the players have to defeat some enemy of the Olman be it real or superstitious to awake the Olman princes at the top. I think 3 princes should suffice of at least 16th lvl. I think I'll have it that the citadel only opens if they bring some Olman artifact from Thanaclan that way the players are high enough level to deal with it. I still haven't come up with much ideas for the pools. Maybe the truth pool answers questions put at the cost of some deformity that can only be healed with miracle or wish. (Party will be almost high enough level to have access to those spells by then). For beauty maybe the pool will give the ability to cast suggestion but at the cost of something else. I believe dragon magazine had something about varient curses. Further input greatly appreciated!