Torntongue Tower
During the war, it became a place of horror and was given its current name. Spellcasters were put to death here in all manner of terrible ways...
a small modular adventure location for any TTRPG
Concept
I created this module as part of a larger campaign and this location as a place that players would revisit over the course of the adventure. This module may be inserted into any TTRPG.
In my campaign, spellcasters were outlawed in the past, and this tower served as a piece of environmental storytelling about that time in the history of the world. The monster located in the tower dungeon was important to the story and had to be slain to get one of three keys to the final boss.
These were only secondary goals for the module, however, and part of the challenge of this project was generalizing such
details across any fantasy TTRPG world. I gave some light details about the narrative of the world in the module, but they serve more as a way to spark ideas in the GM who reads it and less as a requirement for the location.
Location Design
When designing this location, I ensured there was never any one way of completing a task or achieving a goal, but it is more of a place where interesting situations arise. In my time running TTRPGs, I found that it’s more fun for players to discover their own solutions to problems than guess whatever a GM has in mind.
To that end, I designed the tower with no particular order of events or rooms. Every room serves a unique purpose to increase the tower's appeal as a location to a variety of players.
There is an original riddle (that players can’t just google), undead creatures in coffins to fight and loot, an eccentric alchemist to talk to or recruit, and rooms oozing with environmental storytelling and tidbits of history to discover. Any one of these aspects can be ignored for a party who isn’t a fan of one aspect or another, and it may still be a satisfying experience.
Other NPCs
The Nuller is largely mysterious to the party but serves the important role of maintaining the fear inside the dungeon, where it's more difficult for the executioner to locate the party. Its behavior is passive, yet its physical description is enough to let any player know it's a dangerous encounter. It serves as an inverse to the executioner because unlike the executioner, the Nuller can detect players through smell, while the executioner detects through sight.
The Silenced is in a hidden part of the dungeon and is the only NPC who is initially favorable to the party. His primary purpose is to restore players who have had their tongues taken by the executioner. He can also deliver information about the rest of the tower and knows how alchemists created the Nuller. GMs can use the Silenced to set the players on the right track.
