Magic has been treated many ways in fiction. In some cases it is a stand-in for modern technology. In others, it is treated like a religion. It is a source of great power no matter how it is used. And like all powers, it can be used for ill as well as good. In a distant land, a vast dungeon has been set up by mages, for mages, a prison known as The Pit. Located underground in a vast series of caverns, it is dominated by a crater at its center, from which tunnels branch off in many directions.
The pit is run by a great red dragon whose temperament is best described as more self-interested than anything else. Running a prison for profit, he takes in troublesome mages from dozens of other lands and holds them in a facility which most countries could not provide for themselves. And into The Pit, he has erected crystals which generate anti-magic fields with enough power to suppress all but the most powerful mages, although not powerful enough to extinguish their abilities entirely, save for the weakest of them. The prison itself is guarded by hundreds of mindless stone, iron, and adamantine golems who only obey the dragon and his lieutenants. The surrounding countryside is desolate and bare for hundreds of kilometers in every direction, bereft of water, food, or any settlement in which one could hide in the event of an escape.
Your character could be legitimately guilty of any number of magical acts, from the mundane to the atrocious. Or he could be framed for any number of acts. Or perhaps his only crime is possessing magical abilities in a world which hates and fears them. Maybe it is more than one cause. Perhaps he is a necromancer or a demonologist? Or used otherwise legitimate powers to commit acts of theft and murder. The choices are yours to decide.
The game need not take place entirely in The Pit. In fact, it is best used as a starting point, a sort of place for the characters to meet in and escape from, possibly to return later to free others. Or to simply run from and continue the story later on in another way. It doesn't really matter.
So, any takers?
The pit is run by a great red dragon whose temperament is best described as more self-interested than anything else. Running a prison for profit, he takes in troublesome mages from dozens of other lands and holds them in a facility which most countries could not provide for themselves. And into The Pit, he has erected crystals which generate anti-magic fields with enough power to suppress all but the most powerful mages, although not powerful enough to extinguish their abilities entirely, save for the weakest of them. The prison itself is guarded by hundreds of mindless stone, iron, and adamantine golems who only obey the dragon and his lieutenants. The surrounding countryside is desolate and bare for hundreds of kilometers in every direction, bereft of water, food, or any settlement in which one could hide in the event of an escape.
Your character could be legitimately guilty of any number of magical acts, from the mundane to the atrocious. Or he could be framed for any number of acts. Or perhaps his only crime is possessing magical abilities in a world which hates and fears them. Maybe it is more than one cause. Perhaps he is a necromancer or a demonologist? Or used otherwise legitimate powers to commit acts of theft and murder. The choices are yours to decide.
The game need not take place entirely in The Pit. In fact, it is best used as a starting point, a sort of place for the characters to meet in and escape from, possibly to return later to free others. Or to simply run from and continue the story later on in another way. It doesn't really matter.
So, any takers?