Tag: insanity

Witnessing unspeakable supernatural horrors—always a professional risk for any protagonist in a ‘swords and sorcery’ adventure—can drive a mortal man or woman mad. Deliberately delving into ancient eldritch secrets for the purposes of unleashing unnatural forces or contacting demonic intelligences radically increases this risk. Insane sorcerers and men whose minds have been broken by ancient evils are standard staples in ‘swords and sorcery’ tales.

In order to simulate this aspect of the ‘swords and sorcery’ genre, these rules treat a character’s Wisdom score as a measurement of his/her sanity. A character with a Wisdom score of 18 has a firm grasp of the nature of reality, considerable self-discipline, and remarkable strength of will. In contrast, a character with a Wisdom score of 3 is barely lucid, easily confuses reality with fantasy, and is on the border of lapsing into madness. Characters with Wisdom scores of 2 or lower are utterly insane, and must be treated as non-player characters. (If this Wisdom loss is temporary, as explained below, the character is under the control of the Game Master until he/she regains his/her sanity.)

— Sanity – Akratic Wizardry

In a prior post I answered why there are so many irrational dungeons. The big problem is the fact that it is so difficult to build underground. The labor pools required, even if managed, would preclude keeping the structures secret. Nor can fantasy dwarves account for all the dungeons. So it must be magic. But in what form?

This magic must be accessible to a single individual, and separate from whatever class or abilities they have. Even powerful mages would lack all the kinds of magic needed. This is beyond a specialty. So its form would be a magical item. A very powerful magical item. In D&D terms, a minor artifact. Manifesting from the mythic underworld.

It would create neat hallways, rooms, stairs, sturdy wooden doors, furniture, lighting, and all the other irrational structures of a traditional fantasy dungeon. No digging. No debris. No effort, really. Malleable reality, very localized.

Using the magical item would simply be a matter of pointing it. More of a wand than a tool. Something that belongs in a dungeon, though. Something that its wielder could set down at the end of an episode of insanity, and easily take up again at the beginning of the next. Also a disguise.

An iron torch carrier. Just put it into a wall sconce when not in use.

All it lacks is a name.

Addendum: a discussion of this blogpost reminded me of the Winchester House. This magical item would single-handedly enable such an irrational structure, just underground.

While I like the old idea of living dungeons, those would be very rare—even singular.

The mythic underworld seems more usable, but its natural entrances at the surface would likewise be very rare. “Man”-made dungeons that delve sufficiently deep could become supplemental entrances.

But why would so many sentient beings construct so many “mundane” dungeons? Especially when those dungeons are unneeded, excessive, and weirdly laid out? Because dungeon building is an insanity that can arise in anyone who builds and inhabits a sufficiently large, permanent structure of any kind.

So aristocratic castles; wizard towers; religious temples; dwarven homesteads; humanoid cave towns. Anything.

Where does the insanity come from? Obviously, it is the mythic underworld reaching out, weakly; desiring another connection to the surface world.

As to how such irrational dungeons are built, that is another post.