Hi everyone!
I'm nearing the end of the first playthrough, fixing lots of bugs as I go. Xanathar's room is merged in (some polishing left to do) and quite the fun challenge! We're almost there.
Let's talk about the background "story" and intro cinematic.
Chatting over the other day with Isaac, Xanathar and Blade, we came up with a half-coherent story of why the hell such a contraption dungeon should exist and how to tie it with our "prison" theme. Quick answer: the dungeon is an underground testing complex, where mages and other artificers can rent space to conduct experiments, confine monsters, and other such things they'd like to keep secret. As Xanathar wonderfully put it:
Need a lab to experiment new spells ? Need a small prison to keep summons at bay ? Can't afford your own mysterious tower ? Wait no more! Nothampton Mages Guild sells real estate in the famous ancient Nothampton Bay Tower. Membership of a mages guild required. Payments in cash only. No questions asked. What could possibly go wrong ?
The guild has also set up a prison at the bottom level of the complex, and are kidnapping unwary adventurers / buying criminals to serve as test subjects. That's what happend to the party, but you break loose and wreak havoc in the dungeon before making it to the surface. A fantasy transposition of the Portal plot, kind of.
There's lot of meta-game references in there anyway and we break freely the 4th wall, so it's not like we *really* needed a story, but it will be a bit more immersive that way.
I'm working on an intro cinematic, and would like you guys to help decide between two looks: #1 sketched on old scrool look or #2 color Grimrock-like painting.
Pics: