Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Finder’s Archives.
In this column, we take some of the lands from Magic: The Gathering and turn them into something you can use for your fantasy games.
The stats given in each entry assumes that you’re using Pathfinder for your games, but they can easily be converted over into any fantasy system. This week we travel the planes as we head to the Arcane Sanctum.
Arcane Sanctum
The arcane sanctum floats in the depths of the Astral Plane. It extends hundreds of feet into the sky, though it is impossible to tell where the top floor ends, and the lowest ones begin, as they seem to intertwine “somehow.” The entrance seems to be the only solid connection to the place, but even that seems to be an impossibility. From the enormous gate doors stretch a thin sliver of a rock bridge, that loses itself in the mists of the Astral Sea. That rocky bridge connects to every world in the Material Plane, no matter how far apart they are or how different their lifeforms.
Lay of the Land
The size of the arcane sanctum seems to be hundreds of feet when viewed from the outside, though once inside, the stairs will stretch on for miles, sometimes beginning and ending in the same place> If followed, none of them seem to loop back on themselves. The sanctum holds hundreds of rooms and is at times bustling with activity and life, and at others, it is as silent as a tomb. This seems to shift every hour, with the sound of a great bell echoing through the structure, and bringing masters and students out of their studies. The rooms contain bits and pieces of all the information you could want, throughout the universe – though navigating the place requires the help of the Custodians.
Dangers
There are no direct dangers to a visitor in the arcane sanctum, though anyone spending too long waiting outside the gates could be attacked by any of the inhabitants of the Astral Plane who might come by. For most visitors, the greatest danger is simply getting lost. Without the help of the Custodians, it is impossible to navigate the place, even using divination magic, as that inevitably fails.
The Custodians themselves are a mystery. IF questioned, they say that they serve the furtherance of knowledge among all races and species, but they do not seem to get any form of payment from students or masters, and while they have the run of the arcane sanctum they never seem to abuse that privilege. They all appear to be some form of androgynous humans, with a bland face, gray eyes, and no hair, but even they admit that they are not the leaders of the Custodians. Those are the Master Custodes, who are only seen from afar, and who resemble giant floating manta rays. No one has managed to have a conversation with them (except perhaps the Custodians) or at least if they have, no one is talking.
Kim Frandsen
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