Friday, July 22, 2022

D10x10 Mysterious Megastructures

Started this one immediately after reading BLAME!

Click the button below for a megastructure of your very own:

Generator generator here: http://paperelemental.blogspot.com/p/list-to-html-generator.html

Special thanks to friends of the blog deus ex parabola and Phlox for brainstorming assistance.

Tables:

This megastructure is [is] made of [composition], located [located].<br>According to legend it was built by [builtby] [builtfor].<br>The megastructure is known to contain [faction], [monster], and [obstacle], but no doubt these represent only a fraction of what lies within.<br>One of the mysteries surrounding this megastructure is [mystery].

{is}
a sphere
a cube
a ziggurat
a cylinder
a pyramid
an asymmetric, amorphous blob
a ring
a lotus
a many-faceted polyhedron
a humanoid structure

{located}
in the middle of a desert, only its very tip exposed above the dunes
halfway embedded in a cliff-face
at the bottom of a great ravine
atop the roof of a towering plateau
at the heart of an ancient, untrod forest
within an extraspatial pocket, accessible by esoteric gates
beneath an extinct volcano
in low orbit
at a lunar Lagrange point
just off the coast, its bulk a darkness beneath white-capped waves

{composition}
steel, glass, and concrete
countless skeletons fused together
a single, titanic living tree
tumorous bio-technological organs
diamondoid and carbon nanotube lattices
a single solid mountain of greasy black stone
Frankenstein-architecture kludged together from dozens of cultures
gleaming ultra-tough alloys and hard-light projections
modular automatons that periodically rearrange themselves according to unknown commands
gold, silver, and jewels that crumble to lead powder if removed from the megastructure

{builtby}
a workforce of exponentially self-replicating golems,
a clan of vampires who gained great power by drinking the burning blood of the earth itself,
a messianic religious movement,
an anteglacian species of bipedal cetaceans who enslaved and uplifted early humanity,
an archmage and their circle of treacherous apprentices
the population of a great city, all possessed by a ghost from the stars,
goblins, before their fall into their modern grotesquery,
an army of djinni at the behest of a sorcerer-king,
a single architect invigorated by obsession,
ancient giants so big they’d make today’s giants look like children by comparison,

{builtfor}
to act as proof of their existence that would last until the end of time
to bridge past, present, and future; life, death, and pre-existence
as a prison for a world-ending evil
as the temple and abode of the last and only true god, who would arrive in the universe when the megastructure was completed
as a terraforming engine that would transform the world into their paradise
as a prism that would focus the ambient light of the cosmos back into the pure light of creation
as a doomsday device that could wipe entire concepts from existence
as a factory that could produce all their material needs and usher in an aeon of leisure
as a computing machine that could discern and amend the laws of the cosmos
to pierce the veil between the world and realms unknown

{faction}
an exile-culture chased from their homeland
a conspiracy of derro who all dreamed of the place before knowing it existed
a lich-poet (accompanied by their undead retinue) who is certain that within the megastructure is the cure for their centuries of writer's block
outriders from a local tribe who see it as their ancestral duty to guard the megastructure from those who would exploit it
an adventurer-prince and his band of cutthroats and scoundrel aiming to carve out a kingdom for themselves
a very confused group of butterfly-folk who don't know why their traditional migration route led them here
a secret society of masons aiming to glean the secret of the megastructure's construction
a cabal of ancient elves trying to find out why the place doesn't exist in their collective memory
the research camp of a prestigious university
a roving market of tinkering nomads

{monster}
an apparently invincible reptilian behemoth that absorbs and incorporates into itself any weapon that wounds it
giant, drill-faced wolverines that can burrow through the substance of the megastructure
men with hourglasses, pocketwatches, or other timepieces for heads, who interact oddly with causality and history
living comets that have carved themselves into vicious shapes, and drag the utter cold of the void with them wherever they go
grey-fleshed, faceless humanoids that can slip through shadows as if they were doorways between each other
serpents coiled together like DNA strands whose venom mutates whatever they bite
decaying cyborgs that must constantly hunt for flesh and machinery to repair themselves with
holographic beasts that project 3-dimensional bodies for themselves
large ticks with the faces of men that are able to puppeteer people they drink the blood of
floating glass eyeball-things that shoot lasers from their pupils and make their homes in skulls

{obstacle}
pockets of airless vacuum, corrosive gas, hallucinatory fumes, and other unbreathable atmospheres
a bad toxic mold infestation
entire miniature, alien ecosystems in domes within
flooding in the lower sections - sometimes mere water, but other times acid, or blood
pipes that contain hot steam, liquid crystal, swarming vermin, and stranger things, which sometimes burst randomly
hostile architecture that's difficult to impossible for a human to navigate without tools
collapsed passageways, sealed gates, and whole sections that move around like parts of a puzzle box
moving gears, pistons, and other machinery that is not even close to OSHA-compliant
rooms and hallways that are impossible according to conventional geometry
a curse that drives those who linger too long within to delve deeper and deeper, heedless of risks

{mystery}
why it's impenetrable to scrying magic and even the sight of the divine
why so many heretical sects schismed off from their parent faiths after receiving a vision of what lies at the megastructure's core
why and how it's suddenly started to move
why settlements near it have started having their populations disappear without a trace in the night
what the source of the wondrous music that drifts throughout it is
why and how it seems to be growing year after year
why people who've returned with treasures from it tend to die in inexplicable ways
why smaller copies of it are starting to be discovered all over the world
why those who try to map it are stricken with genius and madness in equal measure
the fate of a colony established within it, that suddenly and recently dropped out of contact

1 comment:

  1. I saw that BLAME! Netflix anime a while back and it was awesome, and i've been wanting to read it for a long time. These megastructures are really cool and I see how BLAME would inspire this list, but they feel like their own things for sure.

    ReplyDelete