Unto the Tower of the Divine

Appearance:

Divine Towers are transient locations and are antithetical to a dungeon. Each has a different appearance, with some towers always looking the same each time they manifest, and others being different each in every encounter. The common traits are that they are predominantly vertical structures, and they hang in the sky with only a very small portion reaching down towards the ground. 

The Tower of the Forsaken Oracle resembles a massive rococo-style icicle hanging from the heavens. It is made of a lustrous white stone, decorated with elaborate frescoes and ornamentation in dozens of precious metals and hanging galleries of precious stones. To read the description is to imagine something ludicrous and excessively overdone, but when it appears, it is literally a religious experience. Witnesses fall to the knees, their eyes opened to the divine, to the massive amount of divine magic radiating from the structure. This can be nothing less. People make pilgrimages to the sites where the tower is known to manifest, and have aligned holidays to coincide with its regular pattern and timing. 

Entrance and Guardian:

The main guarding factors for Divine Towers are three-fold. The main defence is that they are mobile, and move. Some, like the Tower of the Forsaken Oracle, move on a set pattern and time, such that it can be used as a tracking device for time and date through the year. Others, like the Tower of the Unconquered Sun, only appear during set events, and can only appear during a solar eclipse. Some only appear once in a generation for a span of three days and vanish again. The second factor is that every known Tower of the Divine is surrounded by potent palings and wards. They cannot be scryed, scanned, teleported into, or be subject to magics beyond line of sight. Some cause regional disruptions, such as the Forsaken Oracle's appearances in Scathanna heralding chaos and destruction in the goblin and overlord forces, just by appearing. Finally, most towers have a literal Guardian who is part Concierge, part Holy Leader, and part Avatar of Divine Might.

The Guardian of the Tower of the Forsaken Oracle is Her High Holiness Phottask Jogan. She appears as a cloud giantess, easily fourteen feet tall, with white hair that hangs straight to her waist. She is clad in sheer garments that titillate with what they might expose but despite showing the pale curve of breast, thigh, and buttock, none of the naughty bits can be seen. She has a veil that completely covers her face, a shawl that hangs from her like a cool morning fog, and a great staff made of cloudwood, capped with oricalcum. When someone wishes to enter the tower, they must answer her questions before being granted admittance. This can be riddles for tricky people, simple questions for pure and honest people, and so forth. 

Puzzle or RP Challenge:

Towers are not just floating dungeons. There are no traps, puzzles, or riddles required to advance through the lower portion of a tower. Almost all have a simple linear pattern that is followed. The common themes are contemplation, meditation, or similar effects. There is an environmental hazard, the ambient essence inside a tower is higher than that of a dungeon. Meditating inside a tower can very quickly advance an applicant's cultivation and development skills. This is massively increased if the applicant has a high alignment with the nature of the tower. The Tower of Nomolet, the Endless Huorning, is nature aspected and druids, rangers, and treefolk aspected beings are in high alignment, and the typical human adventurer would find it uncomfortable, and dwarves would be sickened inside it its tower.

The inside of the Tower of the Forsaken Oracle is decorated with vast paintings around in the inside walls depicting the vast and ancient history of the DungeonVerse. As applicants ascend the spiraling stair they have plenty of time to see and contemplate what is painted. Rest areas float in the center of the tower and have regular areas where they can be accessed. This is where applicants find time and space to assume meditative poses, create sand pattern mandalas, burn incense, and other rituals used for meditation and cultivation. 

Guides and Allies:

Towers do not have monsters in them. Instead, they have denizens aligned with the divine aspect of the tower. Guides show people which way to go, which is a little superficial considering that there is only one path through. Allies do pretty much the same thing, but have specific tools and abilities to help the applicants as they rise through the tower. This is as simple as providing conversation as they mount the hundreds or thousands of stairs in the case of the Forsaken Oracle, to as complex as acting as a therapist for applicants suffering from the trauma of being a career murder hobo. Allies will also provide places for applicants to rest, break bread and open beverages for them to share.

There are no traps, no monkey's paw decisions. Applicants don't wither and die if they pick the wrong bottle of wine. 

Heralds:

Each area of a tower is guarded by a Herald, who announces the progression of the applicant, and then offers them a challenge to progress. 

To advance into the next zone of the Forsaken Oracle's tower, the applicant must greet Overseer Chovak, another cloud giant. He is a lean giant with a kind face and soft eyes. Many female applicants feel themselves swoon in his presence. To advance to the next zone of the tower, the applicant must demonstrate their level of mastery in meditation and cultivation. This is not so much as a challenge to overcome, but a test to determine if the applicant can survive the next zone, as essence levels will be increasing. 

Trick, Trap, or Setback:

As mentioned, towers aren't dungeons, so this aspect isn't present. What is present is that to ascend into the 3rd zone of a tower, the applicant has to have an advanced understanding of the divinity and portfolio associated with the tower. In the case of the Forsaken Oracle, the applicant must be able to survive in a zone of condensed essence, as there are going to be water features in the 3rd zone, but instead of water, its liquid essence. For a normal mortal being with no cultivation skill, this is a highly dangerous environment and they will perish from mana poisoning as their body starts to drown in the ambient essence and it starts to burn its way out of them. Lesser cultivators can be sickened by such dense essence, and some can attempt to cultivate above their skill and ability, which can cause them to burn out their ability to manipulate essence, and in quick order, die.

Sacrifices and Offerings

Again, as towers are not dungeons, they do not offer loot drops. Instead, advancing through different parts of a tower require meeting certain criteria, or most commonly, require offerings. This can be filling a receptical with a sufficient amount of personal essence, activating it. It could also be much more serious, such as the applicant being required to offer a significant amount of XP, health, or ability points.

Common Sacrifices:

1. A magic item

2. A valuable weapon

3. An amount of precious metals

4. A certain type of magic stone

5. Personal Essence

6. XP

7. Blood

Realm of the Divine

Also known as the climax or boss fight, this is the 'final area' of the tower. To enter this penultimate zone, the applicants must pass the most challenging heralds and make some sort of significant offering. Simply reaching the gate to the inner mystery is an accomplishment in and of itself. 

The Archdeacons of the Tower of the Forsaken Oracle are a pair of Cloud Giant brothers, identical in appearance and both showing great age in their long beards and powerful auras. To enter an applicant must meditate and cultivate with Khovesh, being able to manifest essence crystals from their personal essence, and be able to handle and exchange them with him without them disintegrating or exploding. This demonstrates mastery of cultivation, and the ability to create and handle crystalline essence means that the presence of the divine wont immediately cause the applicant's body to come apart like a dry branch tossed in a bonfire. Khiannisk requires the applicant to make a suitable offering with XP being his preferred commodity. 

Meeting the Divine:

Option 1: The Dream

The Dream encounter has the applicant walking into a familiar location, generic and obviously under the domain of the divinity, but everything is massively mundane. For the Forsaken Oracle, this would be walking onto a very mundane and normal veranda looking out over the applicant's home, with the divinity appearing as an equally mundane and normal person. Again for the Forsaken Oracle, she would appear somewhere between a motherly figure and a MILF figure, older and wiser but by no means aged. THey can then exchange pleasantries, but all the answers are delivered in demonstrations, such as the outcome of a terrible pending conflict played out as an accidentally spilled cup of tea. Against the excess of the tower before, this would be a surreal scene. Leaving the presence of the divine would feel like coming down from an induced high, euphoric state.

Option 2: Power Overwhelming

To step into the presence of the divine is to invite madness. This is where reality is left at the door, and the character becomes a mote floating in front of a massive being of unimaginable power. This is where I would set a scene equivalent to an optional boss fight in a Final Fantasy game where instead of a monster, the players are looking at a humanoid, or hell, biblically accurate angelic being, with millions of hit points, most attributes so high that infinite is as good as any other number, surrounded by their domain complete with its heaven/hell aspects.

Option 3: Fade to Black

The character fades to black, and they come too late with a couple of divine riddles and maybe a magic item or token that will help them at an undisclosed point in the future.

Wealth and Gifts Abound

The last room in the five room dungeon is the Reward, Revelation, or Plot Twist

What rewards does a divine being give? That's right, service. Reaching the presence of the divine will convert the character into a cleric, a paladin, or geased individual. Those who refuse these options are either unknowing pawns of the divine, or they are changed into servants of the tower.

Or they are evaporated by the aura of the divine.  

Revelations are part and parcel with gaining access to the inner mysteries, and this is how a regular character becomes a semi-divine character, or as mentioned above, a cleric or paladin of the divinity.

Plot twists are less likely, the divine don't exist to monkey paw the characters. The plot would be straightened, showing them the path they have to walk. While this might seem like a great boon, for a more heroic fantasy setting, this could be showing the character their own death, the deaths of those who follow them, and the cost they will have to pay to save the world, serve the divinity, or a glimpse of the great cosmic truth.