The Clocktower

The Clocktower is a landmark feature in Wizard City Hexcrawl, looming over the rest of the city, shifting expressions of laughter and contempt with its great metric face and arms of bronze.

Source

Anywhere that one can see the sky one can also see the Clocktower. Its carillon bells ring tunes heralding the changing of work shifts and the coming and going of the weather. It is the clock that all other clocks refer to for accuracy, and being such puts it under the responsibility of the Bureau of Spatial and Temporal Matters.

Some rumor that the player at the carillon keyboard's heart 'dost not announce the weather but governs it', or that in fact some Archmage or Administrator hides secret tunnels running from The Hand to the tower's apex.

There are no doors or windows on the Clocktower until it reaches thirty stories high. Perhaps its entrance is underground, or hidden by some spell. Some suggest the carillon player simply levitates up to the windows, shrouded in fog, invisible, or shapeshifted into a pigeon. Even darker rumors suggest that the Clocktower is in constant temporal malaise, that the player had never left and is still playing the same tune since the tower's creation - that all the shifts in weather are but quick notes slowed down by the time flux.

Investigators of the Clocktower often return preternaturally aged and speak of a lifetime of adventures within the tower, lost to wandering time and space. For most, this is enough confirmation of the Bureau's jurisdiction within the Tower.

~~~~~

The weather and timekeeping in Wizard City follows a strict pattern.

Every Week is 10 Days.

Every Day is 10 Hours.

Every Hour is 100 Minutes.

Every Minute is a 100 Seconds.

1 Week = 10 Days = 100 Hours = 10,000 Minutes = 100,000 Seconds

1 Work Shift = 5 Hours

And every Day has distinct and dramatic weather patterns (see table below), that follow a sequential order. Mayday will follow Stormday will follow Sunday and so on. If you need to randomly know what day is it, roll a d10.

Wizard City Weather

d10	Day Name	Weather Effects	Mechanical Effects
1	Sunday	Sunny, bright.  The Doom Sun radiates all.	Second mysterious sun arcs across the sky. While under its direct rays Save or suffer mutation. High Noon floods streets with mutant creatures big and small.
2	Stormday	Lightning, rain, and plenty of it. Has a strong tendency for targeting the ironic. The wearing of hats tends to alleviate this, the larger and more silly the better.	That which is most ironically affected by rain or lightning must Save vs. Charisma or suffer the effects of a Lightning Bolt. Situational basis.
3	Mayday	Pockets of high and low gravity throughout the city.	The next time someone rolls a ‘1’ on any die, a pocket of high gravity is found: double fall damage and disadvantage on all attacks. Next time someone rolls an ‘8’ on any die, a pocket of low gravity is found: no fall damage or spellcasting while floating.
4	Summertide	Heat waves and toxic algae blooms. The air is stagnant and stinking.	Watery areas bloom with toxic algae. Breathing air by pools produces Save vs. Poison to avoid wretching for 1d10 Minutes. Completely submerging automatically fails Save.
5	Candlewake	A shroud of supernatural darkness covers the city. The recent dead emerge to stalk the dim corners and alleys - candles keep them at bay.*	The city is dark. All ethereal beings become visible and aggressive in said darkness. Strong and magical lights are targeted by the mutant undead for elimination.
6	Payday	Bounced cheques grace the skies like dancing cherry blossoms. They’re all complete garbage, except for the famous Lottery Cheque.	Streets filled with slippery bounced cheques. 1 in 6 chance on running through streets to slip and fall. Cheques also highly flammable - lighting on fire will set streets ablaze. Approximately 1/1,000,000 chance of finding genuine Lottery Cheque (Roll 1 on three consecutive d100s)
7	Saltsnow	Air currents from the east bring the Saltsea down from the sky in big salty flakes.	Grounds become coated in salts. Exposed plantlife withers. Causes irritation on touch.
8	Bludtide	A dark black blood seeps up from the depths, forming cursed flammable pools at random throughout the city and river.	Any area has a 1 in 4 chance of containing a 25sq ft cursed oil slick - disturbing causes 2d4 1HD muck skeletons to emerge and drag any nearby into the pools to drown.
9	Whalesong	A low long chorus emerges from the waters - the whales perform their communal song to cleanse the city of its illnesses.	Any leftover weather effects from the past week are erased. Duration of all magical effects are halved for the day.
10	Day Before Sunday	None	None

*This includes many of the mutant creatures which spawn and die during Sunday. Muuuutaaaant Ghooooooosts!

(Yes, this is copy/pasted from my Weather-Locked post.)

Pyramid of Providence

A notable landmark in Wizard City Hexcrawl - An everlasting symbol of the eccentricity and madness of real estate development.

Source

Much of the reason for and record of the Pyramid's construction has been lost to the fathoms of unfathomable bureaucracy and ivory tower disinterestedness. For those presently living there it's been there their whole lives - three generations of students have gradually hollowed out the Pyramid from the inside like termites building a limestone fortress. It is an impenetrable labyrinth, one filled with territorial traps and students without governance.

Also, people go missing. It's not talked about, as those who tend to talk about it tend to go missing.

However, it has its perks. Namely: no Spell Shark would dare venture within to collect debts and rents, and Police won't venture inside for fear of being disappeared. An enterprising student can get ahead in the Pyramid, provided they don't disappear themselves.

It's the home of the Bootleg Spell Market and a haven for desperate or radical students. Criminalized oracles also flock to its depths to practice their craft - for whatever reason the future is translucent within more so than without. The Third Eyes wizard gang holds uncertain responsibility for the disappearances. Are they the cause, or just the messenger? Who knows? Well, them probably...

Pyramid of Providence

When randomly exploring the Pyramid of Providence, roll 1d20 for who's squatting and what obstacle you must pass to see them.

When searching for a particular class of person, roll 1d6 in the third column.

d20	Category	d6	Call Them...	What’s Their Deal?	To Find Them You Must Pass The...
1	Dealers	1	Ace	Oysters	Hall of Magic Darkness and Magic Mouths
2		2	Amadeus	Choice Riot Bricks	Bridge of Speaking Skulls
3		3	Amelia	Manufactured Emotional Support	Riddle Wizard
4		4	Vvv	Broken Wands/Staffs	Sump of Sedation
5		5	Volga	Real Estate For Squatters	Greased Stair
6		6	Vladimir	Semi-Clean Water	Red Party Cup Ball Pit
7	Squatters	1	Angus	Big Messy Pyramid Parties	Mural of the Evil Eye
8		2	Alex	Unapologetic Copyright Violation	Astoundingly Handsome Gargoyles
9		3	Adama	Making Pyramids Out of Junk	Mismatched Skeletons
10		4	Vivian	Stealing Pieces of Public Monuments	Sweet-smelling Ooze
11		5	Vice	Monovision Obsession	Tiny Rotating Maze
12		6	Venice	Pyramid Worship	Really Thin Crevice
13	Students	1	Amy	Escape Studies - Reduce, Passwall, Freedom of Movement	Smoke-Choked Chimney
14		2	Arnold	Eye Studies - Darkness, Blindness, Eyebite	Escher Stairs of Rolling Things
15		3	Aero	Root Studies - Speak With Plants, Plant Growth, Entangle	Corridor of Gently Crushing Like Firmly Holding a Squirming Cat
16		4	Vivi	Rainbow Studies - Prismatic Spray, Wall, Chromatic Orb	Reject Theses Tornado
17		5	Vorn	Circles Studies - Circle of Protection, Floating Disk	Mother of All Drainage Pipes
18		6	Vance	Necromancy Studies - Speak With Dead, Animate Dead	Construction Automaton in Obedience-Drug Withdrawal
19	??????	-	Providence Man	Disintegrate on Sight	Disintegrating Eon Eye Taking Up Entire Hallway
20	Roll Twice On Table

OR

For a dungeon experience, generate the pyramid using the table below.
I stole this method from Esoteric Enterprises, Cavegirl.

Grab some dice.

Roll a number of dice equal to the floor level. Start on Level 10 (ground level).

I.E. The topmost floor will have 1 die composing its layout. The 14th floor will have 14 dice.

For potential room details, just go with whatever feels natural or appropriate.

dX	Room Contents	Potential Details
1	Empty, Quiet	Clean, Dust, Tracks, Sense of Being Watched
2	Empty, Sounds	Tracks, Noise from Adjacent Areas
3	Physical Trap - Pyramid is Trying to Kill You	Spike Pit, False Entrance, Dart Trap, Swinging Axe
4	Graffiti	Art Mural, Territorial Warning, Secret Code, Salvage Mark
5	Trashed from a Wizard Frat Party	Stains, Empty Bottles, Cups, Animal Heads, Debauchery
6	Student Hideout (1d4-1 students)	Shitty Mattress, Crumbs, Symbols, Hoard, Criminal Activity
7	Student Hideout, Empty	Hidden Textbooks, Arcane Trap, Bugs, Weird Footprints
8	Black Market	Noisy, Cluttered, Guarded, Hawkers, Wizard Criminals
9	Grave	Fresh/Old Corpse, Unscavenged, Lurker Nearby, Loot
10	Up / Down 1d4+1 Levels	Spiral Stairs, Chute, Ladder, Pit, Elevator
11	Arcane Trap - Wizards Trying to Kill You	Misdirection Rune, Explosive Rune, Pet Ooze, Guard Skeletons
12	Lesser Monster Lair	Crypt Ghoul, Dust Elemental, Trash Goblins, Mural Stalker
13	Student Co-op (3d4 students)	Cobbled Bunk Beds, Communal Kitchen, Comfy Seats, Rituals
14	Fresh Meat	Bait Trap, Recently Dead, Someone’s Discarded Lunch
15	Free Spell	Leftover Tome, Rune Mural, Discarded Scrolls
16	Haunt	Creepy Cabin Vibe, Ghost, Zombie Swarm, Living Shadows
17	Tutor Service	Graduate Student, Experienced, Wizard Teacher, Organized
18	Eon Eye	Lidless, Studying, Disintegrating, Huge, Multitudinous
19	Pyramid Head Man - DISINTEGRATE	Invisible, Fast, Disintegrate-At-Will, Leaves No Witnesses
20	Barricade	Torn Apart, Recently Built, Something Trapped On, Gate
30	Mummified Wizard	Very Old Dry Corpse, Out of Time, Animates on Disturbance
40	Weird Room	Random Unconnected Objects, Ritual Runes, Uneasy Angles
50	Secret Communal Library	Second-Hand Tomes, Unpublished Theses, Volunteer Student
60	Creepy Cold Room	See Breath, Unexplainable, Frost on Walls, Snowman???
70	Spiders	Big Spiders, Little Spiders, Trapped Students, Husks
80	Burnt Room	Ashen Library, Explosion Remnant, Bad Alchemy
90	Dead Time Traveler	Strange Clothes, Embedded in Wall, Message From Future
00	Portal	Glimpse of the Future, Eon Eye Follows, Shortcut to City