The Octagonal Station

In the Empire of the Petal Throne setting, there is an ancient planetary transit system dug deep underground that links into the underworlds of many major cities and to some places unknown except to those who have ridden within the tube cars that travel this system. As these were built over sixty thousand years ago, many elements of the system have been destroyed or rebuilt in the styles of more current societies.

This is the surface access point to such a link into the system. The double-octagon structure was built in stone around the platform at the end of the smaller structure. That platform is an elevator that leads down to a maintenance level and then further to the tube car station itself. The surface structure itself is made of stone and is decorated as one would expect a society that loves murals and pictographs would decorate an airport or bus terminal – with bas-reliefs and pictographs of people travelling.

Of course, this particular structure was abandoned ages past when the region’s economy and ecology collapsed. Sealed into the main chamber is some strange demonic entity, but the side doors have been breached by the elements, leading past the main chamber and into the darker interior structures and finally to the elevator itself. Activating the elevator is a much harder task for a group of medieval technology adventurers, as the whole structure is without power and who knows if the hardware would even work if powered up.

Of course, the map can be used for any number of functions beyond the entry level to a tube car station – the back room can easily be an inner sactum to a temple with the public worship space being in the central room.

Over at the blog post I discuss more about the game sessions where we explored this structure, my work as the party mapper, and my eventual surprise when I discovered the secret origin of the map itself.

You can download the map at 300dpi for your own use from the blog post at http://wp.me/psUVp-2gQ