This is the center of the metaplane—the heart, so to speak. This is where the formula and true name of Zebulon are kept, and in point of fact, the structure itself is that arcane artifact. But as the runners quickly see, she is cracking.
A wall of stone hearts, many cracked and broken, sur- rounds the entire central section of the City of Steel. This is the wall around the Broken Heart, the central temple of this metaplane. The wall does much the same thing as the cliffs when anyone tries to scale it, with a slight variation. The hearts bleed when they are touched, making the wall too slick to climb.
Through the central gate, a massive metal arch, the path leads straight into the central structure, an octagonal build- ing, four stories tall, with massive black pillars at the cor- ners and walls made of white marble and silver glass. The architecture has a Corinthian feel, with ornate and intricate designs highlighting the upper portions of the columns as well as the cornice that overhangs the top. Closer examina- tion shows the designs to be dragons surrounded by elec- tricity and fire. The main doorway faces the main gate and spans three and a half of the four stories. It is a huge black- and-white marble door that slides back into the walls when opening.
Inside, the Broken Heart temple has an open atrium that fills the middle and is obviously where Ghostwalker resides in his natural form when he is here. The three floors that ring the structure above look like a massive dollhouse for the drag- on. Stairwells for each floor are on the outer wall. The first is opposite the doorway, meaning anyone wishing to go to the other floors must cross the atrium, an awe-inspiring feature of the building. The stairwell from two to three is located to the right of the entry way, while the one connecting three to four is to the left. Visitors move around a lot on the floors in order to get up to the top floor, which grants access to the roof from a stairwell above the entryway.
The ground floor is an octagonal expanse, eighty meters across parallel rows of smooth black-and-white marble. The surface now has several large cracks and fissures running across it. Quick puffs of steam and smoke erupt from some of the breaks at random intervals. At each corner of the wall is a sconce with a white-flamed torch burning.
The first balcony level represents the first two of the pieces that Ghostwalker brought back together, the spirits known as Smoke and Night. There are two small chambers on this lev- el. The first is a sitting room with a small library of books in a language none of the runners has ever seen. On the reading chair is a small grey cat that approaches anyone who enters and spirals around their leg. The cat is harmless, just a leftover remnant and aspect the spirit took during its time being bro- ken. The second room is a black parlor, where no one possess- es a shadow, no matter what they use for lights. On the wall is an old poster that says “Unity: In unity their is purity,” as Night played a part in the old Unity group that once worked to bring a racial bloodbath to the Front Range Free Zone.
The second balcony level represents two more of the piec- es brought together to reform Zebulon, Rojo and Goldy. The
>> RIPPING REALITY <<
room for Rojo looks like another sitting room, but this time the library is full of books on government and politics. A map of Denver, from a time of unity, is attached to the wall. The sec- ond room, dedicated to the Goldy spirit fragment, looks like a miniature 1800s saloon, with mining implements hanging on and leaning against the walls in a decorative fashion.
The third balcony level was constructed from the last two spirit fragments of Zebulon, Seeker and Grey Sky. The cham- ber for Seeker is a museum of weapons. It looks like a histor- ical armory of weapons used by the Sioux people, from their earliest days all the way to the modern weapon of choice for the Sioux Wildcats, their individually customized Yama- ha Raiden assault rifle. All of the weapons are sealed behind unbreakable glass. Grey Sky’s chamber looks like a tradition- al Pueblo home. The walls are decorated with traditional art of the Pueblo tribes, including a few ornamental weapons, which upon close inspection have blood on the blades.
The roof is where the action is going to occur and thus will be described in the next chapter.
This central structure has no residents, and when the run- ners arrive there is no one present. They will have a few min- utes to study and explore this massive place before others will begin to arrive for what will be the final scene of this mys- tical roller coaster.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE
Feel free to add in a few more guards and another priest, bump up the stats on the competitors, and increase the number of skirmishers to four per runner. There are a lot of encounters here and no time to rest in between, so even a little increase could mean a big difference.
DEBUGGING
There is a lot going on, and the runners could easily get lost in the forest of activity. If they seem too keen on explor- ing the entire realm, feel free to remind them of the ticking clock back home with some ominous rumbles and maybe some smoke billowing up from the top of the mountain.
There are also a lot of places where the runners could get seriously injured, and that’s okay. The metaplane can provide a doctor (era-specific by region) to help out with patching them up and getting them moving along to their final des- tination. They can make ominous comments about a “date with destiny” or them “being here for a reason.”