Stairways
Stairs are not super exciting, even as far as architecture goes. Why spend time making exotic stairways when you could be making exciting statues, or looming doorways with strange inscriptions, or chandeliers? The answer, of course, is that stairs are only boring because we make them boring. Today’s Top Ten focuses on making stairs exciting again.
1. Snaking Stairwell. This winding, circular stairwell is designed to resemble a massive, coiled serpent. The entire stairway is enclosed in a slightly claustrophobic stone passageway, and the doorways which access it are carved to resemble the gaping maws of snakes. The outside of the stairway is covered with glossy green tiles, patterned to resemble a snake’s scales, while the inside of the stairway is painted a matte red, and completely unlit.
2. Animal Staircase. This grand staircase is much wider at the bottom than it is at the top, and leads upward to an altar or place of importance. Each step is covered in dozens of small carvings or tiles which depict an animal, and each stair shows a different animal. The bottom-most stairs show small carrion-scavenging insects, and as the stairs ascend, the animals become larger and more complex, with each animal being one that preys upon the last. The second-to-last stair shows an undisputed apex predator (either humans or dragons, depending on the setting), with the topmost stair depicting the same carrion-scavenging insect as the bottom-most stair.
3. Cloud Stairs. This enchanted stairway can only be called “stairs” in the loosest sense of the word. Appearing to be an oddly diagonally-shaped patch of thick fog, this magical effect has a single puffy white cloud, roughly 5 feet in diameter, at its base. If a creature steps on this cloud, he finds that his feet do not fall through, and the cloud suddenly comes to life, floating gently up the “stair case” and coming to a stop at the far end, disappearing once the creature steps off. As soon as the first cloud departs, another takes its place.
4. Musical Stairs. This amusing stairway is rigged, either by magic or clever mechanics, to create a musical tone whenever one of its stairs is stepped on. Each stair produces a slightly different tone, with the result being that the stairs function somewhat like the keys on a piano. Sometimes, these stairwells are linked to puzzles or traps, but they can just as easily be used by those with a sharp ear to allow those walking up the stairs to provide a sort of “password” by skipping or doubling back on certain steps, and, if the correct password is not given, it can also give an estimate of how many intruders are on the stairs, and how close together they are.
5. Water Stairs. This unusual staircase is formed from powerful jets of water. Whether they are formed by magic or by impressive plumbing, they provide blasts of water that are strong enough to support the weight of a Medium creature, and are calibrated to different heights. If necessary, a large grate in the floor provides a place for the water to escape, and avoid flooding the room. The stairs may need to be activated manually by some means, or they may be difficult to ascend, requiring Acrobatics checks to avoid falling off the slippery and shifting water jets.
6. Rainbow Stairs. Each stair in this whimsical stairway is painted in a bright color. Sometimes these stairways are quite short, as the creators quickly run out of colors to use, and 7 steps is not uncommon for these: one for each color in the rainbow. More often, though the stairs either repeat the rainbow pattern, or simply have several shades of the same color. Occasionally these stairways bear numerous traps, typically patterned off of the effects of prismatic spray, or similar spells, but more often they are completely untrapped, and simply designed to make paranoid interlopers search each and every step for traps.
7. Burning Stairs. This stairway is made of brass. It is hollow underneath, and a powerful furnace heats it from within, such that the entire stairway glows with inner heat. Near the bottom the stairway, the steps glow a dull red, and are painful to the touch, but does no lasting damage. The higher one ascends, the hotter the stairs get, and the brighter they glow. The topmost stair is white-hot, and threatens to melt through whatever a climber has left of his shoes.
8. Teleportation Stairs. Exactly who thought these stairs were useful or desirable is unclear, but they nonetheless have a lot to offer to an eccentric. Each step on the stair bears a rune which teleports anyone who steps on it to another stair on the stairwell. These teleportation effects do not cause a climber to ascend or descend the stairs in order, and the pattern is seemingly random: the first step might jump a person to the third from the top, but taking another step from there might take them to the middle, and so on. Ultimately, the stairs can still be climbed with the same number of steps, although the experience may be a more unsettling or frustrating one.
9. Goblin Game Stairs. This rather plain set of stone stairs has been drawn on quite extensively with some kind of crude colored chalk. Various circles and squares seem to form spaces on a game board, with lines connecting each one to the next, and instructions written crudely in Goblin in certain spaces, such as “yummy food, move 2 squares ahead,” or “stop to beat up kronk, lose a turn.” The spaces wind their way back and forth across each step, creating a sort of switchback as one follows the path.
10. Stairs of Swords. This stairway is made entirely of repurposed weapons, which have been forged together to form a cohesive set of steel steps. Although the stairs are made of numerous blades, they are all positioned with the flat of the blade pointing up, so that they can be walked on with relative safety, although those foolish enough to walk them barefoot do still risk cutting themselves.