Floor 1: Floor of Tests

Those who have tried their hand at rising up the tower are more times than not, stopped here. It is the first journey for those wanting to climb the tower and learn of it's many secrets. As it's name would suggest, the floor of tests is designed to test those who are not yet considered Ascenders and to see if they're truly worthy of beginning to the climb. Of the tens of millions of people that attempt the tests every year, roughly 1/1000 are able to complete the very first test and 1/10000 are actually able to become Ascenders. Of the percentage that do become Ascenders, roughly 1 in 100,000 will go on to become an Acer. Regardless of these odds, the allure of power, of wealth bait many to their death.

## **The City of Tests**

Those that aim to climb the tower first try to find their way to the City of Tests; a metropolis that stands at the heart of the floor. Compared to most locations within the tower, The City of Tests is considered one of the most advanced and well developed. Taking great advantage of using various types of dimensional magic in order to hide locations and their testing grounds and to also house the billions of peoples that live in the city and the floor in general. The city itself is split into 12 different districts, which allow for the structured testing of peoples within those districts. Each district takes the test during their specific month, and is repopulated with more aspirants at the end of said month.

### **Infrastructure**

As stated earlier, the City of Tests is considered one of the most populated floors on the entire tower. Meaning that there needs to be proper infrastructure in order to contain all of these people. Using dimensional magic, the Architects that first envisioned the redesign of the city decided there needs to be enough space for an upper limit of 1 trillion people. The architects were unsuccessful in this endeavor, and instead decided to exile those who had failed 3 times in a row to a distant location within the tower. Those who have failed twice often leave due to the the rumors of the **Dei'Ocule**.

Due to recent events, namely a war that has broken out among factions on the first floor, the once bountiful floor has been replaced by hellfire, artillery and war. Due to this fact, the Testing Committee has recently halted taking in new Ascenders until they are able to stabilize and stop this war. As of now, the first test has been decentralized to a single floor, and is carried out on the home-floor of the one who wishes to become an Ascender.

### **Locations**

The city is divided into five different districts. Each contains a different testing committee headquarters, each district has their own culture, history that has been passed down by Ascenders who have come and gone throughout the tower.

### **Factions**

On the floor, there are several different factions vying for control over it. **The Rifters** want to overthrow the **Testing Committee** due to their heavily strained relationship over millennia. Therefore, the Rifters & **The Dei'Ocule** are also heavily strained due to members essentially forcing those that have failed the test 3 times into exile in a distant place below the tower. The **Azure Concord** also has some influence over this floor. Despite this influence; localized war still broke out between The Rifters and The Triarchy

## Party Log (3 1/2 Men)

The party of Cade, Garruk, Gearby & Vortex first met on this floor. They were put together in order to take the first test together, and decided to meet at a local restaurant in their district, which happened to be District #5. During this meeting, Vortex grew angry and discouraged that his teammates were short, however the rest of them got along with their unified hatred of the genasi. They also witnessed one of the waiters of the gnome ran restaurant get literally torched after forgetting one of their orders. Despite this, they all enjoyed their meal.

After a month of messing around in the city, their scheduled test would finally occur. They would first be interviewed by a Half-Elf by the name of **Elijah Dusk**, who had never formally introduced himself; despite this he was pleased when they had passed their first test (the interview) and decided to take a more hands-on approach. He decided to engage in what essentially was an overblown sumo-match with the group. Yet again meeting his expectations, they were passed to another examiner. **Liz Darke**. Not knowing of her affiliation with the Rifters, the players witnessed as she destroyed this particular testing grounds, which happened to be at the very base of the tower using a magic bean that had enough power to break apart the Adamantium floor of the tower. After defeating a group of other adventurers that appeared to be sympathetic to her cause, the party was saved from falling by a tortle, by the name of **Artol Ur.** He would go on to be their next examiner. Their last test was the **Gong Game**, an infamous test within the tower. The party faced off against several other groups without much challenge, and were eventually given the rank of Ascender. They left the floor and headed onto the second floor.