I am curious what you other Grimmers have decided your Babylon to be. Now, I am fairly certain that none of my group read this forum, so it is safe for me to say what mine is:

I have stolen my Babylon from Jack L. Chalker's Rings of the Masters series. That being: there are 5 rings scattered throughout the lands that the children must gather. Each of the rings bears the likeness of some birds except one - one ring has a small birdsitting in the middle of a fruit tree, another has two chickens standing abreast of each other, a third three doves flying so that their wings meet at the tips to form a circle, a fourth ring has four blackbirds taking flight in different directions, and the last is a series of circles overlapping each other to form a flower-like shape. (do you know what they represent?)

Each time they accomplish getting a ring (and a few other major storyline spots) they will graduate a Grade.

The children will not find them in numerical order, making their relationship harder to define until they are all together. In the end, once they have gathered all five rings they must take them to the World's Edge Mountains and find the passage to the Dragon's lair. Once they have satisfied they Dragon's requirements of them he will give them access to a chamber that has the faces of the Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, L.Frank Baum and Lewis Carroll carved into the walls. Underneath each face is an area to insert one of the rings - and the children must figure out the proper order in which to place them, without mistakes, or be forever lost to the Grimm Lands. This Chamber is known as Babylon.

I'm still trying to rough the idea for my players and what theres will be. But I'm thinking something like this: (think wizard of oz here) there are 3 items, each held and protected by it's herald. By conquering the Land of Fear and teaching the Fearless King to shudder, he will take the kids to his potion room. There he worked for years with his servants to concoct a solution to his problem, but in the process he created a potion that imbued it's indulger with the same affliction the king has - fearlessness.

The second item is held by Paul Bunyan, cursed to chop down a forest day after day, only to have the trees grow at rapid speeds into full bloom overnight. Paul spent his early years travelling the Grimm Lands offering his services to those in need. While chopping down one of the forests, he stumbled upon a beautiful princess singing by a pond. Enchanted, he ran to the king and asked him if he could marry his daughter. The king said that he would let Paul marry his daughter if he could cut down a forest, and with that, Paul accepted. But the king knew the secret was in Paul's ox, Babe, so he had it lured away by beautiful oxcen. To make matters worse, the king had his servants spread a potent fertilizer throughout the forest that makes tree's grow back overnight. Under these conditions, Paul failed the challenge, and is cursed to stay in the forest, forever chopping. If the players return his ox by breaking into the castle stables, and bring a plentiful supply of troll manure (to halt the effects of the fertilizer), Paul will give them his ax which increases the wearers strength 10 fold.

Lastly, the kids must find the underground goblin city, and defeat the goblin king to steal his crown. The goblin king has used the crown to create his own imaginings of a perfect kingdom...one ruled by complete chaos. The only way to get to get to the king and past all the land's perils and dangers is to take the most absurd and chaotic paths. Should the players defeat the goblin king, whether through fight or persuasion, the players may take the crown. By leaving the goblin city with the crown, they may never return, as a new king will be chosen with a new crown. The crown will make whatever they wish be so (or at least make it easier to be so). The crown reduces the amount of grades needed to be spent in Imagination for an Imaginings by 1, but may only be used once a year. A particularly powerful tool for dreamers with the I Think I Can ability.

When all three items have been obtained, the children must set out to conquer Certain Death, a city north of the Underworld. The citizens of Certain Death have nicknamed the underworld Near Certain Death, and it's the only way into the city. If the players successfully conquer Certain Death, than Babylon reveals itself as being just a couple hours long walk away, and their dream of returning home has come true. The end.

You have a wonderful imagination. Your players are in for a treat. But you described the process of getting to Babylon but not what it really is. Is the process your Babylon, or is simply leaving Grimm considered Babylon for you?

My babylon is a lost city that now lays in ruins. Some people mistake it as a graveyard. The stones have imprinted writtings one them but are no longer ligable. The ruins are covered with vines, dark rainy clouds, and died trees. Within one of the buildings that still stands after the abuse it has taken. Several statues gathered around a stone platform. Each statue has their hands postion in a way as if there where holding a musical instrument.

After that the campaign i have comes in play. I thought of musical instruments that are scattered in grimm lands.

1. Fiddle (story from cat in the fiddle/ jew amongst the thorns: Fiddle whenever its played can make a person dance uncontrolably)
2. Harp (jack and the beanstalk: Power is still not decided on)
3. Drums (Little drummer boy : power still not decided on)
4. Hollowed Flute (story from the singing bone: Power still not decided on)
5. Accordion (treasure Island, Power still not decided on)

Once put in the hands of the statues. A light Beams from the stars onto the platform. From there the children return back home.

GameBearOR said:

Hmmm lol, I hadn't actually thought about WHAT my Babylon actually is. I know I was picturing a golden city, not literally, but just very radiant. I was thinking something like Babylon's light will burst through the caves exit ( I was picturing the Underworld being...well, underground, as well as Certain Death). Since I had my kids arrive in Grimm at the bottom of a wishing well with the walls lined with dungeness prisons (the kids were each in separate cells, with skeletons of past kids in the vacant cells), I'm thinking maybe having a brilliant, wonderfully elaborate wishing well in the smack dab center of Babylon. At the bottom the kids will find inviting doors each with the kids respective names that will return them home to their family.

This is assuming Babylon is meant to be the last stop in the Grimm Lands, where the kids part ways and are done with their trials and tribulations.

Very Nice Ronin. the musical instrument idea is really cool. Maybe i can find a way to incorporate that idea into one of my stories on a lesser scale - say a quest that the kiddies have to fulfill to gain one of the rings to my Babylon.

I like that Laughmask - the two wells that both start and finish the campaign!

GameBearOR said:

Great idea, but if the rings represent what I think they're supposed to, you have two of them mixed -- it's two turtle doves and three french hens. It probably shouldn't matter much, since it just sounds to be a thematic element, and good job on both using the traditional colly birds instead of the more recent calling birds and also realizing that colly bird is just a now-archaic term for blackbird I heard of a comic that didn't get that part and had some random weird bird from a zoo be a "colly bird."

Nezumi said:

Good catch on that, Nezumi. I choose to blame it on writing that very late at night and not really paying attention. To be honest, before writing that I had not put a lot of thought into what the rings would actually look like because the kids have yet to find even the 1st one. I was "winging" it. ha ... ha

Good for you for even knowing the colly bird origin. I am hoping that the black birds will kind of throw them off the trail of figuring the rings out to quickly. I do not plan to have them find them in order. Hopefully that will forestall their realizing what they mean but you know how that goes with players; they are morons when you expect them to get it and you have to keep feeding them clues, and then they are effing Sherlock Holmes on stuffr you thought would stump them.

RED_RONIN47 said:

Calliope, the Muse of epic poetry, would have a writing tablet.
Clio, of history, would have some ancient scrolls
Erato, of lyric poetry, would have a Cithara (an ancient Greek musical instrument in the lyre family), or a harp
Euterpe, of music, would have Aulos (another ancient Greek musical instrument), or some sort of wind instrument
Melpomene, of tragedy, would wear a tragic mask, a device used in Greek times for plays. Something else could do, though
Polyhymnia, of choral poetry, would have a veil
Terpsichore, of dance, would have a set of dancing shoes (and would be elevated so said shoes could be put on)
Thalia, of comedy would have a set of stone balls to juggle
Urania of astronomy would have a globe and a compass

Of course, this is all just an idea, and it may not be ideal for your campaign.

No its okay. I actually Like that idea. Though i've never heard of the nine muses.....I'll look them up. Thanks alot. Just reading the muse of comedy to me i invision like a comedy mask. instead of the stone juggling balls....cause one item would be better to care and connect to the statue.

I had got some of the idea from watching "Into the woods". Its a musical set in the world of grimm. In it the Witch tells the bakery if they wanted a child they would have to obtain four items for a potion. A cow as white as milk(jack and the beanstalk), A scarf as red as blood (little riding hood), A slipper made of silver (Cinderella), and hair as yellow as corn (rapunzel). They rest i just made up and put together.

Gremlin, Just thinking about it though.....That would be an EPIC campaign. Nine items.......The players can reach 12th grade by the last item. Its still a great idea.....Maybe the Nine muses can be part of the monster book. Turn them into a dark form.

Wow, I like both of these ideas. The musical instruments have a childish theme that sounds like it could be related to a nursery rhyme, while the muses...well thats just a perfect set up for a well structured campaign. Very creative!

Yeah i liked gremlins idea. It does sound like a very EPIC campaign model. Oh and as for the musical instruments that kind of what i was going for. Instruments that were in nursery ryhmes to stories. I've been reading alot of stories after i came across grimm. Its become like my research to improve the game but at the same time find lots of knowledge.......No joke my head was hurting alot after.

Hey i was thinking for babylon.... that temple thing...i forgot what it was called....But the place that was in never ending story. Thats something people could use as a version of babylon. All filled with bright lights and purity.

The Ivory Tower?

was that what it was called?....i dont remember i havent seen that movie in like ages....my favorite was part two.....so yeah the ivory tower....i hope your right. But that seems like a good Babylon idea.

I watched it just yesterday . It was the ivory tower. For part 2 are you talking about a sequel? cause then I haven't seen that

well yeah, there was like three other sequels after the first....I think the last one....either part three or four was the worst....

Oh, holy crap, the Neverending Story 2 was so bad . I never even saw the first.