I've run variations on this adventure with miniatures, but also online. While it is presented as an adventure with a lot of gratuitous combat, it's possible to run it as a more puzzle-oriented quest, where it's quite possible to avoid combat entirely. How you run it, of course, is up to you -- I'm only presenting my notes in the hope that this might provide you with a few ideas.

History
The City of Altdorf has long been the center of learning in the magical arts for the Empire of the Old World, and home to the Colleges of Magic -- at least symbolic meeting places for each of the schools of wizardry. Many of the less reclusive members of these Colleges make their homes in the city, and many are the magnificent wizards' towers rising up above the cobbled streets.

Archmagus Jurgen Stargazer was one of these wizards to make his home in Altdorf, an experienced practitioner of the Celestial College -- a seer and astrologer of sufficient skill and experience to have acquired magical powers beyond the constraints of his original field of study. Archmagus Stargazer had grand ideas about the matter of a successor to take his place, whether it be a mighty wizard of his college or any other ... or a mere peasant with no understanding of the finer points of magic, but who nonetheless possessed a certain "spark" that made him worthy of attaining a fragment of Stargazer's power.

According to reports from those who have survived to tell the tale, Archmagus Stargazer's tower is a marvel of magic and bizarre machinery, full of traps and magically animated (or conjured) guardians to make it exceedingly difficult to proceed to the next level. It is believed that at the top-most level is Archmagus Stargazer's private laboratory, and a magical tome that will impart some of his own memories upon whomever reads it, and the rights to ownership of this marvelous structure.

Attempts to scale the tower from the outside or to teleport to the top of the tower by magical or marvelous means have met with disaster. Most of the wizards of Altdorf are content to leave the tower and its secrets alone, letting foolhardy adventurers attempt to meet its challenges instead.

The Foolhardy Adventurers
Our Heroes are the latest band of "foolhardy adventurers" who have heard of Stargazer's challenge, and are ready to try getting through (or around) his trials. Whereas previous contenders have tried to surmount these trials single-handedly, the assumption here is that a band of warriors and wizards with varied skills may meet greater success. That still leaves the matter of which one of them will actually claim the prize at the top of the tower -- but that will be for our Heroes to decide, should any of them live to see Stargazer's laboratory.

Running the Adventure

Now that Necronomicon 2001 is long gone, I have started to put together my notes on how to run the adventure on this site. Presently, this consists of little more than a rough summary and some photographs of scenery, but as I find the time, I'll expand on it.