Basement kraken

Magic in the City

In the City of the Hundred Fiefs, magic ran rampant everywhere. Its intensity is why such a big city was built there in the first place, and how the lords and ladies ruling the fiefs can keep up the wards defending their territories from each other. Thus, most of the magic is channeled into the wards, into keeping the thousand of towers in the city standing, and into somehow making these towers both habitable and suitable for farming. This means that magic needs to be essentially focused in the foundations of these towers.   Magic focusing in such high density in just one place is not entirely safe. What makes it worse is that the modern city was built on top of the ruins of the Ancient city of Elante. In many places, the structure of old buildings, or particular stones filled with magic where incorporated into the foundations of the new towers, their magic reinforcing the one already concentrated there.

The Krakens

Sometimes, when left on its own for too long, the magic can twist. The end result is it gaining some materiality along with a limited kind of sentience. This usually manifests as tentacles of power swarming around the basement of some of the towers ready to gobble up and feed on anything coming within their reach. The inhabitants of the fiefs colloquially refer to this phenomenon as the basement krakens and do their best to completely avoid the areas where they have been reported, and any basements in general.

Consequences

Far from being horrified, most of the lords and ladies ruling over the fiefs see this as a lucky occurrence and even go so far as to have a little too much fun encouraging magic to develop in that direction. While some try to pretend to be good rulers caring about the good health of their subjects, most see the occasional feeding of the krakens with a few of their people as well worth the price to pay in exchange for the heightened security of their towers and wards stones. Indeed, anyone wanting to extend their own fiefs by stealing a neighbour's tower or anyone outright attempting to steal a whole fief from its master will have to go into the basement to lay their claim.   The most powerful lords and ladies have even gained some form of control over this magic made manifest, and they are able to use it to their defence and while battling inside their own fief. This is why rebelling against their rule is nothing short of suicide for their people. The current lord of the most expansive fief in the city is even rumoured to be able to bring this magic to his border and to have it assist him in his endless conquest of new lands and towers. With the rhythm at which his territory is growing, it will not be long before every other lord and lady will be able to ascertain the truth by themselves...