Arcane Dwellings

I've taken the challenge of writing some room descriptions for a collaborative list at The Gorgonmilk Blog detailing the inhabitations of Magic Users. I'm intending to use it for a Magic User's retreat in my upcoming D&D game.

23. Threshold of Eternity (thanks to Seventh Sanctum for the name, I used their Room/Location generator)

This is the room of a Magic User who has studied the elements and their relationship to everything in the universe. The double doors are finely-made of an unknown dark wood and have inlaid upon them a diamond-shaped pattern in a silvery metal suggesting the elements. Beside them - conveniently at waist-height for an approaching humanoid, no matter what their height - is a shelf on which sometimes stand a candle and cup of water. Beside the door is a mat, on which, perhaps, a pair of ornate shoes is sitting. The doors will open at a push; but stepping through them could prove hazardous.

Thanks to its elaborate geometry, this room contains everything in the universe. Inside is, quite literally, the outside. Glancing into the room will reveal views of distant lands - steaming jungles, freezing wastes, teeming streets of alien cities, blazing deserts; stepping through the doorway will transport the unprepared to any other place on Earth or perhaps another world altogether. Only those who know the secret to deactivating the room's defence mechanism (enter barefoot, holding one's breath, with a burning torch or candle in one hand and a container of water in the other) will be able to avoid the room linking itself to a far-away location.

Those who successfully determine the combination will find a comfortable suite of rooms; a reception room with couches, bookshelves, and aethereal music provided by elementals of the air, opening onto two bedrooms each with its own en suite bathroom, a dining balcony with views over the streets of the city below, and a small but well-fitted kitchen with all ancient conveniences (hot and cold running water elementals, a tame fire-elemental-powered cooker, a small rock-golem for crushing garlic).

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the room, it is extremely difficult to tell if the wizard has actually left it.