101 Wizard's Towers

[reason]

Give me the evocative details of your mighty spires, your hidden, crooked towers and the wizards and sorcerors that lurk within. Do they cast a pall across the land, do their names inspire whispering and fear? Are they friend, foe, real or legend, strange or stranger? What makes them oh-so-different or worthy of theft for the campaign next door?

The target: 101 towers and their sorcerous owners. Have at it!

The Spire of Salt, Thirst and Madness

A line of broken black pylons leads from the bone-strewn and most desolate part of the Vision Desert to the Sea of Salt. Set by men of a past aeon, shimmering in the heat, glistening beneath cold stars, the pylons form a treacherous silken thread to beckon those cast from caravans, hunted by the keen blades of black-clad Amaram or maddened by thirst.

Strewn is the Vision Desert with worn remains of foolish lives from this and many former ages, but not so the broken shores of the Sea of Salt. Few of in this age can claim to have stood upon the crusted salt-sands, and the remains of those who stumble to fall, broken by thirst, at the very last pylon are vanished. No man might know their contortions upon the shallow waters that burn to the very touch, their thrashing upon the poison mud.

The crippled priestess Haneh, who lived three times the span of a man within dark caves beneath the high mount of Jerlasum, told me the why of this in trade for a diadem of her ancestor-god. Those who believe themselves chosen hunger for such trinkets; their hearts would be easily bought were such diadems and jewels not guarded closely and with fervor.

In a past and distant age, the sorceror Gidden long ruled over the people who would claim Jerlasum, and drank deep of the life of men and women to sustain his wasting flesh. He cast their rattling, withered corpses aside to molder beneath the harsh sun. Soon, the dust of the dead came to form a great desert, choking grass and palm, and swirling into the air to scour rock and flesh. What little blood dripped from Gidden's lips and sacrifical altars pooled to form a shallow salt sea amidst the dust.

The desert grew, and still the sorceries of Gidden drew new flesh to his call - to a mighty spire of salt blocks, set about with great and rusted chains, that rose within the shallow Sea of Salt. The thirst-mad and charmed by sorcery, too dry and burned to bleed from cracked skin, would wade into the sea, one by one, with cries and moans of anguish in the voice of circling vagra.

Yet the lives of strong men and lush women, broken upon the desert and consumed utterly, could not sustain Gidden an age. With a great and final sorcery, built upon the bones of a hundred children, he rebuilt his tower within the visions of the dying come to the Sea of Salt. Many-clawed Gidden even now reaches from the pitiful depths of thirst and pain to steal the very body and death of those who come to his domain. The barred cells of his vision-spire fill slowly with the croaking anguish of madmen who cannot die, with gaunt, eye-swollen women who babble in agony for age upon age. Their unending madness and sight into the burning sun are life to the sorceror Gidden.

So spoke the cripple Haneh, served by ten priests as though a queen. I have knelt in the anguish of thirst, sustained by the ancient curse that yet echoes in the halls of demonkind, upon the shores of the Sea of Salt. Yet I have seen no tall spire, heard no call of ancient sorcery. But of bones, ragged cloth and tarnished prizes, there are none past the fiftieth pylon to rise from the sands; all has been swallowed by the burning salt.

The life of Haneh was consigned to the catacombs of ruined, palm-shaded Jerlasum, watched for a year and a day by dour priests who believe their flesh to hold drops of godly blood. Her stone coffer and dry bones remain now, cracked and disheveled, but the diadem is mine once more, for the tale was worth no more than three lives of possession.

Reason
Principia Infecta

 

[Zen]

The Empty Tower

This tower has apparently been recently abandoned, although the furnishings and other aspects are in good repair.

The reason? The tower's previous owner was performing experiments to learn how mimics reproduce. He learned how but the secret died with him.

The tower is now crowed with at least a score of mimics. They appear as chests, tables, stairways, even doors. Some are small, and appear as books piled upon tables, while others are quite large and fill entire rooms, molding their bodies to the floor, ceiling and walls so that the curious can walk right in.

They have eaten the wizard, all of his other specimens, his familiar and his servants. They are waiting for their next meal.

--Z

 

[VirgilCaine]

This tower has apparently been recently abandoned, although the furnishings and other aspects are in good repair.

The reason? The tower's previous owner was performing experiments to learn how mimics reproduce. He learned how but the secret died with him.

The tower is now crowed with at least a score of mimics. They appear as chests, tables, stairways, even doors. Some are small, and appear as books piled upon tables, while others are quite large and fill entire rooms, molding their bodies to the floor, ceiling and walls so that the curious can walk right in.

They have eaten the wizard, all of his other specimens, his familiar and his servants. They are waiting for their next meal.

--Z

I think it would be more interesting if the mimics took the wizard hostage and he calls for help from the PCs to do something and his nervous behavoir and attempts to get the PCs alone or contact them without the mimics knowledge.

 

[smootrk]

Here is my contribution...

The Inverse Tower of D'Adri

In a vast underground chamber hanging over an underdark sea of unknown depth is a great stalactite which houses the exiled Drow master of demons, D'Adri and his Succubus consort. D'Adri is a master Archivist (HoH book) and expert on summoning, binding, controlling beings from lower planes (insert appropriate PRC for Demonologist, Summoner, Circle Magic, etc.). Among D'Adri's most notable demonic associates are Demogorgon and Dagon, which he regularly makes sacrifices to both. D'Adri is at odds with Drow followers of Lolth.

The tower's location, on the ceiling of the chamber hovering over the underground sea is not easily reached except by creatures capable of flight, although there is a tip of the corresponding stalagmite below that water vessels can tie up to with permission, albeit it is guarded by a contingent of Fiendish Kuo-toans lead by a Hezrou courtesy of Dagon (see recent Dragon Magazine feature for Dagon & followers). The bottom tip of the Stalactite is still over 100 feet from the surface of the water. The vast chamber's roof is covered in fungus and vine-like growths and a number of Bar-lgura lair and patrol the ceiling above the dark ocean in proximity to the Inverse Tower

The tower itself consists of living quarters, libraries, summoning chambers, and various quarters well suited for fiendish visitors. Some rooms are so vile in nature that it really defies explanation. D'Adri is rumored to hold possession of a number of powerful artifacts of fiendish origin, and for a time he even briefly had possession of the Wand of Orcus during Orcus's fall from power. Revenge and retribution is likely on Orcus's mind. What is currently in his vaults is unknown.

Despite D'Adri's vile reputation, he is considered an authority in his field of demonology, and visitors often request his sage-like knowledge on the subject.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

From my Midwood campaign (the story hour is about eight to nine months behind, so this will show up in a few months, as the story hour is going pretty rapidly):

Also known as Baraj Al-Aswad in Uraqi, the Black Tower is the home of Khenemet-Apep on the slopes of Green Mountain, near the lair of the Green Mountain Kobolds. Maidensbridge cannot be seen from the tower -- the mountainside is in the way -- and instead it has a view of the Hotash Mountains and Tulgey Wood.

The Black Tower is made of dark bricks topped by pale spikes jabbing upwards, like the lower jaw of some beast. The windows, each hidden behind intricately woven grills of cast iron, suggest that the building has three above ground levels, not including the roof.

The front door is in inscribed with an inlay that appears to be Uraqi writing, twisted about into decorative shapes. The door has a cast iron handle and is opened with a black key carried by Khenemet-Apep.

The foyer has a wrought iron chandelier hanging down the stairwell. The chandelier is shaped like intertwined snakes, each holding a candle in its open mouth.

The parlor on the second floor has Uraqi-style furniture, an endless number of books, tiny gold statues of faeries of the Tulgey wood and a decorative scimitar over the fireplace.

Khenemet-Apep, the Wizard of Green Mountain, is a Kemite adventurer who has lived in the Black Tower on the slopes of the mountain for approximately a decade. He is a balding thin man in his early 40s with olive skin, greasy black hair and a pronounced stoop. He tends to wear threadbare black robes.

Although he is apparently on good terms with the baron -- like the baron, he is a graduate of Redhurst -- and is an uncommon sight in Middleborough, the Wizard of Green Mountain has been a neighbor of the Green Mountain Kobolds for a decade now, which suggests he has no reason to fear them. He is also known to have traded with the goblin band called the Black Reavers.

He is trailed everywhere by his vile-tempered black cat, Ibliss.

He has been seen drinking a tea made from the petals of the red lotus.

 

[Zen]

I think it would be more interesting if the mimics took the wizard hostage and he calls for help from the PCs to do something and his nervous behavoir and attempts to get the PCs alone or contact them without the mimics knowledge.

That would be awesome... the guy is being held captive by what is essentially living furniture. Chairface Chippendale, anyone?

--Z

 

[smootrk]

Here is another:

The Icy Spire

The Icy Spire is located in the far north, near the source of a large glacial ice flow. The tower was built from glacial ice mined from the heart of the nearby glacier, and given the nearly continuous snowy precipitation of the area, the tower is quite difficult to spot unless in close proximity. (The tower itself projects an aura of cold, as if the region was under a continuous control weather effect meant to create cold and snowy weather. - consider the region and the tower itself to be Frostfell conditions of Severe Cold (-20F to 0F) or colder. Much of the tower structure and basic furnishings are also protected by magic - consider all to be Magically treated per table 1-9 in the Frostfell book)

The tower itself looks much like any other tower structure one might see, with the exception that it is made of ice. At times the tower seems to glow from within, but it impossible to see through the ice otherwise. The entry foyer is guarded by a pair of 'Entombed (Frostburn book)'.

The Frost Mage who inhabits the tower is rumored to be a Necromancer of exceptional power, and prefers isolation. The substantial number of undead in the area support this. What lies within the structure is unknown, as visitors are not welcome. Rumors abound, but nothing supported by fact.

 

[reason]

...

A little more necromancy and towers of opal-eyed skulls...

The Opal Skulls of Thaiy

Few are the ancient, high prows of metal and strangely-cut sails that follow coasts about the Ocean of Isles. They are vessels of a past aeon, beyond the wear of sea and man, crewed again with each dark fate to befall those who tend decks and bulwarks. Sailors of far-off lands risk sudden, sorcerous storms, great sea-demons that leap and fly in search of men to torment, and serpent riders who claim all deep waters of the Ocean of Isles as their own - but even those foolish or cursed beneath a doom avoid the ruined harbors of Thaiy, glistening by day, and marked in darkness by lanterns set atop fallen statues of long forgotten kings.

The brown, elegant women of Thaiy are beautiful as in no other land, painted and patterned, numbering twenty for each thin, haunted man in the sun-drenched port city of Foon Khet. They slink and dance to the side of any traveler or ignorant seafarer, promising much with wide eyes and reddened lips. But it is not pleasure they seek, nor the face - a mere covering of flesh - they stare at so entranced.

For there is a deep shadow to Thaiy, well known to scholars even so far as Magak or Hambegh. The necromancer Kovat, who sleeps upon tightly laced thigh-bones and embraces the bundled ribs of his long-dead love, has built towers of opal-eyed skulls of men, engraved with signs of power and torment, within the jungles and upon the mountains. Villages that once laughed with life are silent ruins or long rotted into the trees and vines; great Thaiy is but the eyes of Foon Khet and the dead realm of Kovat in this age - and women are the means by which servants of the necromancer raise themselves yet closer to the sky.

Enjoy the few hours you have remaining in the arms and at the lips of beauty, unwary sailor, for long, heavy knives will soon be brought forth - and the bones of your neck will add another notch to their metal. You will spill your secrets to Kovat, and he will set your place in the world for the remaining ages before the void claims all.

Reason
Principia Infecta

 

[reason]

...

And another from the Tomes of Amaxathroth:

The Sorceror Denas, Foul and Forgotten

It is a pity that the gluttenous sorceror Denas is no longer known in this age, though the twisted stump of a tower built solid and thick to support his folds of flesh and sullen, demon-tainted blood yet stands upon the Meddin shore. Sorcerors and witches both are given to the indulgence of base desires, sated upon slaves, impkin and the compelled, but none since have so enslaved themselves to the hungers of the flesh. Naught but a corpulant beast was Denas, a mass of temper and vile hungers, no more restrained by thought than the most ravenous, gaunt of gorgs. In that, he was more true to his corruption than men and women more blackened by the whisper of hearts and nerves than by rotting, sorcerous gifts of the Undergod Freth.

Well for their sport and cruelty do the lascivious of Harumetha and murderous of Magak forget the might of foul Denas. It would weigh heavy upon their hearts that they stood but a tenth advanced upon a path unperceived, undesired, and yet inevitable upon the learning; malign sorceries would wilt, conspiracies become nerveless, murders aimless and seductions dried of vicious gratification. A pleasure I would take in such, but the vermin, filth and black sorceries of Meddin cities have a place within the doom that will come upon this world of men, and naught may stand to block that path.

The last ruins of the tower of Denas crumble upon the Meddin shore at a place once called Marsay. A port city stood there in a past aeon of man, gone to ruins, then mere grass-sands and the cries of the rerak, flocking to each new death upon the shore. Again rose a high-walled port and mighty merchant empire, only to crumble in the manner of all works of man. A third time was Marsay a port in the age of mighty, crystal-walled Yorm, host to a thousand marvels - but of this all, naught is left.

Atop the dust of three cities spread the ample flesh of Denas, and soon will the last of his tower join those remains. Yet a miasma shrouds the base-stones of Denas' tower upon windless days even in this age, ill remnant of a mark of death and doom once spread across the land and those unfortunate enough to be born beneath the sight of a sorceror of power and malign will.

Reason
Principia Infecta

 

[Felix]

I thought I'd go ahead and chip in.

The Tower of Art
The Tower of Art is the 800-foot tower that forms the Unseen University's core. It has a total of 8,888 steps up to the top (On the Disc the number 8 is very mystically significant). This would make each step fractionally over one inch high. Originally the Tower was the only building on campus, but teaching has long since moved on to other buildings. The Tower itself is usually only used for astronomical and other observations requiring altitude, the traditional May Morning chorus song from its top (inaudible to anyone but the chorus, but traditionally applauded by all staff and students from below) and student pranks such as "tobogganing", the use of tea trays to slide down the tower's immense spiral staircase (the effects of centrifugal force make this rather less dangerous than it would appear). In Men at Arms Dr Cruces, head of the Assassins' Guild, used it as a sniper post when he attempted to shoot the Patrician, shortly after he had killed Lance-Constable Cuddy of the Night Watch by pushing him from the top. Its builders are unknown. It is certainly older than both the city and the University around it, and some have speculated that it is older than the Disc itself, although evidence for this is scarce.

Around the top of it a magical species of raven has developed that is much more intelligent than usual. Quoth, the raven from Soul Music and all the books featuring Susan Sto Helit, is one of these.

The Tower of Art is also the motif of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office one-dollar stamp.