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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 7886523" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="http://" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter Four: the TowersThis chapter’s a bit of a peculiar one. It has detailed write-ups on the five major Towers of High Sorcery, and some minor write-ups of other notable locations of great import to wizards. Why this is peculiar is that three of the Towers have been long since destroyed, and their descriptions focus on the time periods when they still would’ve been at their peak before the Kingpriest’s purges. The two “surviving” towers, Wayreth and Palanthas, have write-ups for them during the current Age of Mortals although Palanthas is more of a dungeon now than a proper magic school. As such, DMs who are sticklers for lore will find this chapter of limited use barring time travel or games set during the Age of Might or Dreams (both which have the least material written for them in Dragonlance sourcebooks). The minor write-ups, however, have their details described for the current Age.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/X88Aj0g.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The oldest surviving Tower, Wayreth, is nestled deep within the forests of Qualinesti on autonomous territory, its teleporting properties and magical defenses making it impossible to locate unless its Master gives permission to those looking for it. The Tower has a near-religious level of respect among wizards of all Orders, and after the Kingpriest’s purges has been their closest thing to a safe community where they can live in peace. It is also where the Conclave holds assembly and where all prospective Order initiates must take the Test.History: Its history is almost as old as that of wizardry itself. It was built first as a fortress-village by the three founders of High Sorcery, although its location proved a poor choice when neighboring goblinoid and human tribes attacked it repeatedly, which caused the wizards to devise Wayreth’s defenses. Their latest plan worked when the next barbarian army fell as their very weapons turned into snakes which attacked them.Secure in their power, Wayreth served as a “wizard capital” for High Sorcery’s expansion, and maintained a primacy even as the other Towers were built after the influx of prospective mages began to test Wayreth’s limits. During the Age of Might and the Kingpriest’s purges, Wayreth managed to survive due to its remote proximity from Istar as well as the fact that the Kingpriest chose to spare it for unknown reasons.**In the Kingpriest Ascendant alternate timeline in Legends of the Twins sourcebook, one possibility was that the Kingpriests’ advisors told him that the destruction of all five Towers would unleash a magical cataclysm upon Krynn the likes of which have never been seen before.During the Age of Despair, the death rate of mages was so high due to continent-wide violence and instability that they numbered 1/10th of their population in pre-Cataclysm times at the dawn of the 5th Age. It was the lowest point for Wayreth until the War of Souls, and the Tower became less of a school and more of a refuge and safe haven which housed almost all arcane spellcasters on the continent. Resources for developing new schools/towers/spells/etc were instead dedicated to preserving what they had left. Things were so bad that the Orders sent out a few trusted teachers to start schooling people regardless of their funds or education level in magic in remote and rural regions unconnected to major nations. The intent was to provide for a survival plan for High Sorcery in case even Wayreth fell. Ironically the Fourth Age was when the greatest number of poor, rural people became wizards due to this program. A White Robe became Head of the Conclave and helped teach Raistlin so that he may eventually fight the Dragonarmies. In fact, it was Raistlin’s role in the War of the Lance that improved public view of wizards after the war ended.During the Fifth Age, the Orders’ numbers dropped to barely a handful when Takhisis stole the world for herself. Palin Majere and a mysterious figure known as the Shadow Sorcerer offered to teach the now-powerless wizards primal sorcery, which was a huge political issue among the wizards. Still, Wayreth’s latent magic remained, and Wayreth’s walls still stand strong. But even though the rest of the gods returned eventually, the Orders have never been less numerous or weaker.Description: Wayreth is actually a cluster of gleaming black glass towers with walls impervious to all forms of damage. Three towers along the walls are temples to the moon gods who reflect their patrons’ moonlight when they’re full in the night sky. Most wizards travel here by magic so its front gates do not see much use. The towers have all the requirements for both a school and a community: apartments for living space, libraries, laboratories, gardens for crops and herbal supplies, and dungeons for holding dangerous monsters and people. The Conclave has its own tower, the Hall of Mages, which functions as part Wizard Congress/part courthouse, as well as the Testing Levels whose foundations appear different to every initiate who enters them.The surrounding Forest of Wayreth is such that it casts a magical veil over a wide area, making it impossible for people to find it unless the Master of the Tower casts the Touch of Guiding Light spell upon the recipient. The forest looks spooky and weird, full of dead trees and a noxious freezing mist, but appears beautiful and alive for those whose presence is permitted. We have some descriptions of places like the libraries, the Testing Grounds, and the Hall of Mages but there’s nothing really noteworthy or special unless you like reading about what persistent 20th Caster Level spells are permeating the area.The current Master of the Tower of Wayreth is a mysterious figure who has taken many forms, and nobody knows his or her true identity. But we do have a stat block, and the person is a bonafide 20th-level Eldritch Emissary, a new monster in Chapter 6. It’s rather funny, most of the high-ranking figures of High Sorcery in 3rd Edition Dragonlance sourcebooks are stupidly, campaign-endingly powerful. They can take all of the Dragon Highlords* out to lunch, and the few statted characters I’ve seen who may be able to challenge them are Emperor Ariakas (the final boss of the original Dragonlance campaign), god-tier Raistlin from Legends of the Twins (28th level), and the alien Dragon Overlords from the Age of Mortals (who are even more stupidly powerful with 30+ CRs and their own Colossal+ size category).*the five military leaders of the Dragonarmies from the original Dragonlance campaign<img src="https://i.imgur.com/zBlpHuw.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Palanthas is, rather it was, the only Tower that could give Wayreth some serious competition in arcane power. Its libraries dwarfed even that first Tower’s grandness, and it was the place where some of the most powerful artifacts were created and stored. But the Kingpriest’s purges forced the Tower’s defenders into placing a curse of desperation on the area.History: The Tower was built in what was originally an Ergothian fishing village in Ansalon’s far north. When the other Towers were planned on being built, three of them were intended to be strongholds for the respective orders: Daltigoth the Reds, Istar the Whites, and Losarcum the Blacks. What would become known as the Tower of Palanthas was dubbed Tsandol Sirran, the Lore-Spire, to be the wizard’s greatest storehouse of knowledge.Just like Wayreth’s foundations the non-magical neighbors were not happy to have wizards living in their vicinity, and some local merchants performed a Red Wedding with poison to kill the Tower’s chief builder. But he didn’t die, and through sheer willpower pulled himself from his deathbed and channeled Lunitari’s power inside him to raise the entire Tower by magic in one night before finally dying. The rest of the wizards hunted down and killed those who slain their brethren in vengeance, and planted oak trees around the tower to generate an aura of magical fear to intruders.Over time the surrounding environs would grow into the great City of Palanthas. The local wizards proved instrumental in fighting Takhisis’ forces during the Third Dragon War, notably using the Dragon Orbs and the construction of the High Clerist’s Tower to trap and kill the invading dragons. The nation of Solamnia respected the wizards for this, and all was well until the Kingpriest’s purges caused even Solamnia to acquiesce to letting their forces through their territory. The wizards did not go down without a fight, and in desperation the Master of the Tower enacted a curse and committed suicide by leaping from its highest window. A foul magic spread around the Tower and the land, raw evil exuding the ground and air.During the Age of Despair Raistlin would find a means of claiming the Tower for himself, using it as a base of operations for researching a way to kill Takhisis and claim godhood for himself. It was the only place on Krynn the mage could pursue his studies in secret away from the prying eyes of the Conclave. After the events of Dragons of Summer Flame and Raistlin sacrificing himself to save the world from Takhisis once again, his apprentice Dalamar became Master of the Tower as well as the Master of the Black Robes. He found a way to lift the curse and made it a haven for his Order.During the Age of Mortals  Dalamar teleported the Tower accidentally to Nightlund, Lord Soth’s domain, and ended up getting kicked out. Womp womp.Description: This is the tallest of the Towers at 600 feet, and even in Nightlund the place is still a cursed bastion of evil. The foundations and the surrounding forest have a warped, decrepit appearance. Innumerable archives, museums, and libraries still contain much knowledge as well as strange magical items unrecognizable by modern eyes. Its only inhabitants are aberrant beings known as the Live Ones who are the cast-off remnants of Raistlin’s attempts at magically creating life, and the Tower’s Great Laboratory holds one of the five Portals to the Abyss.During the Age of Mortals the relocation to Nightlund placed it within the Forest of Cypress, which is home to wandering souls whose mere touch drains the Strength from those unable to evade their pursuit. The Shoikan Grove’s aura of fear is still in effect, and there are countless undead patrolling the woods. The curse which presides over the Tower is back and in full effect, and there is no current known means of lifting it. The Master of the Tower during the Kingpriest’s purges currently exists as a spectre and guardian of the gates. He is a more reasonable 12th-level Black Robe wizard than the uber-powerful Masters of today.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/PsLjvPb.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Istar housed the greatest collection of White Robes upon Krynn, their home away from home when their leaders weren’t meeting at the Conclave in Wayreth. During the Empire’s early years they had a great relationship with the Kingpriests, acting as government advisors. But in later years the final Kingpriests began to fear and resent their power.History: With Daltigoth in the west, Palanthas in the north, and Wayreth in the south, a Tower was needed to occupy Ansalon’s east. There were many great cities with which the wizards could use as a nearby hub, but instead the White Robes chose a poor fishing village named Istar. Although their peers were angry at the choice, a seer named Asanta saw visions that this meager village would grow into the mightiest bastion of good in the world. And in later years she’d be proven right...for a time. The White Robes helped the city-state of Istar grow into a proper nation and then an empire, helping them conquer their rivals and erect their mighty spires. Amusingly the Legends of the Twins sourcebook illuminated that Istar’s earliest years were less about being holy and Lawful Good and more about waging economic warfare to become a thriving merchant hub. Which doesn’t seem very White-Robey in my view.The people’s positive attitudes for the wizards waned when they devoted time and resources in fighting Takhisis’ forces elsewhere on Krynn. The nomads of Dravinaar, Black Robe allies and long-time rivals of Istar, waited for the wizards’ numbers to move before they struck, and the clerics of good-aligned churches filled in to protect them with holy powers. When a later civil war engulfed Istar, the White Robes backed the wrong contender to the throne and managed to avoid charges of treason through their own groves’ defenses and an uneasy truce.When the final Kingpriest Beldinas took the throne, things worsened when the Wizards appointed a Red Robe and not a White as an advisor. And a decree to ban the Black Robes from all of the Towers (even the ones in Palanthas and Daltigoth, outside the Empire’s boundaries) was ignored. The Kingpriest did not like this, and after a failed assassination attempt by a Black Robe he settled on enacting a KILL ALL THE WIZARDS law.The White Robes realized that the Kingpriest’s forces would claim the tower when their grove defenses were sabotaged, so they chose to evacuate the place and took as many artifacts and resources as they could via teleportation. The Kingpriest converted its use as a storehouse for blasphemous relics, both as a sort of museum to intimidate his religious enemies and a safehouse for magic items and propaganda deemed too dangerous to slip into the public’s hands.Description: The Tower of Istar is a thing of beauty, its crystalline windows casting sunlight into rainbows and its five crimson turrets looking like they hold the moon of Solinari in its grasp at night. The wizards’ apartments all had balconies from which they could look out over the city, and windows were enchanted in the pre-antimage days to make it seem like the tower was made of stars. When the Tower was surrendered to the Kingpriest it became a darker, more drab affair, a shrine to heresy and supposed heresy of even good-aligned faiths. Many modern clerics theorize that this was the reason the gods took offense and sent the Cataclysm down upon Krynn.The Balakan Grove is beautiful, unlike the last two towers’ creepy woods. Its primary defense was altering intruders’ memories to the point that they forgot the reason why they were there and emerge outside with no desire to visit again. Before its occupation, the Tower had a Chamber of Eyes which enhanced the power of scrying magic cast within its vicinity.We also have a stat block of the last Conclave leader before the Cataclysm: Vincil Da Jevra, a 21st-level Red Robe Wizard. Yes you’re reading that right: 21st, although he has no ability or feat required to cast Epic level spells.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/wIdYA8P.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Daltigoth’s history overall fared better than its counterparts in Palanthas and Istar. The Empire of Ergoth was more tolerant of arcane magic, and the Red Robes helped defend the Empire from foreign threats but otherwise did not have much desire to meddle in politics. Sadly Ergoth would join the other countries in anti-mage sentiment over time.History: Initially the Master of the Red Robes sought to build a Tower in Tarsis, the most beautiful city in Ansalon at the time. The local merchant princes agreed to let the wizards build there, but their greed sought to bleed the Order dry in new taxes and fees made up on the spot. In a fit of anger the Master destroyed his design plans and resigned as head of the Red Robes. An Ergothian mage by the name of Greytooth decided to build the tower in his homeland near a tense border region. As to why, the Empire could use the wizards as a safe buffer, and as part of gaining funds for Tower construction the Red Robes and more than a few Whites would serve in Ergoth’s armies. Their arcane talents proved invaluable in more than a few battles. The only low point was when the Emperor took offense at a Tower colored red rather than white, figuring the latter would better reflect his civilizations’ nobility. So the wizards played a prank by pretending to build a white Tower using illusion magic but upon its grand opening dispelled the illusions which revealed its red color:The wizards of the west enjoyed a relative golden age in comparison to their peers, but this would not last. When a rebel movement lead by who would become the founder of Solamnia threatened to split the Empire, the Red Robes’ loyalties were torn as Vinas Solamnus countedmages among his allies. The Red Robes chose to remain neutral, Solamnia split off from Ergoth, and the Order barely averted an internal catastrophe by helping rebuild damages from the rebellion. When Ergoth began to be eclipsed by the rise of Solamnia and Istar, it seemed that the crimson-robed mages’ time in the sun was coming to an end.During the Age of Might Ergoth saw a repeating series of foolish and selfish rulers which caused the relationship with the wizards to falter. There was a point when even the Conclave debated relocating the Tower. The Ergothian-wizard alliance broke when two of the Emperor’s sons died in a botched assassination attempt of the Kingpriest by a Black Robe wizard. Once the purges began the Ergothian Empire was all too willing to aid Istar in a joint assault on the Tower of Daltigoth which was also their capital city. When the Red Robes realized that they could not win the battle they decided to take their enemies down with them by magically exploding the Tower. This spell destroyed over a quarter of the city and killed off much of Ergoth’s leadership. Even before the Cataclysm the tottering old empire of the west had well and truly died: first they split ties with the mages, and after the Cataclysm so did the North split from the South.Description: Befitting its origin as a military fort, Daltigoth is more stout and practical in design than the soaring spires of the other Towers, and the foundations of its stones are more or less unknown as they are a most unnatural color of blood which requires no paint. Its Kadothan Grove was also encircled by an outer wall with an open passage allowing entry. Its natural defenses warped space so that intruders were caught in an ever-lengthening journey; during this time the surrounding pine needles and crickets emitted sleep-inducing sounds and scents which could put even elves to dreaming.The Tower within has straight halls and passages allowing for ease of movement, and parapets for the Red Robes to rain down spells and arrow-fire on invaders. The very hallways enhance the potency of illusion spells cast within, which were used to great effect during the Istar-Ergothian invasion.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/cIZNCTr.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Our final tower was once called Qim Sudri, built in Ansalon’s southeast nation of Dravinaar. A no-man’s land of warlords and despots, only the Black Robes were ruthless enough to gain the fear and respect of the locales. When said nation was invaded by Istar, the tower was renamed the more proper Istaran name of Losarcum.History: The high turnover rate and embrace of selfishness and evil made the Black Robes the least organized of the Orders, so it seemed strange that they’d dedicate a Tower all to themselves. The Master of the Order at the time only gained near-universal respect and fear by killing not one, but three of his rivals that challenged him. Finding a place to build their Tower wasn’t easy, as most cities and nations did not want them as neighbors. They claimed the Dravinaar city of Qim Sudri whose people grew up under generations of violence and blood feuds: it was theorized that a group of evil wizards would not have trouble blending in with such a place. And when said warlords tried and failed to attack the Tower-in-process, they learned to respect their new neighbors’ power. The Black Robes were all too eager to get involved in local politics and appoint tyrants friendly to their goals. There was even one point when the Master of the Tower challenged the city’s ruler to a duel of beasts, summoning a dragon to fight for him when the best the opposition had were dogs and hawks. Needless to say the dragon ate the human losers as well as the animal ones.Dravinaar was shaping up to be a veritable eastern power in Ansalon with the Black Robes ruling openly or as advisors, although during the Third Dragon War their luck ran out when they thought to attack Istar when the White Robes were busy fighting Takhisis. Istar had a veritable force of clerics to protect their capital and repelled them with such force that their nation went into a period of rapid decline. Istar’s theocracy decided to conquer Dravinaar to enlighten them, and the long-suffering population found it a dramatic improvement over the former tyrants. The Black Robes’ Tower was the only standing monument to the bad old days, a black knife jutting out of the holy land. The Black Robes decided to avoid Istar’s ire by pretending to go along with a demand to leave, using magic to make it seem that their Tower was evacuated.But even this charade wouldn’t last, and the Black Robes were causing trouble elsewhere in Ansalon, so they became the first targets during the Kingpriest’s purges. The discovery of the illusion and an assassination attempt by a Black Robe was all the pretext the Kingpriest needed to declare war on  all of High Sorcery, and like Daltigoth the Tower’s own Master blew up the building than let it fall into the hands of the enemy.Description: The Tower’s structure was made of black obsidian shaped like a dagger rising into the sky, earning it the name the “Black Knife” among the people of Dravinaar. Its position on the promontory east of the city made it cast a long shadow down upon Losarcum, and it never reflected the moonlight of Solinari or Lunitari but it did give an outline of Nuitari to those who looked through the tower windows. The apartments’ inhabitants were organized by their hierarchy in the Black Robes, with the greatest living at the peak, and nearly half of the towers’ rooms were in caverns beneath the first floor. The Tsorthan Grove’s defense was to magnify an intruders’ emotions to the point that they were driven insane.Beyond the Towers <img src="https://i.imgur.com/RRhJbQ4.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Now that we covered all five Towers, this last section of the chapter details four other notable locations important to High Sorcery.Zhaman, the Forbidden Fortress: Zhaman was built by a Black Robe archmage and mercenary who specialized in killing kings and overthrowing governments so that his clients could enact regime change. He used his ill-gotten wealth to built his own private fortress near Thorbadin, and it got a foul reputation among the local dwarves. The place was a veritable death-trap, full of captured monsters and magical guardians along with an ever-changing crystalline maze to confound any invaders. Zhaman’s reign of terror came to an end when he accepted a contract to overthrow the Orders and planned an assault on the Tower of Wayreth. Suffice to say that he and his mercenary army died horribly, and the Orders repossessed his fortress to convert to their own use before sealing it when they could no longer maintain it.The fortress was later reinhabited by the archmage Fistandantilus, who used it as a base during the Dwarfgate Wars. Its entrance was reshaped to look like a giant imposing stone skull.Castle Uth Krevan, the Citadel of Gadar: The Solamnic border keep of Uth Krevan had its entire noble family slaughtered by a peasant revolution; abandoned by the people, the place became inhabited by hobgoblin raiders. A Red Robe Wizard by the name of Gadar had a falling out with the Conclave and decided to reclaim the castle for himself where he could practice magic in peace.But of course, a mage who has the power to single-handedly kill off troublesome hobgoblins and repair a castle is almost doomed to end up involved in interesting times: his family fell under a wasting disease which no arcane magic could cure. Gadar began to experiment in necromancy in finding ways of saving them. The Castle became a terrible, ghost-haunted place as the mage kidnapped countless people for experiments. His reign of terror came to an end when two Heroes of the Lance, Tanis and Flint, invaded his castle and killed the mage. This was before the Dragonlance Chronicles proper, while they were on a five-year journey to find signs of the true gods before reuniting with friends at the Inn of the Last Home.The Castle was once claimed by the Knights of Takhisis as a fortress, but it stands empty once again.Ulgaard, the Dark One’s Hall: This is one of Fistandantilus’ hidden lairs, an underground maze of tunnels that could only be entered by teleportation. He used it as one of his many safehouses, a training area for his apprentices, a place to summon demonic minions, and a supernatural prison housing the undying bodies of his most hated enemies. It remained untouched until Raistlin and Dalamar learned of its secret location.The School of Mysteries, Towerstone’s Hope: During the War of Souls the loss of the three moons reduced the Wizards of High Sorcery to but a few dozen desperate holdouts. A young White Robe by the name of Adriana Towerstone came into the Order shortly before Takhisis stole the world. Unwilling to admit defeat, she did all she could to study magic in hopes of finding a way to reverse this unfortunate event. Adriana studied for years, isolated in far-off libraries. When the gods reclaimed the world she was an old woman, but learned so much that she was now one of the most powerful White Robe wizards. The refounded Order of White Robes even desired her as Master, but instead Ariana wanted to build a school of her own which the Conclave more than happily gave her. She built three towers outside her old Solamnic family home, and her school is new but steadily growing. The low number allows for a more intimate, hands-on feel where she can better oversee her apprentices’ development. The School of Mysteries even built a Grove of its own, which instead of warding off intruders makes them kind-hearted and eager to learn magic.Thoughts So Far: The Towers seem to cover a middle ground in terms of Dungeon Master aids. We have overviews on the five Towers and their histories, but not enough detail to run games in them barring a barebones structure. The fact that only one of them is friendly to visitors in the modern campaign setting, or even the War of the Lance, limits their gaming potential. Palanthas can make for a potentially fun dungeon crawl, and Istar is currently beneath the waves, but the outline for the latter Tower is pre-Cataclysm. The stat blocks for the various Tower Masters and former Conclave leader are so high-level that you’re not going to use them in most campaigns. Ironically the more minor locations at the end are the friendliest era-wise, but they have even less space dedicated to them.Join us next time as we cover in the next chapter how to create Tests of High Sorcery for your own wizardly PCs!</blockquote>

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