Watchtower of Solace

Umbraculavites -Z- Isle of Zamhareer -Z- Ostanes

Introduction

Location: The Watchtower of Solace waits in solitude at the end of the southernmost spit of the Isle of Zamhareer. As this spit of low-lying rocky land juts fairly far out into the Hyborean Sea, it is isolated from the rest of the Isle of Zamhareer periodically due to rising tides and freezing fogs. The watchtower is located upon the level upper reaches of a rocky hill that might once have been a mountain. Perhaps some ancient volcanic event removed the top of the mountain or perhaps some other equally ancient geological event created the flat-topped hill of basalt upon which it rests.

History: Aegon spent two weeks in March of 1096 essentially bedridden and asleep. His player just bought this background.

Recent Events: For countless years the watchtower has remained dark and dormant. But recently, a dark clad figure appeared from the sea and climbed the frozen cliffs to stand before the tower. As if inspecting the damage to the tower's exterior the figure walked the building's circumference and vanished. Shortly thereafter, upon the Donjon roof, the watchtower's ancient signal fires reignited and now blue-white fire illuminates the island's southern shore even in the darkest night and through the thickest sea-borne fogs. The few fishermen and sailors that ply the cold waters near the Isle of Zamhareer now have a beacon by which to avoid the cruel reefs and dangerous shallows that circumnavigate the island.

Appearance: The Watchtower of Solace is clearly an unnatural landmark. The tower is formed of blue-black Diorite and stands a dozen stories above the surrounding hilltop and is clearly visible from many locations upon the Isle of Zamhareer, as well as far out to sea.

The watchtower was not made by human hands and is seamless and all of one piece. Its exterior has been carved into three cylindrical sections. The bottom most, while cylindrical, is a full five stories high and has seven faceted alcoves in which stand seven dark heavily weathered statues. This level is supported by seven grand buttresses and stands within the remains of another unidentifiable ruin whose pale stones contrast with the tower itself.

The seven forbidding figures each stand a full twenty-five feet high, looking down in seeming disapproval of all beneath them. While the figures are roughly humanoid, little of their individual character can be determined by the ceaseless weathering and the layers of hoarfrost that coats the exterior of the tower.

The second section of the tower is also cylindrical, but is without ornamentation save for seven vertical columns of alien writing that rise the full fifty feet of this section and end at the underside of the third section, the turret. This section of the watchtower seems to have suffered some significant damage in the distant past as there are cracks and large fractures that wrap around the tower and damage the seven columns of writing.

The turreted upper level of the Donjon is only twenty feet high and seven dark stone balconies jut outwards from the Donjon. Seven elegant buttresses separate seven colonnaded arcades leading to each balcony. Seven strange statues like gargoyles perch above each arcade as if protecting them from external dangers. It is upon this level alone that there are windows or doors and the tower cannot seemingly be entered except at this level.

Entry: Those who seek entrance to the watchtower do so in the age old occult manner, by walking withershins or counter-clockwise about its circumference, passing beneath the gazes of all seven of the Cimmerian statues. Upon completing this walk, those seeking entry disappear from view and reappear within the Focarium of the tower's windowless first floor.

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Ground Floor

Focarium: Alchemy & Ascension

After a visitor completes their circular journey, they find themselves within the antechamber. Where the exterior of the watchtower is dark, even drab, the interior is ruddy. Candle-light flickers upon the rose-quartz blocks that make up the walls and floor of this chamber. Faces leer from every vertical flat surface, carved from the quartz blocks and given a false life by the flickering of candle-light. No two faces are the identical, but just the same, visitors feel the eyes of the faces following them about the chamber. There are four doorways limned in shadow, they lie in opposing directions that quarter the room. Along the curving periphery candles of every color burn brightly in a circle that is sometimes a foot deep, the candles and the light thin to almost nothing before each doorway. The floor the chamber is made up of mosaic tiles that seem to change their patterns in the wavering candle-light. The antechamber has no windows of any kind and the doorways are open and without bars.

Four Doors, Four Ordeals, One Exit

There are four unbarred doorways that leave the antechamber. Although the archways are distinctive in and of themselves, no two are identical and each has unique ornamentation which may or may not presage what might lie down each hall. Those that peer into the dimness of the hallways perceive only a vague impression of a hall continuing into darkness.

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