7 Wizard's Towers

1. Quinsy Dei

Quinsy Dei appears as a sleek and beautiful spire, its top holding a magnificent veranda and silver chased overlook. One would easily mistake it for the stronghold of a virtuous paladin or sequestered holy order. That could not be more off the mark. Quinsy Dei was constructed by a cabal of magi who were interested in disease and illness and this was where they carried out their research. The grounds around it are filled with hovels and shanties, themselves filled with diseased corpses, and worse, diseased undead. The tower has a wall around it and wardings. Any may enter, but only the healthy and the living can pass back through.

Hazards - contracting an illness will trap many the hapless visitor, also, the large number of weak and low level undead and the lack of clean water or supplies means getting sick is only a matter of time

2. Kemmos, the Tower of the Book

Kemmos is an imposing looking brutal spear of a tower, seemingly thrust up from the earth, bloody and wounded. The tower has tapped into a natural spring and there are piping systems to move the water away from the insides of the building, but the iron rich groundwater has left long red stains on the black stone. This has also created large rusty mounds around the base, where thick red and purple foliage flourishes. What is important about Kemmos though, is that it contains the library of Kemmos, a holy man devoted to learning and knowledge, as well as being the holy repository of the Book of Kemmos. It is a record of historical events regarding a budding faith, and in a few hundred or thousand years, it will form a cornerstone of a new central faith.

Hazards - none, Kemmos is a safe place. Don't mind the black stone, its local, or the blood-colored plants, its a reaction to the high iron content.

3. Durrock Kay

Durrock Kay is a twisting organic spiral of the tower, seemingly grown from a massive shell or smooth vitreous red coral. It can only be reached by foot at low tide, by following a sandbar that arcs around a sheltering cove. At high tide, the bar is covered, and the entire first and second floors are technically underwater, though the tower remains dry inside. When the sun goes down, the top of Durrock Kay erupts into a magical argent flame. The cove is illuminated by this and ships cruising the coast can easily see it and know where Durrock Cove is. This display of magical flame is mirrored in the creatures that live in the cove, most notably the crab populations. These creatures can grow to great size, have metallic shells, and rarely one will undergo a transcendent molting and become a semi-sentient humanoid crabkin.

Hazards - the tides in and out of the cove can be hazardous, the tower is old, and the cove is not really suitable for trade, also since the township of Durrock itself is ruins, its been a while. The crabkin can be quite dangerous.

4. Midgamau

Midgamau appears like a steaming mirage, a gleaming blue and white tower rising from the hard-packed sand and rock of the Zaghorim Ohdan. As the traveler draws closer, the chance of the tall, thin spire being a mirage increases and decreases, because details become more obvious and less islost in the heat shimmer above the desert. Those details make it seem even more fantastical and less real. Midgamau is made of ice. As the traveler approaches they find a low wall surrounding the tower. This is a wall more for keeping sheep than stopping soldiers and is likewise made of what looks like river stones, assuming they were made of ice. Stepping through the gate, or over the wall offers almost immediate release from the oppressive heat of the Zaghorim Ohdan. The shadow of the tower is positively cold.

Hazards - the shadow of the tower is sub-zero temps. Those who sleep in the confines of Midgamau might be frozen solid, flasks and other liquid containers have a high risk of freezing if untended. This effect is limited to the boundary of the tower.

5. Great Cunkaril

Cunkaril is mentioned in a few age-spotted texts as a usurper and destroyer that came out of the Garnegood Forest and waged a ten year war of absolute devastation against the human kingdoms around the forest. The barbarian leader made a great effort at tearing out the farms, mills, and other agricultural stations of these kingdoms and set back growth in the region by centuries. What is seldom written down is that Cunkaril was an ent/treant. He wasn't just a living tree, he was a gigantic living tree, a virtual lord among that race, and his campaign was to protect Garnegood from the saws and axes of those around it. There is nothing left of Garnegood forest other than a broad grassy green common in Garnegood City, and in the center of that, Great Cunkaril. Magics were used to stop the ent, and force it into dormancy. Once rendered immobile, the woodcutters and others bored into the body of the still-living creature and turned it into a scenic overlook tower for the park. Sometimes the great green tower groans and shudders, but this is rare, and growing less and less common as years roll by.

Hazards - the tolls and fees in Garnegood Common can get exorbitant, and Great Cunkaril is seen as a cultural monument and a place of tourism, much like the Eiffel Tower. 

6. The Gilded Tower

The Gilded Tower is a gleaming metallic gold edifice that has a strong resemblance to a certain body part, but in a clean aesthetic, non-realistic, no veins. Classy, even. The low wall surrounding it has a monastic appearance, patient and deliberate, with each gold triangle piece meeting the other with mathematical precision. The plaza around the base of the tower is likewise made of hexagonal gold pavers. This is all metallic as well. The gate at the base of the tower is open, and visitors are greeted by unctuous and overly helpful servants, all balding, overweight, smarmy eunuchs, who are so very glad to see them and wish to assist them in any manner possible. The Gilded Tower and its keepers have a magnificent library, a few spare rooms for people who need to rest, and they are so glad to have someone to natter over. Then things start getting weird.

Hazards - over time, everything in the area of the Gilded Tower starts to turn to gold. Fabric becomes cloth of gold, metal transmutes to gold, and so on. There is no food inside the tower, other than what is brought in by the visitors. The only sustenance offered is aqua aurum, liquid gold. This isn't molten, but rather a magical healing tonic with restorative properties. Eventually the visitors, should they stay too long, will start to become ill. Their skin will take on a jaundiced tone, lethargy sets in, and then general symptoms follow the progression of cancer. The iron in their blood has turned to gold, as have their bones. They weigh more, the metabolism suffers, and starved of anything other than a modest restorative potion, the body starts to consume itself. Eventually, those who stay too long die. The eunuchs tear the corpse apart and eat everything but the gold bones, and these are carried down into the crypt to not bother anyone.

Additional hazard - there are ten eunuchs in the gilded tower. They were all once demons, fiends, devils, and other maleficent forces before being defeated and made slaves. The force that carried this out bound them to humanoid forms, mutilated their bodies, and set powerful wards and geas against them.

7. Pheeksovand Tower

Pheeksovand Tower is a strange place with a curiously cursed history. The tower is a magnificent construction of Gothic architecture and baroque decoration, the thing raised as an ostentatious display of vulgar wealth and bad taste. It was hewn from exotic purple veined marble, and lavished with gold and silver filigree work. It was hidden during most of its construction by magics of obfuscation, and many were abused during this time, especially the poor and beggars who formerly lived where it was built. When the Gala was held to reveal the great gaudy tower, and the magics were released, the tower was just gone. There was scandal and intrigue, daggers and assassinations were exchanged, houses were disrupted, and more than one bank went up. The tower is now home to the Court of the Lord of Pheeksovand, aka the beggar king of the city, and the tower is a homeless shelter. Its protective magics remain, and only those in need, who have no home to claim, and have no more than a single copper piece to their name can find it.

Hazards - The tower can only be found by those with nothing, which makes it a difficult place to find, and once found, it can still be lost.