Floating Spire of Aldorinath
The place where arcanists (wizards, sorcerers, bards, etc.) go to learn their craft.
Architecture
Aldorinath is a large, floating stalactite connected to the main city-stalactite of Maerchalkhyn by way of an alkos stair/walkway bridge made equal parts of enchanted stonework and semi-permanent alkos and psionic force effects.
This bridge is designed to enable safe passage between the city and Aldorinath, but any master of the academy or someone of higher rank can cause the enchantments to deactivate, causing the stone stairs and walkway to become extremely unstable and unable to support more than forty pounds before that section falls to the lake below. The stone reappears in its normal spot within ten minutes, without whatever it was that made it fall.
Glowing white runic glyphs, inlaid with white opal, lie in a line along each side of the stairs and walkway, and give off a strong alkos and psionic force-effect that acts as a railing should anyone come too close. This effect, which can withstand up to 130 pounds of force, can be dismissed by any master or higher rank at will, but it resumes automatically within five minutes.
The effect cannot be suppressed otherwise, unless both dispel alkos and negate psionics are cast at it at the exact same time. Even if one manages to do that; however, the effect is only suppressed for several minutes. It is the same with attempting to suppress the force-effect keeping the bridge intact. Only those who belong to Aldorinath can suppress the effects for longer, and they must be of high rank.
If someone is shoved off of the stair/walkway bridge with enough force to bypass the force-railing, then a feather fall effect is put on the falling individual, and a mental alarm spell sounds in the mind of the nearest mage of the academy with an available levitate or fly spell. Any master or higher rank can dismiss this effect at will, though it resumes within the same amount of time the force-railing would.
The stalactite of Aldorinath is also 'anchored' to several floating crystals, via fadesteel (adamantine mixed with essence from the Plane of Shadow) chains that have been magically reinforced. These 'anchors' help to renew and reinforce the levitation-derived enchantments of the arcanist academy, to ensure that the enchantments enabling it to float never fade away, and, in the case a disjunction spell is used against them, that the enchantments are renewed before the academy-stalactite falls into the lake below.
The reason fadesteel was chosen as the type of metal for the chains, despite its rarity and difficulty of forging, is because it combines valamitin hardness and damage resistance with the semi-incorporeal properties of shadowstuff. Thus making it obscenely difficult to damage, with the enchantments used to prevent wear and give an automatic repair effect should the chains actually become damaged.
Each of the crystal 'anchors' are extensively-enchanted, alkos-grown and psionically-enhanced diamonds, each of which is in a dual-pointed spire shape and is at least thirty feet wide in diameter at its thickest part. A magically-carved line of runic glyphs in a spiral pattern, inlaid with silver and platinum, leads from one tip to the other, and small shards of rock quartz (clear quartz), smokey quartz, fire opal, ruby, sapphire, emerald, jet, peacock ore (chalcopyrite), and onyx float around each major crystal independently.
Not only do these provide some form of defense against the most alkos-devastating spell to ever be invented, they also provide other defenses should Aldorinath ever come under attack. Webs of spells interconnect each crystal and shard, reinforcing each other and renewing each other constantly.
The crystal anchors are also safe to touch, but any attack on them causes the alkos defenses to activate.
Defenses
Known spells involved in this tangled web are chain lightning, fireball, alkos backlash, dispel alkos, web, cone of cold, disintegrate, shatter, hypnotic pattern, prismatic spray, prismatic mist, cloudkill, and faerie fire. There is most definitely more spells embedded in this complicated web, which activate should anyone try doing damage to a crystal, shard, or chain, or to the academy-stalactite of Aldorinath itself.
Any attempt to take one of the free-floating shards results in getting zapped with a jolt of electricity that does moderate of damage. This damage increases exponentially for each attempt that occurs within the next eight hours, with the 'timer' reset each time someone attempts to take the shard. Merely touching the shard does not set off this defense, but attacking it causes the automatic defensive spells of the spell web to activate.
There are also psionic defenses, but these are not as extensive as the spell web: Known psionic defenses include crystal storm, energy retort, energy burst, concussive blast, and energy bolt. These psionic defenses activate the moment any part of the defensive grid is attacked, and are unaffected by dispel alkos, though negate psionics works normally.
The fadesteel chains are under a constant repair critical damage spell effect.
The whole network is also under a permanent, enhanced alarm spell, which sounds a mental alarm in all anointed masters of Aldorinath as well as the designated Archmage ruler of the academy. The alarm’s sound is different from the alarm for someone falling off the stair/walkway bridge.
It also sounds in the mind of the male drow archmage and arachnomancer known as the Spider Mage, who despite not being the ruler of Aldorinath, is recognized and respected for his age, knowledge, and considerable arcane might. Indeed, the Spider Mage is, perhaps, the oldest drow known, with his real age known only to himself - he is noted to have been around since the city's founding, and believed to be an ageless.
This alarm effect sounds regardless of location, even if the Archmage, Basilisk Mage, or a master is on another plane of existence. Whether or not the individual in question would be able to do anything about it when so far away is another matter entirely.
Type
University / Educational complex
Parent Location
Owner
Characters in Location
