Arkhan's Tower
Arkhan's Tower is the fortress of Arkhan the Cruel, one of Tiamat's generals in the war against Marshall, high cleric of Stronmaus, the Storm Lord. Stretching a full kilometer into the air, the fortress is located in the northwestern corner of Avernus between the north side of the River Styx and just south of the base of the mountain containing Tiamat's Lair.
The entire tower was made from obsidian mined from Tiamat's Mountain, creating a fortress impervious to any magic short of being struck directly by a deity. The land around the tower was flat and had been stripped bare, clearing away any potential cover that would-be invaders could use and allowing anyone atop the tower to clearly see the area around it. Typically, at least one adult dragon would perch upon the tower's roof on the lookout for intruders. Younger dragons and wyrmlings would patrol the nearby area, constantly on a vigilant lookout against invaders.
When General Marshall was ready to move against the tower, he and his army launched an assault from the tower's west. Truly, this was merely a diversion to allow a team of mercenaries hired for him by Lady Kemlar to sneak up on the tower from the east. Though they were spotted by the tower's dragon water, the group made their way inside with the goal of capturing General Arkhan dead or alive. They quickly found that each floor had its own defenses against intruders as they made their way up. Each floor had a 100' high ceiling, having seemingly been made with the size of grown dragons in mind.
Arkhan the Cruel's defeat caused the tower's magic to greatly weaken, no longer sustained by the dragonborn's fervant worship of Tiamat. Shortly after his death, Lady Kemlar used the Decay Incantation to destroy the tower completely. Some time later, Tiamat's new general Mac Lendon scavenged the ruins to recover Arkhan and Torogar Steelfist's magic items for himself.
1st floor - A chapel to Tiamat protected by hordes of zombies. When defeated, each fallen zombie horde reformed into a zombie clot that also had to be destroyed. This floor also contained a large glass tank that appeared to be filled with damned souls as well as an unused tomb that was intended for Marshall.
2nd floor - A morgue built to drain the blood of Good-aligned humanoids into a large central storage tank, where it would be mixed with powdered unicorn horn for reasons unknown. The machine facilitating this process was powered by an imprisoned nightmare beast, which was freed by Genevieve and helped the adventurers fight the skeleton hordes defending the room. The fallen hordes reformed into a dragonbone golem and giant skeleton after their defeat, the former of which petrified the nightmare beast before the adventurers could bring it down.
3rd floor - The circular central room lead to a number of small chambers that appeared dedicated to various sciences. Smaller scale versions of the machines on the first floor, a golem creation lab, a room dedicated to humanoid experimentation, a production facility for the obsidian the tower was made from, and Krull's office could all be found here. A message was hidden on the bookshelf in Krull's office with a riddle that hinted at the solution to activating this floor's teleportation circle: offering several magic items as tribute to Tiamat.
4th floor - Lair of Slarkas, the adult black dragon. The floor was soft and marshy like a swamp, having been altered by Slarkas' magic. His companion, a clay golem, was also found here. Unlike the previous floors, this one had several huge holes in the wall that were used by the adult white dragon Obatala for hit and run tactics while the adventurers battled Slarkas. The clay golem was pushed out of one of the holes in the wall by Tim, who also dealt the death blow to Slarkas with blasts of eldritch energy.
5th floor - Lair of Vistalancer, the adult blue dragon. Like the previous floor, this area had been warped by the magical energy of the dragon residing there, covering most of the area in sand. It also had openings like the last floor, allowing Obatala to resume his hit and run tactics. Vistalancer greeted the intruders from his nest of glass as his fiendish flesh golem servant lumbered towards the party. Tim slayed yet another dragon by finishing off the wounded Vistalancer with blasts of eldritch magic before converging with his allies to finish off the flesh golem.
6th floor - A hatchery that contained several incubation chambers for dragon eggs, each capable of producing cold for white dragon eggs as well as the heat required to hatch any other egg. The controls for one of these machines turned out to be fake with an illusion hiding a series of levers and a riddle indicting which of them needed to be pulled to activate the floor's teleportation circle and proceed up the tower.
7th floor - Lair of Virmilius, the adult green dragon. The floor had been warped by the dragon's magic, turned into a soft mud that resembled a forest after rain pocketmarked with pools of poison and jutting crystals. Two living cloudkill spells emerged from the poison pools to support the dragon, creating toxic smoke that it hid inside during battle. At the same time, Obatala returned yet again to hit the party with his cold breath multiple times. The toxic cloud ultimately did not protected Virmilius from completely and his skull was shattered by Genevieve's rocket fist.
8th floor - Lair of Flash, the adult red dragon. Warped by Flash, the floor of this room was made entirely of magma (some solid and some molten). Three living fireball spells attacked the intruders upon entering the room, though Flash himself was not initially present. He hid beneath the lava, emerging to use his breath weapon and critically injuring Ibrahim Moizoos while burning the other adventurers more minorly. Despite this, the dwarf recovered from his wounds with the aid of his companions and unleashed a blast of divine magic that ended Flash's life.
9th floor - Arkhan the Cruel's apartments, built as much for luxury as for practicality. This room sported a teleportation circle similar to the one on the 6th floor yet could not be activated in the same manner. As the group searched the room for clues, Genevieve discovered a hidden floor panel under a bed concealing a series of twenty buttons, set in rows of four with each row colored after a different chromatic dragon. Several clues in the room proved to be false, though the adventurers eventually figured out the right combination of buttons (after several failed attempts by Mr. Hydration) and teleported to the roof.
Roof - Arkhan the Cruel stood on a dias in the center of the roof with his inner circle: Torogar Steelfist, Krull, and Obatala, the white dragon. The wicked dragonborn was 3/5 of the way through a ritual that would free Tiamat from her imprisonment when the party interrupted. Arkhan attempted to bribe the adventurers, but the conversation turned to battle when he learned they were working for Lady Kemlar. The vicious conflict ended with the adventurers victorious, though during the battle they realized Arkhan was in possession of the Hand of Vecna and that obtaining it was Lady Kemlar's true goal. Most of them attempted to flee with the hand, which triggered preventative magics placed on them when they previously agreed to Lady Kemlar's deal. When Lady Kemlar herself arrived to speak with them, Genevieve destroyed two bags of holding to flee with the Hand into the Astral Plane. Lady Kemlar dismissed the remaining adventurers after freeing them from their bargain (though refusing to pay them due to their attempted betrayal) before using a gate spell to call Genevieve back to her, killing the warforged to claim the Hand of Vecna.
Type
Tower
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