Perilous Kaf
Once, long ago, there lived a mad wizard who chose to name her rambling, asymmetrical, gravity-defying tower “the Kaf.” Many have speculated that this word had some meaning in some extraplanar language that the wizard spoke, or that it relates somehow to the Kaf people of the Kildren Peninsula, but if so, the significance was lost upon the wizard’s death. Also lost upon her death was the structural integrity of her improbably constructed fortress, and before her elven allies had even finished lighting her pyre, her tower crumbled to ruins, destroying most of her centuries of acquired knowledge and treasure — or so it was thought.
Decades later, a group of treasure hunters passed through the region and poured over the jumbled stone ruins, in case the elves had missed anything of value. During the process, one of their number stumbled through a broken stone trapdoor into what was, at first, believed to be a simple basement. Excited by their discovery, the treasure hunters descended into the passage below, where they stayed for several days. Only two ever made it out alive, both badly injured, but one of them managed to bring out with her a golden statue enchanted to temporarily increase the intelligence of those touching it.
Sale of the statue made the two treasure hunters wealthy for life, and both retired from adventuring. They documented what they had experienced on a series of beautifully illuminated scrolls titled “The Perilous Kaf: A Labyrinth of Terror.” The scrolls described wealth and treasures but also knowledge beyond all imagining squirreled away in seemingly random pockets throughout an incomprehensible system of tunnels and honeycombing passages, all enchanted to magically shift and change shape from time to time.
These passages were guarded by traps both mechanical and magical, all enchanted to mend themselves if broken. In addition, various corridors housed guardians in the form of golems, animated objects, and other magical constructs, or were enchanted to summon living monsters to attack in accordance with unpredictable predetermined criteria.
“The Perilous Kaf cannot, in our opinion, be safely explored by mere mortals,” the scrolls conclude. “We were the best of our profession with the best equipment, and we believe we saw less than half of the wizard’s mad underground maze. Indeed, we believe that even she could no longer access most of her creation, unless some mystical key to her puzzle was lost in her tower’s rubble. We cannot recommend that anyone ever attempt such an expedition again.”
Despite such dire warnings, however, the scrolls do include a detailed map to the portions of the Kaf that the treasure hunters were able to explore, with extensive survival advice for those who would follow in their footsteps. Many have done so, and few have survived to tell the tale. Fewer still have had any better success than the first expedition, and none has managed to map the full Kaf.
The last known location of the scrolls of the Kaf is the treasury of the Xha’en emperor. By imperial decree, the Kaf itself has been sealed with a great iron gate. Too many have lost their lives in its depths to no purpose, and the empire fears what dangerous artifacts might be brought to the surface should an expedition ever succeed. It is said, however, that copies of the scrolls can be found here and there among the wealthier members of Xha’en’s criminal underworld. Some such copies are fakes or otherwise inaccurate, but it is said that at least one copy is a perfect replica of the original (or even that it IS the original, and the emperor has an excellent forgery).
Any explorers with a chance of survival would have no difficulty bypassing the emperor’s iron gate and lock, so the Kaf is still explored from time to time. What no one has found yet is whether the original treasure hunters were correct that some additional key is needed to solve the maze. The wizard’s elven allies did recover some treasures from the fallen tower. Could this hypothetical key be among them? And if so, who has it now? Perhaps the scrolls’ authors are correct that the mysteries of the Perilous Kaf will never be solved, but … perhaps not?
Type
Tower, Mage
Owning Organization
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