The Towers of Pain

Shattered World

This is part of my ongoing series on the Shattered World setting, which contains pieces you can drop into your own game. It’s based on the Gamer Assembly‘s Shattered Seas meta-setting.

This post introduces the headquarters for the feared lieutenants of the High Wizards of Iziz.

The Towers of Pain

History

As the High Wizards grew their power and formed the Wolves of Shadow, they knew they would need to keep all the Wolves in one place. So, one of the Wolves’ earliest duties was to clear out an old tower complex built during the Dawn of Magic, and turn it into the Wolves’ headquarters. The Wolves who still survive from that time remember that job with fondness and exhaustion; it took them weeks to clear out all the monsters.

The complex sits on the island of Thorn, which was once the home of a dragon and later a wizard who performed large numbers of experiments in the towers during the Dragon Plague.

Description

Three tall towers rise in the center of the island of Thorn. Surrounded by a twenty-foot stone wall, then dozens of stone outbuildings and an outer wall of alabaster, the Towers of Pain stand as a grim monument to the Wolves’ power and presence.

One tower is made of black stone, another of white stone, and a third is a mottled gray, and they range from fifty to one hundred feet in height. Some claim that the towers change height over time.

Within the towers’ walls are meeting rooms and bedrooms for the Wolves. They are well-furnished, with plenty of wood and expensive fabrics. The Wolves have their privileges.

The lower floors of the towers house dungeons and pits that hold more dangerous people and monsters. The upper floors are reserved for—as the Wolves describe it, with a smirk—aggressive questioning.

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