Ghost Tower of Inverness

The Ghost Tower is a partially ruined structure that appears as a narrow, needle-like fortress embedded in the high rock. What remains visible defies architectural logic: tilted corridors, impossibly balanced turrets, and doors that lead to sheer drops or echo with eldritch whispers.

The surrounding terrain is dry and treacherous, with natural hazards such as rockslides, sinkholes, and sudden storms common in the Abbor-Alz heights. At night, the tower glows faintly—sometimes red, sometimes silver—with an eerie pulse. Those who approach the tower after dark often vanish or return… changed.

Inside the Ghost Tower, reality behaves unpredictably:

• Time slips are common; adventurers report losing hours, days, or even emerging decades after their entrance, unchanged in age.
• The tower's rooms and corridors shift, as if the structure rearranges itself according to some arcane logic or unseen intelligence.
• Spectral guardians, ghostly echoes of past intruders, and strange constructs prowl its halls.
• The Soul Gem, a legendary crystal said to be the heart of the tower’s power, is rumored to remain deep within its central chamber. Some claim it can imprison souls; others say it feeds on them.

Few who seek the Soul Gem ever return. Fewer still return unchanged.

According to ancient legend, the tower was raised in a single night by a powerful and secretive archmage, who drew stone from the mountain and light from the stars to shape his fortress. Some name him Galap-Dreidel, a wizard of immense cunning and questionable sanity, who sought to pierce the veil between worlds and claim mastery over time, space, and soul.

The tower’s name, Inverness, evokes no known tongue, and scholars debate whether it was named by the archmage himself or derived from a forgotten planar dialect. What is known is that the tower became the epicenter of strange phenomena—lights that danced through the sky, howls heard with no source, and disappearances of entire expeditions.

Then, one day, the tower fell silent.

The Ghost Tower is a site of both arcane curiosity and dreaded reputation. It attracts mages, treasure hunters, and loremasters alike—each hoping to unlock its secrets, or at least survive long enough to tell the tale. The Free City of Greyhawk, as well as rival states like Urnst and Nyrond, have all quietly sponsored expeditions in recent years, with mixed—and often disastrous—results.

Despite its infamy, the tower has never been fully mapped, and its enchantments remain active even after centuries. Divinations cast near the tower often yield only static or ominous riddles.