Tokhel Castle

What remains of Tokhel is both majestic and broken:

• Half-fallen towers cling to the promontory like skeletal fingers.
• Collapsed halls and shattered gates lead to dangerous drop-offs or sealed inner chambers.
• Overgrown courtyards, paved with cracked stone, lie silent under layers of moss and ash.
• A single black obelisk, partially melted and etched with runes long unreadable, stands in the upper bailey—possibly the cause of the catastrophe.

Despite the ruin, hidden entrances to dungeons below remain intact—some through shattered stairwells, others exposed by landslides. These under-levels are rumored to be vast and still mostly unexplored.

At the core of Tokhel Castle and its immediate surroundings lies a dead magic zone, a place where:

• Spells fail outright, regardless of level or origin.
• Magical items become mundane, often for as long as they remain within the zone.
• Divination magic cannot penetrate or reveal anything about the castle.
• Even innate abilities from magical creatures may falter or vanish.

The cause remains unknown—perhaps a failed ritual, a shattered artifact, or a wound in the weave of reality. Some believe the zone is shrinking, while others warn that it spreads slowly, like a poison in the land.

Once a mighty fortress, Tokhel Castle was said to have belonged to an ancient noble house, perhaps one tied to the lost Suel or Oeridian empires—though the details have been scrubbed from most records. What is known is that hundreds of years ago, Tokhel was a stronghold of arcane and martial might, a bastion where mages and knights stood guard over secrets of immense power.

Something went wrong.

An arcane cataclysm—whether summoned, sabotaged, or sealed—is said to have ripped through the castle’s heart. In the aftermath, magic itself recoiled from the place, leaving a dead magic zone where no spells function and enchanted items become inert. The castle fell silent, its halls choked with rubble, and the noble line that ruled it was never heard from again.

Tokhel is far from abandoned. Though sapient residents have long since fled, the ruin has become a haven for unnatural creatures, many drawn by or born from the magicless void. Within and around the ruins, one may encounter:

• Blind predators that hunt by vibration or scent, unaffected by magical trickery.
• Aberrant beasts, twisted by exposure to the dead magic field—some once magical, now mutated horrors.
• Constructs and undead, trapped or dormant since the castle’s fall, functioning in strange and limited ways.
• Monsters resistant to magic, thriving in an environment that makes magical combat useless.

Additionally, some cultists or warlocks are said to camp at the edge of the dead zone, believing the castle contains secrets about divine silence, magical entropy, or the end of the arcane age.

Adventurers speak of tunnels and chambers beneath the castle—parts of ancient laboratories, ritual chambers, vaults, and sealed prisons. Down there, the dead magic may weaken, or be interspersed with wild magic zones, where spells erupt unpredictably.

Some believe a sentient force, perhaps a fragment of a broken god or a bound magical entity, sleeps in the lowest chamber, dreaming of escape—or revenge.