The spires are a work of cruel fiction, a testament to the intent and will of something far older, far more intelligent, and far more vile than anything we can hope to personally comprehend -
Shuriig. The presence of these spires acts as an antenna to Shuriig’s nightmarish influence, projecting twisted patterns on the surrounding world to reshape it in accordance to its horrific will.
The exact method used to start these spires off is unknown, even by those who choose to align and barter with Shuriig for the means to spread them. The memory is simply wiped from their minds, or their perception of time altered by the Eldest Evil, to prevent them from knowing how exactly the things propogate. Perhaps a defense mechanism, or perhaps something else. Whatever the case, it is distinctly wrong. The spire brings to mind some kind of alien, metallic tree, with thick vine-like growths spiraling together from roots in the ground up into branches and ultimately, a pointed tip that flowers, buds, and fruits like a fungal polyp. The entire structure produces an audible hum in a disonnant key, just loud enough to be distracting but not so loud as to be deafening.
Primordial Designs
The composition of a spire seemingly predates known history, suggesting their earliest forms were spawned in the formative years of the Chromanexus's emergence by powers that defy proper explanation, by things that no one has ever rightly classified as having originated either from or beyond our known existences. It is likely because of this they're so hard to destroy.
A spire has immunity to critical hits, poison, necrotic, and non-magical damage, and resistance to all magical damage other than bludgeoning and thunder damage. If the spire takes necrotic damage, it regains hit points equal to the damage it would have taken instead. It also has immunity to all conditions. It acts at the top of initiative (initiative count 30), in addition to any lair effects that might be in play. Its remaining features are dependent on its size (it continues to grow with unnatural swiftness; a spire reaches maturity in as little as a month, but doesn't stop growing after this.
- At Large, the spire stands around 15 ft. tall and has 200 hit points. Its area of effect extends a mile in every direction.
- At Huge, the spire stands around 30 ft. tall and has 300 hit points. Its area of effect extends up to three miles in every direction.
- At Gargantuan, the spire stands at a minimum of 50 ft. tall and has 600 hit points. Its area of effect extends up to six miles in every direction.
For the purposes of combat, we use Vecna's stat block to represent the Dissonant Spire with some minor alterations, including those listed above. It lacks a movement speed, and its
Vile Teleport trait is replaced with
Devour (the Dissonant Spire targets an adjacent willing creature, killing it instantly. When the creature dies, the spire regains 80 hit points and converts half the creature's remaining health into temporary hit points. These temporary hit points can stack.). Also, its
Fell Rebuke reaction instead has a range of 120 feet, but is unable to teleport the spire. Lastly, the spire regenerates 10 hit points at the start of each of its turns as long as its heart remains intact.
To add a Dissonant Spire to combat, we use Vecna's stat block. Use the following command after starting initiative to set it up correctly:
!init madd "Vecna" -p 30 -immune necrotic -resist fire -resist psychic -resist force -resist acid -resist radiant -type aberration -hp ###
Destroying a Spire
Simply reducing a spire to 0 hit points does not kill it. It can only be destroyed if its heart is removed, a mystical artifact of amber that pulses with raw, pure evil.
- Once a Large or Huge spire is reduced to 0 hit points, its heart is exposed.
- Once a Gargantuan spire is reduced to 0 hit points, the spire triggers a Death Blossom, gathering energy at its uppermost tip; it absorbs the life essence of all remaining allies, instantly killing them, and can continue to take actions until the end of its next turn. Once the turn ends, all the gathered energy explodes outward up to 120 ft. away. Every creature within range takes necrotic damage equal to the absorbed hit points plus twice any additional damage it took after the Death Blossom was triggered. After this, the heart is exposed.
Once exposed, the heart has 1 hit point, and immunity to all damage other than magical piercing. Once pierced, the heart and the spire around it discorporate into a pool of mercurial fluids. If a creature with 100 hit points or fewer touches this fluid, they die. If not resurrected within the next 1d4 hours, the creature is reanimated as an undead creature under Shuriig's control. Ping Wraith if this happens to a player in one of your missions.
A creature can attempt to forcibly rip the exposed heart out of the spire with a Strength (Athletics) check against a DC of 25. On a success, the heart is pulled out and the tree decays as if the heart were destroyed, but the heart remains intact. At the end of each hour, a creature holding the heart makes a DC 25 Wisdom saving throw or be effected by the heart as if by the effects of the
geas spell cast at the 9th level. Ping Wraith if this happens to a player in one of your missions.
If a detached heart has not been destroyed, it begins to construct a new spire over the course of the next 1d4+1 days. If the heart is placed inside an extradimensional space, like a
bag of holding, this occurs over the course of 1d4+1 hours instead.
Harmonic Dissonance
As much as the sight of a spiraling tree made of unknown metals is terrifying to many, it is not the sight of the spire that is truly harrowing. It is the haunting melody that it produces throughout the day and night, a discordant buzz that registers on the mind like a noxious odor but not so powerfully as to overpower your senses. Not immediately, at least. A creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher perceives this disharmony with each of their senses in unusual ways. Other creatures feel compelled to leave the area.
This resonance effects its region in numerous ways.
Corrupted Automata
The spire knows the precise location of all warforged and constructs within its area of influence and can telepathically communicate this information with its allies. Once every 24 hours, the spire can target a warforged or construct within its area of effect and give it a command (as an action). The target must make a DC 25 Wisdom saving throw or be compelled to follow the command.
Crimson Plague
The presence of the spire accelerates the spread of
crimson rot within its area of effect. Fresh food spoils within the hour, and crimson rot fast develops within it. Infected spoils seem appetizing (though this does not change the taste, most creatures interpret it as tasting sweeter), which in turn infect those who consume the spoils and increases the available means of spreading the rot farther and farther from its point of origin.
Dimensional Seal
Within the area of effect, all conjuration magic and any other effect that involves teleportation or planar travel is blocked. Attempts to use any of these effects results in failure, and the resource being wasted. Once the spire reaches Gargantuan size, a 20 foot diameter gate opens at its base connecting to an unknown dark realm, believed to either be the Abyss, the Far Realm, or some abominable combination of both, permitting the free passage of demons and aberrations to and from the spire. This gate is functionally identical to an
Abyssal Rift, and would make it the centerpiece of a
Rift the Veil Tale.
Twilight Sepulcher
The area of effect is suffused with hazy twilight. Sunlight cannot penetrate the area, and magical light is extinguished at the end of the turn it was produced. This effect negates the trait
sunlight sensitivty and similar traits.
Waste Not Want Not
A non-undead creature that dies within the area of effect is reanimated as an undead creature under the GM's control after 1 minute. Once reanimated this way, the creature cannot be brought back to life by any means other than a wish or by divine intervention. Most creatures reanimated this way become death's heads, zombies, or skeletons, but the exact undead conjured by this effect are chosen at the GM's discretion.
Comments