Blackwell

Purpose / Function

Mount Blackwell was created to serve as the base of opperations for the Black Wishes, an adventuring party during the age of heroes. It was converted into the lair of the party's wizard when he became a lich, and is now the capital of the Black Wish Empire.

Design

The mountain as a whole is 1000ft tall and is a 350ft circle. Each floor is 180ft tall from floor to ceiling, and is a 300ft circle. As for the make up of the tower, the outside and each floor is vastly different. The outside is made of a single, uniform piece of obsidian, as are the guard towers and fortress at the top. The only different pieces are the doors to enter the first floor, which are made of iron and depict the adventures of the Black Wishes prior to the creation of Blackwell. The first floor is a frozen tundra with walls and ceiling made of marble, and a floor of obsidian burried underneath several feet of snow.
The second floor is a jungle resembling the jungles of the faewilds and uses the branches of the trees as the ceiling, with foliage covered dirt acting as the floor. The walls of this floor are made of plaster, painted with murals of the wild and nature as a whole. It rains several times a day on this floor.
The third floor is a firey hellscape filled with rivers and pools of lava, with rocky outcroppings jutting out from the edges. It's walls are marble died black and red by soot and blood. The cielings are pumice pocketed with ash. The ground, where it isn't molten, is jagged hunks of obsidian.
The fourth floor is a cave with all surfaces made of brown stones and dirt. It is filled with water, and the buildings are made from sandstone.
Finally, the fifth floor is made primarily from marble, with dark purple cloth hanging throughout. It's in a style resembling a blend of real world gothic style and fantasy dwarven style, complete with angular arches, rib vaults, flying butrasses, and nothing having any curvature to it. Everything either has a straight line or is an angle.

Entries

The only entrance or exits to Blackwell is the fortress at the top, as the tower is enchanted to be indestructable and has no windows.

Denizens

The guard towers have wraiths acting as guards. The fortress is guarded by 200 ghosts armed to the teeth. The first floor has a number of winter wolves, elk, polar bears, and rabbits, with the exit being guarded by a the Black Wishes' barbarian's adopted grandson, an ice dragon named Palor. The second floor is home to a number of fae, elves, and woodland creatures that come from the faewilds. It's exit is protected by the decendants of the Black Wishes' bard, a pair of drow twins named Remus and Atlanta. The third floor was where Tyil's wife kept the demons who had sworn themselves to her, with her former patron, a demon named Rubedo, is eternally bound to guard the stairs and prevent anyone from passing through. The fourth floor is populated by tritons, merfolk, and the animals their ancestors brought as either pets or food. Finally, the fifth floor is the private dwellings of Tyil, and is filled with all manner of undead and constructs, as well as dozens of mimics.

Valuables

Aside from whatever the denizens of the other floors have managed to create or gather during their time in the tower, the fifth floor of the tower is where the Black Wishes kept their treasure. The treasury is guarded by mimics galore, but inside is enough gold to fund an entire nation for a hundred years, in addition to enough magic items that the wraiths and ghosts guarding the entrance have been given magical weapons and armor.

Special Properties

Blackwell has been enchanted so that there is a magical field that prevents anyone from casting divination or teleportation magics of any kind while within a thousand feet of the tower, or to target the tower or anything in it with those spells. The only way around this is to wear a special enchanted ring, only five of which exist. They were originally given to the members of Black Wishes, and in addition to avoiding the barrier, it also let the person teleport to any of the entrances of the floors of the tower.
The stairwells that lead to and from the third floor are holy in nature and cannot be entered by fiends.

Architecture

From the outside, Blackwell Tower is a single pillar of obsidian without any flaws or imperfections to it. Winding along it is a narrow path that is occationally blocked by a guard tower. At the very top is a fortress molded from the same obsidian the rest of the tower is made of. Inside is a large iron door that opens up to a staircase leading to the first of 5 floors, each of which are designed by a different member of the Black Wishes. Most of the floors look very natural looking, with smooth walls, and the only detailing on the ceilings and floors being a result of the environment inside it. The fourth floor has some buildings, which have greco-roman architecture, and the final floor looks like a dwarven citadel.

History

Thousands of years ago, during the age of heroes, the dwarven wizard Ylik was a member of the Black Wishes, a mercenary band turned adventuring party. After one particularly eventful spring night involving the party's half-elf bard, the elven lord's grandmother, and a faulty lock, the Black Wishes found themselves banished from the city they had spent the last several years calling home. In need of a new home, Ylik used his magic to create Mount Blackwell, and placed a tower at the top, as well as all throughout it's inside.
Years later, the original members of the Black Wishes began to pass away from old age, leaving behind only Ylik behind. In his grief, he swore that death would not claim him, and used the vast treasure trove of knowledge he had aquired over his centuries of adventuring to create a phylactery. Upon it's completion, Ylik turned away from the world, dedicating himself soley to the pursuit of the arcane.
Recently, however, he detected something amiss in the world. Looking into it, he discovered two things. The first was that ten thousand years had passed, and the world outside had completely changed, even going so far as to forget the Black Wishes had ever existed. The second was that the sword once wielded by his wife before she fell into a dimensional rift had returned to the world, and was now in the hands of some snot nosed brat who didn't know the first thing about how to use it. Neither of these would stand.
Now Mount Blackwell serves as the capital of the Black Wish Empire, the youngest nation on the world stage, helmed by it's dwarf king, and his army of monsters.

Type

Tower, Mage