The Demonspire
I saw it once when on an imperial expedition to find a safe route through that blasted dust desert. One moment there was just grey dust as far as the eye could see in every direction and the next there it loomed, maybe a kilometer off, tall and menacing, with creatures far larger than any bird circling around it. The expedition leader went all pale and urged us to hurry on and try and ignore it. Then the whispering started. A soft female voice, alternating between tempting, pleading, and cajoling us to come to the tower. Asking us to come rescue her, or join her, promising dark things if we did. The tower and the whispers followed us for half the day, always there in the corner of the eye and edge of our mind. I still have nightmares about those whispers.
The Demonspire is a mysterious tower that legends say was once the home of powerful and evil witch that was called the Demon Queen. It served as both a fortress from which she sent out her armies to conquer the world and as a personal place of power where she summoned demons and dabbled in dark magics. Originally thought destroyed in an ancient war in a past era, it sometimes appears to travellers in the Grey Desert, many times accompanied by a tempting female voice that many claim is the Demon Queen herself. Most who see the Spire avoid it all costs, but once in a while a group of adventurers seek it out on purpose, lured by stories of great treasure and magic hidden somewhere in the tower.
Architecture
The Spire is built from great blocks of dark grey stone that is not found anywhere else in the world. In some places a dark viscous liquid seeps out from between the blocks. This liquid is acidic to the touch and mildly toxic if ingested or introduced into a wound. The first three stories of the Spire are shaped like a hexagon and are much wider than the rest. On each corner a five story, flat topped tower rises and between them run irregular, jagged parapets. The tower itself extends from the middle of this fortress and rise another 7 stores to a flat top that is surrounded by the same jagged parapet as the lower walls. The only visible entrance to the Spire is a single 5 meter tall gate made of blackened, ironbound wood. The central tower has several balconies on which perch demonic looking gargoyles, but with no apparent access from the tower.
From the entrance gate a two story high hallway, that is wide enough to fit 4 horses abreast, runs directly to en center of the fortress. Here a 5 meter wide central well rises 6 stories up featuring several interior balconies. The first floor contains a large stables, several smithies, a large armory, and two large halls that were apparently used for training and sparring. The second floor contains extensive barracks for common soldiers as a large mess hall with accompening kitchens. The third floor was used to house the officers and also contains a small library and a map room with an intricate, but outdated, three dimensional map of the continent. What lies further up in the tower itself is unknown as no adventurers that have gone that far and survived to tell about it. At least one basement level is known to exist beneath the Spire and contains a numerous storage rooms as well as a large dungeon.
As we ventured further into the dark fortress we noticed that everywhere we went torches had already been lit as if someone still lived there. But instead of burning with a warm orange glow, the fire was dark red and menacing. Flickering and casting long shadows that seemed almost alive. The incessant whispering had stopped when we entered the gates, leaving us with an eerie silence. When it started again I was actually happy for a moment, then the screaming began.
History
In a past era, an ambitious woman made a pact with an unnamed Demon Lord who granted her great power in exchange for helping it enter Gaea. Using her new powers, she took control of one of the kingdoms of the era, with either guile or force, depending on which legend is told. With the resources of the kingdom at her disposal she started construction of a great tower, weaving dark magic into it as it rose and sacrificing an untold number of her subjects in the process.
When more sacrifices were needed the Demon Queen, as she had been dubbed by then, went to war against the neighboring kingdoms using an army of both humans and demons. The kingdoms responded by banding together and meeting her in a series of battles, trying to reach the site where the tower was being built to bring it down before the queen’s evil intentions came to fruition.
Eventually a small band of adventurers were able to reach the recently completed tower and infiltrate it just as the Demon Queen was performing the great ritual that would open a portal to the Abyss and let the Demon Lord enter the world. What happened in the tower is unknown, but a great explosion of multihued fire erupted from the tower engulfing the surrounding lands and incinerating both armies, who were fight not far away. The fire spread all the way to the mountains in both east and west, and all the way to the sea in the south. In the north the fires only stopped after destroying a large section of the great elven forest. All that was left after the fires passage was a fine grey dust. The tower itself vanished in the explosion leaving no ruin behind. Since then, numerous groups braving the perils of the desert have reported seeing the tower, appearing out of nowhere, intact and foreboding as is nothing had ever happened.
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