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The Woven Tower
The Woven Tower
The Woven Tower was once the tower of the magelord Calderon Morn(1).
Calderon Morn was an arogant man of power but for the most part
lived in peace with the Dwarves of Clan Bladebright. He married
a noble woman of Cormyr who turned out to be nothing but trouble.
While her wants and desires were not met in the backwater dale Calderon
continued to festor in his own evils and perversions. One day his
wife saw a gem that the dwaves had just unearthed and she wanted
it. She demanded it! She threatened the dwarves. Calderon was called
in to settle the situation but he backed his selfish wife and eventually
called down a curse upon the dwarves. This curse caused them to
leave due to illness, a lack of metal craft inspiration and valuable
mines drying up.
The dwarves left and only recently came back. In 1369, Erigyn the
Dark of Cyric broke into Calderon's tomb and raised him. He imprisoned
Erigyn(2) as thanks for her help and proceded to attack Daggerfalls
with a plague of Nightshades (a form of wood sprite). He was eventually
brought down by the adventuring band Eight-n-a-half.
Then in 1370 the Mage Tower as the Woven Tower was then known began
to have strange and hostile magics about it. Further investigation
showed a struggle between the spirit of Shraeven(3), the spirit
of Gothyl(4) (the failed lich) and another unknown power that was
trying to take the tower. Further investigation by many mages and
eventually the Eight-n-a-half adventuring band released Shraeven's
spirit. The whereabouts of Gothyl, if Gothyl at all still exists
is unknown. The unknown entity never showed its face and most theorise
that whatever was trying to take the tower failed.
Today the Woven Tower is the home of the local arcane guild. It
is home to both wizards and sorcerers who use the place for free
lodging, spell research, potion creation and spell pool privilages.
There are also shrines to Mystra and Azuth. The cost for such perks
is that one must be an arcane spell caster, make the occasional
donation of magic to study or go on a quest, and any new spells
created must be taught to the Inner Weave. The Woven Tower today
is much larger on the inside that is should be.
The Inner Weave is the governing body. None know their true identity
save themselves. And even then, it is rumored that this group has
a leader that no one knows the true identity of. These old men (for
that is what they all sound like beneath their blank, black oval
masks) set policies, research goals and quests for junior members.
The Woven Tower is known to be enemies with priests of Orcus, Zhentarim,
clerics of Cyric and Bane. The Woven Tower has also had several
battles with the forces of the Risen Sorcerer Nightbay in the Daggerhills.
The Woven Tower is cooly hostile to the Bone Tower and its members(5).
For the most part, the Woven Tower stays out of most local affairs.
Most all arcane spellcastors in Daggerfalls and the dale are members
of the Woven Tower. Three notable exceptions are Peraus Wands, a
printer in Daggerfalls and Mazarale whose floating tower can be
found just north of Serpents Bridge. Whether it is because of bad
blood or simply that these two don't like formal institutions. Or
perhaps they are unwilling to share their arcane secrets. The last
is Miraun who mysteriously put an entrance to a dungeon near Daggerfalls
and announced a challenge to all adventures to "come and get it".
Notable Woven Tower Members
Sahrea - Human female Wizard/Arcane Devote of Azuth, age 40. Sahrea
spends much of her time exploring the library of Daggerfalls and
also tomb hunting in the Daggerhills. She is crisp when speaking,
unapproachable while reading and dangerous when crossed. She has
a soft spot for children and believes in putting to rest undead,
permanently! Sahrea has dark eyes, black (now greying) hair and
prefers to keep layered defensive magics available in a wink of
an eye.
Chancelor Ownipus - Human male Wizard/fighter, age 55. Chancelor
Ownipus is a heavy set man with a keen mind and is most known for
giving astonishing lectures and making students drill unending with
basic magics. Chancelor Ownipus is slow to anger, quiet when he
is thinking and very loud when aroused to battle. He favours large
area battle magics with storms being his specialty. He still adventures
abroad and returns to give lectures, insight and assign quests to
junior members.
Queebs - Human Sorcerer follower of Mystra, age 84. Queebs is an
emaciated, balding, bent, old man that is often found muttering
to himself and daydreaming. Many students play practical jokes on
him and he suffers them mostly because he is unaware of them. Queebs
has an uncanny connection with the weave and some say that is where
his mind is, slowling unravelng the mysteries of the weave with
his very soul. Others think he is a dottering old drooling codger
that just hasn't figured out he is dead yet. Still, Queebs occasionally
flairs to life when strange new magics are used in his presence,
especially spell like abilities or sorcerer castings. He also quickly
gains mastery of any new magics but this goes unnotticed by most
as he can learn magic just by seeing it used. Queebs can often be
found in a chair near a sunny window with his rotund nurse maid,
Clarice hovering nearby. It is said that when he was young he used
to dual other spellcastors so that he could see them use new magics
and thus aquire them. It is even said he once fought a spellfire
wielder and won! His body does have some nasy spell battle scars
so these stories may be true. These scars are only seen by Clarice
and nosy, and very sneaky students.
Mannimus the Present - Wizard/Priest of Azuth, age 38. Mannimus
the Present is one of the main instructors at the Woven Tower. He
is loud, demanding, unforgiving of slights and has turned more then
one late student into a toad for several days to "teach them some
damn respectful manners!". Mannimus the Present is often striding
around town with his chest puffed out, a pipe at the corner of his
mouth, an eldritch staff in his hand and several young students
stumbling in his wake, seeking a morsel of arcane knowledge. With
particularly skillful students, it is said he takes them on a dangerous
adventure. The student often comes back, rich in magical treasure,
knowledge and scars. The student then most likely continues a career
of adventuring and lecturing or goes back home to heard potatoes
for the rest of his/her life.
Dorinal - Dwarven Sorcerer / Priest of Moradin / Shraevenor / Runecaster,
weaponsmith and member of Clan Bladebright, age middle-aged. Dorinal
is a quiet chanter of spells, rights and prayers. It is too bad
he doesn't actively teach at the Woven Tower as much of his knowledge
is highly sought after. Dorinal has been quietly making weapons
of power for the past 40 years and is starting to really get good
at it. Recently he got his hands on some Telstang metal and he his
hoping to make a true legacy of dwarven enspelled blades. Some say
he can be found late at night at the forge tapping away on scrap
metal, practicing his art and talking to himself as if he were taking
instructions from a ghost.
Jangolo the Flincher - Gnome Priest of Gond and Alchemist, age
middle-aged. Jangolo is a forest gnome from parts unknown. He has
studied in Halrua and Lantan it is said. Jangolo teaches most of
the lab studies at the woven tower. He is very meticulous and doesn't
let anyone but the most skilled students in his private labs. He
teaches glass blowing, and lab setups. He is one of Taberin's best
customers at the local Arora's Whole Realms Catalogue Outlet store.
He can often be found ushering hoards of students out of the store
laden with boxes, crates and handfuls of glasswear, pipes, candles
and other lab equipment. Several years ago he had and alchemist
shop and his partner was Orbadalis who still runs the store (although
it has since been renamed, see the shoppes section on the website).
Unfortunately he was experimenting with some highly volitile substances
and had just finished all his safetety precautions (putting more
burlap and canvas on the windows to keep bystanders safe from flying
glass) when a huge underground explosion(6) tipped over some chemicals
that really should not ever be mixed with the chemicals on the table.
Jangolo was so furious at Orbadalis's oversight in putting the chemicals
in close proximity, add to that he lost his experiment, his eyebrows,
his beard and three quarters of the shop and all its inventory;
he ended the partnership and excepted a position at the Woven Tower.
To his credit, there has not been a single fatality in any of his
classes.
Gorishkagal - Fire Genasi Conjuror, age 32. Gorishkagal is a brazen
red haired and fiery eyed danger seeker. He is often away from the
Woven Tower on long excusions but he comes back with new summonings
and beasts unheard of at his command. He has a beholder "Eyeball"
as his familiar and loves to gamble. He will bet on just about anything.
He has won several duals but shows polite deference to the Chancelor.
Jaris the Mute - Half-elf (Rock Elf(7)) Invoker / Rogue, age...young.
Jaris is a very quiet individual. He leads many underdark excursions
and is often gone for months at a time. He is grey of skin and cloths.
He hardly looks anyone in the eye and seems quite shy. He is never
seen outside on sunny days as he says it hurts his dark vision.
Jaris communicates via sign language but also keeps a slate handy
in town to write down his desires. Jaris never goes unarmed around
town and often has several daggers, wands and short swords about
his person. Jaris is also a consumate sketch artist and gives many
lectures about under dark survival, fuana, flora and natural hazards.
Jaris is friendly to most of the shoppe keepers in town and often
pays in gems, in advance and trusts to their honesty to let him
know when his credit is used up.
The Leader of the Woven Tower - his name is unknown, his skills
are rummored to be quiet, powerful and unstopable. The leader or
Greyspawn as he is sometimes refered to, speaks seldom but when
he does it is decisive. His advice has been wise, prudent and skillful.
He has a demeanor of one that knows much more of what is going on
in the world than he should. He has lead several attacks on Nightbay's
legions in the Dagger hills and has shown great skill at defeating
rival spellcasters on the battlefield. He often stays behind the
lines, measuring his opponents defenses. When he decides to strike,
his enemies' confident demeanor quite suddenly turns to terror as
their defensive magics are ripped aside and they fall to deadly
spells, none of which the leaders of the Woven Tower have ever seen
before.
Notes:
1 - Yes, an ancestor of Lord Randal Morn, the current leader of
Daggerdale.
2 - Erigyn was not only a Priestess of Cyric but also a Cronomancer
and gave the dale much trouble until she was brought to justice.
3 - Shraeven was a planewalker and master weaponsmith and maker
of arcane blades. He is now a ghost that resides at XXXX and sometimes
haunts the forges of Clan Bladebright.
4 - Gothyl, see the Sword of the Dales trilogy of adventures.
5 - Mostly due to Sahrea's hatred of undead and the more "flexible"
morals of the Necromancers of the Bone Tower
6 - This explosion was found to be the result of the Eight-n-a-Half
adventuring band setting off one FULL barrel of Thavian explosive
fluid, underground, on purpose and the secound and much closer to
the center of town by accident when they grossly underestimated
the power AND blast radius of this terrible substance. When the
group surfaced again they agreed to pay damages but Orbadalis was
forced to give up most of it when it was found he had sold the illegal
stuff to them in the first place. Jangolo has not spoken to his
brother since this event(8).
7 - Yes, he says he is a half-Rock Elf.
8 - Yes, Jangolo and Orbadalis are gnome brothers.
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