Argon’s Watch

For as long as anyone can remember, Argon's Watch has been a two mile high towering stone edifice dominating the Gatar Depression. Purportedly home to Drow sorcerers, summoners, and their evil minions.

Mid-summer 817wk, this changed. An explosion occurred in the base of the tower that was felt throughout the Gatar Depression, witnesses described a blast wave that stirred no rock or sand but swayed or toppled people, plants and animals. They talked of feelings of death, life, horror, and hope assaulting them in waves. Several unexplained deaths and miraculous healings are credited to the event.

Summer - Winter 817wk

Following the explosion, cracks run through the mountainous tower, the stone gradually shattering under its own weight. Granite boulders the size of houses peeled off and crashed to the desert below each reshaping the landscape until the next fell and changed it again. Those brave enough to get closer report strange lights and malformed creatures in the region, most moving away from the tower to trouble other lands.

What remains is rubble, approximately half a mile high where the tower once stood with debris scattered for up to half a mile in every direction.

Above this where the tower once stood, the world itself seems to have been twisted. Intact portions hang undamaged in mid air with gaping maws where tunnels once led to other parts of the tower. Dimensional instability is rife, potentially the remnants of foul sorcery, rifts leading to fell worlds, and places where horrors from beyond the veil peer through.

Witnesses report there is still activity within the remnants of the tower, things can be seen moving and eldritch lights are sometimes visible at night.

Others report that on days of power, the tower is still intact when observed indirectly.

It has been confirmed that the shadow of Argon's Watch is unchanged, it still extends over the wastelands as through the tower were still there.

Rumours

• great wealth and powerful artefacts remain within the ruins waiting for whoever is brave enough to seek them.
• extensive tunnels beneath the tower and surrounding lands are still there and still occupied by the Drow.
• sleeping within the shadow of the tower grants visions of a sword rising from a pool of light within a dark cave. Or nightmares of horrors tearing your flesh from your bones while you still live.
• Argon, a powerful mortal was bound within the tower and is now free. Whether he was hero or villain depends on the stories told.

Guild Security Travel Warning

Guild members are advised to avoid the ruins of Argon's Watch, the area is considered extremely dangerous and rescue parties will not be dispatched after those that fail to return from entering the region.

Guild Philosophers and Mechanicians estimate the area could remain unstable indefinitely. "This is not just rocks you understand? Drow have occupied that rock for centuries working their dark sorcery, some of that stone has been absorbing power for so long it is no longer just stone, it is raw evil unleashed upon the world!"

GM Notes

The tower was of a size and dimensions that were not normally stable. It was held up by the power emanating from a well of souls deep within the tower. This well was broken by an agent of Death wielding a great artefact of life, the power and souls were released in a cataclysmic blast.

Drow and similarly powerful entities with unsavoury reputations have occupied the tower for thousands of years adding to and drawing on the power of the well. Many of their experiments and activities were disrupted by the explosion, the range of effects would be from cataclysmic failure through not much change to outstanding success. The residents and their experiments have mostly been un-homed and could be wandering or already setting up somewhere else. The pacts and agreements within which they worked together or at least not-too-aggressively alongside each other will no longer be applying and there may be conflict or new alliances between the former residents. And not all of them left.

The area and former residents should generally be considered at least high level.

Adventures

Adventures and adventurers that have interacted with Argon's Watch:

• Summer 817wk: The Fox vs The Marquessa - broke the Watch