Deathstalk Tower

Deathstalk Tower

(Location)

Locale

Shevaroth, Kyonin

Source: The Secret of Deathstalk Tower, pg(s). 43–69, inside covers

As of 4725 AR, Deathstalk Tower was a massive fungal tower located at the center of the ruined city of Shevaroth in Kyonin. The site was originally the Cathedral of Calistria, one of the largest temples of Calistria in the Inner Sea region, before the nascent demon lord Treerazer conquered and destroyed Shevaroth millennia ago and corrupted the cathedral into a twisted mockery of its former form.

Description

As a temple to Calistria

The site originally consisted of a central tower with three spires situated above underground dungeons and catacombs. A crescent-shaped amphitheater with rows of terraced seats faced a balcony 40 feet up the tower's face, and was the site of most of the tower's worship; few worshippers ever actually entered the temple and instead participated in services led by a cleric on the balcony.

The central tower contained an extradimensional space within an inner sanctum that replicates its exterior roofs, accessible only via elf gate.

As Deathstalk Tower

After Treerazer conquered Shevaroth in 2497 AR, he corrupted the tower's form into a twisted 300-foot-tall deathstalk mushroom. It still consists of a central tower with three spires above its dungeons and catacombs, but the amphitheater is now a swamp, and the tower's exterior heights are obscured by a persistent cloud of spores.

Its fungal reformation made the tower's interior sickeningly dank and humid, filling its air with clouds of fungal spores and covering its floors in briars and poisonous fungi.

History

The temple of Calistria served as a house of worship, as well as a prison for those awaiting trial by its Calistrian clergy, catacombs of crypts containing the ashen remains of deceased worshipers, and a treasury.

The nascent demon lord Treerazer's conquest of Shevaroth and corruption of the area twisted it into a massive unholy deathstalk mushroom, which remained vacant for centuries as a trophy of Treerazer's conquest of the Tanglebriar.

Centuries later, a boggard cult of Rovagug that managed to evade patrols of both elves and demons reached and occupied the central tower and dungeons in order to use Treerazer's nearby presence to fuel their dark magic, and to pervert the rites of the Savored Sting. For years, they created countless cocoons and chrysalises that seemed to be on the verge of opening.

As of 4725 AR, a fungus tyrant known as the Spore Queen had arrived and taken control of the tower, evicting the cultists to its dungeons, where they stewed in futile desire for vengeance against the Spore Queen.

References

Paizo published a Spore War Pathfinder Adventure Path titled The Secret of Deathstalk Tower, part of which is set in the tower. It also includes maps of the tower's interior and a profile of its exterior.