Dungeon Map for the Hosttower of the Arcane - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Dungeon Map for the Hosttower of the Arcane

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
dannoe
Jul 02, 2010 11:10:10 Hey guys,

Anybody got a map and/or any pictures of the Hosttower of the Arcane, post Spellplague. I'm thinking about running some part of my campaign in there in the intermediate future, and before I start drawing from scratch, I figured I'd ask around for a little help.

Thanks!
#2
18DELTA
Jul 02, 2010 18:07:28 I don't think so.

IIRC it was blown up in the last Drizzt novel.

Canon be damned, draw one up anyway!
#3
LordManshoon
Jul 02, 2010 19:24:53
I don't think so.

IIRC it was blown up in the last Drizzt novel.

Canon be damned, draw one up anyway!

Not the last Drizzt novel, but still correct; in a ploy by an antagonist in The Pirate King, the archmage Arklem Greeth, the Hosttower was obliterated, which dealt major damage to the forces gathered by Captain Deudermont, who had hoped to put an end to Greeth and his iron-fisted power control. I don't recall if it was ever rebuilt, but judging by the downhill plunge that Luskan entered following the collapse of Deudermont's new order, I doubt it. That being said, Delta's idea to draw one is a good idea, be it as ruins or as a still-standing tower.

#4
18DELTA
Jul 02, 2010 21:03:46 I knew it was one of the Drizzty novels...;)
#5
gray_richardson
Jul 02, 2010 21:55:25 There's sort of a cut-away diagram of the Host Tower Arcane in the Forgotten Realms Atlas by Karen Wynn Fonstad. It's not much, but it may give you an idea. The tower looks a lot like a gnarled tree, with a main tower extending up like a trunk, and then four towers extending out from the trunk and then curving up, on all four sides, like the branches of a tree, kind of in the shape of the tines of a pitchfork. From a distance, the silhouette of the tower looks like a black, gnarled hand sticking up over the city with the all the fingers pointing up.

Details about what lies inside the tower can be found in Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast in the section on Luskan, and also in Lords of Darkness in the section on the Arcane Brotherhood.

You pretty much have free reign on what to put inside. The Archmage Arcane has quarters in the top of the central tower, and the other four overwizards have quarters at the top of the other four towers. The rest of the tower is filled with laboratories, libraries, summoning rooms, workshops, perhaps a chapel to Bane, kitchens, underlings quarters, servants quarters, not to mention extra-dimensional spaces and secret passages. There is probably a grand entrance hall at the base of the tower, and I imagine a grand dining hall on the level above that. The Arcane Brotherhood's primary functions is as a wizard guild that creates magic items for sale, so there should be lots of rooms devoted to making and storing magical items, and also for storing the ingredients needed to make them.

No doubt the tower has just as many levels that extend into the earth beneath it. The dungeons below might be arrayed like the roots of a tree, or they might look like a continuation of the circular levels of the central tower extending deeper and deeper below. How they are arranged and what is found within is completely up to you as it has never been detailed in any official source that I know of.

If I recall, the Crystal Shard (or one of the novels in the Icewind Dale trilogy) had some details about the interior of the tower, but I don't recall if it was a great source of details or if the details were sparse. You might check it out to see.

I ran some players through an adventure in the Tower a few years back, and it was a lot of fun. In my campaign the Brotherhood had a giant soul-sucking device in one of the rooms that they were using to extract the life force from prisoners and enemies (xp) needed to craft magic items so that they wouldn't have to expend their own xp in crafting. This was the secret to how they could forge so many magical items for them to sell across the North. One of the party ended up captured and strapped to the chair, and the rest of the party had to rescue him. After freeing their companion, they ended up getting trapped by a contingent of Brotherhood wizards and guards. They ended up jumping out a window of the tower in order to save themselves.
#6
The_Silversword
Jul 03, 2010 1:10:23
Yup I guess it is blowed up. I never noticed that before, It used to be there on the northern area of Cutlass Island, but as you can see from the 4e map of Luskan, its no longer there. Still there might be a dungeon or something underground to explore, possibly full of liches. Theres still some buildings on the island maybe the Arcane Brotherhood moved into one of them, or perhaps the Sea Tower on the Southern end of the island is where they call home now?
#7
dannoe
Jul 11, 2010 6:22:37 Thanks guys. I was aware that it was blown up. In my game, I described it as "looking like it was hit by a meteor, with weird purple lights surrounding the top wreckage." Which meant that the top was blown off. The bottom few levels--and course everything that was underground--are still more or less intact, if in ruins. Also in my game, the Hosttower is the source of a continual supply of plaguechanged undead. Since the focus of the game is rebuilding Luskan, we will eventually have to deal with the Tower as a major ongoing issue.

My plan is to force the PCs to enter the tower through the tunnels below, using a secret access under water. The surface levels will be contaminated by Spellplague, etc. So, I suppose that I should have said that I really want a map of the tunnels underneath, but if I must draw of re-purpose something, then, well, that's an answer, too.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 dannoe Jul 02, 2010 11:10:10	Hey guys, Anybody got a map and/or any pictures of the Hosttower of the Arcane, post Spellplague. I'm thinking about running some part of my campaign in there in the intermediate future, and before I start drawing from scratch, I figured I'd ask around for a little help. Thanks!
#2 18DELTA Jul 02, 2010 18:07:28	I don't think so. IIRC it was blown up in the last Drizzt novel. Canon be damned, draw one up anyway!
#3 LordManshoon Jul 02, 2010 19:24:53	I don't think so. IIRC it was blown up in the last Drizzt novel. Canon be damned, draw one up anyway! Not the last Drizzt novel, but still correct; in a ploy by an antagonist in The Pirate King, the archmage Arklem Greeth, the Hosttower was obliterated, which dealt major damage to the forces gathered by Captain Deudermont, who had hoped to put an end to Greeth and his iron-fisted power control. I don't recall if it was ever rebuilt, but judging by the downhill plunge that Luskan entered following the collapse of Deudermont's new order, I doubt it. That being said, Delta's idea to draw one is a good idea, be it as ruins or as a still-standing tower.
#4 18DELTA Jul 02, 2010 21:03:46	I knew it was one of the Drizzty novels...;)
#5 gray_richardson Jul 02, 2010 21:55:25	There's sort of a cut-away diagram of the Host Tower Arcane in the Forgotten Realms Atlas by Karen Wynn Fonstad. It's not much, but it may give you an idea. The tower looks a lot like a gnarled tree, with a main tower extending up like a trunk, and then four towers extending out from the trunk and then curving up, on all four sides, like the branches of a tree, kind of in the shape of the tines of a pitchfork. From a distance, the silhouette of the tower looks like a black, gnarled hand sticking up over the city with the all the fingers pointing up. Details about what lies inside the tower can be found in Volo's Guide to the Sword Coast in the section on Luskan, and also in Lords of Darkness in the section on the Arcane Brotherhood. You pretty much have free reign on what to put inside. The Archmage Arcane has quarters in the top of the central tower, and the other four overwizards have quarters at the top of the other four towers. The rest of the tower is filled with laboratories, libraries, summoning rooms, workshops, perhaps a chapel to Bane, kitchens, underlings quarters, servants quarters, not to mention extra-dimensional spaces and secret passages. There is probably a grand entrance hall at the base of the tower, and I imagine a grand dining hall on the level above that. The Arcane Brotherhood's primary functions is as a wizard guild that creates magic items for sale, so there should be lots of rooms devoted to making and storing magical items, and also for storing the ingredients needed to make them. No doubt the tower has just as many levels that extend into the earth beneath it. The dungeons below might be arrayed like the roots of a tree, or they might look like a continuation of the circular levels of the central tower extending deeper and deeper below. How they are arranged and what is found within is completely up to you as it has never been detailed in any official source that I know of. If I recall, the Crystal Shard (or one of the novels in the Icewind Dale trilogy) had some details about the interior of the tower, but I don't recall if it was a great source of details or if the details were sparse. You might check it out to see. I ran some players through an adventure in the Tower a few years back, and it was a lot of fun. In my campaign the Brotherhood had a giant soul-sucking device in one of the rooms that they were using to extract the life force from prisoners and enemies (xp) needed to craft magic items so that they wouldn't have to expend their own xp in crafting. This was the secret to how they could forge so many magical items for them to sell across the North. One of the party ended up captured and strapped to the chair, and the rest of the party had to rescue him. After freeing their companion, they ended up getting trapped by a contingent of Brotherhood wizards and guards. They ended up jumping out a window of the tower in order to save themselves.
#6 The_Silversword Jul 03, 2010 1:10:23	Yup I guess it is blowed up. I never noticed that before, It used to be there on the northern area of Cutlass Island, but as you can see from the 4e map of Luskan, its no longer there. Still there might be a dungeon or something underground to explore, possibly full of liches. Theres still some buildings on the island maybe the Arcane Brotherhood moved into one of them, or perhaps the Sea Tower on the Southern end of the island is where they call home now?
#7 dannoe Jul 11, 2010 6:22:37	Thanks guys. I was aware that it was blown up. In my game, I described it as "looking like it was hit by a meteor, with weird purple lights surrounding the top wreckage." Which meant that the top was blown off. The bottom few levels--and course everything that was underground--are still more or less intact, if in ruins. Also in my game, the Hosttower is the source of a continual supply of plaguechanged undead. Since the focus of the game is rebuilding Luskan, we will eventually have to deal with the Tower as a major ongoing issue. My plan is to force the PCs to enter the tower through the tunnels below, using a secret access under water. The surface levels will be contaminated by Spellplague, etc. So, I suppose that I should have said that I really want a map of the tunnels underneath, but if I must draw of re-purpose something, then, well, that's an answer, too.