Tower of Ruin

The Tower of Ruin was a tower in the Stonelands on the border of Cormyr that was destroyed in 1353 DR, and the resting place of Silveredge of the Four from Cormyr.

Location
The Tower was located about south of Halfhap along the Moonsea Ride, several days travel from Gnoll Pass and Castle Crag. After it was destroyed, it could be seen and accessed in a pristine state by those who had first visited the battlefield remains of the Starburst Swords, who perished a short distance west of the tower.

Structure
The Tower was 70 feet wide and tall with 3 stories and a cellar level, built atop a hill, with windows on the second and third floors.

Interior
The tower's floors were divided into quarters with a central spiral staircase running from the cellar to the top level, which directly opened onto most of the rooms.

The first floor consisted of an entry hall, reception room, dining room, kitchen and study, and was inhabited by the rakshasa Royappa.

The second floor contained bedrooms, and imprisoned a group of minotaurs as well as the original inhabitants of the Tower, who had been driven to desperation and madness.

The third floor was home to a spectator sent by Torm to test visitor's understanding of duty, as well as the shadow dragon Shadowdeath. The blade Silveredge also waited on this level.

The cellar contained a midden and ash heap, a guard room, and a crypt of two-dozen warrior's sarcophagi whose wards killed and petrified would-be tomb-robbers.

Inhabitants
By 1369 DR, a number of people and creatures had become trapped inside the Tower.
 * The four human warriors that refused aid and brought the curse upon the Tower.
 * Royappa, a rakshasa that became trapped and pretended to be a servant of Torm.
 * Shadowdeath, a young shadow dragon that became trapped within.
 * A spectator sent by Torm to test visitors.
 * Six minotaurs.
 * Six giant spiders.

History
During Gondegal's war in the, the Starburst Swords Purple Dragons chose to avoid combat with the Twilight Brigade, which went on to ravage the village of Darkenshield. The Starburst Swords were instead ambushed by a pack of trolls a short distance from the Tower, with a single member managing to flee the slaughter and reach the Tower with two trolls in pursuit. The four warriors who inhabited the Tower refused to let the soldier in or fight the trolls, instead allowing him to be devoured by the trolls. A year later, the Tower was assailed by monsters and destroyed, with the invaders and the derelict occupants trapped by a curse from Torm, god of duty, that froze them in a time-locked version of the Tower as it once was.

The Tower became mostly forgotten and crumbled to a heap of rubble, though the Starburst Swords remained tied to the place, and the cursed inhabitants remained inside unchanged. In 1369 DR, a group of adventurers were sent by the bard Mendryll Belarod to investigate the area, and they successfully entered the Tower and put the cursed denizens to rest. They also found the Cormyrean relic Silveredge, one of the Four from Cormyr, which Torm had hidden inside the Tower until someone worthy of the blade faced the challenges within and recovered it.

When Silveredge was removed from the Tower, the curse was broken, and all that remained of the Tower was a heap of undisturbed rubble.

Rumors
It was believed that Torm had not only sent the trolls to attack the Starburst Swords as a punishment for their abandonment of Darkenshield, but allowed the lone survivor to escape as a test of the Tower's occupants. They too failed, and so Torm allowed the Tower to be destroyed the following year.