Arcane Tower

The Arcane Tower, also referred to as the Enchanted Tower or simply the Ruined Tower, was an underground magical research site that served as the home of the Mystran cleric L. De Hurst for a time during the late 15 century DR. The structure exemplified an unconventional blend of technology and arcane craftsmanship, demonstrating how the dual disciplines could best be utilized for the comfort of those required to work in less-desirable circumstances.

Location
The tower was situated in in an area of the Underdark roughly beneath the Sunlit Wetlands of the Western Heartlands. It was built on the shores of a subterranean beach near the lowest reaches of a ruined temple of Selûne.

Structure
The Arcane Tower was unlike others of its kind constructed above ground. Its structure was built from stone in a fairly unremarkable architectural style, but utilized technological features and artificer seldom seen elsewhere in the Realms. Metal piping wound around and within and around the tower's exterior, conducting streams of arcane energy from a central power source at its bottommost level.

Interior
The primary entranceway and entrance chamber was found on the tower's fourth floor. While its stately appearance featured beauteous decorations it was rather cold and impersonal, and held no remarkable features. The only items of note on this level were the two arcane turrets used to deter potential break-ins.

Within the core of the Arcane Tower was an impressive cylindrical elevator that granted access to each of its numerous floors. Like the artificial lighting system it too was powered by the tower's central power source. The floor of the elevator was emblazoned with the eight-pointed star of Mystra.

The interior chambers of the tower were illuminated by translucent bulbs that radiated white-blue light, the same color associated with the powers of Mystra. The energy flowing through the tower's conduit system was used to power its massive elevator along with stunning chandeliers that decorated its ceilings on multiple floors.

Upper Floors
The fifth floor of the tower held its primary residence, personal study and library. It was perhaps the most intimate place in the Arcane Tower, most resembling a 'normal' home found in the world above.

The top floor served as the tower's workshop. It housed a forge and anvil, granting De Hurst a place to carry out repairs or tinker with his clockwork constructs. Pieces of machinery were strewn across the numerous desks and tables and all across the floor.

Lower Floors
"...endeavor to explain how I myself created items with both antimagic properties, and ones using the magical absorption of the Sussur Tree Flowers as a power source."

- Excerpt from The Antimagic Properties of Sussur Tree Flowers, by L. De Hurst.

The floor beneath the entranceway served as the storage and primary research area for the myriad fungi that De Hurst studied. All manner of fungal specimens were found within, including some that nearly reach the ceiling above.

The ground floor and first basement of the tower were built within the same chamber, one large enough to house the core of its arcane engine. Large casks, storage crates and unidentified machinery lined the walls of the room, surrounding the massive engine in its center. The device was a cylindrical, glass-lined chamber large enough for any man to step through, with pipes extending out to the rest of the tower. Within it was a pedestal on which the blooming flowers of sussur plants could be placed. While sussur blooms held profound anti-magic properties, De Hurst's experimentation and inventions demonstrated how they could be used to power magic-based technology.

Beneath the two-floor engine room was De Hurst's secret, hidden away study. It was within this chamber that the insightful cleric kept their most prized possessions, personal diaries, accounts of profound excavations, and fittingly, more space to conduct additional studies.

Atmosphere
For those walking across the stone bridge leading up to the structure, and facing down the unforgiving metal turrets defense system, the Arcane Tower was an imposing place that did not welcome uninvited visitors. Once inside however, it was full of marvelous and otherworldly sights. From the rivulets of arcane power that ran through glass tubing along the, to the lower-level research room teeming with bizarre fungal specimens, the tower was an impressive, if not discomforting locale.

Despite the stark isolation in the alien environment of the Underdark, the Arcane Tower offered some solace to its resident research and any potential visitors. The upper floors of the tower held creature comforts that put any scholar at ease. While its resident construct may be inelegant in appearance and mannerisms, he did all he could to welcome his master and put them at ease with recitation of artistic works.

Activities
For at least three years, the Arcane Tower served as the site where De Hurst conducted their study of magical properties of plants in the Underdark, specifically those surrounding the sussur tree, its use as a magical power source, and the creation of enchanted items.

Defenses
A battery of forbidding arcane turrets like the bridge leading up to the tower's front doors, with another pair set in the main entrance way. These non-intelligent constructs shots out beams of arcane energy against any creature detected within a certain field of vision.

The true protectors of the Arcane Tower however were the handful of constructs led by a unique automaton built for precisely this purpose.

History
De Hurst was believed to have left the Arcane Tower for the final time on Alturiak 2 in the, during a return trip to Baldur's Gate. They left behind their magically-constructed companion, which remained alone in the tower for over a decade.

Inhabitants
Aside from De Hurst, the tower housed one additional semi-intelligent being: the arcane construct named Bernard. The erudite automaton did not appear to have free will but could be given set instructions by reciting lines from one of De Hurts's favorite plays, The Roads to Darkness.

Four sets of animated armor remained within the top floor of the tower alongside Bernard. Unlike him they were unable to communicate aside of the squeak of their joints or clunks of their movements.

Appearances

 * Video Games
 * Baldur's Gate III