Emerald Spire

The Emerald Spire is a strange ruin in the northwestern River Kingdoms. Located in a large clearing in the Echo Wood near the Crusader Road, six miles northeast of the Hellknight-ruled settlement of Fort Inevitable, the spire is well known to locals and travellers in the region.

Believed to be an Azlanti ruin from the era before Earthfall, most think the Emerald Spire refers to the ruins of large tower of green glass that rises above the clearing. However, the spire itself is far more ancient, a needle of magical crystal that reaches two miles into the earth, into the very vaults of Orv.

History
Dating back to the Age of Legend, much of the history of the Emerald Spire has been lost to the ages, leading the ruin to be cloaked in myth and legend.

Creation
During the primordial war between the empire of the Aboleths and the Xiomorn, the Vault Keeper Iluchtewhar, driven mad by the powers of the Aboleths, attempted to use a stolen vault seed to create a vault where he would build an army to wage war against the Aboleths. However, as a Vault Keeper, Iluchtewhar could not control the power of the vault seed, and instead of creating a vault it instead generated an enormous spire of magical crystal that erupted towards the surface, becoming the Emerald Spire.

Recent History
Several years before 4714 AR, the Numerian wizard Klarkosh travelled to the Emerald Spire to conduct an ambitious program of exploration. Unlike many other explorers, Klarkosh not only survived but established himself as ruler of the uppermost levels of the spire's dungeons. Since 4713 AR, the Numerian has protected his holdings by constructing clockwork automatons and forming alliances with the monstrous denizens of the upper dungeons.

Description
The Emerald Spire forms the heart of the dungeons beneath the tower, reaching all sixteen known levels within. These levels sprawl off in their own directions and are not usually adjacent to one another. Instead, the levels are connected by staircases, passageways, and shafts hundreds — some even thousands — of feet in length.

Tower Ruins
The ruins of the old Azlanti tower built by Nhur Athemon and destroyed by the Knights of the Ioun Stone comprise the surface levels of the Emerald Spire, which are ruled by goblin descendants of the Kingdom of Zog and ruled over by the bugbear Grulk

The Cellars
The uppermost level of the Emerald Spire's dungeon, and foundation of Nhur Athemon's tower, is controlled by Klarkosh through the Bone Priest Gorloth.

The Flooded Level
Originally a series of storerooms and guardrooms, it was inhabited some two centuries ago by a clan who attempted to experiment on the Emerald Spire's planar resonance. These experiments backfired drastically, multiplying the natural portals to the Elemental Plane of Water and ultimately drowning the level. It is currently the lair of a family of Undine summoners aligned with Klarkosh.

The Emerald Root
Freed from his imprisonment within the Emerald Spire by Klarkosh's experiments, the ancient Vault Keeper Iluchtewhar broods within his vault deep in Orv while gathering forces and power to cleanse the region above of life and restart his experiments.