Tower in the grove

The tower in the grove is an abandoned stronghold of the Chain Wardens in the campaign Raphael Efsanesi ("The Legend of Raphael"). It stands in the middle of a grove, with a stream curving behind it, and hides the chain that Derek Sunshield sent Raphael to steal.¹

The outbuildings

Seen from outside, the tower rises about four storeys, with single-storey buildings joined to it. Their windows are barred rather than glazed, and no light shows within. One holds an armoury of old, rusted armour and swords, partly plundered; another a cobwebbed meeting hall; the third a dining hall with long tables. Each looked large enough for about twenty-five people.^{1 2}

The tower

The tower door, thick with dust, looked long unused. Inside lie a short dark corridor, a broken and filthy washroom, and a metal door shut with a good but ordinary padlock. Behind it Raphael found a heap of gold, chests opened and left, and scattered scrolls, most of them rotten. The readable ones were records of supplies bought, postings changed, comings and goings, retirements and food needs, with Warden and master titles and the Wardens' seal, dating from before Victory Day. Most of the personal valuables had been looted; Raphael took only a little gold.^{3 4 5}

A creaking wooden stair climbs to a mezzanine of thirty or forty barrels of beer and wine long turned to vinegar. Above it, on the stone floor, a balcony hidden by an old illusion of stone wall gives way to the touch.^{6 7}

There are corpses on the upper floors. One skeleton, wrapped in rope, wore a silver Warden's chain, which began to grow warm in Raphael's hand; he put it back down. In an unlocked room two large dusty chests, untouched, stood on either side of a table where another body lay with its head on the board. On the last floor below the roof, moonlight falls through a broken hatch onto a stone pedestal, the same colour as the wall, with a three-legged holder shaped like dragon heads, made to hold an orb that is no longer there.^{8 9 10}

The roof

From the empty roof terrace the tower seems at least twice as tall as it looks from below. Through a spyglass Raphael saw his own party's camp, mountains to the north, forest, and a sea that should be far beyond sight from there, along with a distant city he was sure was White City. On one side of the terrace someone had scratched a hasty inscription, as if sitting on the parapet with one leg hanging over, in a rough script Raphael could not read.^{11 12 13}

A glove thrown from the terrace drifted before it fell. When Raphael let himself drop from the tower, the air slowed him as though blown up from beneath, and he sank into a darkness where even his potion-sharpened sight failed.^{14 15}

The vault below

In that darkness his steps made no sound. He walked for what felt like two hours toward a far-off light like a candle, which grew as he came near. It shone from a door with no handle, its arch bearing a riddle in the common tongue: what is seen in water but is not wet? Saying the answer aloud did nothing; the door opened only when Raphael looked at his own reflection in his blade.^{16 17 18}

Beyond lay a large, deserted hall with three more bodies: two near a raised seat and one reaching for a small box. The box held a key that looked new, and behind the seat was a keyhole; when Raphael turned the key, the whole wall slid aside with a grinding of stone. A stair led some fifteen metres down to clear, waist-deep water, where the long rune-covered chain lay.^{19 20 21}

Spoiler: The tower's secretRevealSpoils: Raphael Efsanesi #8 · Say what you have read

When Raphael climbed back up with the chain, the door at the top stood open and the hall, before dusty and full of corpses, was spotless. No one was there, but the furniture, cupboards and half-eaten food made it look lived in, and the corridor beyond the riddle door was now lit with torches.^{22 23}

On his way out, an updraft where he had once jumped lifted him not onto the roof but out in front of the tower, where he saw a cart of supplies, people carrying chains, and others sitting at the tower's door. The place had sent him into a guarded past, when the Wardens still kept it.²⁴