Contents
The Fortress of the Cobalt Mage
The adventure begins when the adventurers get close enough to Tyreus's fortress to scout the area. Exactly how close that is depends on the spells and other powers available to them. The fortress is easy to spot, located right on the shore in the southwest region of Highstar Lake. The fortress also has excellent sight lines to the surrounding countryside, with at least half a mile of open wetlands and grasslands in every direction offering minimal cover to approaching creatures.
Forces Gathered
In these early days of faction-forming and army-building, Tyreus's defenses are dangerous but full of holes. The fortress is staffed with dozens of unseen servants, conjured when the fortress was. They make poor defenders but can respond to trouble by ringing the wall-mounted bells meant to summon the servants. Meanwhile, some of the mercenaries present likely stand watch atop the walls and towers, looking out for approaching trouble. They are few in number but confident in their belief that any travelers in sight are potentially trouble.
Elementals
Tyreus has used up a number of magical resources he once possessed to form tenuous bonds with a few elementals in the region. He tasked them with scouring the lakeshore for the Stone of Creation. When it was found, just offshore amid heaps of loose stones, Tyreus used a telekinesis spell and the elementals' help to bring the Stone into his keep's cellar vault (area 8).
A handful of ill-tempered elementals still roam the area. They are not loyal to Tyreus or the mercenaries, but they welcome opportunities to do battle with Tyreus's enemiesâuntil they grow bored with Tyreus or find better allies, that is. Then they might turn on him and his mercenaries. It is often difficult to predict the whims of elementals.
Two air elementals, two water elementals, and one earth elemental roam the lakeshore's waters, stony edges, and skies near the fortress.
Mercenaries
The mercenaries on site have come to see about making a client of Tyreus. He has summoned them so that he can bribe each mercenary army with a keystone of creation. Tyreus has promised each mercenary leader a fortress in exchange for their service pacifying the High Moors and bringing Secomber into his control. Neither mercenary captain has agreedâyetâbut both will if given time. None of the mercenaries trust Tyreus, but they believe he can be endured long enough to build up wealth and then possibly be usurped or defeated in a few years.
By day, the mercenaries train in the fortress's narrow yard or the surrounding fields. By night, they drink and tell stories, occasionally meeting and mingling with their counterparts. Most of them are eager to get their keystone and leave, but Tyreus is drawing their visit out until the mercenaries' reinforcements arrive to serve and defend Tyreus.
Each of the visiting, villainous cadres consists of five mercenary envoys (see appendix A) and a leader who together represent a larger group of soldiers of fortune. The larger groups these envoys represent are waiting elsewhere in the Realms for their envoys to return with keystones of their own.
The Banner of Blades
Founded and led by Audra Drakesblade (female half-elf, lawful evil, gladiator) just ten years ago, the mercenaries of the Banner of Blades have a growing reputation in the Sword Coast. Some see them as troublemakers, others as troubleshooters, but they are undeniably effective. Supposedly trained and tested by battles throughout lands to the south, rumors claim they are an invading army in disguise. In truth, the Banner of Blades has attracted outcasts, survivors, and other remnants from broken armiesâsoldiers who crave regimented diligence and the capable leadership Audra provides. Soldiers of the Banner see themselves not as a single army of three-hundred mercenaries but as five- and ten-person squads with reinforcements throughout the Realms. They simply all fight under the same emblem: a green banner decorated with swords arrayed in diamond formation.
The Iron Lions
For decades, the Iron Lions have fancied themselves a secret menace. Most fighting folk of the Sword Coast have never heard of them, and the Lions like it that wayâall warfare is based on deceptionâleaving the Lions to boast, brag, and lie in equal measure about battles they've won or survived. Today, the Iron Lions consist of a hundred or so seasoned soldiers in search of fortune. This is the smallest their makeshift army has ever been; these are lean times. Their current commander, Gollis "Leonid" Stamper (male human, neutral evil, gladiator), is the grandson of the company's founder, Goran, but he didn't inherit his role. Gollis took leadership of the Lions two years ago by coaxing his commander into a duel and slaughtering him. The emblem of the Iron Lions is a simple iron-gray lion's head on a red flag.
Features of the Fortress
Every part of the fortress mimics some aspect of another castle, keep, or fort seen by Tyreus over the years. The result is a strange hodgepodge of architectural styles, from the mundane functionality of the central guard tower to the fanciful sweeping arches of the northern and southern walls. Those walls offer little protection against any kind of military attack or siege. Their purpose is to imitate the decorative walls of a large scholastic building Tyreus admired in Ravnica.
Tyreus doesn't care that so much of the structure serves little purpose as a fortress. Its job is to intrigue and entice, and it doesn't have to last long. He expects to revise or dispel the fortress anyway and conjure another fortress when the mood strikes him.
Ceilings
In the towers, rooms are 9 feet high with flat, stone ceilings. In his own keep, Tyreus conjured 10-foot ceilings with decorative timber rafters from which he could hang lanterns and other details he imagined into existence.
Doors
Most doors here are conjured wood with iron hinges and fixtures. Each door is 7 feet tall and rounded at the top.
Light
Much of the fortress allows ample natural light during the day, despite the security risks. The servants light conjured torches and candles all throughout the fortress around dusk, keeping things well lit. Guests are welcome to snuff out lights overnight as they see fit.
Sound
Most areas have stone floors without rugs or rushes to soften them. Tyreus didn't think to include such details outside of his own keep. Every floor of every tower features a simple handbell hung from the wall somewhere, allowing the place's servants to be summonedâor to raise an alarm.
Locations at the Fortress
Each key area of the fortress is described here, often with different floors grouped together by the tower or other structure they are part of.
1. Lakeshore Gate
The gate is typically barred from the inside. The yard within the gated wall is a small patch of grass and a wide stretch of pebbly beach lining the cold shore of Highstar Lake. The fortress does little to disrupt the winds and chill coming off the lake. This yard's primary purpose is to provide a small patch of ground where supplicants can camp and petition Tyreusâor pledge fealty to him.
The waters here hide or once hid the Stone of Creation.
2. Central Guard Tower
Tyreus hardly gave this tower a second thought when he conjured the fortress. He imagined it as a place for half-real guards to look out over the lakeshore gate in an endless vigilâand that is all it is.
Ground Floor
Other than the stairs leading up to the rest of this tower, this chamber holds only a barrel for collecting rainwater. It has no arrow loops or other openings for looking outside the fortress.
Second Floor
This spare, bare chamber squints out at the world through narrow arrow loops.
Third Floor
The taller windows in this area allow views of the outside world. Doorways open onto the crenelated battlements atop the fortress walls here, too.
Roof
This level is little more than the stone ceiling of the level below, ringed by a crenelated wall to provide easy cover to guards overseeing the lakeshore gate or surrounding countryside.
3. Southern Guard Tower
The mercenaries of the Iron Lion flag have made this tower their camp. They've made themselves comfortable but do not show much respect for the place.
Ground Floor
Accessible primarily via the stairs from the second floor, this space is intended as a refuge for guests or a storage area for their supplies and equipment. A door, latched from the inside only, leads out to the lakeshore.
Second Floor
Stairs lead up from the lakeshore yard, hug the inner wall, and let out here on the second floor, which has been turned into a recreational area for mercenaries.
Third Floor
This floor now serves as the personal quarters and command post of the mercenary leader, Gollis (male human, neutral evil, gladiator). He keeps the room a bit of a mess, anchored by a large table to which he has a map of the High Moors pinned down with daggers. Doors lead from this room to the central guard tower and the southern arched walkway.
Roof
Low battlement walls surround an empty roof overlooking the green hills of the High Moors and the steely waters of the lake.
4. Northern Guard Tower
Audra's mercenaries, under her Banner of Blades, reside here for now. They conduct an orderly, regimented existence here, using cinnamon branches and incense to add comfort without diminishing their military orderliness.
Ground Floor
Accessible primarily via the stairs from the second floor, this space is intended as a refuge for guests or a storage area for their supplies and equipment. Audra's mercenaries sleep here. A door, latched from the inside only, leads out to the lakeshore.
Second Floor
Stairs clinging to the inner wall of the fortress lead here from the yard below. This floor serves as the gathering area for mercenaries from Audra's company; they leave someone here most of the time to watch for trouble.
Third Floor
Audra (female half-elf, lawful evil, gladiator) claimed this floor for herself. She sleeps and reads here but meets with her people downstairs. This chamber is comfortable enough, with piles of furs as a bed and half a dozen history books stacked by a deep leather chair, where she studies and plans. This floor exits onto walkways leading toward the central guard tower and the northern arched walkway.
Roof
This crenelated roof is bare but offers a grand view of the surrounding highlands and the crisp waves of Highstar Lake.
5. Arched Walkways
Up here, winds are often powerful enough to impose disadvantage on ranged attacks. The low guarding walls on each side of the walkway are only 3 feet tall, offering little protection for travelers along this path. (Tyreus wants people to feel precarious on their way to visit him.)
6. Northern Turret
This hanging turret, like its counterpart, is meant to appear as an architectural flourish but is also part of Tyreus's defenses against intrusion by creatures on foot.
Ground Floor
This tower has no ground floor. It is part of the arched northern wall of the fortress, conjured into existence by Tyreus, and suspended above the lake. The bottom of this tower is about 20 feet above the water.
Second Floor
This empty chamber is open to the lake below.
Third Floor
This area is an overlook and a checkpoint, designed by Tyreus to harm intruders and alert him of approaching threats. It has no ceiling and is open to the air, allowing air elementals to reach it with ease. The floor of this area includes a wide, metal grate that can be opened to create a pit into the lake below; the switch is by the doorway on the keep's side of the room.
The third floor's eastern doorway is trapped with a glyph of warding's explosive runes and a linked glyph connected to an alarm glyph (DC 18 to detect both); the effect glyph for the alarm is in Tyreus's sanctum (area 10). The glyphs respond to any creature that does not say the password "visionary" before passing through the doorway. If Tyreus is alerted to an intruder, he prepares for combat as described in his entry in appendix A. For more about linked glyphs, see appendix B.
7. Southern Turret
This hanging turret, like its counterpart, is meant to appear as an architectural flourish but is also part of Tyreus's defenses against intrusion by creatures on foot.
Ground Floor
This tower has no ground floor. It is part of the arched northern wall of the fortress, conjured into existence by Tyreus, and suspended above the lake. The bottom of this tower is about 20 feet above the water.
Second Floor
This empty chamber is open to the lake below.
Third Floor
This area is an overlook and a checkpoint, designed by Tyreus to harm intruders and alert him of approaching threats. It has no ceiling and is open to the air, allowing air elementals to reach it with ease. The floor of this area includes a wide, metal grate that can be opened to create a pit into the lake below; the switch is by the doorway on the keep's side of the room.
The third floor's eastern doorway is trapped with a glyph of warding's explosive runes and a linked glyph connected to an alarm glyph (DC 18 to detect both); the effect glyph for the alarm is in Tyreus's sanctum (area 10). The glyphs respond to any creature that does not say the password "visionary" before passing through the doorway. If Tyreus is alerted to an intruder, he prepares for combat as described in his entry in appendix A. For more about linked glyphs, see appendix B.
8. Cellar Vault
The double doors in the eastern wall are blocked by the stone of the outer wall, which Tyreus can reshape using the keystone or other magical means when he likes. Tyreus intends this room to be storage for treasures and supplies collected from those paying tribute to him. Aside from a table and a scale for weighing treasure, the room contains treasures and traps.
The keystone for this fortress is fitted into the arched ceiling here, 10 feet above the ground.
Traps
Two magical glyphs are hidden in the floor in the center of this room (DC 18 to detect them both) and keyed to activate if anyone but Tyreus or the fortress's mystical servants touches the 10-foot area in the center of the room. The first is an alarm glyph from a linked glyph spell; its effect glyph is located in Tyreus's sanctum. The second glyph is a spell glyph that casts wall of force to create a dome over intruders, theoretically trapping intruders and buying Tyreus or his minions time to arrive. The wall of force's dome covers a circle with a 10-foot radius out from the center of the room.
Treasure
A hoard of coins that Tyreus has looted over the years, now intended for current and future mercenaries, are kept in a pair of kegs here. One keg holds 7,090 gp in assorted coins, the other holds 7,120 gp worth of coins. Assorted art objects (worth 3,200 gp) sit in a heap in the northwest corner, capped by a landscape painting of Highstar Lake painted years ago by Saraque Skyhill (worth 800 gp).
The Stone of Creation has been recovered by Tyreus and is here, set upon a clean bronze brazier at one end of the room, near the doors.
9. Wizard's Residence
Tyreus keeps a tidy but plush residence, with lush tapestries, soft rugs, velvet curtains, and a large round bed, all summoned into existence as part of the fortress. The portrait over the fireplace is of Tyreus himself. It depicts him as he wishes to be in ten or twenty years. Nothing of actual value is here aside from a book of arcane history he stole from another wizard's library.
10. Sanctum
This room is meant as a sanctum and laboratory, but Tyreus has hardly put it to use. The scales, graduated glass objects, and other lab equipment are pristineâall conjured up as part of the fortress.
Treasure
A chip of creation sits on a wooden plate under a glass lid here.
11. Study
Every book on the shelves is blank, conjured up by Tyreus when he imagined this place.
Treasure
The books stacked on the floor and scattered on the table were all looted from other wizards' collections. They include speculations on the origins and location of the Stone of Creation as well as the sigil combinations for various teleportation circles (in locations of the DM's choosing). One of them is a spellbook containing the spells teleport, teleportation circle, stone shape, stoneskin, and wall of stone. The historical and arcane texts are worth a total of 2,250 gp to the right collectors.
12. Meeting Hall
Here Tyreus meets with the mercenary commanders and any other visitors he deigns to entertainâor impress. The long table seats three to each long side; the high-backed chair at the head of the table is for Tyreus. The dragon's head, the cups, the tray, the wine, everything is part of the conjured fortress and has no real value.
13. Observatory
Even Tyreus isn't sure what this room is for other than adding height to the keep and looking out at the stars of Faerûn. The circle of sigils is a place for Tyreus to cast teleportation circle and other spells but is not an active or permanent magical feature.
The throne quietly serves two purposes: first, to aggrandize Tyreus, and second, to make visitors think he has mastered the Stone of Creation and made it his own. The throne, of course, is not magical at allâit is another conjured part of Tyreus's fantasy castle.
If he can, Tyreus attempts to intimidate (or even combat) intruders here.
Treasure
The telescope is worth 250 gp. The iron chest is unlocked and contains a crystal decanter of brandy from Waterdeep and a single glass tumbler. The brandy and the chest are genuine; everything crystal or glass in the chest is part of the fortress.