Fen Watchtower

Everyone who grows up in Khababar has a healthy mix of fear, respect, and curiosity for the old ruins out in the Cursed Fens and the strange Watchtower that stands at the swamp’s heart.

As they grow older, townsfolk learn what’s more often accepted as truth: that the heroic founders of Engleher had slain the wicked sorcerer Dretha many years ago. For a time, thrill-seekers explored the ruins around the Watchtower, but today, common knowledge holds that the place has become a haven for pests—no longer a source of active danger or significant treasure after being completely picked over. Nearly 500 years has passed since Dretha’s defeat after all, and in that time, she has only posed a menace to Engleher through sinister rhymes, Or so the citizens of Engleher believe.

> The sound of frogs and mosquitos mixes with water sloshing against muddy shores, all muffled by the ever-present mists that linger in the Cursed Fens. As the mists clear, a shadow looms from the cloying swamp vapors—a sprawling ruin of stone and wood squats atop an island in the soggy marsh. The upper floors have largely collapsed, leaving only the stone walls of the ground floor intact. Above these ruins towers an out-of-place monument—a colossal watchtower with a blue beam of light scouring the fens from it's parapets. Its painted walls and iron-cased crown have resisted the corrosive effects of the surrounding swamp
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While the overgrown trail leads right to Watchtower's Gatehouse, Along the southern side, waters surrounding the ruins are relatively shallow, but on other sides, the depth ranges from 10 to 15 feet, requiring a boat or swimming to navigate. With the exception of the tower's cupola, the upper levels of The Fen Watchtower collapsed long ago, even falling to the ground floor in places. Where the roof hasn’t caved in, ceilings are 10 feet high unless otherwise noted. The only illumination comes from whatever sunlight filters in through the constant fog. The doors on this level are all cracked and rotten except where indicated; handling them with any amount of force causes them to split or simply fall off their hinges with a wet splintering sound.

> The structure is magically protected from damage. This protection has bled into the surrounding ruins somewhat, slowing the usual rate of decay over the past 500 years. Nevertheless, time is inexorable, and the rest of the ruins have suffered in the passage of centuries.
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The main faction active in the ruins is what’s left of a small gang of Mitflit Gremlins who call themselves the Mudhunters. Led by a large, gremlin named Boss Grawsk, the Mudhunters believe they once dwelt in “glory” underground. However, the arrival of the much larger and meaner creatures from Subterra forced them out of their homes, and they’ve struggled to regain their footing even since. Boss Grawsk has thus far formed the inkling of a plan to raise an army of giant insects to take over Engleher . He has already exuberantly guaranteed the restoration of Mudhunter glory through this scheme, so the gang loyally follows Boss Grawsk , working hard to keep intruders—like the heroes—out of “their” ruins.

#### Gatehouse

> Swaths of mildew and mold cover the damp surfaces of this watchtower, appearing as green and black smears on the dull stone walls. The doorframes in the walls to the north and south rotted long ago, while a few collapsed chairs lie on the floor amid small heaps of foul-smelling gray lumps. Thick sheets of dusty cobwebs hang from above, obscuring any view of the ceiling.
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Once the surface entrance to the Undercitadel of Szitrag, this one-story outbuilding is constructed of sturdy stone. The opaque sheets of dusty cobwebs function as a drop ceiling at a height of 7 feet, leaving a 3-foot space between the cobwebs and the stone ceiling above. The Mudhunter Mitflits have rigged a slipshod network of soggy ropes and planks in the space above the cobwebs to clamber around on.

#### Decrepit Drawbridge

> The remains of a collapsed wooden drawbridge dangle from the side of the Gatehouse. Rusty iron chains hang from the ruin’s northern wall to Shattered planks that make up the drawbridge’s southern side. T
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#### Slurk Pond

> Tangles of reeds grow in thick clusters around the edge of this muddy pond. The water appears murky with algae, and the half-decayed body of a three-foot-tall scaly humanoid lies on the pool’s northern bank, half-buried in mud and leaves.
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The water of this pond is only 4 feet deep, but an extra few feet of mud below make it greater difficult terrain to wade through. Vines and creepers festoon the ruins.

#### Maggot Training Hall

> Piles of rotting timbers and loose stones lie in heaps throughout this large, L-shaped hall. Clumps of moss and tangled vines spill down from gaps in the wooden ceiling above each pile of rubble. Several doors lead out to all sides, most barely clinging to their hinges and frames. Debris completely blocks a wooden stairwell that leads up to a large hole in the ceiling. Here and there, the stone walls bear the scars of fire or damage from an ancient battle.
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Many years ago, the Founders confronted Dretha in this vast room. The fight spilled from here into the servants’ lounge, now a sinkhole, and caused some of the keep’s collapse.

A secret door opens into a small hidden alcove to the northwest; a hero Searching this room who succeeds at a DC 20 Perception check finds a section of the stone wall that slides aside to access it. The alcove beyond the door has several grooves in the stone, caused by what looks like determined scraping. This chamber used to contain a Teleportation Circle but fortune-hunters found this hidden alcove centuries ago and gouged out all the silver in the magic runes. The extensive damage drained away the magic and permanently destroyed the teleportation circle.

#### Maggot Stable

> A collapsed wooden staircase in the northeastern corner of this room winds up to a moss-shrouded hole. The expanse of the Cursed Fens is visible through a total collapse in a stone wall to the west. A dead frog the size of a horse lies sprawled in this collapse, its back legs bitten off at the hips.
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This massive frog was attacked by a large draconic creature. The carcass lies in the rubble on the western wall.

#### Fly Pen

> The interior of this watch post still has a wooden ceiling high above, but a thick mound of filth and animal carcasses heaped on the floor make the room anything but inviting.
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#### Dining Room

The collapsed ceiling at the middle of this room has left a ragged hole in the wooden roof. Rotten tapestries, their designs completely obscured by mold, hang in tatters on the walls between arrow slits and ruined side tables. The remains of a fancy dining table lie mostly pulverized by the fallen ceiling.

#### Sinkhole

> Almost the entire ceiling of this room has collapsed, while below, the floor has crumbled into a 10-foot-deep sinkhole filled with rubble, mud, and glistening patches of fungus. Evidence of ancient damage—burn scars and acid scorch marks—decorate the walls and much of the rubble.
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The ancient battle between the Founders and Dretha came to its destructive end in this room when Dretha used a last-ditch explosion to try to defeat the adventurers.

A character must attempt a DC 12 Athletics check to Climb to navigate the sinkhole’s steep slopes. A Clearing the rubble away can take many days, but if the heroes persist, they open the way down to the Servant's Chambers below.

#### Walkway

> A 15-foot stone walkway spans a narrow stretch of swamp water, connecting the ruined keep to a large stone outbuilding. Double doors block each end of the walkway. Standing before the southeast door is a seven-foot-tall skeleton dressed in armor made of gnarled roots, bones, and rusted metal. The skeleton clenches a morningstar in one weathered hand with the weapon’s heavy, spiked tip resting on the walkway at the skeleton’s feet.
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#### Mudhunter Throne Room

> Splintered framing in the ceiling and floor hint that thin wooden walls once divided this stone building’s interior. With those walls demolished, only a single, large chamber remains. Rubble, swamp vegetation, and mud pile in heaps like foul nests, while a larger stack of rubble, sticks, and bones looks almost, but not quite, like a throne. A flattened mound of sand with a few dozen bits of wood and stone stuck into it covers the floor before the throne.
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The Mitflits chose these old barracks for their commander, Boss Grawsk, to use as a throne hall. Boss Grawk’s fragile throne requires constant upkeep, a task two mitflits perform when they aren’t sleeping in the filthy nests here. Any hero looking at the sand before the throne realizes it represents a crude map of Engleher .

#### Watchtower Base

The heroes find the southern door to this room stuck, but a character can attempt a DC 18 Athletics check to Force it Open. Once opened, it falls to sodden pieces. The western door has a 1-foot-square window set with iron bars, and it opens normally.

> The smooth walls of this circular room have painted a light gray with no indication of seams between blocks of stone. A set of iron stairs winds upward along the curved walls before terminating at a trap door in the ceiling nearly a hundred feet above. A red bloodstain glistens on the floor at the room’s center, as though a human-sized creature bled to death on the floor very recently, despite there being no body in sight.
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The Founders finally defeated Dretha in this room nearly five centuries ago. As she died, Dretha’s spirit was drawn down into the depths of Undercitadel, but the bloodstain she left on the floor remains as fresh as the day she died.

The iron stairs creak and sway alarmingly but are quite sound. The stairs wind up 90 feet to a locked bronze trap door leading to the cupola.

#### Dretha's Office

> The ceiling has collapsed in the southwest corner of this room. The walls bear several shelves, but the books and papers once kept here have rotted to ruin long ago, as have the desk and chair in an alcove to the northeast.
> On the Eastern wall there is a flight of stairs that leads down to the next Level.
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#### Dretha's Sanctum

> This triangular room might have once seemed comfortable, but after years of rain and exposure to the elements through the two arrow slits in the northwestern wall, the room’s divan, armoire, and tapestries have fallen to decay.
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Dretha maintained this private room to relax and constructed a secret entrance to the shrine to easily access it. A tapestry formerly concealed a secret door, but it rotted and fell long ago, so the door has become slightly easier to find. the secret door that leads into a small area that connects to the shrine.

#### Scorpion Kennel

> The ceiling of this room has fallen in two places. A smaller collapse destroyed a flight of stairs that once led up to the now-ruined upper floor. A larger collapse mostly buried the southern double door, this rubble has been cleared away and large creatures can easily pass through. A second double door to the north has a stone face carved with skulls caked with tangles of moss.
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This room served as a kennel for the Mudhunters’ first significant acquisition—a Giant Scorpion. The mitflits lured the monster into this room with minimal loss, then collapsed several timbers in the rubble to keep it penned in. Although the tangles of moss growing on the skull carvings seem like part of the overgrowth prevalent throughout the ruin, they belong to the original design. The mossy skull is the religious symbol of the Empty Death, the Outer God of ghosts, despair, swamps, and will-o’-wisps, whom Dretha revered as her patron.

#### the Shrine to Empty Death

> The air in this large chapel feels colder and damper than elsewhere in the ruins. Condensed beads on the walls run in rivulets across the countless skulls carved into the stone. A moldering human corpse lies slumped against a wall, his hands wedged into a crack as if he died trying to pry a brick loose. Three short flights of steps lead upward to a wider chamber to the north, where a semicircular dais supports an altar of white stone. Beyond the altar loom four stained-glass windows, each twenty feet tall and depicting four haunting scenes of ghosts rising from overgrown graveyards toward a four-pointed orange star above.
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Dretha made no secret of her faith in Empty Death, and she maintained this sizable shrine to the sinister entity both as a place of worship and an intimidating setting to meet visitors. The shrine has an ominous atmosphere as if something immense and distant watches through the stained glass windows.

#### Ruined Boathouse

> The southern portion of this stonewalled building has collapsed into rubble, exposing what remains of a boathouse to the elements. The shelves and boats within have decayed into heaps of rot and moss. The embers of a relatively fresh campfire smolder nearby.
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#### Ruined Pier

> Much of this wooden pier has collapsed into the swamp, leaving about ten feet of moldy, soggy boards slumped against ancient wood pilings. A rowboat tied to a piling looks much more recently built.
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#### Cupola

> Rows of black metal bars encase this circular chamber like a cage. Shimmering waves of force flicker between the bars and gives the illusion that softly glowing glass encases this entire area. The floor to the north has an iron trapdoor; otherwise, this room appears empty save for a human-sized encasement of glass and iron that flickers and glows with an unsettling, almost nauseating pale blue shimmer—Gauntlight’s lantern!
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