Caer Laere

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> "*Caer Laere -- the Desolate Fortress of the Ascended One. Those who wander in are lost for days, months, years. Sometimes forever. If they are found, it is in the strangest of places. The worst part is that they never remember what they saw. The place is cursed, I tell you. The Ascended does not wish for visitors. Whatever is in that ominous building is not worth one's life. No-one'll ever see it and live to tell about it."*
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## The Desolate Fortress

Caer Laere is notorious for swallowing explorers with an endless appetite. The reasons for this are publicly unknown, and only those with existing ties to the true resident of the keep have any business in entering, since they know how to avoid or peacefully go amidst the dangers that lurk within. Caer Laere is an ancient keep in the arctic fringes, partially engulfed by the glacier and water surrounding it. Over the centuries it has sunk and been riddled with caverns of ice and freezing cold water. That which remains above the water level is cold, but dry. The way up has thirty-three floors, all empty and unoccupied, save for the occasional psionic crystal. These hint to the true nature of the events taking place within the mysterious, abandoned structure.

## Layout

Caer Laere is a maze in a tower's shape. Many hallways have collapsed, requiring extensive detours. Some are unusually narrow with thick blocks of ice making for tight spots to squeeze through and some places lead to dead ends. One thing is consistent throughout each floor, however: all the rooms lack doors, are empty, and the hallways have rusty iron chandeliers long frosted over. They bear no light, although the open windows shine light into the hallways quite brightly during the day. In the night, the interior is pitch black. The fortress is undecorated, stripped clean; whatever used to be there has either been looted or discarded by its current resident.

However, perceptive individuals might spot on occasion a few psionic crystals in the corners of rooms, like a strange substitute of cobweb. A residue of Ainmire's psionic presence, these are essentially coalesced psionic energy. Not particularly potent in such random and unintentional formations, they are still useful in the psionic market, sold to beginners as extra power supply. Upper floors contain larger crystals and proportionally larger charges of power. The larger the crystal, the more power it is likely going to contain, and thus fetch a higher price. These are likely the only valuable things in the entire fortress.

On the top, which is usually inaccessible, is an invisible barrier. Attempting to teleport inside of the keep or on top of it will simply shunt the one attempting it several hundred metres away, accompanied by a sickening feeling to the gut. Psionic enchantments are coupled with far older magical ones. The former are much weaker than the latter, which suggests that Caer Laere has had two separate owners of differing power. Which one is the current one is harder to know.

## Astral Guards

Caer Laere's accessible levels are guarded by a myriad of astral constructs. These are mindless automatons manifested with psychic energy. They act on their creator's whims and nothing else. Often used for combat, advanced manifesters can teach them to do complex tasks. The ones roaming the Desolate Fortress' cold corridors, however, are anything but friendly. Astral constructs cannot be banished, but can be dispelled by someone with psionic countermeasures. The spells used for dispelling magic are highly unsuitable, but psionic powers, if targeted carefully, can hit and dismantle any of them. Their duration is permanent until broken and numbers are quickly replenished by Ainmire's psicrystal at the topmost floor, where the Gate to Monolith is hidden. The astral constructs come in various sizes and types, but three main groups can be established.

### Sentinel

Sentinel constructs are permanently invisible. This invisibility cannot be dispelled, but while they cannot be perceived with sight, other senses such as touch, hearing or truesight can still detect them. They possess great strength, are up to 5 metres in height and have a simple strategy: sneak behind the intruder and grapple them, cracking bone, bruising flesh and eventually snapping them in half. If the sneak attack fails, they will simply attack with their fists, bearing no regard for their own safety due to their mindlessness and lack of self-preservation instinct.

### Bruiser

Bruisers are plain visible, revealing the muscular, humanoid appearance of all Ainmire's astral constructs. These are by far the largest, towering at 8 metres. Their strength is enormous, but their size makes them less capable of connecting with their attacks. These constructs fight by collapsing entire hallways with abandon, blocking passageways from intruders and eventually caving them in with no way out. Should one get hold of an enemy, however, they'd likely use the environment as a weapon, slamming the person in their grasp against walls, ceiling and the floor until nothing recognizable remains. These are clearly visible, however, and thus can be fought, if only with great caution.

### Scout

Scouts are about the same size as Sentinels, and like them, they are invisible. In addition, they have no eyes, instead seeing everything within several metres via supernatural means called blindsight. They produce no sound since they fly psionically, acting as near-universally undetectable assassins. When they encounter an intruder, they place one solid attack, injecting astral poison into the target. Astral poison is a magical toxin that gradually reduces a person's lifeforce until they no longer have stamina to breathe. It is not the deadliest of all poisons, so durable and hardened warriors might be able to withstand it, but magical cures for poisons fix the issue just as well. In addition, they're capable of unleashing rays of frost energy, further making things worse for any unfortunate explorers.

## Gate

The Gate in the top floor of Caer Laere is hidden from the naked eye. Behind a psionically veiled doorway, impassable until detected, exists a floating portal into Ainmire's personal demiplane, Monolith. This is guarded by a static Bruiser as well as her psicrystal, a tiny floating crystal with a mind of its own. It can manifest psionic powers and can be extremely dangerous to warriors, as they often lack the mental discipline most mages would possess. The psychic assaults, combined with the astral construct's attacks, are often enough to repel anyone who could accidentally get up to the highest floor and discover the doorway. If they are there quite knowingly, however, they surely have ways to prove their identities and discourage the psicrystal from attacking. Unlike the astral constructs, it is sentient and can be reasoned with, despite its bipolar personality.