Losarcum: The Black Knife

Let’s learn all about Losarcum: The Black Knife. It was built by the Black Robes, and fell in the Lost Battles. Buy Towers of High Sorcery: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/2940/towers-of-high-sorcery-3-5?affiliate_id=50797

Transcript

Cold Open

Though it was built by the Black Robes, in truth wizards of all the Orders were welcome.

Intro

Welcome to another DragonLance Saga episode. My name is Adam and today I am going to talk about the Tower of High Sorcery of Losarcum: The Black Knife. I would like to take a moment and thank the DLSaga members, and invite you to consider becoming a member by visiting the link in the description below. You can even pick up Dragonlance gaming materials using my affiliate links. I am referencing the Towers of High Sorcery sourcebook for this information. If I leave anything out or misspeak, please leave a comment below!

Discussion

It was the death of Shaud, the Black Robe, who protected Wayreth from the Ut-Kiri, that provided Grall Bonefist with the opportunity to become head of the Orders of the Black Robes. Grall was the most feared mage of his age, and when Highmage Kharro dispatched the three factions to build their Towers of High Sorcery, Grallen chose Qim Sudri, the City of Stone. Qim Sudri was located in the heart of a maze of canyons called the Sun’s Anvil, or the Tears of Mishakal, depending on your background. The entire city was constructed from a hollowed out mesa made of sandstone. The residents of Qim Sudri were the strongest desert riders of the Sea of Shifting Sands. Unlike his fellow wizards of High Sorcery, Grall didn’t care about the residents, and arrived with an army of Black Robes. The desert riders attacked, but were routed by the awesome power of the Black Robes. During the conflict, Grall cast the spell of raising and a spike of obsidian rose from the sandstone rim, overlooking the city. The desert riders respected the wizards for their courage and power–just as Grell had calculated.

While the other Towers were at peace with their neighbors, this Tower only knew a thousand years of conflict. The sand riders would rise to attack and attempt to expel the Black Robes with each successive generation, but the wizards would always repel them directly or indirectly with their grove. Ironically when the sand riders asked for assistance to repel outsiders, the wizards always came to their aid. Ultimately the Orders felt that this constant conflict would tarnish their reputation and crafted a small army of nine-foot malachite statues that would animate and attack if provoked. A lasting peace did finally come through the machinations of Moranda, an ambitious wizardess who yearned to be the Master of the Tower. Through her schemes she ingratiated herself with the sand riders and aided their leader to overthrow the reigning tyrant. In the end, her victor won and peace was the prize. Of course Moranda did eventually become the Master of the Tower and even the Highmage for twenty years!

With the support of the Black Robes, the sand riders of Qim Sudri became the most powerful tribe in the region, and eventually crafted a new realm through war called the Khanate of Dravinaar. Dravinaar soon grew through further conquest to become a massive kingdom the likes of Istar and Ergoth themselves! Even Solamnia had plans to invade and make war with this new dark empire. The Red Robes had Ergoth, the White Istar, and the Black thrilled in their realm with the Tower’s Master being second in command only to the Khan himself! It was the Third Dragon War that would spell the beginning of the end for Dravinaar and the Tower. When the Orders withdrew from their towers to stand against the Dark Queen, the Dravinaar saw an opportunity of expansion with the world’s eyes in the west. They sought aid from the Master of the Tower, but he refused, and the Khan cut them down. Then he took his armies north against Istar, who also sought aid from the Wizards and found them missing. The Clerics aided Istar in their time of need, and the Khan was killed in battle.

Within thirty years the once mighty nation of Dravinaar declined as Istar fought back after the war. After a series of civil wars, the last Khan died by his own hand as Istar approached his city. In its own expansion, Istar broke Dravinaar in two, becoming the poorest of Istar’s provinces. The wizards of the Tower saw how the Istarians treated their tower in the lord city, so they cast magic to make the tower appear abandoned. It lasted for seven hundred years until the Kingpriest Beldinas Pilofiro came to the province now called Losarcum. He called out to Paladine to lift the cloaking spell over the tower, and revealed the wizards inside. The Kingpriest demanded that the wizards vacate the tower and the Order’s emissary Marwort suggested trading masters of the Tower from Daltigoth, a Red Robe Mage with the current Black Robe. This pacified the Kingpriest for a while, until the Lost Battles. The Kingpriest would send his armies to Losarcum to force the wizards to leave when word was returned from Daltigoth that it had been destroyed. The wizards told the commander what would happen if they attacked the tower, but it did not dissuade them. In the end, the tower was destroyed by the Orders, and the entire city with it. Only three people survived. Lord Cathan the commander, his friend Sir Tithian and the Wizardess Leciane who teleported them to safety. Leciane would die shortly after.

The glistening black Tower of Losarcum was shaped like a stiletto, which gave it its name: Jandhar Azuya, the Black Knife. It rested on a promontory above the city of sandstone. It stood four-hundred feet, dominating the skyline and its shadow would stretch across the city like a reaching finger each day. At night it burned with reflected twilight appearing to be a crimson flame. The other Orders were represented on its parapets, with two red accented spires and a silvery white needle at its apex. The walls were obsidian black and when viewed you would see your own reflection, then other faces instilling the notion that you are insignificant in a larger world. Though there was a traditional interior series of rooms, underneath the tower was the vast majority of its rooms, some even connecting to the Abyss itself! After the Cataclysm, the buried bits of the destroyed city would resurface and come to be known as The Ruins. All that remains of the tower is a pool of black glass, surrounded by a ring of stones. Some scholars believe that Malystrix leveraged the remnant power of The Ruins to create the Desolation and the Affliction that decimated the Kender race.

In its day, the grove that surrounded Losarcum, known as the Tsorthan Grove, was the most skillfully wrought. It was created by Yalashim the Mind-reaver, the greatest enchanter of the Second Age of Krynn. The grove used the intruder’s passions against them, forcing each who entered the grove to experience something vastly different. It was filled with a thick mass of cypress trees whose branches hypnotized every living being that would enter it. Those who survived the grove revealed that their thoughts turned ever inward, stopping them from moving and becoming lost in their own minds. Ultimately a lover would find their hands at their partner’s throat, a warrior would be defeated by a weaker foe, and a wealthy man would become penniless in their minds. This forced them all to collapse, sobbing, and succumbing to despair.

The Tower of Losarcum, or Dravinaar, or Qim Sudri was a place of dark experimentation and power. It seemed to be fated to rise and fall in power with those around it, but in the end, its Ruins are still feared by those who have found themselves stumbling across them. With rumors of treasure the Ruins draw potential adventurers, only to feed most of their bodies to the shifting sands of the region. The destruction of Daltigoth and Losarcum turned the tide of the Lost Wars and arguably saved the other towers from a similar fate.

Outro

But that is all the time I have to talk about the Tower of High Sorcery in Losarcum: The Black Knife. What do you think about the Ruins? Are there ancient artifacts beneath the surface? Would you ever explore its caverns? And finally, would you ever play a Second or Third Age campaign in Dravinaar? Leave a comment below.

I would like to take a moment and remind you to subscribe to this YouTube channel, ring the bell to get notified about upcoming videos and click the like button. This all goes to help other Dragonlance fans learn about this channel and its content. Thank you for watching, this has been Adam with DragonLance Saga and until next time, remember:

Most of us walk in light and shadow but there are the chosen few who carry their own light to brighten both day and night.