Palace of Nine

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This nine-sided obsidian edifice is at the heart of Paradomea City. Built in the Year 1310, it rests atop an enormous slab of rock called the Ebon Bedrock.

Slaves, workers, engineers, and elementals erected the Palace of Nine on the top of a flattened hill, under which was the Ebon Bedrock. They created a monolithic structure, 999 feet from side to side, and mostly made of obsidian. This material was transported by barge from the obsidian fields at Hlothram, down the Dargirth, and into Paradomea City. The lich arch-mages of the Council of Nine then fused the obsidian into one solid construction impenetrable by mortal attacks. Such was the magic used in its construction, that it created a tear in the Web of Magic. This tear in the fabric of the Web resulted in the formation of the rift Tintibulus Chute.

The Palace of Nine has numerous towers. The nine largest towers loom 200 feet above the city's streets. It is an ornate structure with beautiful terraces. It holds the offices of the Syndics; the rulers of Paradomea. It has many chambers, some accessible only by teleport and a fair number of extra-dimensional ones. It has halls of ancient artwork, vases, and other ornaments from fallen civilizations of Bal-Kriav and a large collection from other distant worlds. The main meeting chamber of the Syndics sits atop the Life Forge Dais, a 100' diameter raised glass that was once a working life forge.

In 1392, a band of bold and foolish rogues broke into this place, stealing tomes and ancient scrolls from the chambers of Syndic Nargontou. This lich, a leader of Paradomea's government, pursued the group into the palace's catacombs where he was killed. Six of the seven rogues that robbed the place died in the process. The surviving rogue made off with the riches of the lich and those of his dead comrades. A year later, the local news claimed that one of the items stolen was a Scroll of Dawn. It told the story of the Ebon Bedrock under the Palace of Nine, how it was once a piece of Mechanus, sundered by a primordial monstrosity named the Master of Tides. Today, the six rogues that died here are undead wights charged with keeping interlopers out of the palace's catacombs.

All parts of the palace are symmetrical, orderly, and of very precise construction. An influence of the palace's Ebon Bedrock foundation, it makes the palace a Focus for Negative Entropy.

Focus Effect