Secret Sages & Students 10-foot-high spikes held aloft by interweaving arcs of silver carvings of lightning, fire, ice and snow, wind, and even small simulations of various “hand” spells.

There are no visible entrances either through the Tower Fence or into any of the buildings of Windsong Tower. Newcomers either guess the site to be a well protected sculpture or stare endlessly at it (from a safe distance, of course), trying to see the entrances. In truth, there are only two external portals through which one enters the Windsong complex. An illusion covered archway exists at ground level on Windsong Tower, and it follows the movements of sun and moon (east arch at dawn to highsun, south arch at highsun to dusk, west arch from dusk to midnight, north arch from midnight to dawn); entrants using this entrance know to approach the tower invisibly along certain paths, lest they trip other invisible and unknown spell fields and while it kept its current students’ roster secret from all the mages and apprentices about Myth Drannor, it was an open secret that all Towerkin, including faculty and former and current students, wore simple ringbands of gold (faculty) or silver (students) that they never removed once they put them on. Unfortunately (for the nosy or those with grudges against the Tower), the plain ringbands were not distinguishable from common jewelry and thus these were not exactly keys to identifying Towerkin.

(For more information on the Towerkin Rings, see below.) Twelve wizards of age and experience secretly formed Windsong Tower’s charter under the Coronal’s supervision and became the headmasters; in all, only 15 elves have been Tower Elders in the 500 years of the schools’ existence. Eight trusted former apprentices and/or master mages of various races were tapped to act as the primary tutors and educators of the school; of these, 27 have become teachers of Windsong for at least a century, while only two of them have taught here without pause since the Tower’s founding. Rumored tutors (and possible Elders) of the past and present are the Srinshee, Darcassan the Farseer, Tyvollus Aluviirsaan, Lord Earynspieir Ongluth, Lady Ahrendue Echorn, Deynriir the Silver Sorcerer, and Tascyll the Bold; rumored students of Windsong Tower include Ecamane Truesilver, Aravae Irithyl, Arun Maerdrym, Lord Khyssoun Ammath, Rilmohx Sha’Quessir, Shar and Raanaghaun Cormrael (“the Dark Diviners”), and Lady Ecaeris Aunglor.

Secret Knowledge
While there are far more secrets among the Towerkin, two more common “open secrets” have become so prevalent within rumors and gossip that they need to be spoken of here.

While one has had many witnesses on a number of occasions, the other is purely a conjecture.

The Towers' Touch
The Tower Fence has a number of spell depictions along its length, all carved and molded in pristine silver. Various spell effects can be activated within and around the fence, activated by secret command words or the touch of a Towerkin Myrjala's Eyes ring and a mental commanding of the same command words.

Upon activation, lightning or fire or bitterly cold snow wraps around the entire fence and an overarching hemisphere ward caps the top of the fence, providing protections equal to spells such as wall of fire/ice/lightning beyond a basic siege equivalent of 12-foot-thick stone walls. Should any force penetrate beyond such defenses while the magic is active, 5-foot-wide hands formed of the same active magical aura reach from the fence to hold and grapple intruders.

Windsong
This hidden spell ability of Towerkin of high rank is rumored to be an innate ability of their rings (though rumors persist that “all folk who use that Tower can touch any gates across the Realms and reach the safety of their masters’ sides, and that is why the mages of Windsong Tower are so feared—their close-knit community.” As it is, only a select few tutors and the Elders know how to perform this much-lauded ability, using a spell to enhance certain preset conditions. The spell below outlines the facts of this overblown rumored power only available to some Towerkin.

Windsong (Alteration)
Level: 7
Range: 0
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: One round
Duration: 2 rounds
Area of Effect: One gate or gateway The Quess'Ar'Teranthvar
Saving Throw: None
This spell allows the caster to alter the conditions of a preexisting gate or gateway, whether the spell was just cast or has been a spell of some permanence, and use this spell’s magic with the gate’s to send the caster alone to the main entry chamber of the central keep of Windsong Tower in Myth Drannor. The magic of this spell allows the caster to bypass the normal limitations of the gate’s distance limitations, allowing the caster to use gates within the eastern reaches of Cormanthyr or as far off as the Calishar Emirates (or even the Tears of Selûne!).

Simply put, the standard magics of a Towerkin ring allow them to use other gates within five miles of the center of Myth Drannor to automatically teleport without error to the central and largest building of the Windsong Tower complex. This spell interacts with those rare rings, and thus only initiates and graduates or tutors of the Tower learn this spell, since it requires their own rings to operate. The windsong spell merely sets a field around the caster/ring-wearer which enhances the magic of the ring itself. This field then uses and enhances the existing teleporting magics to send the caster immediately to Windsong Tower upon his initial contact with the pre-existing gate.

Secret Treasures Now, these are among the greatest of secrets within Windsong Tower. In fact, while most students therein have seen some of the artifacts and items at the beck and call of the Towerkin, these artifacts are hidden away and seen only at the bequest of either the 11 Tower Elders, the Tower Master, or the artifacts themselves.

On the east wall of the Elders’ Chamber hangs a full-length portrait painting, a gift from the human armathor Elminster Aumar, not long after the rise of the mythal, to Windsong Tower in exchange for study and knowledge. The 6-foot × 4-foot painting hangs above the main fireplace in the room, and it shows an exotic and beautiful southern spellcaster called Myrjala Darkeyes. The reproduction is so lifelike that many wondered if it was magical, and they wonder correctly.

While the paints and the canvas used by the unknown painter were magical, their unique and accidental combination created an entirely new effect: Myrjala’s portrait seems radiant and very nearly alive, and seems to watch those within the chamber (which causes a number of gold elves unrest, believing it to be a spying device set by the human). As legends tell, the painter for whom she sat captured so much of her essence that her life became linked to it; and as Elminster revealed to the elves, Myrjala was an avatar of Mystra, and this portrait granted her a touchpoint in Cormanthyr.

In short, the Myrjala’s Eyes portrait allows near-direct communion with Mystra, as if one were more a priest than a wizard; should a priest of Mystra pray under the gaze of Myrjala ’s Eyes, there is a +10% bonus chance that Mystra herself will speak to the priest (or 2% chance to any mage) briefly.

Even if Mystra’s notice is not wished, many folk find the portrait humbling, if not totally disturbing; some young wizards have fallen to despair after gazing upon it, as they may never see such beauty again nor touch such sublime understandings of magic as they did under Myrjala’s gaze.

Though the name has lengthened and the form severely altered, the lost magical relics of Netheril reside here: the Quess’Ar’Teranthvar, the “Golden Grove of Hidden Knowledge,” are the mutated remnants of the long-ago stolen Nether Scrolls! The Nether scrolls were secreted away from their keepers in Netheril in the 326th Year of that realm, and brought to the High Mages of Cormanthyr for safe-keeping. For centuries, the humans’ fabulous leaps in magic had far outstripped the advancement of any elf in Faerûn’s history. The theft of these Nether scrolls, as the humans called them, would teach the elves how the humans cast (and survived) such abuse of the Art, and it also would minimize the further spreading of such knowledge among the humans.

While the knowledge within could easily be read in their scroll forms, the elves found that the information had to be learned in sequence (i.e., the first set must be read at least once and understood partially before moving on to the second set). They also learned that each race that looked upon the scrolls found out new and different information; in fact, one of the chief thieves of the scrolls was Rilmohx Sha’Quessir, the gnome elf-friend who learned incredible secrets of illusions from only the briefest of readings of the scrolls. In addition, within a year of studying the scrolls, an early elven scholar found that re-examination of the scrolls revealed even more information than previously found within them. Over time, the elves found that experience and more knowledge (i.e., an increase in Intelligence or Wisdom) allowed more awareness of what the Nether Scrolls contained. The elves also saw hidden learning among those writings that could be revealed only by altering the scrolls into something more inherently and deeply elven in nature. This planned transformation also would serve to keep other races from understanding or gleaning further information from them, thus minimizing the potential damage to the Weave.

A High Mage named Tyvollus Aluviirsaan transformed the metal scrolls into the form they now wear: A slim, golden beech tree with golden metal leaves, its roots spreading out across the surface it rests upon, and its trunk bark forming a face of a treant. Within the tree’s branches are a small silver bird with an electrum beak and a snake with alternating gold, silver, and electrum scales. (Some elves describe these two creatures as the voices of Corellon and Mystra, the two gods responsible for elven magic.) This grove has five communication modes with which to teach elves the secrets of the Nether Scrolls; despite the changes in forms, the information is much the same as that imparted by the Nether Scrolls, though there are some perks and differences for the elves.

• The Arcaenus Fundare scrolls told the basics of magical knowledge, how to both learn magic and teach it to others, the schools of magical thought and study, and how magic of ninth level and below interacted with the Weave.

In short, the bulk of all current magical knowledge comes from this one source. This information comes through in the shape of the root pattern and the bark pattern of the tree, which spell out words in the ancient moon and gold elven script languages.

• The Magicus Creare scrolls involved items, the care needed to purify materials for item-empowering, the mechanics of item enchantment, and the creation of magical items of all types and purposes, including advanced items that became one with their wielders. This knowledge comes from the shapes of the leaves and patterns along individual branches, both of which form letters, words, and sentences at times in an ancient green elf script.

• The Major Creare scrolls involved the existence and understanding of living, semi-animate fields of self-sustaining or self-restorative magic. The most basic level of this knowledge led to augmentative items that enhanced the bearer and his store of personal magics (items from eyes of minute seeing to girdles of giant strength and ioun stones and tel’kiira), while the first major step beyond that involved the creation of golems. The Major Creare also had a well-hidden treatise on anti-magic and dead magic, which was essential to comprehend to grasp the deeper wisdom beyond the disruption or interruption of the Weave, and that was its focus and magnification. Advanced scholars of this knowledge eventually learned of the living magics and magical fields called wards, wardmists, and mythals; little more than the crudest of these true magics were ever uncovered. These magics are learned from the animal forms within the tree’s branches, which speak in oracular (and thus, rarely direct) terms about the knowledge the elf wishes to gain.

• Planus Mechanicus was the treatise contained in the fourth set of Nether Scrolls, and it detailed the secret structure and mechanics behind the planes of existence, their creation and interactions, and the workings of magic and the Weave in each plane. The best scholars of this area of knowledge understood the nature of underplanes and pocket planes, creating many of the dimensional pockets within the Ethereal and other planes. The rustling and tinkling chimes of the metallic leaves plays out ancient elven metaphoric ballads which impart the knowledge in the most abstract ways; this stage of learning is the most time-consuming, given the length of most elven ballads and the cryptic nature of how information is imparted and what the metaphors mean when strung together.

• The Ars Factum scrolls represent the final stage of knowledge for mortal magical-item creation, as the data imparted taught wizards how to create artifacts ranging from items of massive power to items with their own sentience and access to the Weave (in essence, a new magical lifeform).

This rarest knowledge is revealed by the entire grove contorting its bark and branches into major symbols explained in concert by the chiming leaves’ melodies and the accompanying songs sung by one or both of the animals.

• While there were only five sets of 10 Nether Scrolls organized as noted above by their Netherese names, the combination of the 50 metallic sheets into this grove form allowed some elves to glean a sixth, hidden wellspring of magical knowledge: When studied by a High Mage or an elven wizard of at least 20th level, the greater magics nearly lost to the ages are revealed; to the High Mages, new rituals and variations on already-known rituals are found, while wizards learn tenth-level magics. They once learned more (eleventh-level spells), but the Fall of Netheril even caused the Quess’Ar’Teranthvar to lose all of its leaves for a decade, and thereafter, only tenth-level magic and High Magic could be gleaned from the grove.

This information is learned by the bird and the snake fusing into the form of a small golden dragon entwined about the trunk of the grove; this creature tells only wizards ’ magic to wizards and High Magic to those versed in it, never revealing one’s secrets to the other.

Tyvollus remains with his creation today, his body in the stasis of aduessuor. His mind, locked in reverie, maintains the form of the Quess’Ar’Teranthvar and is actually the medium through which the grove changes itself to communicate with an acolyte. Should anything disturb him or disrupt his reverie even for a moment, the tree will collapse within 1d10 turns into a mound of semimolten metals.

After 1d20 years without the attentions of Tyvollus, the metals will separate into the Nether Scrolls once again. The grove would be useless for no less than a tenday, even if Tyvollus immediately returns to aduessuor. Unless Tyvollus is killed and the area surrounding the grove becomes a deadmagic zone, this object is invulnerable to all mortal magics, including limited wish and disintegrate; even wishes only affect the grove for one hour.

The grove lies within the Solarium, an upper chamber of Windsong Tower, though it is neither pointed out nor easily found. The room exists in a pocket dimension between the top level of the central tower and its roof; in effect, only those the grove or Tyvollus wishes to teach ever learn of the room’s existence (by the sight of glowing stairs leading into the ceiling of the Abjurers’ Librarium, and only they can gain access to it when invited by either powerful magical presence). Only one student at a time is allowed into the Solarium, an apparent glass-walled room with a stone floor always under a sunny sky. Invited students and acolytes often disappear into the chamber for a tenday, their needs magically suspended or tended to by the grove; the longest any being has ever studied the grove was a year, and the Srinshee gleaned much knowledge from her studies in that time. During this, the student gleans all she can from one of the grove’s five modes of communication; only elves and gnomes and half-elves can even begin to understand the grove, and only those with Intelligence and Wisdom scores of 17 or greater can comprehend the least of it.

The Tablets of Pharyssolnyth These tablets came to Cormanthor long ago with the survivors of Srinshinnar, though they remained hidden for centuries.

The Pharyssolnyth Tablets came into Windsong Tower’s keep- Secret Agendas ing when the Srinshee chose to accept an invitation and join the ranks of the Tower Elders. These 37 large obsidian-black slates seem odd both to the eye and to the touch, their sides polished on one and raw on the opposite. Centuries of investigation revealed that the slabs are permanently enlarged black dragon scales. Years more of analysis and a delicate touch proved that their surfaces were minutely carved with nigh-invisible scrawlings and etchings, tactile writing unknown to any races of Myth Drannor.

While they are incredibly hard to read, the Srinshee and others spent the better part of four centuries studying and recording their theories and translations upon the raw sides of the black tablets in ancient moon elvish. The Tablets, recorded by the silver wyrm Pharyssolnyth of Yrlaphon in the first century of that city’s history, were a treatise on how dragons learn, understand, and cast magic, as spells or in items.

DM’s Note: Any nondraconic individual who reads all of these scrolls gains an understanding of dragons’ powers and attitudes about spellcasting and magic and they receive a +2 saving throw bonus against any spells or magical-item effects cast by dragons.

Towerkin Rings As noted before, every member of the faculty and the student body of Windsong Tower bears a Towerkin ring. The only way to determine if a wizard learned Art at Windsong Tower (other than imprudent and rude questioning) is to slay him and remove his rings, checking for telltale carvings: Along the inside of the band, minute carvings mimic the designs of the Tower Fence. Students and apprentices wore silver bands and the faculty and Elders wore gold rings; if a former student returned to Windsong to teach, the silver band would be transmuted to gold.

The Towerkin rings allow the free and immediate use of any gates within five miles of the center of Myth Drannor, to automatically teleport without error to the central and largest building of the Windsong Tower complex when they entered an active gate. This access, approved by the Coronal, allows the many hidden students and tutors of the Tower to enter the school without being traced, tracked, or even followed, since all others using the gate went to its proper destination, not the Tower.

Some initiates or tutors provide the Tower Elders with a ring of their own in which to set the Towerkin magics, a practice which increased over the years. The enchantments and carvings done by the Windsong Elders and their aides, while specific and potent in their own ways, never interfered with any other innate magics or properties of an item. Thus, by the time of this product, it was almost as likely that an initiate would be wearing a plain Towerkin ring as an heirloom or stylized ring or a ring of warmth (or other magical rings) altered and enchanted as a Towerkin ring as well. In all, over 600 elves and humans and half-elves learned magic within the walls of Windsong Tower over the past five centuries, and many magical rings or family treasures might unknowingly be Towerkin rings willed to kin after the death of the previous wearer.

DM’s Note: A Towerkin ring does not count as a magical ring for the two ring rules maximum; its only magic is its permanent bonding with the hand, as it merely catalyzes the other effects embedded in other more active magics.

What was the true agenda and purpose of the Windsong Tower and its Elders? None have ever found out, as their closemouthed natures prevented any outsiders from learning their secrets. Some proposed this was an attempt by High Mages to teach High Magic to wizards and create wizardly simulacrums of their holy communal rituals for wider use; most reject this idea, for most High Mages find this practice disdainful of the Weave and the rituals that respect it and its mistress. Others suggest that it was a storehouse of artifacts, not unlike the Vault of Ages, and the elves simply took to teaching both magic and the lore of the elven artifacts. Still more believed the Windsong Tower complex was the Coronal ’s first attempt (occurring before the Opening) at integrating elves and nonelves in harmony; this is utterly unprovable, but many gold elves and other nobles find the mere suggestion horrifying.

No matter what its true purpose, Windsong Tower holds far more mysteries and adventure opportunities for any who are associated with members (or are apprentice or student members themselves). The only fact known about their teachings are their graduation requirements: Each student must create a unique spell of first or second level in order to graduate and become a full mage or wizard; folk attempting to enter as senior students or faculty must provide a third- or fourth-level spell. With this known to be true, many have sought to join the Tower, believing they could gain access to a great library of spells and magic; this assumption is false, as the Elders guard all access to the full library of spells accumulated over 500 years. With graduation or a rise to faculty level, Towerkin receive a book of spells, three of each level they are capable of casting (or a starting spellbook of seven first-level spells), all drawn from the unique spells of the Windsong Initiates. The knowledge contained among the Windsong Scrolls (or the Codex Quevarr, as sometimes called among the elves) would dwarf any five elven wizards’ collective spell libraries, and their hiding places (for the Scrolls are divided among the Elders) are all known only to one Elder, the Coronal, and the Keeper of the Vault of Ages.