The Tower - M.W.Cameron

The Tower first appears as a giant, flat, diamond-like-faceted plateau of carved stone.
It radiates Exceptionally Powerful Ancient Magic of a strength that is almost painful to behold.

On its surface is a starburst pattern of metal [Adamantine] lines & a series of concentric circle Runes.
The Runes are very, VERY old [Ancient Aasmir, aprox 5K years old] & have a faint glow to them.
They feel slightly warm to the touch, almost as if they are alive or filled with a Power Indescribable.

There are three Rings of Runes, delicately inscribed in a silvery metal [Adamantine].
The Outer Ring translates as: "The Path on the journey begins with a single step, but leads forever to the Future & beyond."
The Middle Ring reads: "It has a way of endlessly branching, forking, & becomming not merely A Path, but an Infinite among Infinites."
The Inner Ring finishes with: The first step is at hand - speak, Friend, and enter."

As the word ["Friend" in Aasmir] is spoken, the magic of The Tower is activated.
The entire plateau rumbles as if gripped in a mild Earth quake, vibrating in near subsonics that rattles the spine.
The stone begins to glow a faint, firey red as if being heated from within by the very forges of Hell.
The lines of metal (the starburst & the Runes) seem to melt & flow inward towards the central "facet" like water swirling down a drain.
Shortly after the metal vanishes, bright red, concentric circle "cracks" spider the surface in lines so fine they almost melt together.
The "light from within" suddenly !F L A R E S! so bright you throw up your arms to shield your eyes.
By the time the spots have faded from your visin & you can see again, the whole structure seem to be *blurring*.
A vibration, first subsonic, gradually building through the ranges where you can hear, & then so high it seems to pierce your soul.
The rock fissures, cracking like an iceberg calving itself into oblivion, & you're thrown to the ground from the shock wave.
It suddenly !SHOOTS! upward, telescoping like a collapsable fishing rod in reverse, accordioning along the concentric cracks of light.
It seems to reach for the sky, shred through the clouds, & continue upward forever.
Almost too fast to see, it forms a nearly mile-high Tower of windowless stone.
Hellishly red light seems to form the "mortice lines" between the massive blocks of stone, each hundreds of feet tall.
It's as if all the Master Stone Masons throughout Dwarven history banded together to create the most beautiful, perfect, exquisite ediface ever erected.
And then surpassed themselves in every way imaginable.

As if living stone, depicting a mighty version of Yggdrasil, willed itself into being.
"Roots" form the base like dragon-thick cords of stone capable of holding up mountains.
They are covered in "lichen", "moss", and tiny (stone) tendrils like the "hairs" searching for nutrients in the soil.
They twist & spiral up to form a "Trunk", the bark pattern so realistic you expect to smell the woodsy scent underneath.
The "Branches" all vanish into the clouds & reach for the stars.
The carvings are SO realistic that, were it NOT made of creamy-grey stone, one would expect it to BE Yggdrasil.
Amid the roots rests an archway-encased door, braced with an inscription in glowing-red metallic [Adamantine] Runes.
(They are warm to the touch, as if molten metal having cooled enough to finally touch.)
The Runes read: "May the Oceans of Knowledge Quence the Fires of War."
The door has a small, ornate, metallic [Adamantine] lock that requires a four-bladed key.