Phaendar's Planar Tower

• 24 September 2025

One of Destral's greatest scientific creations, a technological marvel that could have easily been called a wonder of the world, was kept a secret. Phaendar Hironimus Draft created for himself a home in The Empty Plane; a sanctum where he could live and work undisturbed. This Planar Tower was the culmination, and untimely conclusion, of his life's work.

At first, Phaendar wanted to leverage his discovery of stable demiplanes to create a safehouse. He made for himself a room that he could escape to; in the event of angered political rivals or another global supernatural catastrophe. As his research continued, he learned how to connect multiple spaces within the Empty Plane. Before long, he had built a network of connected rooms. The purpose of this sanctum quickly became a place for secretive laboratories, to keep controversial projects out of the eyes of others.

Phaendar did not have a limit to his plans for expansion, and so his work was never finished, but it did conclude. In its final state, Phaendar called his home in the Empty Plane his Planar Tower, though it did not resemble a traditional wizard's tower. Instead, rooms were arranged in the form of concentric rings; which Phaendar hypothesized all things behaved as, from the heavenly bodies to the smallest particles.

Each floor had eight rooms connected to each other as a ring. Floors were accessible to each other only by elevators. However, the layout of the tower could be shifted at certain control rooms, causing floors to rotate. This would make it such that the elevators, which were fixed in place, would connect different rooms than they did before the shift; opening pathways and hidden entrances.

Each ring was given an alphabetic indicator (A-E is as far as he finished), and each room was numbered 1-8. The exceptions were Ring A (which only had two rooms) and Z1, the Nucleus (a grand mechanism at the center of this tower). Each ring required a mechanism, called a Ring-Stabilization Crystal, which balanced the ring and its rotation. If they failed to function, rings could experience unexpected shifts, or even their entire collapse. Using these ring-stabilization crystals, Phaendar also could rotate the entire structure at breakneck speeds, causing a time dilation. He intended to use this to give himself additional working time, or to speed past events he would rather avoid.

A Catastrophic Experiment #

Miscalculated Endeavours #

Phaendar hypothesized that the Empty Plane could be used as a method of teleportation. If a space in the plane could be entered from one location and exited to another location, a shortcut between the locations was made. His tower established that this was possible, as long as finely-tuned equipment was set-up in both Legere and the Empty Plane. The difficulty of achieving this, however, prohibited this method from being used in other circumstances for most of Phaendar's life.

Phaendar left bridging the logistical and economic gaps to his teams, so that he could focus on the next endeavor. He desperately wanted to achieve on-demand teleportation from one location to another, without setting up an anchor at the destination. One of Phaendar's earliest endeavors was the search for the source of The Ancients; and so, in his hubris, that's where he set his first trial destination. Years of dedicated research and study gave him sufficient certainty that he knew their source.

In a dedicated laboratory, room B8, Phaendar created a doorway. With precise coordinates and fine-tuned instruments, he believed he could open a portal to any location he pleased. Phaendar recruited his new protégé, Theodore Perry, to help him operate his experiment. He sold him on the purpose of the experiment, but did not disclose to him the intended destination.

Fatal Errors #

On 9/5/275 DHT, Theodore and Phaendar began to conduct their experiment.

A critical observer should note that Theodore was likely not fit for duty at this time, as he had an altercation with Silvaar Darkthorn the day prior.

After reviewing their calculations, the pair each manned a control panel, located at the far end of the room. In tandem, they entered the coordinates and tuned instruments according to their calculations, and validated their inputs. The two then activated the machine, in stages, until the startup phase was complete. Then, successful so far, they engaged the portal.

The rings of the portal spun to life, and an indigo light illuminated the portal doorway. The vortex of energy stabilized to reveal the destination that the carefully chosen coordinates lead to. But to Theo's surprise and Phaendar's horror, the doorway opened to the inky-black emptiness of space. Grey rubble, with hints of green and orange, drifted lifelessly.

The emptiness sucked the air out of the room, and the portal mechanisms creaked and groaned under the pressure differential. Alarms sounded from the control panels as the system equilibrium began to slip. Then with a blinding flash of light, the other side of the doorway changed.

Suddenly, the two scientists gazed in terror at a blasted hellscape with a violet sky and unfathomable landforms. In the same instant, a blast of energy ripped through the room with such force that conduit and cabling were vaporized, instruments were obliterated, and the very rings of the tower itself fell out of alignment. The energy arced through the control panels, up the arms of both men, and threw them backwards against the walls. They were both left with severe radiation burns: char-blackened skin cracked with fissures radiating white light. Theo lost his left arm from the damage, and Phaendar was irreparably scarred on his entire right side.

With a doorway to The Void open, and the scientists unable to close it, hordes of Voidspawn began to rush out. The two abandoned their machine, in order to escape through the labyrinthian sanctum of the founder. Upon escaping The Empty Plane, Phaendar hired Theodore and his companions to save his home. The mission: Clear out the monsters, close the portal, and bring as many rooms back online as possible.

Aftermath #

The team encountered the rooms outlined below, and in the end were successful. The entrance to The Void was closed, but irreparably weakened. This weakness in time would prove catastrophic. Theo would make the most of becoming an amputee, but Phaendar struggled through his injuries for the rest of his life (which, alas, was not much longer).

Notable Rooms #

At the end of his work on the tower, Phaendar had completed rings A-D (27 rooms), and was working on the completion of ring E. The following is a list of the rooms in Phaendar's tower, as well as their purposes and fates.

Z1 - The Nucleus #

Ring A #

A1 - Main Control Center #

A2 - Nucleus Vault #

Ring B #

B1 - Power Indicator Sculpture #

B2 - Antechamber #

B3 - Control Room #

Each ring contained identical control rooms, which were used to rotate the rings of the tower. Each control room was a small but ornate space; circular rooms with white marble floors and walls, with a domed marble ceiling. The walls were decorated with complex patterns made of gold and copper inlays. In the center of each control room was a gyroscopic model of the tower, with glowing letters indicating the rooms of each ring. Approaching the model caused it to slow down, inviting the user to manipulate its rings.

After the accident, several rooms were no longer lit up on the rings. These rooms were offline and unnavigable by elevators. Instead, a skilled tinkerer had to travel to that room and get it back online.

B4 - Bedroom #

B5 - Exercise Room and Squash Court #

B6 - Dining Room #

B7 - Kitchen #

B8 - Portal Experiment #

Ring C #

C1 - Recursion Laboratory #

Here, Phaendar made ground breaking progress on research about the The Grey Plane: pocket dimensions, demiplanes, and teleportation. Several work-in-progress machines were being built here.

The tower's accidents caused all of the devices to malfunction catastrophically, causing the room to become warped and twisted with extradimensional errors. The room's floors and ceilings mirrored each other in a dizzying recursion. A prototype portal, like the one used to enter and exit the laboratory, was glitching between eight different locations. A staircase in the corner of the room, which previously only reached a second-floor loft of bookshelves, suddenly caused the user to grow in size when walking upwards, and shrink in size when walking down! On top of these, a silver sphere constantly transformed into other objects; and a chest now contained another chest inside, which held another chest, and another, ad infinitum.

Two terrifying creatures also now made this room home, but it is unclear if they were Voidspawn or of some other origin. One was a recursive centaur: which of course was a centaur with the body of a horse and the torso of a recursive centaur, which had the torso of a recursive centaur, which had the torso of a recursive centaur... The other was a lanky bipedal humanoid, whos face was a triangular fractal. Looking at either of these creatures for too long would drive a person mad.

C2 - Arcane Armory #

This room was isolated from the rest of its ring, only accessible by an elevator. The door was guarded by a strong arcane lock. Behind this door was a long vault, full of treasures. The room held fine art, prototype inventions, rare weapons, and two huge ornate cannons. These cannons were rare artifacts; from the first line of Gun Guard prototypes, given to Phaendar as a gift from Li Huo. They also were constantly armed and ready to fire if certain pressure plates were tripped by intruders.

This room was untouched by the accident.

C3 - Control Room #

This control room was the same as the others on each floor. See B3 for more information.

C4 - Battery Reserve #

C5 - Amulet Welcome Chamber and Meeting Room #

C6 - Guest Workshop #

C7 - Observatory #

C8 - Library #

Ring D #

D1 - Antechamber #

This antechamber was a welcome and waiting area for anyone entering from Legere into the D ring. After entering through the portal of spinning concentric brass rings, one found themselves standing in a large room with decorated marble floors and light stone walls. The floors were decorated with violet patterns of concentric rings. Four pillars supported an arched ceiling.

When a visitor would enter, the room would transform with furniture appearing from the floor. Bookshelves arose from the floor, shifting to curate the collection to the visitor's assumed preferences. Sitting areas for waiting guests to patiently peruse the volumes accompanied them. A small platter on rails would descend from the roof nearby to offer visitors a glass of water.

Powering the portal was a large glowing purple crystal, flanked by two statues. These ornate marble and copper statues were of non-descript Destrian-looking figures: one looking intently at an astrolabe, and the other looking at the heavens through a telescope.

This room was unperturbed during the accident.

D2 - Plumbing and Chemical Storage #

This room was used as storage of hazardous chemicals needed for various experiments. The room is a mess of piping, with lines running criss-cross through the entire place. In the centre of the room were 4 large glass chambers, holding vats of often-needed chemicals.

After the accident, the glass vats broke open, and several chemical lines burst. The floor was two-feet deep in acid, which was supposed to empty through a clogged floor drain. Enchanted acid, in the form of bats and amorphous blobs, attacked intruders!

D3 - Clockwork Ballroom #

This ballroom was meant to entertain and amaze guests of Phaendar. Clockwork mechanisms rearranged furniture, floors, walls, and chandeliers as a flashy show of technical hospitality. Unfortunately, after the accident, the mechanisms became bent and misaligned. When activated again, the moving floors and walls acted more like a terrifying beartrap.

D4 - Mushroom Grotto #

As a man curious about everything, Phaendar created this room to grow rare fungi with rare properties. This room took the form of a narrow and rocky cave tunnel. The walls were lined with luminescent mushrooms of various colours and sizes. At the back of the room was a wooden planter box, which became overgrown.

To run this project, Phaendar hired two Mylembo, Gorb and Borb as fungal gardeners. They were friendly folk who enjoyed their work, even though they were largely forgotten about by Phaendar. They never travelled to other rooms of the house, except for their path in and out, and were totally unaware of the accident until the Heroes of Nokkville escorted them out.

D5 - Sculptoris Laboratory #

This room was disconnected from its adjacent rooms, only accessible by an elevator. The entrance was a sealed bulkhead, which warned personnel against entry if hazards were detected inside. This abundance of caution was because Phaendar was experimenting with one of Legere's most dangerous substances, Sculptoris.

With a sample acquired by unknown and unsavoury methods, Phaendar was growing a colony of sculptoris. His goal was to create a clone of himself, and transfer his consciousness into it, to prolong his life indefinitely. His body was growing old, he felt unfinished in his life goals, and he was spurred on by his lack of a successor after his broken relationship with Belial.

The tower's accident severely disrupted this room. The cloning experiments failed, causing the four candidates to become horrifying manikins in Phaendar's image. The colony of sculptoris broke free and became a Carnite, which spewed a dense red fog throughout the room.

When the Heroes of Nokkville came to this room, they proceeded despite the bulkhead's warning of Threat Level: High. A harrowing battle ensued, and Firen purged the laboratory with fire. This put an end to Phaendar's plans for immortality; but Theo did smuggle out a vial of sculptoris.

D6 - Tetragrammaton Study #

This room was designed to be a sitting lounge and temporary study for guests; furnished with three simple chairs, a circular coffee table, and a few decorative plants. However, Belial modified this room to hide his secretive research. By placing the chairs around the coffee table in a certain configuration, clockwork mechanisms transformed the room. The coffee table and chairs flip into the floor, and an ornate desk, comfortable chair, and several drawers appear.

When Belial parted ways with Phaendar, he left several journals of notes, drawings, and other paperwork. These drawings repeatedly referenced triangles and pyramids, and the notes devolve in terms of clean handwriting and coherent thought. In his drawers were several models of the Tetragrammaton, including clay and wooden miniatures of the artifact, which are known to be found in ruins of the Kaktis Desert.

This room was unmodified by the accident, except for throwing the clockwork mechanisms out of calibration; causing them to move with erratic force.

D7 - Control Room #

This control room was the same as the others on each floor. See B3 for more information.

D8 - The Divine Machine #

This strange room was only partially constructed, with sheets and bars of metal just barely holding together. Where the construction ends, the room transitions to stone-brick walls and floors, of seemingly ancient design. The end of the room is blocked off by a mysterious wall of golden light; far more radiant than Destrian hard-light. Looking closely at the wall reveals characters of the tongues of angels written inside. Touching the wall with items made of Demonium causes sparks to fly.

Against the wall of the room is a notebook, and the open page reads:

Phaendar is the only one, by written knowledge at least, to have gone beyond this door. Whatever was behind it was of great importance to the angels, and his encounter with it changed him forever.