The Highest Spire

Lore: Characters with ranks in Knowledge (history), Knowledge (nature), or Knowledge (religion) can research the frog god’s fane to learn more about it . When a character succeeds on a skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs .

DC 15: Countless civilizations have risen and fallen deep within the jungle . Their ruins still lie hidden from civilized eyes .

DC 20: A cult that worshiped Wastri, a deity shaped like a frog, once held great influence from a stone temple in an untamed swamp . Frogs of incredible size are sometimes spotted near mysterious ruins deep within the flooded jungle .

DC 25: Wastri directs his followers to further the needs of humans and amphibians . His worshipers once erected rich temples to honor their deity in the murky places his swamp-born wards might attend .

Description: Crumbling and overrun by denizens of the swamp—especially bloated and oversized amphibians—the frog god’s fane is now more a monument to rot than to any deity . Whole floors have been flooded, and the riches that once lined the walls and served as sacrifices have been lost to ages of muck and eroding waters . Yet within its deepest sanctuaries, through passages filled by brackish waters, lie hidden chambers in air pockets . Within these depths remain treasures untouched by swamp water, but even more valuable are the strange secrets carved in stone: sculptures once viewed only by the highest of priests, which detail worship by both human and amphibian .

Prerequisite: A character must discover the ruined frog god’s fane and reach the secret chambers within its depths to gain the benefit of this location .

Location Activation: A character must spend at least 10 minutes in meditation on the scriptural secrets hidden deep within the frog god’s fane, and make a DC 15 Intelligence check at the end of that time . If she succeeds on this check, she gains the benefit of this location . Otherwise, she has failed to accept some vital truth among the markings .

Recharge: Any number of characters who plumb the treacherous depths of the frog god’s fane can gain the benefit of this location . A character who fails the required Intelligence check cannot try again until her Intelligence score permanently increases .

Special Ability (Ex): Upon succeeding on the Intelligence check to understand the frog god’s secrets, the character makes a fundamental connection, gaining an insight into truths she never realized were linked . She gains Skill Focus in her choice of Knowledge (history), (nature), or (religion) as a bonus feat . Furthermore, even if the character has no ranks in the chosen Knowledge skill, she can make checks with that skill as if she were trained .

Duration: A character who gains the insight of the frog god’s fane learns its secrets and gains its benefits permanently .

Variation: Any seat of great and unfathomable information might grant an effect like that of the frog god’s fane . For example, a metal tower crashed from the stars might grant those who come to understand it bonuses on Knowledge (architecture and engineering) and Knowledge (the planes) checks, while the ancestral library of the imperial family might provide insights into Knowledge (geography) and

Knowledge (nobility and royalty) . Such information is too esoteric to share, requiring one to experience it personally to gain its benefits, but a character might learn some important piece of information that could lead to further adventures .

Ability Value: 2,000 gp . heWard’s hall

An obscure patron of bards and other music makers, the mortal Heward studied the ancient songs of the elves, and legends say, eventually brought music to humanity . He created instruments that are commonplace today and composed some of the oldest songs and airs known to the race, as well as crafting a unique pipe organ known for its mystical properties . His furthering of music led bards to honor Heward’s name, eventually giving rise to a number of cathedrals, concert halls, and playhouses dedicated to the first bard, each taking the name “Heward’s hall .” Some of these sites are incredibly inspirational to songsmiths and musicians of all walks, instilling within them the ability to push their own talents to extreme heights . The specific locale described below is just one example of such a legendary performance venue .

Lore: Characters with ranks in Knowledge (religion) can research a Heward’s hall to learn more about it . When a character succeeds on a skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs .

DC 15: Heward is the patron of bards and human musicians . This result reveals the commonly known stories bout him .

DC 20: Numerous concert halls and theaters are known as Heward’s halls, in honor of the first bard . Some such places are very inspirational to artists .

DC 25: Owners, managers, or religious groups controlling a legendary Heward’s hall often restrict access to only the most accomplished or promising artists .

Description: Behind the stage of the Saltmarsh Playhouse’s main auditorium is an organist’s nook, a famed Heward’s hall . The high-ceilinged room allows an accompanist to play the impressive, two-story pipe organ without its size and grandeur detracting from performances on stage . The walls of the room and many of the towering brass pipes of the organ are engraved with well-known songs that are said to have been composed by Heward or that are dedicated to the first bard . Directly over the

dual keyboards of the organ sits a stone bust of Heward himself, a foppish-looking rake with a jaunty smile and tousled hair . Despite all efforts, the Saltmarsh Heward’s hall is constantly plagued by small rodents, and the organ itself requires frequent retuning . Aydi Zarastian, guildmaster of the playhouse, created this Heward’s hall as a matter of tradition, holding that all the finest theaters and performance halls should host such a shrine . As a connoisseur of the arts, she grants access only to those with formal training and true musical talent .

Prerequisite: To gain the special ability conferred by a Heward’s hall, a character must possess at least 10 ranks in a Perform skill and must succeed on a DC 30 Perform check made as part of a public performance in the hall . The performer can’t take 10 on this check . The owner of the

Heward’s hall, however, might place additional conditions or limits on access . Though most performers prefer to use the Saltmarsh hall’s great pipe organ (requiring Perform [keyboard instruments]), other types of performances are permitted .

Location Activation: At the conclusion of a successful performance in a Heward’s hall, the location immediately confers its benefit on the performer .

Recharge: Only one character per night can gain the benefit of a Heward’s hall.

Special Ability (Ex): A character who successfully completes a performance in a Heward’s hall gains Skill

Focus (Perform) as a bonus feat, using the same Perform subcategory as that of the performance . If the performer already has Skill Focus (Perform) in that subcategory, he can instead select any bardic music feat for which he meets the prerequisite . The performer also gains a +2 competence bonus on

Craft checks to create new artistic compositions related to Perform skills . This bonus applies to all forms of performance, from acting to instrumental play .

Variation: This version of a Heward’s hall enhances the

Perform skill, but the idea of an inspirational site yielding greater works can easily be adapted to any number of other skills . For example, the nonmagical forge in which a famous weapon or legendary artifact was created might inspire future generations to create great works in metal over its fires, granting Skill Focus (Craft) or even an item creation feat .

Duration: The bonus feat granted by a Heward’s hall is permanent . The competence bonus on Craft checks fades after 1 year .

Ability Value: 5,000 gp . The hIghesT sPIre

Jutting past castle towers and temple minarets, the highest spire reaches from the mortal world to stab at the very heavens . The pinnacle of what is unquestionably the tallest building in the city, it draws travelers from the world over to stand in its incredible shadow . Every year as part of an annual festival, a handful of daredevils and adventure seekers gaze up at the famed structure’s summit not out of awe, but determined to reach the top .

Lore: Characters with ranks in Knowledge (local) can research the highest spire to learn more about it . When a character succeeds on a skill check, the following lore is revealed, including the information from lower DCs .

DC 10: The highest spire is aptly named, being the tallest building in the city and possibly in the civilized world .

DC 15: Every year, during a citywide festival, a dozen or so revelers attempt to scale the highest spire to win the title “Spire Hawk .”

DC 20: Every year several people are bruised and battered climbing the spire, and occasionally the attempt ends in a climber’s death .

DC 25: No guard can patrol the spire’s highest reaches . Who knows what might lurk or roost in its cloud-cloaked recesses?

Description: Hewn from a distant mountain peak’s night-blue marble and studded with starlike pearls, the highest spire itself is a 50-foot steeple sculpted as an exulting, spear-wielding archon . The spire is mounted atop the tallest building in the city, whose summit is a full 1,333 feet from the ground . Constructed by magic, and supposedly held aloft by the same forces, this wonder of the world compels visitors to attempt to scale it year after year .

The loftiest reaches of the highest spire are treacherous, and not simply due to the height . The tower’s many projections and the intricate wings and folds of the spire’s angelic form create sizable niches . Rumors have long held that dire bats, arrowhawks, even a dragon or even a territorial and ill-tempered couatl might live at the peak of this artificial mountain . (The DM should assign one or more hostile creatures to interfere with progress to the top, based on the average level of the ascending characters .)

Prerequisite: A character must climb from the building’s base to the peak of the highest spire on a specific holiday to gain the location’s benefit .

Location Activation: The building the highest spire perches atop requires successful DC 25 Climb checks to scale, while climbing the convoluted spire itself requires only DC 15 checks . The first character to complete the ascent immediately benefits from the location’s conferred power .

Climbers are not permitted to use any spell, wondrous item, or other magical effect to assist in the climb (including Strength-boosting effects) or to reach the pinnacle by other means . Scarring the building, such as by hammering pitons into its surfaces, is also forbidden, although nondamaging climbing implements and mechanical inventions are acceptable .

Festival mages check all participants and closely monitor their ascents . These mages commonly prepare protective spells such as feather fall to aid imperiled climbers, but