The Iron Spires of Ereshkigal
Further north along the coast from Jinutt lies Ereshkigal, a largely deserted
city of ruined metal towers, located about five miles inland so its appearance
cannot easily be discerned from the sea without a telescope. The ruins are
quite extensive, spreading out over a few square miles.
The city encompasses hundreds of metal spires fashioned like giant mushrooms
or fungi. The few intact specimens are hollow shells bereft of any kind of
stairs, with only a few small entrances at the base (symmetrically arranged) and a
central hole in the 120’ high ceiling. Most of the outlying towers have already
been stripped of anything interesting by explorers, but spires in the center of
the city are filled with bizarre inscriptions in an unknown language
(predating the Kadari tongue of the Necromancer Kings).
Contrary to rumor, Ereshkigal’s treasures are hardly unguarded, since the
towers of the inner city serve as lairs for several packs of ghouls and ghasts.
These lairs are clustered around a central spire that has been converted into a
lofty cathedral to Thasmudyan, guarded by a powerful high priest with the powers
of a greater mummy, who carries an ancient horn of the exalted dead.
Concealed beneath the shrine’s altar is a secret passage leading into a
convoluted mazework of tunnels and subterranean corridors that stink of ghast breath.
Ultimately, these caverns lead to the Garden of Eternity (detailed below), but
they are filled with roving packs of armored undead soldiers, deadly glyphs of warding, and ravening beasts of the Underdark.
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