Looming over the southern entrance to Melkot Pass is the immense
Melkotia Castle, perched high atop a dormant volcano. Its history is a
long one, spanning almost 600 years. As wealth poured
into the coffers of the Melkotia family from their highly successful
gem mines, and as the city of Melkot continued to grow, the patriarch
of the regional ruling family
decided that Melkot Keep needed to be dedicated to city functions and
that he would build a grand personal residence overlooking both the
Pass and his land holdings around the city. The most spectacular vista
was selected, and a road was carved up the mountain. Work on the castle
began in 5530 SD (15 CY) and continued fairly continuously for the next
35 years. When major construction finally was complete, the castle
consisted of 3 buildings: the Royal Residence, the Servants Quarters,
and the Old Guard Tower and Barracks.
For several hundred years, a long line of mostly benevolent rulers
performed only minor modifications of the Castle, choosing to either
amass the family fortune, or spend their wealth on other things, such
as the Melkot city walls (built over a 20 year period between 160 and
180 CY) and the city water system (constructed between 208 and 214 CY,
after a terrible plague).
In 472 CY Lord Arabis II became Lord of Melkotia Castle at the age
of 30. Lord Arabis II was a master strategist, and had inherited his
father's distrust of the Sea Princes. He began a concerted effort to
safeguard his lands, and as such devoted much energy to information
gathering and planning. As he learned more of the Sea Princes'
plans, he became convinced that they would eventually see Melkot Pass
as a path of weakness into the Yeomanry and the Keoish empire. First,
Lord Arabis II concentrated on finding ways to strengthen the city
against possible invasion, including funding the foundation of an
unusual number of temples in Melkot and a major expansion of the
Wizards' Guild. He also magically "hardened" many of the city's and
castle's key weak points, such as the various gates. He was just in
time.
In the fall of 476 CY, the Sea Princes marched northward through
the Hool (thinking it would be unexpected) towards the Yeomanry, and
towards Melkot Pass. Expecting the small town to fall quickly and
without incident, the invaders would be in for a shock. The large force
beseiged Melkot for nearly a year and a half, and the town never fell.
An unprecedented amount of priestly and wizardly magic fortified a city
of incredibly stubborn, and highly prepared defenders. Several attempts
to storm Melkotia Castle were utterly defeated, and only served to
further weaken the invading army. Eventually, the Sea Princes were
forced to retreat across the mires back to their homeland, never having
seen Yeomanry soil. The Seige of Melkot is one of the most important,
and brilliant, military accomplishments of recent times, yet because of
its relatively isolated location, is also one of the must unheralded
events in the history of the Sheldomar Valley. That sits just fine with
the fairly isolationist residents.
After events settled down, and knowing that the Sea Princes would
not be caught unprepared again, Lord Arabis II began further
improvements in Melkotia Castle's defensive capabilities, not the least
of which was to greatly increase the castle's population, a large
portion of that being troops, and the service people required to
maintain a much larger population. Thus, in 490 CY Lord Arabis II began
construction of the largest building yet, the Lord's Residence. The
massive construction took 8 years to complete and greatly increased the
holding capacity of the castle. The Sea Princes never considered Melkot
Pass as a weak gateway into the Yeomanry again.
In 511 CY, Marchanter killed his father and became Lord of Melkotia
Castle at the age of 26, and the Years of Dark Terror began (see the
main City of
Melkot description). Among other things, Marchanter began a
sustained program of building that would transform Melkotia Castle into
one of the architectural wonders of the Flanaess. During 514-516 CY he
built the Laboratory on an isolated pinnacle of the mountain top, and
construction from 520-521 CY added the now infamous Skull to the New
Guard Tower.
His most amazing accomplishment was yet to come, however.
Construction on the Twin Towers began in 526 CY. In the same length of
time that it took to construct the relatively small Laboratory
building, the massive 600' seamless basalt towers were completed by
late 528 CY. By that time, Marchanter had achieved such a high level of
arcane power as a mage, he could easily command large numbers of
other-worldly creatures, and it was mostly elementals, and not human or
dwarven stonemasons, that constructed the towers from molten materials
brought up from deep inside the dormant volcano. To distant observers
in the town below, it looked as if the towers grew from the mountain on
their own
accord, the upper edges glowing bright orange in the night as they
seemed to rise
from the volcano summit at Marchanter's command. Fear permeated the
city like a fog... a fog that would continue to hang over the city
until Marchanter's mysterious disappearance in 548 CY. Over those 20
years, Marchanter turned his attention to more arcane interests, and
the Castle was to remain physically unchanged til the present. What the
archmage accomplished those two decades cannot even be guessed at. The
immense Melkotia Castle must certainly contain great secrets, both
wondrous and horrifying.
For a more detailed timeline, with CY years also converted into SD,
see the Melkot
Timeline page.
To the left is a view of the front of Melkotia Castle, the most
prominent features being the stone skull attached to the New Guard
Tower, and the immense 600' high black
basalt Twin Towers in the background. A group of individuals both on
horseback (with pennants) and on foot (with polearms) are approaching
the New Guard Tower (for scale). Below is a view from behind Melkotia
Castle, from some point
above Melkot Pass. In the distance to the south lies the City of Melkot
and adjacent farm lands, with the beginnings of the Hool expanse on the
horizon.
When Marchanter disappeared, the Castle was abandoned in a single day. Stories are still told of that day by many of the survivors; guards, servants, cooks, even apprentices and scribes. Whatever happened in the bowels of the castle, it was suddenly overrun by large numbers of outer planar creatures. Most of the castle occupants never made it out, as the creatures rampaged throughout the castle complex. Except for periodic attempts to explore the castle by passing adventurers, none of whom ever returned, the castle has remained abandoned ever since. Or so people think.
In 572 CY the Sons' of Marchanter took the New
Guard Tower with a fairly strong force, and began sending
exploratory teams across the bridge into the New Guard Tower. What they
discovered was that the Castle was still occupied by large numbers of
outer planar creatures. Interestingly, while by far most of the
creatures are from the lower planes, there are representatives from all
of the planes, including rare individuals from the upper planes. In 578
CY, the Sons mounted a major offensive on the denizens of the castle,
and managed to clear and take the Old Guard Tower and Barracks, setting
up a barricade in the tunnel leading to the Servants' Building. As
such, most of the Sons' defensive efforts are concentrated inwards,
towards the interior of the castle in an attempt to hold the Old Guard
Tower and Barracks. Several attempts to penetrate deeper into the
castle have failed, however the Sons hope to continue reclaiming
Melkotia Castle one building at a time. The cost in lives has been
great. Success would reap incredible rewards.
So why haven't these creatures descended upon the City of Melkot?
The most bizarre discovery the Sons have yet made, is that any
non-prime creatures that enter the castle cannot leave. None can
physically exit the castle, even through open gates, doors and windows.
The creatures cannot cross outdoor bridges, and thus could not occupy
the New Guard Tower. All forms of teleportation, plane travel, and
plane shifting, whether item, spell or innate ability, do not function
within the interior of Melkotia Castle. Even special other-planar
familiars that enter with their masters find that they cannot leave the
castle, their way barred by an impenetrable force while their masters
simply walk out the gate. Extradimensional spaces and spells do not
function, nor can priests contact their deities (preventing them from
gaining back spells above 3rd level). Creatures or spell affects that
enable sight into the ethereal or astral are blinded. Whatever magic is
responsible for this effect must indeed be great, and was not present
before the day Marchanter disappeared.
What has been learned from the few creatures that have been
interrogated is that deep within Melkotia Castle is a interplanar gate
complex through which creatures can enter the castle, but are somehow
barred from leaving. Only constant deadly conflict between the
creatures keeps the population at a fairly constant level. Upper planar
creatures tend to be quickly set upon by the larger numbers of lower
planars, who then generally turn on themselves. Because its essence or
spirit cannot return to its plane of origin, any creature killed within
the castle is destroyed utterly unless its spirit can somehow take over
another being or is protected by spell or magic item such as magic
jar or an amulet of life protection.
One thing is certain, the deepest mysteries of Melkotia Castle are
yet to be discovered.
Below is an aerial view of Melkotia Castle as it sits on the rim of the extinct volcano, with the various buildings labeled.
Details of the New
Guard Tower, along with interior maps can be found here. In the
future, more of Melkotia Castle will be detailed here, including a
building-by-building description complete with interior maps.
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