C2: The Ghost Tower of Inverness
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The Ghost Tower of Inverness is an adventure module for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition. It is part of the "C Series", a line of six modules originally released for tournament play, and in facts its designated module number is C2.
Plot[edit]
Long ago, a dread wizard named Galap-Dreidel discovered a mystical jewel that he could use to steal and enslave the souls of others. With the power of this Soul Gem, he erected a mighty keep, Castle Inverness, and filled its central tower with traps and guardians to protect his prize. Then to cement his power, he used his magic to wrest the tower from the fabric of time itself, to further shield it from rivals and keep it safe for all eternity.
Eventually, though, Galap-Dreidel vanished, and the keep was torn down by either vengeful peasants or those who sought the Soul Gem for themselves, depending on who you ask. But the central tower reappears like a ghost, manifesting on foggy nights and then vanishing again with the dawn. Obviously, the Soul Gem still lies within.
And that's where your party of adventurers comes in. You have been hired by the Duke Justinian Lorimnar of Unst to brave the Ghost Tower and retrieve the Soul Gem, with the incentive of being allowed to keep anything else you bring out of the Ghost Tower for yourself. In the original tournament version, you're actually a bunch of criminals who have been given the choice of braving the Ghost Tower and retreiving the Soul Gem or rotting in the dungeon - although to sweeten the deal you have been promised your freedom and the ability to keep anything else you bring out (minus a 20% Ducal tax).
Setting[edit]
Like most Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1e modules, the Ghost Tower of Inverness is set in the Greyhawk setting, specifically lying in the southern Abbor-Alz Hills.
However, like many other Oerthian locales or dungeons, an alternative version of the Ghost Tower also exists in the Nentir Vale setting, here laying in the actual Vale region itself, between Hammerfast and Harkenwold.
Successors[edit]
In 2003 the RPGA Living Greyhawk campaign released the adventure Return to the Ghost Tower of Inverness. Written by Creighton Broadhurst and Steve Pearce, the four-hour adventure advanced the story several years and featured encounters based on what would remain in the tower after the original expedition. Some background elements, such as the motivations of the Seer of Urnst were expanded upon to fit the Living Greyhawk campaign's plot and regional system.
Meanwhile, in 2011, Wizards of the Coast released the module March of the Phantom Brigade, in which the players accompany a band of settlers charged with a founding a new settlement on the ruins of Castle Inverness - something that incenses the local spirits, who promptly attack the settlers for their disrespect.
Publication History[edit]
The title, and the basic concept of a vanishing tower with each level of the tower in a different plane, were inspired by a 1972 radio program produced by ZBS Media, "The Fourth Tower of Inverness", by Meatball Fulton (aka Tom Lopez), who was a sort of radio drama producing eastern mystic version of a Gygax-like neckbeard, and did with bizarre-noir audio-drama what D&D did with dice. Although the plot is set in modern times (or at least the parts that occur in the Prime Material Plane), and the other planes visited by PC Jack Flanders (a really derpy hitchhiking skeptic/agnostic who must've had an epic-level munchkin endow him with the maximum possible HP) all seem to be Outer Planes (location-like manifestations of spiritual development/entanglement) rather than the Elemental Planes exemplified in the dungeon module, the relation in ethos between the two works is evident. Hardly an example of plagiarism, this is merely part of a very different pattern available in the 1970s than at this time of writing: many people used each others' works and embellished them in complimentary fashion without fear of any consequence. Steven Spielberg outright stole "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (also originally a Jack Flanders story) from ZBS; this wasn't like that. Though Fourth Tower has nothing to do with gaming, it is brilliantly imaginative and hilariously silly, often breaking the fourth wall in a very Deadpool-like way (perhaps itself a play on the name), and anyone who visits fantasy worlds in ANY way should give it a listen. Some kids living in BF Massachusetts who bought the module in 1980 were sitting around playing it one night when the local radio station decided to rerun Fourth Tower, and I was one of them: I still remember how I thought it must be some kind of conspiracy. Anyway, back to the module...
The adventure was written by Allen Hammack, with art drawn by Jim Roslof and Erol Otus. The module was originally used for the AD&D tournament at Wintercon VIII, which took place on November 1979 in Detroit, MI. The module had an original print run of 300 numbered copies for sale at the convention in 1979 as a set of 40 loose-leaf pages and a zip-lock bag. This version included never-reprinted illustrations by Erol Otus. A printed version bearing a green monochrome cover without the "C2" designation was made available for sale at the convention, but was never published for general distribution. The version is quite rare and highly prized by collectors.
In 1980, the adventure was officially published as AD&D module C2 as a 32-page booklet with an outer folder. This printing featured a red cover with color cover art by Jim Roslof. Interior artists included Jeff Dee, Greg K. Fleming, David S. LaForce, David C. Sutherland III and Erol Otus. As module "C2", it was the second in the C series of modules, a group of unrelated adventures originally designed for competition play.
The Ghost Tower was also printed as #2 of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Adventure Gamebooks line.
This famous dungeon appeared in both the Dungeon Survival Guide and in the Dungeon Survival Handbook.