The Devil's Tower "The Orcus Tapes" - A Warlord Of The Outer Worlds One Page Adventure Encounter Location For Your Old School Campaigns

 Introduction 


"The Devil's Tower stands naked against the moonlight beckoning adventurers to their doom. The place was once one of the most dangerous sites of the Ancients belonging to Amalgamated Data Inc. These wizards manipulated data and spells of all kinds according to myth and legend. That is according to legends passed from father to son and wise woman to daughter in the wasteland. This was before the artifact came into their possession, they handled powerful magicks unlike the paltry things of magic today. They handled many powerful workings and odd things of the Ancients. They even had a tower even more ancient they transported here brick by brick. The sun and the tides of the sea powered the place, they're energies  broadcast to the tower. That was until the power of Orcus's tablet was digitized and the dead began to dance to his tune of damnation. Then it all went to hell didn't it and now that tower stands on the hill out in the wastes beckoning fools and barbarians alike to its relics and artifacts. That will be three copper caps gents for the gruel and drinks"
Thom'us Traven 'The Five Armed' mutant tavern keep and former adventurer



  The Devil's Tower 

The Devil's Tower is a site of the Ancients and stands upon a hill side five miles out into the wastes just outside of the local city state. The place can be seen for miles around and its silhouette is ablaze with the electrical power of the Ancients. It was once the site for a cabal of very powerful wizards of Law known as Amalgamated Data Inc. They were a powerful cabal indeed using computing mechanisms known as computers to store and catalog all manner of information and knowledge upon tapes,disks, and other storage medium before the apocalypse. That was until the tablet of Orcus was found out in the Eastern deserts somewhere. Some say it was around someplace called Rome and others around the seas of Galilee but no now is quite sure. The tablet was sent to Amalgamated Data Inc's headquarters shortly before the Fall and the power of the tablet was unleashed upon the countryside here.

The dead danced and the unnatural dead rose from their tombs roaming and destroying at will it was horrid. The Amalgamated Data Inc.'s head wizard was turned into a mummy thing and he still wields the original tablet and rests at the top of the tower. The tapes themselves are still playing Orcus's tune each and every full moon. The lights and windows of the tower are ablaze with the unnatural light of the ancients kept on by the power of the tablet and the demon lord. The souls of adventurers and fools are meat for the demon lord and his horde.
There are 1d8 gargoyles that guard the paths and former roadways up to the tower. During the day 1d10 wolves move and patrol the place drawn by the occult power. Occasionally a zombie will arise and stumble from its former resting place.



Because of the twitching and uneasy rest of the undead around the tower there is a 20% chance of some minor treasure of the Ancient's being unearthed.

1d6 Random Treasure of the Ancients 

1. A small piece of crystal jewelry or a gold chain worth 10 gold piece stamped with Amalgamated Data Inc.'s magical icon. 
2. The remains of a legendary flip phone valued 200 gold pieces because of the internal electronics. 
3. Classic men's ring worth 60 gold pieces set with strange glowing crystal 
4. A bag filled with strange coin like objects that have strange magical properties to the god Money. 
5. A knife of the Ancients with a +1 blade a very rare treasure worth 300 gold to the right collector. 
6. A pass card from Amalgamated Data Inc. that has a 60% chance of allowing one to pass into the tower's innards. 

There is a swarm of 1d10 striges baring the skull markings of Orcus, these things are dangerous, malevolent, and cagey to bedevil adventurers. They haunt the woodland around the tower and make life very dangerous for travelers and adventurers alike. The striges whisper and taunt anyone in the woodlands around the tower and come out at night mostly. There are rumors of a small hoard of relics and treasure that they've gathered from pray. A clip or two of bullets, a jeweled hat pin, watches and other baubles line their nesting places.



Some of the real dangerous inhabitants of the former grounds are the wights and ghoul packs that roam under the new moon's gibbous gaze. There will be 1d6 packs of these undead horrors roaming the night and consuming the souls of anyone they come across. 

There are several levels to the tower itself that are ablaze with electric light in the darkness, various wights,shadows, ghosts, and worst roam the former halls and offices parody of their former lives. The demonic power fills their eye hollows and alights their existences with a hunger that can never be filled. Down in the basement the reel to reel computer tapes come to life in praise to the demon lord. Up on the top of the tower the former president of the company sings his praises to the demon lord a minor artifact like tablet is clutched in his decaying hands. He is mostly mindless undead horror who animates when adventurers enter the top of the tower.




  "The Orcus Tapes"
Deep within the basement of the tower is the Scribnus A.I. a demonic intelligence suffused with the power of its demonic overlord. This place is littered with the former workers of Amalgamated Data Inc. who have turned into zombies under the command of the A.I. able to carry out the will of their twisted masters after 6 turns or so.



There are over 10 zombies in this area as well as the computer banks and tapes. The place is a treasure house of Ancient technology worth an easy 10,000 or more gold pieces to a wizard or collector of this fare. Will the PC's trust these artifacts after centuries of demonic influence and power.