One Night Stands - Spire of Iron and Crystal - Pathfinder Edition

to old style free-form adventure gaming. It uses the Swords & Wizardry

Core Rules, which are available as a free .pdf file at the game's website,

www.swordsandwizardry.com. Swords & Wizardry is a "retro-clone"

game, mirroring the rules of the original 1974 fantasy roleplaying

game written by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. This original

edition, which consisted of three booklets and four supplements, is

often referred to as "0e." There are actually two versions of Swords &

Wizardry: the WhiteBox version uses only material from the first three

booklets, and the Core Rules (used here) make use of some, but by no

means all, of the material from the four supplements.

Background

For centuries, out in the wilderness beyond civilization's reach,

there has stood an enigmatic tower known as the Spire of Iron and

Crystal. It is a bizarre and ancient structure; four massive, eggshaped

crystals are mounted into a twisting, ornate structure of

rounded metal girders, one crystal at the top and the other three

mounted lower down. Moving lights seen inside the huge crystals

suggest that they are hollow and even inhabited, but no one has ever

discovered the secret of how to enter them. This is not surprising, for

the tower is located on a broad stone ledge halfway up a sheer cliff

face, the glassy walls of which have killed several adventurers who

attempted to climb down to the tower almost a hundred feet below.

Over the course of the last few months, with considerable effort and some

highly questionable methods, the adventurers have assembled quite a bit

of information about the Spire - things not widely known, even among

the wisest sages of the lands. Most importantly, they believe they know

how to enter the structure safely. Once per year, the sun shines through an

ancient runestone at the edge of the great cliff upon which the Spire stands;

for a period of three days when the stars are aligned with the runestone, an

invisible causeway manifests, connecting the highest crystal of the tower

with the edge of the cliff, far above. According to the party's information,

it is only during the first hour of evening, while the sun is visible through

the runestone that the ramp remains in being.

This information promises to allow the party access to the riches of

the tower, which are lavishly described in rumor and lore. They have

equipped a small expedition and made their way through the trails of the

wild borderlands to their goal: the tower and its still-unplundered riches.