The Flaming Tower
The Flaming Tower is on the Tesh about a day's ride downstream from Dagger Falls. It's a large tower that the Zhentarim recently rebuilt, after its destruction two decades ago by the Knights of Myth Drannor. Chained to it is a big chunk of rock that floats up in the sky, called the Temple in the Sky, a product of old Netherese magic. Before the Time of Troubles, the voice of Bane used to speak from the temple.
Nowadays, the Flaming Tower below is held by the Zhentish and controlled by their Xvimist priests, while the temple above is in the hands of an allied beast cult. In the temple the resident gnolls and fire giants worship a beholder named Xulla. There also are several griffons in the temple that the Zhents use to travel between the Flaming Tower and the temple. The fire giants go up and down by climbing the chain.
The Flaming Tower was rebuilt exactly according to the old plans, as it was before the Knights of Myth Drannor destroyed it. It is manned by 100 seasoned Zhentish soldiers, all worshippers of Xvim; Wallach, who is a high priest, four lower level Xvim priests and four low level Zhentarim mages.
The Zhents stopped reconstructing the tower in the Year of the Banner (1368 DR), right after the destruction of Zhentil Keep. At the time construction was stopped, the ground floor had been finished and the four upper floors and roof had been built, but no rooms walls went up on these floors. They're all still empty floors, 300 x 300 feet/90 x 90 m in size. The distance from each floor to the ceiling is 20 feet/6 m. The ceilings are high so that the fire giants can move in the tower, if need be. The roof is empty too, except that it's used for the griffons to land, that fly between the tower and the temple.
