The Tower of Babel
Location: Dust / Core Dust
by Ceth the Addled
Deep down in the plane of Dust, there’s a massive structure. Legend calls it the Tower of Babel. And berk, better believe it’s big!
First time I saw it, I thought I must have found another Spire. Course, the tower itself isn’t infinite, but it’s certainly the tallest thing I’ve seen this side of the Outlands. I climbed as high as I possibly could, and I counted 560 separate floors. There are probably more. It’s hard to find, and you’ll need to use a teleport without error spell to find it.
Physically, it’s made of a red, grainy type of block. Probably sandstone, though it was too strong for that. It is situated on a stable pocket of Earth. The dust storms aren’t so bad near it, and you won’t find yourself turning into dust while you’re on it.
As the tale goes, a people of a prime world named Terra tried to build a tower to reach to Heaven. Of course, that ain’t possible, but they tried it anyway. The Overpower of that prime world obviously got a bit angered by their attempts. So, he cast the structure to the plane of Dust, wove powerful magics on the tower, and apparently cursed the primes with a thousand languages so they would never again be able to work together and challenge the power’s vanity.
Anyone who enters the tower’s front door will find themselves under the influence of a confuse languages spell [no saving throw]. The spell cannot be removed while in the tower, but once outside, a simple translation spell can undo all that.
Now, as you’re probably wondering, why would you want to go there? Other than the fact that you won’t be turned into dust, there are a lot of reasons. First off, you’ll find that this place has almost as many portals to prime worlds and the elemental planes as Sigil has to the Outer Ring.
Each level has a different one. Here are some I found or have heard of that are worth the look:
Level
- 13 — Krynn
- 15 — Toril
- 57 — Oerth
- 106 — Athas
- 111 — Ooze
- 134 — Positive
- 146 — Negative
- 157 — Vacuum
- 201 — Electromagnetism (demiplane of)
- 203 — Air
- 206 — Water
- 208 — Fire
- 221 — Ash
- 243 — Salt
- 256 — Radiance
I also encountered a large portal, similar to all the others, on level 453 leading to a plane like that I’ve never seen before. It was like the Ethereal, and the Astral, except combined in a mix of colours. I was unsure as to what this was, but I suspect it may have been a portal to an unknown plane, perhaps the Ordial Plane that Magnum Opus speaks of.
It seems that no creatures live here. Even the dust mephits avoid the place as if it was the ninth layer of Baator. That’s all the chant on the place that I know. I’m planning a mission back, but until I can get some funding…
[Further Dark: There is a portal to one of the higher layers of Mount Celestia on the 604th level of the tower. Ceth obviously did not get this high up, so thus it is not mentioned. There’s probably a reason that creatures avoid this place, and chances are good that it probably has big teeth…]
Source: John Hanson
