The Cloaktower
The Cloaktower is a renowned bastion of magical study, research, and commerce located within the Arcanist District of Neverwinter, the legendary “Jewel of the North.” It serves as the primary gathering place for the city’s wizards, sorcerers, and scholars, acting as the epicenter of magical learning and alchemical trade in the region. The tower’s magical community is nominally represented on Lord Nasher Alagondar’s Small Council by the high-level magical advisor Archmage Vael Tarmyth (often simply called Archmage Vael), though he notoriously avoids attending council meetings in person, typically sending a proxy.
Geography and District Role
The Cloaktower defines the character and economy of Neverwinter’s Arcanist District. It is highly regarded as a crucial hub for:
- Wizards’ Congregations: A central meeting point where spellcasters of all disciplines gather to exchange knowledge, research new magical phenomena, and debate arcane theory.
- Arcane Commerce: The surrounding district is a bustling hotspot packed with specialized arcane shops, scroll merchants, and alchemical purveyors supplying rare reagents and materials.
Dmitri and the Reagent Storeroom
Deep within the Cloaktower, the magic reagent and item storeroom is managed by Dmitri, a scholarship student from Evereska. Deeply obsessed with his research into magical and interplanar mysteries, Dmitri is the primary contact for those purchasing specialized spell components and rare ingredients.
Secrets of the Tower: The Heirloom Sphere and the Tesseract
Hidden within the Cloaktower, resting quietly on a shelf beneath a simple cloth, lies one of the city’s most closely guarded secrets: the Heirloom Sphere (also known as the Tesseract). Created by the archmage Halas Lutagran during the Calamity, this sphere is a complex, ever-changing clockwork puzzle-key that grants access to the Folding Halls of Halas—an extra-dimensional manor containing approximately one hundred interconnected rooms designed to protect Halas’s extensive magical research.
Time behaves abnormally within the Halls; one hour spent inside equates to roughly one day on the Material Plane. Furthermore, the pocket dimension’s wards suppress extra-planar magic, entirely preventing spells like Sending and Planeshifting. Seeking answers to ancient mysteries, and perhaps driven by terminal boredom, the legendary wizard Elminster Aumar used the key to enter the Folding Halls several years ago and has not been seen since.
Historical Significance and Recent Events
Neverwinter is a city recovering from severe trials, including the devastating magical plague known as the Wailing Death. Despite these hardships, the Cloaktower has remained a key pillar of the city’s intellectual and economic recovery.
The Cloaktower’s Bargain
When the adventuring group known as the Magnificent Five presented evidence of the looming dragon threat to the Small Council, the Cloaktower became central to the city’s defense plans. Archmage Vael Tarmyth—who typically communicates via a bluish holographic proxy that cheerfully insists it is merely “a large language hologram”—stepped in directly to secure a strategic bargain with the heroes, even personally examining a cracked blue sending stone, identifying that its partner lay to the southwest.
The Cloaktower struck the following terms with the party:
- Dragon Material Trade: The Cloaktower purchased the party’s initial haul of harvested dragon materials (including eight dragon scales, a dragon tooth, potent acid vials, and brimstone) for roughly 3,000 gold pieces.
- White Dragon Contract: Archmage Vael offered an advance of 10,000 gold in spell components for every remaining piece of the white dragon Cryovain delivered to the tower. After renegotiations led by the ancient Firbolg Hrothgar (Farwald) for a fifty-fifty split of the carcass value, the advance was adjusted to 5,000 gold pieces.
- Line of Credit: This combined transaction established a working balance of 8,000 gold pieces of Cloaktower credit, spendable strictly on the tower’s specialized inventory, including spell components, reagents, scrolls, and professional spellcasting services.
- The Elminster Leverage: Although the party attempted to leverage the knowledge of Elminster’s imprisonment within the Tesseract to secure immediate aid, Vael’s interest remained strictly transactional. He made any Cloaktower mission to enter the puzzle cube and rescue the legendary sage conditional upon the party first delivering the promised white dragon components.