Dead Rainbow

Tower Defense

Drunk on power, Redwing returned to work on his new spellbook, the magnum opus that brought together a lifetime of study. His mind now held the entire oeuvre of the Necromancer; in particular, the demon's complete memorization of the ancient books of black magic and the former Necromancer's twisted view of Luculentus Dicax Sid's work. 

His new insights made it clear why Melock recovered the good wizard's spellbook after defeating the Necromancer. When the Necromancer was freed from his transdimensional prison, his spellbook was destroyed by those who imprisoned him, and he went in search of an equally powerful replacement. The beauty of Sid's book was its utter focus on thwarting evil; when viewed by one intent on inflicting evil nearly every spell or ritual contained within could be reverse engineered to do the opposite. 

After obsessing over his grimoire of ultimate evil for months on end, he stepped away from his littered writing desk and decided he needed to protect it. He initially felt he would leave the south tower and the Stone Castle entirely. It was far to easy for his father to access, but his new abilities made him possessive and entitled. Instead, he decided to fortify his tower and hide it from prying eyes. 

He used hidden runes to create invisible portals out of the doorway entrances of both the western and south towers. The western tower was empty with nothing but dusty raw stone rooms on every floor. On the entrance to his south tower, he placed a teleportation spell that would instantly and unknowingly send anyone walking through to the inside of the western tower. They would find nothing but an abandoned castle tower. On the exit of the western tower, he placed a teleportation portal that would send the exiting person out the door of the south tower. 

In the event, anyone entered the western tower they would be marked with an invisible magic symbol that told the existing portal to do nothing. Regardless of what tower you entered you would only be able to investigate the western tower, giving the appearance of both towers being abandoned and empty. He placed additional portals on the south tower windows and even roof access would send any breaking and entering enthusiasts to the west tower. 

Redwing stood in the castle courtyard looking up at the towers. He placed a conditional illusionary spell around the western tower that would give south tower investigators the idea they were looking out from the south tower. 

His paranoia curbed, he walked through the door of his tower whispering the password, "dead rainbow."

Along the curving walls of the empty ground floor of the tower, standing at perfect attention, were ten skeletons of fallen warriors with their backs to the walls. The animated bones wore helmets, shoulder and chest armor, heavy boots with shin guards, and metal bracers on their forearms. Twenty hollow eye sockets looked at Redwing as he entered. They held swords and shields at the ready. 

"Soldiers of the last army of the mountain king, I've granted you new life. Gaurd my tower with them." 

The skeleton warriors smashed their ancient swords into their shields once in acknowledgment and resummed standing at attention. 

"Kill all who enter." 

Redwing went down to the tower's basement and eyed the dust-covered crate that held his backup double.  

"I need to make another, one with all I've learned of late, one that can be hidden somewhere no one will ever find."