Devil's Island Towers

There are two tower located on the western plains of Devil's Island. Each is marked with a sign saying, "Private Property Do No Enter." There is no indication of who owns the towers, or whether they are still around. In fact the southern tower could not be entered, but I was able to enter the northern tower, which is known among exiles as "Flower Tower."

Flower Tower is apparently some sort of gateway to an extra-dimensional space. The space is a featureless gray area without any apparent borders--it reminds me very much of my single visit to Purgatory. To get out of this space, it is necessary to walk around until a single yellow flower is spotted. From the flower, walking a few steps to the southeast takes you out of the tower.

Aerizith discovered (by planting kudzu) that the extradimensional space is finite and loops back on itself. Walking in any direction for a short time brings you back to your starting point.

I have been inside the Flower Tower three times now. The first time, I saw no other living things and quickly reached the flower. On my second visit, I encountered a vermine and a "Wuss." The Wuss was a small green-robed figure which reminded me a bit of a Volcoon. Both it and the vermine attacked me, but the Wuss did no damage. I wanted to try communicating it, but regrettably I had not put my weapon away first, and the Wuss fell on my sword and died.

WorldWalker visited the tower alone in Autumn of 545, and reported encountering an artak cougar and an island panther inside. This is the most dangerous wildlife that has yet been reported to me, and resulted in WorldWalker having to depart to escape the tower. According to Lundar, these animals wander in from outside--only the Wuss spawns inside the tower.

It took me considerably longer to exit the tower on my second visit. I can think of several possible reasons for this. First, I had less good karma on my second visit. Since the Tower interior resembles Purgatory, perhaps good karma has the same effect. Second, I killed the Wuss. It's possible that the Wuss was one of the owners of the tower (hopefully not the owner), and the delay was a punishment. Third, it was nightime.

On my third trip I was accompanied by Ghoti, who has a great deal of good karma. She killed the Wuss by mistake, but still popped out of the tower well ahead of me, without even needing to find the flower. This lends support to the theory that time in the Flower Tower is like Purgatory.

Also on that trip Ghoti spotted an ona chigger. I was immediately reminded of Dandelion's story, as told to Clio, so we tried following the chigger around for a while. This chigger didn't show any signs of unusual intelligence or purpose--it just wandered randomly until we gave up on following it.

Fishylish recently reported discovering four bunches of bitter berries inside the Flower Tower. WorldWalker has also reported finding bitter berries. According to Lundar, bitter berries are commonly found in the Tower. He normally finds two or three bunches, and sometimes as many as four.

Skristal readings indicate that the interior of the tower is "under Fire Island," which is not what I expected given the strange nature of the interior. I'm working on gathering ethereal amulet readings from those mystics who are conducting surveys. Thus far, Callia and Drablak have told me that the readings there are not unusual.

The Wuss

Caution: This information about the Wuss comes from Aerizith and has not been independently verified at this time. Since Aerizith later decided to join the Darshak, the information provided by him is not necessarily trustworthy.

Aerizith attempted to communicate with a Wuss, but it was nonresponsive. When he came close to it, it attacked him, and it ignored him if he moved away. Based on Aerizith's experience, Wusses appear to be about as dangerous as rats.

In attempting to communicate, Aerizith addressed the Wuss in Common, Sylvan, and Dwarven. It did not respond verbally at any time. He also removed his equipment and clothing, and planted kudzu around the Wuss. The Wuss attacked the Kudzu the moment it was planted, even before the seedling sprouted. This behavior in itself struck me as odd--I've never seen a creature attack Kudzu before.