It was in the year -231 that ships first noted a mysterious black pinnacle of rock had appeared on an unnamed
isle in the western reaches of
The Shackles and the location began to be marked on charts as the
Island of the Black Tower. Several expeditions were mounted to
explore the island at that time but none could find an entrance to the tower. Since island was an
unpleasant place with an abundance of insect life and the tower itself had an unsettling aura the island was then
ignored for many years.
It was in -167 that the first reports of disappearances near the island caused unease in the region. Soon ships
that sailed too close to the isle had the horrifying experience of being boarded by a female figure dressed in funerary shrouds bound to her body by coils of rope. No weapon, it was said, could harm her and she moved among the
terrified sailors before selecting one who would vanish with her never to be seen again. By -130 she was selecting
many sailors at a time and although ships gave the island a wide berth no sailor within fifty miles of the island felt completely safe. In -126 a small fleet saw a whole ship lifted out of the water and drawn towards the isle.
In addition the weather for many miles around the island was becoming harsh and unpredictable.
The Hurricane Queen at the time was Captain Tevinder Aiger, wielder of the arcane sword Aiger's Kiss, and
a pirate who feared neither man nor demon. She was also a powerful priestess of Norgorber and used the resources
and black arts of that religion to determine much about her foe. The Shrouded Queen, Captian Aiger discovered, was a worshipper of the demon lord Dagon who had
created the tower on a weak point between the Material Plane and the Abyss with the aim of creating a rift between
the two planes enabling her to draw power directly from her patron.
Captain took a hundred men to the island and by her own mystical powers gained access to the tower. Her crew
swarmed the tower but not a single individual from the landing party ever returned. The weather, however, immediately calmed and the Shrouded Queen was never seen again. Thinking that the Tower must now offer easy pickings
three expeditions were mounted to claim the now supposedly unguarded treasures of the Island but again all who entered the Tower never returned. The island is again avoided by seafarers and it is noted that there is no sign
that bird or animal life has returned to the rock.