The Tower of Woe is a 140-foot tall structure carved out of a massive column that reaches to the ceiling of Skullport's cavern. It sits at the center of a courtyard overlooked by three watchtowers, atop each of which stationary gargoyles perch. There are two on the west tower, four on the center tower, and four on the east tower, one of which is badly damaged.
In the past, the gargoyles were guardians of the tower’s previous owner, Quilla Varnaed, a devotee of Lovitar who could animate them to spring to her defense. She was ousted from the tower when the Xanathar Guild seized the island, and two of the gargoyles were destroyed in the battle.
A third was damaged by Sundeth, the Guild commander placed in charge of Skull Island after its conquest, after he became frustrated at not being able to make them animate and serve him. Quilla Varnaed still knows how to animate them, and holds this knowledge close to her heart in hopes that she may one day be able to use it against the Guild.
In
the past, each of the tower's sevel floors represented a different kind of torture and were
littered with symbols of Loviatar. Even now, the lower levels are still used as a place of torture. Animals avoid the tower instinctively, and any creature that enters feels a hot pain run down their back, like a barbed whip lashing them.