In the northwest Shadow Marches, a glistening spit of stone protrudes from the Crawling Swamp. Its surface is marred by jagged cracks that bear a strange resemblance to aberrant dragon marks, and that seem to spell out the letters of a forgotten script. Whatever their source, these runes have power. Mages who have studied this so-called Aberrant Scar swear that the markings are mystical in nature, and that a possible future can be read within their weathered lines.
Sages and explorers have claimed to find secret meaning and portents of the future in the markings of the Scar. More than a few have gone mad in the attempt to decipher those secrets. The last concerted effort occurred in the earliest years of the kingdom of Galifar. An expedition sent by the Twelve was charged with learning the Aberrant Scar’s secrets. This group built a great tower of black stone beside the protruding rock to serve as a place of study and research. When contact was lost with the tower, a follow-up expedition was dispatched. It found the members of the original party dead—murdered by one of their own, who finally took his own life in madness.
The tower has remained vacant for centuries, but in recent years, lights have been seen in its ivy-curtained windows. The warlock Ghalerath has taken up residence here, believing that she alone understands the prophecies locked within the Aberrant Scar, and that only she can prevent the horrific future they portend—a goal she pursues at any cost. The PCs might encounter Ghalerath as a result of her plans to kill an ally, an important personage, or even one of the party—an action the warlock believes to be vital to preventing the dark future she sees.
Within the tower, Ghalerath discovered a number of aberrant creatures that had been drawn to the power of the Scar—creatures that now do her bidding. Shortly after her arrival, a nearby tribe of Marcher orcs besieged the tower in an attempt to drive her out. Soon corrupted in mind and body, they too now serve the warlock.