Over the years, the name Larloch’s Crypt, still found in many accounts and on older maps of the Realms, has become corrupted into Warlock’s Crypt. The soaring towers of this isolated walled castle can be seen from afar, sweeping up like menacing blackmailed talons reaching into the sky. The mighty ultra-lich Larloch dwells here in a city of the undead. Many adventurers have claimed to have destroyed him (utter poppycock - Elminster), but the Shadow King always rises again to rule over his city of wraiths, wights, liches, vampires, and hosts of lesser undead, from crawling claws to monster zombies. Larloch is said to be one of the last surviving sorcerer-kings of Netheril, although his mind is quite gone. He exists today as an ultra-lich of awesome powers, whimsical and crazed, at times snarling and hurling spells at random, and at other times a brilliantly calculating inventor of magical items, new spells, and magical strategies. No less than 16 Red Wizards of Thay are known to have gone to the Crypt to try to destroy him or steal some of his power. They all failed, and of them all, only Szass Tam has ever survived.
The Crypt is a series of wizard’s towers, each standing in its own circular walled garden. The towers stand on the banks of a small spring that rises in the cellars of the highest tower (Larloch’s own) and is much befouled by the discharges of the Shadow King’s experiments. Its luminous waters cast an eerie, flickering glow over the towers by night. Their walled gardens are surrounded by a gloomy network of twisting streets and abandoned houses crowded along the stream banks. In these streets and houses, lesser undead shuffle about in accordance with the orders of the lich lords who serve Larloch.
Over this dusty city leap many dark, railless bridge spans that link the garden walls and the lower levels of the towers. Skeletal giant bat steeds and stranger creatures sally forth from them to attack travellers who venture too near, since Larloch is interested in gaining living humans for use in his experiments in undeath and in seizing all magic he can find. This is not a place I recommend travellers even venture within sight of. Most sages believe the Crypt, which is very old, was once a Netherese wizards’ enclave - home to mages who now serve Larloch as liches. Larloch is said to command the spells of an archwizard, defy Lady Mystra’s limits on the Weave, and has a large arsenal of magical items, including Netherese power sceptres of various sorts, rare or unknown elsewhere in the Realms of today, and the absolute loyalty gained by some fiendish magic, of the host of liches who serve him (reportedly nearly sixty liches and even greater undead, each of which have power that surpasses most in the Realms).
He is said to enjoy conversing with ghosts and unfortunate adventurers who fall into his clutches, and has even been known to grant freedom to captives in return for a service. The service is usually to gain for him some close-guarded and powerful magic from elsewhere in the Realms, such as a special spell or favourite magical item held by a Red Wizard of Thay or mighty archmage. Such freedom comes with magical strings. A person who ignores the mission once away from the Crypt is magically transformed into some horrific tanar’ri or other monstrous form (that of a hook horror, for instance & slowly one limb at a time). Larloch has his own code of conduct, however. Completing such a mission does mean return to proper form and complete freedom, for those who do not try to deceive or attack him. Some minstrels have wrongly dubbed the ruler of the Crypt “the Warlock” or “the Warlock King,” but be warned that those who compose ballads using such terminology are likely to be kidnapped by night things and spirited away to face torment and undeath at Larloch’s hands. It’s not even a good idea to sing the ballad known as “The Warlock King” within three days’ ride of the Troll Hills, for fear Larloch should hear and take interest.
