Four identical black skyscrapers surround the courthouse and stand vigil over the otherwise barren faces of the hill. All four towers are made of a black, basalt-like stone, and all are at least 500 feet tall;
been aligned according to ancient astrological blueprints of the Zodiac. Their tops are typically lost in the clouded skies which overhang the town. Some are doorless, and have no visible means of ingress from outside, although there might be underground tunnels or Gates which connect to the lightless interior. Others are doorless but not windowless (the “windows” are arched openings without frame or glass). Some towers have had conventional windows added and L-shaped tunnels of plexiglass extend from the sides of the four to connect with the Courthouse.
Some are windowless but not doorless. Some are covered in eerie bas-reliefs, others are smooth and featureless, at least to human eyes. If there is a pattern or purpose to these towers, no-one has discovered it. Even in cases where the towers are open, they are not built to any human scale. A 500-foot-tall building might have only five or six internal floors, or even fewer – imagine a half-dozen cathedrals stacked on top of one another, connected by vertiginous stairwells. The stairs are uneven, and much too tall to be traversed comfortably. The top floors are always inaccessible, closed off from the floors above.
The towers might be gateways to other universes, or anchors which keep Tower Valley tucked away in a fold of space-time. Minions of the Shining Court or even the Great Ones themselves might be holding meetings in secret conference halls at their tops. The spatial relationship between the towers might be relevant to the Ritual of Opening – perhaps the rite requires a celebrant atop each of the extant towers.
Investigation of the towers is forbidden on grounds of public safety. Every month or so, gossip of a foolish youngster or unlucky vagrant who fell from one of the towers to a grisly death on the cobblestones. Transport Police might be dispatched to clear out an unwanted infestation in a tower. Rumors claim that some towers contain eerie bas-reliefs that are removed by city council workers as soon as they are discovered.