Second in the Super Endless Quest series.
The player controls Carsten Soldar, a fighter who is framed for theft by a corrupt nobleman. To earn his pardon, Carsten must undertake a quest into a haunted castle and recover a magical gem that can absorb the souls of the living. He is subtly warned at the outset that if he succeeds, one of the companions he is supplied will try to kill him...
Based on the module "The Ghost Tower of Inverness," The Ghost Tower differentiates itself from the first book in the series, Prisoners of Pax Tharkas, mainly by having the player keep track of the skill rolls and hit points of the hero's entire party (Filipa, aka Flip, a halfling thief, and Sulex, a cleric), instead of having them be passive presences in the narrative.
The Ghost Tower provides examples of:
- Chess Motifs: A puzzle in one room involves figuring out how the party members need to safely move across a room with a checkered floor, based on which chess piece occupies the square they first stepped on.
- Inventory Management Puzzle: Another element added that differentiates it from the previous book. The player needs to keep track of healing items, the cleric's spells, and some treasures they find, such as a magic weapon more effective against a certain enemy type.
- Just You and Me and My GUARDS!: The reason any attack on Count Laason is doomed to fail, even after Carsten survives the tower's dangers and escapes again. You can defeat him in a duel, but he just starts screaming for the guards to kill you.
- Medusa: One of the tower's many dangers, unless you found a reflective silver box (of which there are several) to turn her powers against her.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: The whole party; if anyone runs out of hit points, it's considered a loss, because writing for the possibility of characters dying partway through would've made the book vastly more complicated to write and tedious to read with constantly being asked if a party member is still alive.
- Xanatos Gambit: The count attempts one. He spread the false rumor that one of the party members intended to kill the others once the quest was complete, so that they'd turn on each other, trying to get the others before they had a chance to get them. And in the aftermath he'd have fewer badasses to kill to get the gem once they were back outside the tower.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: As noted, the treasure the party is sent to retrieve can absorb peoples' souls. And yes, this can happen to the player's party too if they aren't careful.
