Forgotten Tower
The Forgotten Tower is a five-level dungeon in the Black Marsh, home to the Countess on its bottom floor. She is the primary rune-farming target in the game thanks to a bonus rune drop mechanic that adds extra runes on top of her normal drops.
The Countess has a unique bonus drop that adds 0 to 3 additional runes each kill, separate from her regular monster drops. In Normal, these bonus runes range from El to Ral. In Nightmare, up to Ko. In Hell, up to Ist (with extremely rare Lo from her regular drop table). She is also the exclusive source of the Key of Terror for the Uber Tristram fight.
Use the Black Marsh waypoint and search for the tower entrance in the outdoor area. The tower has 5 levels — the Countess is on Level 5. Teleport makes this much faster but the tower is navigable on foot.
- The Countess is Fire and Cold immune in Hell. Lightning or Physical damage is required to kill her.
- Her bonus rune drops are not affected by Magic Find — only player count matters for rune quantity.
- Normal Countess farming is an efficient way to collect runes for early runewords like Stealth (Tal + Eth).
- Key of Terror drops at roughly 1 in 10 on players 1 in Hell difficulty.
- The tower can be slow to navigate without Teleport due to narrow corridors and multiple levels.