The Unfated Wanderers Canto 13
Vilerend Skymarch and Billet Stormstone departed Fleagrass, another catastrophe concluded, praised by the villagers, heroics burgeoning their legacy, living legends leaping from fray to fray.
Eastward they walked, wandering wide of Moonpoison, missed by misfortune, more days met in the wild with weary walking, seeking the Inverted Tower.
Beleaguered by brutal miles, the Unfated Wanderers found Bearbat village, beside the Wrenrock River, bordering Endlin. Barren Bearbat bedeviled by the Demon Plague, bleak streets, boisterous, bustling people were absent, dead demon bodies bound beneath the village.
The few remaining villagers offered meager supplies for the Wanderers’ continued journey into the wilderness. Warm rest was plentiful and gladly given in exchange for news. Bearbat sat on the eastern edge of Icebrunt. Travelers had been scarce since the Demon Plague. The night passed in needed fellowship.
The Unfated Wanderers wished their new friends well as they departed in the morning. None knew of the Inverted Tower, hidden in the wilderness. The Wanderers had began to notice a pattern of places unperceived by people living in proximity. Fate guarded ancient sites, left untouched until sought by those that needed them. Perhaps the Children of the Gods distracted the gaze of people that had no business there: important places of power unseen by the unnecessary.
The Wrenrock River ran north. The Unfated Wanderers ran south. The land gently crept skyward as they walked, the Only Mountain’s feet beneath their own. Steeper hills presented themselves. These were the Foghammer Slopes, home of the hidden Inverted Tower.
Vilerend and Billet discovered their doomed destination. The tower was unmistakably inverted, its foundation standing firmly where it was laid, short, jagged walls protruding from the ground like splinters from a broken tree branch.
Tong had told them that the tower toppled when struck by lightning long ago. A quick examination revealed that a landslide had extracted earth from the foundation, causing the unsupported tower to crack and tip over. Whether by Fate or luck, the inverted structure remained intact.
The wanderers could find no entrance from below, wherein the tower now rested. To find the bottom of the tower, they ascended the hill. A trap door leading upwards into the tower was found. They pried it opened and descended through the ground floor’s ceiling.