Wednesday, March 23, 2011

The Tower Unconquerable

Some slaves of Karsh or its allies talk of a great and hidden castle in the forest of this name.

It is widely believed that this is their poetical way of talking about death, their only curcease from toil.

Yet once I spoke to a Karshian slave, of a fellow-captive of his who had run away and was believed dead. The old slave insisted that no, he was not dead, rather he had found the Tower Unconquerable. Then the aged one put on the mask of humility, as slaves will, and begged my pardon for his mistake and his insolence.

Some talking birds, also enslaved by Karshians, talk of the Highest Eyrie.

The Gonterman Expedition, led by the noted explorer Prudence Gonterman, was a major attempt to find the Tower. The expedition was lost without trace. Rumours say that they went mad with hunger and disease and founded a city in the deep jungle, declaring it in their delirium to be the real Tower Unconquerable. They are said to have turned to cannibalism, sending emessaries from the forest who spread rumours of the Tower to entice runaway slaves and other explorers, whom they sacrifice to their god, Gonterman's son, and then feast on. They are even supposed to have killed many of those who came looking for them.

They are also said to leave masks lying around the forest, appearing to be valuable Ghost-Masks, but actually fakes coated in poison.

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