Bexxa'wyld (becks-a-why-uld)

Images by Kbignell via Midjourney

The Bexxa'wyld fortress is an ancient fortress of the gods from Before the Blessing. This tall stone and steel edifice was built upon a small island in the middle of an inland salt sea in the turn 402 Before Blessing. The fortress was a retreat for the gods from the constant war with demon kind. The building is now a ruin in the turn 3040 Post Blessing and the lush tropical island is a desolate rock in the midst of the The Desert of Quouribi. The central spire still stands tall on the island, hundreds of feet over the remains of the island which towers hundreds of feet over the floor of the desert.
In the turn 20 Before Blessing, the demons assaulted the fortress in the Quouribi Sea (Quouribi being a word in the language of the gods meaning paradise) and through the use of great cooperative magics, turned the sea from water to the desiccant sands they are today. This allowed the demons to lay siege to the fortress directly and only great magic wielded by several gods in the fortress, along with a great artifact called the Waiting Death, allowed the gods to defeat the demons and drive them once again to their below ground lairs or to the demon dimension outside of the mortal realm. It is said the Waiting Death trapped several of the attacking demons in the mortal realm and destroyed them, body and soul, ending their existence forever. It is also said that the Waiting Death gave rise to the sand-sharks, transforming several of the dragon-like mounts of the demons into creatures that can swim through sand and survive a desert of desiccant sand and little to no water.
The Bexxa'wyld fortress is still protected by hundreds of traps and spells laid on and around it by the gods thousands of years ago. No one since the Blessing has successfully entered the fortress and many have died just by stepping on to the island on which the building stands. Legends say an guardian set there by the Gods still roams the rooms of the fortress, protecting its secrets and eliminating any who would enter its halls.

Crossing the Quouribi, a place of death and challenge, to then scale the cliffs of the island on which stands the very definition of death to mortals is not bravery, but the utmost in mortal stupidity. Leave well enough alone and choose a safe and easy task, like hunting dragons and ice-shades in the frozen ice fields of the North with nothing but cattails for weapons and grass skirts for armor.

- General Mutatsu -Huntsmaster of Kenitt

2920 - 3018 PB

Constructed in turn 402 by the gods when they still walked among mortals, the Bexxa'wyld fortress was built of creastone and nonisteel, materials no longer available to mortals now that the gods have departed from the mortal realm. The tower itself, though considered a ruin, is by no means falling into disrepair as far as anyone who can get close enough to it can tell. The extra-durable materials appear to be holding up quite well according to the only people who ever venture close enough to observe the place, the Qoitiken. Even the Qoitiken do not venture on to the island.

by Kbignell via Midjourney

For several years after the Blessing, and every once in a while over the past 3000 turns, someone gets the idea they can enter the ancient fortress, drawn by the legends of what may lie within. Powerful artifacts of the Gods, perhaps even a God still lounging about its great halls and opulent rooms. None who have ventured into the fortress have ever returned. Some who have made it on to the island have returned, scarred, afraid and full of stories of horrors and death. Survivors of expeditions on to the island recount tales of magical traps that shunt the unfortunate into realms unknown, great cats that rise from the earth to kill trespassers, serpents of incredible size that swallow explorers whole.

RUINED STRUCTURE
The Blessing

Founding Date

402 BB

Type

Fortress

Parent Location

The Desert of Quouribi