The Witch-Tower Of Vshanaad

Above swelling seas of blackness
Dark crags tower in funeral silence
Grim buzzards soar and circle
As charnel beacons to dreaded lands
Rise from stone a forlorn tower
Hidden by towers of timbers exalted
Shimmering in the wan of light of the moon
Like an eidolon drifting betwixt lonely mausolea

The dwelling of the wretched crone-enthroned over deep waters
Perched atop horned scarps-the vicinage of Vshanaad
A promontory haunted-a twisted tower dire
A ancient witch and blind- Vaentella

The sightless hag greets her guest
As a strange silhouette descends from the night
'Tis the monstrous crow feared as Kroln
Burdened with a dormant shape

And so the twaine doth remove
to the nether-vaults below
With the sleeper bound in net
an orphan seized by Kroln!

Cobwebs arass the chamber- so cluttered with ornaments
Crucibles of tomb-dust froth- cruses and vials bubble
Cauldrons boil a fetid brew- wherein limbs of infants stew
Impedimenta of black arts- devotion to the Nether-Guild

The dreaming child awakes, fettered to a bed of stone
"Her orbs will fit exquisitely", Vaentella opines to the crow
The eyelids of the girl sewn back with the web of worm
How lovely are her eyes... such a prize to the blind

Vaentella procures anon a tool, an ensorcelled hook of horn
Remove the frightened stare from her face, rape the sense of sight
The heart of the child abducted, so loathsomely pecked out by Kroln
Drain the steaming red, flood the witch's hollow sockets

"I shall be whole once again..."
The black bird seemed to laugh
As the thunder clapped outside
For the gleaming spheres had been set
And the blind witch could then see
Through the glare of another
Aggrandized by necromancy
Her visitas took a new shade
"I can spy beyond the sight!"

Vaentella stands enthralled
Atop forsaken Vshanaad
Glaring through cascading rain
Able to see the oldest secrets

For now the trees are won't to whisper
And the seas tell forgotten tales
The skies quoth the unremembered
And strange constellations intimate the unknown
Now an infinity of knowledge
Forever shall unfold

Peer through the yawning gulfs of antiquity
And the chasms of archaic wisdom
Now an infinity of knowledge
Forever shall unfold...