Path of the broken way.
Not all paths are safe, but a way of stone is never for the faint of heart
Hold strong to the underpaths, as Bone Turner and Smugglers move along the illicit path between the shining city of Natare and the dripping mangrove holes of the Digitos Mangroves in the north. Following an old trade route from the human times, the path of the broken way has be reclaimed by those shunned by society or those that move adjacent to it.
A good 10 day hike, the path is best travelled by foot, as several parts of the path are unfit for carts or many of the myriad of transport creatures, with the twisted and narrow ways of the path, many things larger than a Foliad or a particular thin Troll tend to have trouble taking the journey. The path takes a 150m elevation change over the course of its journey with a hidden rest stop near the start of the second day.
Packing a sleeping bag is recommended, as the trail offers little natural place to rest along the parts covered by the bramble canopy. Those wishing to stay unknown would be best travelling at night across this section, as the trail crosses several active trade paths, close to the 'surface'.
Purpose / Function
Originally a supply path between Natare and Halfway Keep, the broken path starts technically anywhere one can access the sewers of Natare, but in truth, down by Oak Street, with the sign of an eye on the old stone cover.
Alterations
Several sections within the old sewers have been reinforced with cave dwelling plants that harden into support strutts. Gardeners routinely return to the sewers (often while holding warding trinkets) to repair said strutts, not quite knowing how much of the city could sink were they to be left to die and decay.
Architecture
Stone for the length under Natare, a simple stacked brick configuration, dirt pathing from the sewers to the waterfall. A natural worn path into stone until 'the old hill'. The old hill is a outpost for smugglers, grown of very temperate but high water resistant trees, with modern ammnities on the inside. The next part of the path used to be a dirt road, but has become an underground bramble tunnel, taking one to the edge of the mangrove forest.
To those uninitiated this is certainly a path that evokes the feeling of the Unmentionable God, that those that travel the path often travel more by force of will and necessity than by best choice, for the fear of stone is not just religious, but something deepset into the DNA of the people of Levis now. That there are caps of inscribed stone along the path, marked with that eye symbol both on the entrance and along the stone walls of the sewers is something unnatural even to those that travel the broken path.
One of the more interesting things about the Broken way is the Old Hill. Not built from growing one tree or plant out, the Old hill was constructed by growing many bent trees inwards to create an artificial canopy, the dwelling inside twisted but modern. One of those who tends to the Old Hill is an old combat mage named Forgath Fog-Trout. Large and covered in scars and rippling muscles, this wisened ex-combat mage is painted in a mix of ink tattoos and circuit tattoos, and he keeps the fires burning of the Hill.
He left the Hunter lifestyle for the ways of the smuggler, finding himself broken by the fights he was forced to take to 'keep the city safe'. Now he works to get some of the less legal medicines in and out of Natare, to bring some measure of healing back into a world he believes he has destroyed.
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So much creative inspiration.