The Watch of the Haunted

The Watch of the Haunted

“The ghosts don’t want to forget. So they take it down. Every year.”   Location: Western Ver’Domnir, perched above the Icereach, where the breath of the Calamity still leaks through cracked froststone. One of the final standing towers from the original Calamity Watch network.   Current Status: Rebuilt annually. Dismantled annually. By its former garrison. Who are very dead.  

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The Ritual Destruction

  Each year, in the final week of Winter, when the wind screams loud enough to shake mortar, the ghosts return. Not howling spectres, but silent, grim echoes of soldiers long gone — the first crew who manned the Watch during the first breach.   They arrive in formation. Uniforms tattered. Weapons rusted. Eyes hollow.   And brick by brick, they unmake the Post.   Not angrily. Not violently. Carefully. Lovingly. They carry stone as if it were pounds of polished gold. They lower beams as if they’re afraid to break them. When the sun rises on the first day of Spring, the tower is gone. Every piece set neatly at its base, placed with love   No one dares interfere.  

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No one knows why it happens

 

• Some say the first garrison was betrayed — left to die holding the line while others fled. Their ghosts return to prevent the world from remembering the wrong version of history.
• Some believe the Watch is cursed to fall until the Calamity is undone — rebuilt only as a reminder, not a solution.
• Others claim it’s a penance. The ghosts took an oath to never abandon post. So they return every year to ensure no one else makes that same mistake.

 

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Local Responses

  The Ceremony of First Stone: Each spring, the living soldiers, still situated at that post, gather to place the first stone of the Watch again, with offerings of black cloth and salt. The tower is always completed before the ghostly dismantling begins anew.   The Ghost Roster: A granite slab nearby records the names of the garrison — though the list is longer than it should be. Every year, a new name appears.  

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What Happens If You Try to Stop Them?

  No one has succeeded. Some say soldiers who interfered simply vanished. Others say they were added to the garrison.   A few foolish necromancers have tried to trap or command the spirits. The last one’s jaw was found folded into his own ribcage like a lockbox.  

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  “You can build walls against monsters. But not against memory.” —Tower Mason Alren Voel, just before quitting forever