The Great Hall of Ancestors beneath Druidun Castle
Note: This is another excerpt from the History of Druidun tome the characters have found, which I'm using to provide information about areas deeper in the dungeon, create story hooks (hopefully) and add a narrative/past to the dungeon environment, so it has some rhyme and reason. I didn't bother to put this text into faux parchment layouts, because it's just too much work. Whether or not this is something the characters will engage with remains to be seen...
Quest for the Radiant Queen
Over the centuries, many chivalrous Lords of Avalon, Yore, and Aragon have set out to rescue the legendarily beautiful Queen Eadra from her endless slumber beneath Druidun, for when the foul necromancer-lich Luthius Laukander abducted Eadra and slew her betrothed, King Oenath of Aragon on her wedding night, he created an undying blood feud with both kingdoms.
Thanor and Harold Expedition
The first major expedition to rescue Queen Eadra was led jointly by Prince Thanor, the youngest son of King Oenath, and Prince Harold Emberheart of Avalon, the Queen’s nephew. A hundred knights, twenty clerics, ten paladin, two princes and two wizards, including the renowned High Thamauturge Gregor Wistbane, accompanied by forty porters and several scouts, set off in early spring down into the depths. They were joined by a war party of forty dwarves led by Trund Ironaxe, for the queen had ever been a friend to the stout ones, and they too thirsted for revenge.
At this time, at least four levels of the dungeon were under control of Avalon, including the majority of the druid crypts, despite umber hulk incursions. The dwarf holdings to the south had been reduced by goblin and bugbear hordes, but what remained was held with an iron fist. Their holdings were built strong and true, reinforced with rune magic and interlocking stone.
In the abandoned Hall of Grimstone, Prince Harold established Fort Haven, and stockpiled supplies, potions and weaponry.
From there they fought down through the Ancestor Halls and furnaces, long overrun by goblin swarms. Beyond they found vast chambers filled with troglodytes and worse. Prince Thanor was slain by a giant spider, and perished from the poison before he could reach the hospital in Haven.
Harold continued onward. Beyond the Singing Druid Stones he found temples of necrotic depravity and sacrificial pits. Messengers brought word back of mad dwarves turned foul, of piscine horrors and magic anomalies unleashing horrors beyond imagining.
The trail to Luthius and Eadra passed into the tunnels of the Eotan, where the unspeakable experiments had been conducted in necromancy.
Harold never returned. They say he was slain by an ettin, his body dragged through the streets of a goblin city and pelted with stones and dung.
Allister’s Crusade
The second major expedition, known as Allister’s Crusade, and later as Allister's Folly, consisted of four noble Avalonian houses, including Emberheart, Silverbrooke, and Bloodthorn. Interminable arguments as to who should lead were resolved by compromise: Lord Henry of House Allister, a minor house from the northern hills, was chosen. Known for his diplomatic prowess as much as for his romantic idealism, Lord Henry had been a favourite of Queen Eadra, who had granted him a large swath of land that had been in the hands of the Merovian Hargards for generations. Beneath Druidun, a ceremony was held in the chamber of the Holy Sword, and the four nobles swore on their graves that they would rescue Queen Eadra or die trying.
Accompanying them was the wizard Denish and the renowned cleric Thulwic of the All-faith, at the head of many crusaders. Porters, messengers, healers, scribes, blacksmiths, armourers, healers, alchemists, and other camp followers followed in their wake. Interpreters and scouts were culled from the ranks of daring spelunkers who had knowledge of the depths. The Lightfingers Guild provided thieves and lockpicks.
By this time, the dwarves’ strength had diminished, and they refused to offer aid, having recently concluded a truce with the goblin King Grubgut.
Lord Henry followed the route of Thanor and Oenath, having purchased a copy of their legendary map from the Curiosity Cabinet in Forksbury, among other ancient documents.
They cut their way through goblin dens, giant ant nests, and toxic mushroom forests only to find the ruins of Fort Haven overrun by cave trolls, and many knights died. Lord Henry, bearing his family sword Gastbaere, slew the Troll King and saved the life of Lord Ernest Bloodthorn, but Arthur Emberheart was lost to a red dragon’s fiery breath.
A map revealed a secret passage which allowed them to bypass the fort, and they reached the Singing Druid Stone in good order. A species of fungus men attacked repeatedly and ferociously, with no thought given to their own safety. Later it became apparent they did so in revenge for crusader's burning their sproutling forests. Eventually a truce was negotiated by Lord Henry, who bravely went out to meet with their shroom tree lord, a being the size of a keep. He offered all the dead goblins, bugbears, troglodyte, and mule corpses as food for the shroom folk.
With the mushroom men now providing porters and potions, Allister's expedition delved even deeper into old dwarven mining tunnels, which gave way to natural caverns and the beginnings of the underdark. Here an astonishing yet repulsive people were found, of piscine aspect and stocky build, with bulbous eyes and slimey wet skin, who burbled and howled like gurgling monks. They could be both astonishingly naive and yet horribly cruel, and had built great ziggurate temples underground, decorated with the most wildly imaginative mosaics.
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| An artists depiction of the fishmen found deep beneath Druidun Castle, based on descriptions related by a survivor of the expedition. |
These fish-men had been engaged in a long war with troglodytes and, in the furthest reaches of their tunnels which emptied into Basilisk Bay in Pelshire, the lizard men mounds. Now the forces of undead were driving them out of their hatcheries and algae farms.
An alliance was made against Laukander and his vassals. But on seeing the vast treasures in their temples and palace, Henry and the two remaining lords betrayed them and seized their stronghold, enslaving the gullible creatures. Henry used their gold to pay for the crusade and buy the loyalty of the other lord's men, and turned the wretched fish-men into slaves, setting them to dig tunnels around the fortress of the dead, so Henry could attack from the flanks. The wizard Denish charmed several umber hulks to aid in this task. They tore down many of the fish-men's magnificent temples and statues, and forced them worship the All-Faith.
Fish men who had escaped Luthius's clutches claimed to have seen Eadra herself, and spoke of her great beauty, held immobile in Luthius’ court, but they were mad and their tales were not trusted. Of Laukander and his terrible powers, they spoke in depth: the cruel necromancer demanded vast amounts of tribute, in gold and bodies. The only thing he cared about other than power was Eadra.
From here, the record becomes unreliable. The sage Ardith claims that the water which poured from the elaborate fountains of the fish-men drove the knights insane, and the expedition turned on itself.
Others say they rescued Queen Eadra in a daring raid, but were overwhelmed by the enraged Laukander, who brought the full weight of his underground empire down upon them.
All that is known for certain is that Luthius Laukander, once revered High Wizard of the Thaumaturge, still dwells deep below the earth in Pelshire, and with each passing century he grows stronger.
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