Nal-D'norra

A guide to the Great Lake of Fungi, by Durthee Rockhewer of Riftstone.

''Nal-D'norra, The Great Lake of Fungi. Tis the part of the underdark beneath the Sea of Curses.''

''Some kinda magic holds the water up above the caves, at about the one mile mark below the surface sea level. The barrier's older than the oldest dragon, and stretches across the whole damn planet. Sometimes it thins a little and lets rain down to the old caves.''

''If yer in D'norra, chances are ye ain't here to see the sights. 'ere's a rundown of the places a poor sod's got to know. If it's on yer map but it ain't listed here, likely that means ye'll meet a painful death or worse if ye dare sail anywhere near it.''

Mazheim, the Unshakable City
''Ah, Mazheim. Tis the biggest city in the great lake. Almost old as time, or least older than anyone remembers. The elders in Riftstone say any gnome who don't die young will live to see Mazheim once ruined and once rebuilt again. Tis built atop ruins which are 'emselves built atop ruins, and so on, and no one knows who built the first ones. The old shit heap has also got this ancient magic barrier around it that stops psychic horse crap and whatnot from working.''

''Mazheim ain't the city of any race. Many of of the lords are drow, the crafty bastards, but they ain't a majority in the city by a longshot. Other than 'em ye'll find the gnomish folk like myself, dwarves, duergar who turned tail and fled from Sturgaal, kenku (ravenfolk), kirro (batfolk), humans who went and got 'emselves lost, and half-drow, from when them humans got too friendly with the locals.''

''The unshakable city's safe by underdark standards, but it's a damn shithole. Poverty, corruption, crime, ye name it, Mazheim's got it. If yer looking to trade, anything that can be found in D'norra can likely be found in Mazheim. That's why most folks make the trip.''

Riftstone, the Chasm Fortress
''Home of the svirfneblin- that's deep gnomes, for those of ye who say ye "can't pronounce" our name. The outside's a dark and cold place, defended to the teeth. Anyone who ain't been here long says we're a paranoid folk, but if anything we ain't paranoid enough.''

''The inside, though, well, ye won't find warmer or more welcoming place in the whole underdark. We svirfneblin know how to cast a spell and how to turn a gear. We got contraptions and inventions of all sorts to keep the lights on, the dens warm, the food growing, and the shifty kobolds OUT.''

''We got labs and mines and whatnot all over the place. Most of the doors are made for gnomes, though, so they might be too small for ye.''

Dolmingdran, the Axebreaker Stronghold
''Never been, but I've heard plenty. Dolmingdran's this old dwarf stronghold, so big it goes all the way up to the surface. There's three parts: upper, lower, and central. This one's lower, and the dwarves got all these carts and lifts and chutes to get around. Almost puts our tinkering in old riftstone to shame. Almost.''

''The dwarves mine and forge all day, but they seem to like it. Plenty of Riftstone is made out of dwarven goods, highest quality on Londora. The stout folk are well defended, don't trifle with 'em or ye'll know what it feels like to have a dwarven battle tank run over ye.''

Sturgaal, the Crumbling City
''The Axebreaker dwarves have got 'emselves a dark past. A thousand years back, there wasn't no Axebreaker clan, just a bunch of dwarf clans who owned the whole of D'norra with an iron fist. They dug and dug and dug, but nothin' satisfied 'em.''

''Well, one day the dwarves dug too greedily and too deep, and right outta the ground came an army of the hated mind flayers and their thralls. The dwarves won that war, eventually, but too many of 'em died and too many of 'em got taken deeper, to the lair of the mind flayers. The ones left set up shop in Dolmingdran.''

''But 300 years back, those captured dwarves got out. Darker and meaner than before, and calling 'emselves the Duergar. They tried to conquer D'norra for 'emselves before we pushed 'em back to the iron coast. They're still there, digging and mining and reminding the dwarves of what they used to be.''

''The gray dwarves are making their city bigger all the damn time, but they ain't got space to move it to. The part of the city they're in gets old and rotten and then they build a new, bigger, better part of the city. Then all the duergar abandon where they used to be and move. Tis been going on ever since they started building, and there's no part of the iron coast that ain't covered in ruins.''

''By the way, 'bout those mind flayers: ye see a flayer, ye kill 'em on sight. Don't think about it, don't listen to any thoughts it puts in yer soft, smooth brain- that's how they get ye. Just kill, as fast as ye can. Anyone else in D'norra will tell you the same, and thank ye for yer service if ye manage to off one.''

Am-Annah, the Great Fungus
''There's fungi in every corner of the great lake, ain't hard to figure out where it got its name from. Well, Am-Annah is the big one. Takes up that whole area on the map- 40 square miles, or so, and it's got "children" all over the place that ain't nearly as big. Folks say it's stopped growing, ye best hope it has.''

''The myconids (mushroom folk) who live in Am-Annah and its offspring ain't bad. They only speak with psychic power, so they don't come to Mazheim too often, but folks will seek em out for a great high. Anything else that lives in the fungi, yer best left not trifling with.''

Dilbibloop Spire
''This shitheap used to be home of the Kuo-toa, odd fish-looking folk, each mad as a beholder. Most of 'em have left, so yer guess is as good as mine fer what lives there now. Don't go here, just don't.''