Vale of the Azure Sun: The Long Caverns

The long caverns are river-cut limestone caverns. The walkways and open areas are filled with misshapen, wet, bumpy stalactites and stalagmites, but the walls are smooth and worn.

Inside the long caverns, as elsewhere in the valley, no creature need eat for sustenance. They may eat as normal, but they do not need to. This includes the player characters. Without a sky or hunger, they may lose track of time, knowing it only by when they grow tired.

How much the creatures of the Long Caverns know about the valley is up to you, but they could certainly tell some strange stories about the things they’ve seen pass through the caverns. Those from Dead Rome or beyond the crossroads know that Kelelmien has an entrance to the crossroads, because they passed through it.

Languages and factions: Most creatures that have been here a while will speak a limited pidgin of Barcelas, Orcish, and Camprye.
Wandering encounters: In the caverns, wandering encounters will usually occur with cavern creatures. Occasionally, valley creatures will brave the skeleton gauntlet, however. Encounters in the caverns occur 40% of the time every two hours. Most of the creatures are at least familiar with the other creatures in the caverns: overall, the caverns are a small place. Creatures in the caverns (and in the valley) are generally wary about any new, unknown creatures they meet.
Braziers and skeletons (1): Flickering flames from bronze braziers dimly light the stalactites and stalagmites of this huge cavern. Over a dozen skeletons line the dripping rock walls on all sides ahead of you.
Karuat Lair (2): The splashes of dripping water echo throughout the cavern. Tall creatures, with beaks and huge claws, walk like humans. They clatter at you, raising sword and claw against you. Pale stalagmites rise from a dark pool behind them.
Orc Lair (3, 4, 5): These Orcs entered through the tree in various locations in the Deep Forest. They were sent into the caverns by the Blue Sun. The Orcs are the strongest contingent in the caverns, but not the smartest. They tend to stand alone in any fights.
Dangerous Treasure (6): Hairy masks hang above a hide or cloth table. Interspersed among the masks are nets with trinkets or other colorful things hanging on the nets.
Haikiutl Shrine (7): A rock slab, covered in dully-painted hides and curious skulls, juts out of the cavern wall in a thin alcove at the other end of this cave.
Spider Lair (8): Creatures stand in line with spears and clubs held in four arms, and their four legs on the ground, like spiderous centaurs.
Darkroom (9): There is a permanent magical darkness in this area that blocks all light, including from light spells but not including sunlight spirit manifestations. It also does not block underground vision. The Carathaxians often use this for tactical purposes, at least when fighting creatures that do not have underground vision.
Black Lake (10): A mess of bones and metal litters this cavern. Coins glitter in your light. In the center, a small pond is shrouded in a rising miasma. A brooding figure, tall, bat-like wings rolled around it, sits lost in thought or sleep on a far rock.
Dragon Lair (11): The bones of myriad creatures, familiar and strange, line the cavern walls and floor leading to a large wooden door. The door is banded in iron and blacked with age.
Strange Lobsters (12, 13): These crazy crabs crawl through the tiny holes in the wall from the hall to Dead Rome. The crazy crabs are very aggressive; little is required to set them into a feeding frenzy.
Barcelasians (14, 15, 16): The great Saurians of Barcelas control this corner of the cavern system. They are the most powerful faction within the caverns. There are sixteen saurians.
Mad Venethtlas Elf (17): A wet warmth billows out of the darkness. Within, your light reflects off of myriad points as if from a broken mirror, or from dust in sunlit shafts.
The Long Caverns: Empty (18): This empty area may provide a bit of respite, although it is at a crossroads between the saurians of 15, the orcs of 12, and the crazy crabs of 21. The saurians and orcs don’t like to meet each other, and the crabs don’t often travel.
Xolome Lair (19): Six xolome, led by a chieftain and two guards, have been driven to this section of the caves. These xolome are from Haikiutl. They call themselves the Moldwater Tribe. They all wear the equivalent of cloth armor, except for the guards and chieftain, who wear the equivalent of leather. Their chief is also called Moldwater.

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Jerry

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Contents of The Biblyon Broadsheet™ as a whole Copyright © 1994-2024 Jerry Stratton. Individual copyrights remain held by their respective authors unless they specify otherwise. Site titles, such as Negative Space, Strange Bedfellows, Biblyon Broadsheet, Highland Games, and FireBlade Coffeehouse are trademarks of Jerry Stratton.

The Long Caverns last modified September 1st, 2014.

The Vale of the Azure Sun: The Long Caverns

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