A capital city of an independent kingdom in the Keldani Underdark,
Xothroq (ZOTH-rok) lies miles beneath and south-west of the shores the
Great Old Ones and
Fey Pact-Lands. While it is geographically within (and under) the borders of Keldan, Xothroq is politically separate. The population is an overwhelming duergar majority, with duergar holding every office of importance in the governing of the city.
Regions of the city
The Goldenbridge district is named after a bridge made of solid gold and magically reinforced to resist any attempt to scratch or shear off a piece.
The Widowport is named after the extensive spider webs that protect the city from being overrun by subterranean bats, stirges or swarming insects coming across the water.
The "docks" of Goldenbridge and Widowport are actually the modified rooftops of other buildings that were submerged when Keldan rose from the sea and displaced the subterranean world with the oceans above. The entire shoreline is a haunting graveyard of buildings that cover an area half the size of Xothroq and were once the domain of a dozen other houses.
The Drench is so named because the homes of the lichen/mushroom farmers that live there (and work in the Great Loam) are always soggy and damp, due to mist from the river water running forges in the Steelring rising to the higher ceiling over the Drench and coming down like a permanent rain.
The western end of the Steelring district (near house Ganawagh) rises up to overlook the Sunken Mire district in a shape that locals call "the daggerpoint."
The Sunken Mire district is coated in a layer of slimy muck that feeds into a bottomless trench at the base of the northern end of the cavern. Signs are kept up to remind residents not to get too close but the trench as after a certain point the ground acts like quicksand and devours the unwary, dragging them across the ground and into the crevasse.
The Roast district is named after the immense heat coming from subterranean springs and lava floes beneath the stone, where the temperature of the rock the cavern averages 190°F degrees. The air temperature is brought down to a merely stifling 110°F degrees through the clever use of magic and architecture that funnels cooler air in off the Greydeep. Wearing medium or heavy armor in this area quickly exhausts and drains vitality (which acts as a deterrent for any army trying to siege the Charlodge), so instead the district is a fashionable market populated by scantily clad elites visiting magical ice parlor speakeasies run by mafia types.
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