Shadowreach
The cavern now known as the home to the ruins of Shadowreach is the largest known single space in Blackclaw Mountain. The eons since the cavern’s initial formation have shaped it in numerous ways, splitting its floor and building stalactites and stalagmites that now stand as tall as towers.
For hundreds of thousands of years, creatures both intelligent and monstrous have called the cavern home, with many living their entire lives in this single vast space. The petrified carapaces of huge worms embedded in the stone walls and the ribcages of ancient dragons jutting up out of the rock floor hearken back to a time when those great monsters ruled over the mountain. Carved stalagmites, cave paintings, and cairns of piled stone mark the later presence of the intelligent denizens of the cavern, and are now all that remains of their history.
For hundreds of thousands of years, creatures both intelligent and monstrous have called the cavern home, with many living their entire lives in this single vast space. The petrified carapaces of huge worms embedded in the stone walls and the ribcages of ancient dragons jutting up out of the rock floor hearken back to a time when those great monsters ruled over the mountain. Carved stalagmites, cave paintings, and cairns of piled stone mark the later presence of the intelligent denizens of the cavern, and are now all that remains of their history.
History
The Rule Of The Nine
The Nine spent the majority of their time in study and in pursuit of their experiments. Most of them preferred to work in solitude, apart from even one another. Only when certain experiments or discoveries required partnerships, or when they required the services of their subjects, did the archmages step out from their towers.Meetings among the Nine occurred once each year in a hidden chamber completely cut off from the rest of the mountain. The floor of this sanctum contained an ancient rune-inscribed circle said to have been constructed by the Caretakers, along with nine portals each controlled by an archmage. At these meetings, the Nine would decide the future of the magocracy, with their decisions flowing down through the thousands who served and acted upon those decisions without question.
The subjects of the Magocracy of the Black Star came from many different lands. Elves, dwarves, goblins, giants, and humans all served the Nine, with many enthralled by the mages and their spellcasting servants into unquestioning servitude. Others were commanded through sheer force and terror by the Claws of the Nine—half-dragon warlords given ultimate authority over the magocracy’s other subjects.
An army of undead created by the vampire necromancer Korvilia proved a most useful addition to the servants of the Nine. Stocked with all manner of undead from decrepit skeletons to vampire knights riding on the backs of skeletal dragons, this army required no food or rest, and served the will of the Nine through every moment of their existence.
The servants of the mages built the city of Shadowreach to house the people of the magocracy and support the desires of the Nine. The governors and warlords serving the Nine commanded the magocracy’s social system, all with the goal of supporting the will of the archmages. Through it all, those archmages cared little for the survival and well-being of their subjects, demanding only that the Nine have access to any resources when they needed them. A rigid hierarchy quickly formed within the magocracy, from the lowest serfs to the governors. But to the Nine, all creatures in the magocracy except themselves were equally inconsequential, living only to support the archmages’ drive for power.
The Crusade of the White Sun
Word of the magocracy eventually spread beyond Blackclaw Mountain. An order of priests and paladins stood watch over the known entrances into Blackclaw, preparing for an onslaught of demons, undead, or worse to burst forth into the world. Each decade, a halfling archmage of the Black Star named Soram of the Outside would exit the mountain with a retinue of slaves and guardians, ready to renew the nonaggression pacts between the magocracy and the realms nearest the mountain.The Order of the White Sun was made up of three primary factions. The Priests of the White Sun stood at the head of the order, calm and deliberate in their planning and governance. The paladins of the order, known as the Blades of Dawn, served as crusaders, traveling far and wide across all lands to seek out and quell evil. The largest faction, the Swords of the Sun, was a standing army of sword fighters and archers who defended Sunspire Citadel (a ruin in the desert as of 1492DR) some two hundred miles from Blackclaw Mountain—the primary headquarters of the order, and a great citadel of the realms the order protected.
For thirty years, a father and daughter headed the Priests of the White Sun and the Blades of Dawn, respectively. High Priest Maelin Avankor led the Priests of the White Sun with calm and thoughtful guidance, while his daughter, Lord Templar Alexa Avankor, led the Swords of Dawn with focus and virtue. For nearly a decade, Alexa tried to convince her father of the growing danger of the magocracy.
Every day, she argued, the archmages of the Black Star practiced their dark craft within the mountain and grew stronger. The stronger they grew, the harder it would eventually be to face them and root them out. But Maelin, thinking of the lives that might be lost in such a crusade, resisted.
One day, during his prayers to the Light, Maelin had a vision. He saw cities destroyed, pierced through with black spires as tall as mountains. He saw the bodies of thousands impaled on black metal trees. He saw a dark, malevolent orb in the sky, as large as a moon and writhing with tendrils that sucked the life out of the world wherever they touched it. The following morning, he met with his daughter, and preparations for an assault against the Magocracy of the Black Star began.
For four years, the Order of the White Sun prepared. The Swords of the Sun were led by legendary commander Lord Korva Vollok, following her directive to train for fighting in the narrow tunnels and wide chasms of Blackclaw. The Blades of Dawn prepared to drive back the undead armies rumored to infest the mountain. The order created a new unit of soldiers known as the Mageslayers, trained to fight against the arcane power of the nine archmages and their numerous apprentices. Led by the bard Sylda Dawncaster, these wizards, fighters, rogues, and bards were specifically trained in the magic necessary to counter, silence, disrupt, and dispel the magic of the magocracy.
Conquest and Destruction
On the tenth anniversary of the most recent signing of the nonaggression treaty between the magocracy and its neighboring realms, Soram of the Outside stepped out once more from the mountain. But instead of signing a new treaty, he was arrested, tried, and convicted by the Order of the White Sun, then beheaded by Lord Templar Alexa Avankor. The assault on Shadowreach had begun.The order struck fast and hard. Knowing that the true power in Blackclaw Mountain rested with the nine archmages, the warriors of the Blades of Dawn and the Mageslayers sought them out. They destroyed undead and enthralled guardians by the thousands to reach the archmages. They infiltrated the private lairs of the Nine, bringing them to the sword where they could. In six weeks of fighting, five of the nine archmages of the Magocracy were brought down—some so catastrophically that their passing left permanent wounds in the world. The fate of the remaining four was never fully determined, though their power was shattered and their lairs either occupied or destroyed.
Of the remaining servants of the magocracy, many were killed, some were liberated, and the rest fled deeper into the mountain. In the aftermath, the Order of the White Sun spent eighty years attempting to wash away the stain of the magocracy in Shadowreach, but with limited success. Starsong Tower was repurposed into a beacon of light above the city. The other towers and keeps of Shadowreach Cavern were converted into barracks and citadels for the order. Yet powerful remnants of the magocracy remained, often not uncovered for decades. Many of those were old vaults accidentally opened, unleashing hundreds of ravenous undead into the city each time. As a result, few civilians were willing to take up residence in Shadowreach, making it difficult for the Order of the White Sun to maintain a meaningful presence in the city. Even the nine statues representing the archmages of the Black Star could not be toppled.
The Time of The Grendleroot
The Order of the White Sun weakened over long years in the mountain. Those who remained over that time lost sight of the need to hold back the darkness from the cavern of Shadowreach. Patrols explored the caverns beyond, but many never came back. The tales of the four missing archmages of the Black Star were forgotten.Then eighty years after the Order of the White Sun liberated Shadowreach, The Grendleroot awoke. The stone floor of the Shadowreach cavern ripped open. Spires of the Grendleroot tore their way up. Records of the event describe a telepathic scream that ripped through the minds of the city’s residents. Some went insane. Many died. The rest left the mountain forever. The remaining members of the Order of the White Sun built a glyph-scribed iron door to seal the main entrance into the mountain. The survivors returned to Sunspire Citadel, which had become a crumbling ruin after decades of neglect. In time, tales of the fall of the Magocracy of the Black Star and the crusade of The Order of the White Sun became little more than legend.
Over a hundred years later, with the glyphs of protection on the door faded, a small band of explorers broke the seal of the White Sun and entered the mountain. When they eventually reached the cavern of Shadowreach, their lanterns illuminated huge statues of sinister archmages standing above the vast, empty city. Shadowreach proved a site full of mysteries, relics, dangers—and treasure beyond counting. These explorers built a small camp amid clifftop ruins marking one edge of the ruined city. The camp grew into a walled outpost, and soon, Deepdelvers Enclave opened for business.
The next Chapter of the history of this cavern is in the Deepdelvers Enclave article.
Founding Date
890
Type
Underground / Vault
Location under
Included Locations
Ruins of Grendleroot by Slyflourish on Drivethru RPG