Ollin's Borehole

Ollin's Borehole is an abandoned svirfneblin (deep gnome) gem mine located in the Underdark. As with most deep gnome settlements, it was hidden and protected by illusion magic more than anything else. This worked well until a duergar patrol from Brazenthrone wandered near the entrance invisibly as deep gnomes walked through an illusionary wall in front of them. The duergar soon returned with reinforcements and forced their way into the mine, killing the miners and celebrating with a hefty night of drinking before getting around to looting the place.
Much to their surprise (and anger), they found no gems. This was a gem mine; surely there had to be gems down here somewhere! The duergar are said to have searched for over a week without success. Stripping corpses, breaking crates open, and smashing walls in search of secret rooms, all to no avail. Eventually, the duergar decided their efforts here were a waste of time and departed. Since then, the mine has sat abandoned. The duergar consider it worthless, the deep gnomes are unwilling to rebuild in a compromised location, and everyone else is concerned something else may have moved in and is unwilling to risk life and limb searching for treasure that may not even be there.

Uncovering the Underdark Campaign

The adventurers of the Thaig Expedition heard rumors of Ollin's Borehole at the Deep Spire, manging to loosely piece together the history of the place. They traveled to the long-abandoned mine in search of treasure and soon met a small group of myrmex that had traveled there from the Elemental Plane of Earth and were looking to use the mine as their new colony. Unfortunately, they had been followed by a group of xorn that threw them out of the mine via violence. The elder myrmex hired the adventurers to clear out the xorn in exchange for gems and other treasure.
The adventurers worked their way down into the mine, battling xorn and other hostile earth elementals as they bore witness to the ancient aftermath of the duergar attack that slaughtered the miners. They eventually reached the bottom where the elder xorn waited for them. Though the battle was fierce, the adventurers managed to destroy the elementals physical bodies and send their spirits back to the Elemental Plane of Earth. With the mine secure, the adventurers returned to the elder myrmex to give him the good news as well as some of the gems they'd located. In return, the elder myrmex rewarded them with the shell of a flail snail and told the mortals they would always be welcome among the myrmex.

Type

Mine