Drelkyte Bastion
The destroyed home of clan Hammerbite.
Purpose / Function
Situated in the Barrier Mountains, Drelkyte Bastion was a fortress first and mine second. It was originally created to serve as a base from which to launch attacks on the orcs that invaded the Green Vale on a regular basis. Knowing that building a fortress in the pass would only incite their foes to amass ever larger forces, the dwarves built Drelkyte close to rather than in the pass, concealing the entrance at the end of a ravine.
History
Finding Ore
Drelkyte was used solely for holding a force to ambush orcs and goblins for over a century before Bruster Hammerbite accidentally discovered sizeable quantities of ore. After celebrating a successful ambush of a raiding party a little too much, Bruster got into an argument with another soldier about who was the better miner. The two picked up picks and started trying to break through walls in the cellar. Though they didn't find anything that night, Bruster remembered hearing something strange and after he had finished with his punishment detail, he went back to the cellars for a more careful (and sober) search. Stone and brick walls had been added to give the caves where the cellars were located some more structure, and to help keep out vermin. Bruster hunted around until he located the wall where he could hear a faint whistling sound. Using barrels and crates to screen his activities, Bruster carefully opened up a hole in the wall and found a natural tunnel leading down. There were no signs of it being worked or reinforced so he assumed it had been left unexplored once even space had been created in Drelkyte. A brief look into the tunnel revealed easily accessible ore, so Bruster knew he would have to be careful about how he shared this discovery. To be on the safe side he resealed the wall, and made sure a pile of crates covered the breach he had created and closed.A New Mine
When Bruster returned to the Magrannor Halls and told his wife Otillda about the discovery, she quickly arranged for a meeting with the lead prospector to stake a claim. Within a few weeks Otillda was invited to an audience with The Magrannor to discuss her plans. Otillda had done her research and sold the idea of a self-sufficient fortress that would be less of a drain on the halls while still providing the same level of military power. The Magrannor was taken with the idea and gave his leave for Otillda to form a new clan with the bastion as its home. When Bruster returned home from a patrol he found he was no longer a simple soldier, but was the consort to a queen. Apparently keen to make a success of this endeavour, The Magrannor provided sureties that the new clan would be supplied until it could become self-sufficient, and permitted all those who wished to join the new clan to leave his service. Confident in her own plans, the new Queen Hammerbite happily agreed to terms offered by The Magrannor in exchange for this generosity. Too used to being a part of the only clan in the region, Otillda had no idea about how The Magrannor was setting her up.A Rapid Expansion
With the help of Clan Magrannor Drelkyte was swiftly expanded. Not having to worry about supplies, the new clan were able to focus on carving out new living areas and more fully examining the new resources. Everything seemed to be proceeding inline with Queen Otillda's plans, and within 6 months the new settlement began producing new goods to trade. Itr was then that The Magrannor's plan became evident. Clan Magrannor began buying up necessary supplies from settlements in the Green Vale driving up prices. They enacted a toll on any wishing to trade with the lands on the other side of their pass, and they began selling their own goods at a much lower price. With no reserves of coin or resources, and still keen to achieve independence Queen Otillda ordered her people to speed up their mining and crafting. The normal slow and careful pace of exploration and mining was abandoned in favour of an almost human like rush to extract as much as possible in the shortest possible time. Despite numerous accidents and fatalities, the new clan managed to produce enough to keep themselves going. Otillda's dreams of a properous settlement had been dashed, and she gradually moved much of her clan's industry over to farming to help keep them alive. When Otillda died, her son Thresgin took over as King. Thresgin was neither as intelligent nor as stubborn as his mother, so when The Magrannor offered a way for Clan Hammerbite to gain some semblance of prosperity he happily agreed despite the objections of his older councillors. Thus Clan Hammerbite became a formal vassal of Clan Magrannor, losing even the illusion of independence.The Unnoticed Threat
Having ensured that the Hammerbites remained subservient to their clan the Magrannor's stopped undercutting their vassal and Drelkyte gradually became the successful endeavour it's founder had envisioned. But the rushed expansion of the mines had sealed the stronghold's doom. The lacklustre scouting carried out on the tunnels they had broken into had failed to find a colony of grotesque humanoids, standing as tall and slender as elf but with hideous grey mucus covered skin and tentacles where a nose and mouth should be. These creatures, which became known as mindflayers, feasted on the brains of other humanoids, could read a persons thoughts and dominate the minds of their victims. They were also experts at gradually gaining control of a population. It started with a small patrol being a few days late getting back. The patrol reported that they had experienced a cave in and lost two of their number. Their stilted response to questions was put down to injuries from the cave-in and shock at losing their comrades. At the survivors’ request another patrol was sent to recover the bodies of the fallen. Despite being crushed beyond recognition the bodies were successfully recovered, though the second patrol reported suffering a few injuries after being attacked by predators. Afterwards several people noticed that the members of the two patrols had become cliquish, only spending time with each other and ignoring former friends. A short time later several miners went missing from an area previously deemed safe. It was suggested to the section chief that sending patrols out for longer may be the best way of deterring any threats. He refused at first but was persuaded to join a patrol so they could show him the traces of predators they were finding. After returning from his excursion, the section chief approved the plan for longer patrols. They soon bore fruit and one of the lost miners was retrieved. Starving and clearly traumatised by being ambushed by a cave fisher, he still managed to share news of the mineral wealth he had come across during his flight. News of this wealth spread quickly with many in the upper halls keen to join in a new expedition. It was only through random chance that this was discovered to be a trap.Invasion Discovered
A cave-in in a small passage occured while Lakin Platesmasher was delivering healing supplies to the lower levels. Lakin was a priest of Moradin and rushed to help the injured. While healing one of those caught in the collapse he noticed that they weren't responding normally. Careful probing revealed the injured miner was under the effect of a domination spell that Lakin had no way of removing. Further investigation revealed that most of the others in the area were under a similar effect. After quickly finishing his healing, Lakin returned to the upper levels to warn his superiors. King Dyrack was wise enough to listen to his priests on this matter when they came to warn him of trouble, and a force was quickly assembled in the upper halls. However, their enemies had accounted for this and at the first sign of trouble the infiltrators sealed the route between the upper and lower levels and sent for their masters. While the King's forces tried to force their way into the lower levels, those in the lower levels who had not already been enslaved were dragged before the mindlfayers to have their wills overridden. Once the creatures had secured the lower levels, they turned their attention to the dwarves attacking from above. The attackers were allowed to break through to a cavern where the mindflayers were waiting. The mindflayers' mental blasts rendered the attackers unconcious in moments, and soon the mindflayers had an even larger force under their command. The King's army had to change from offence to defence, with soldiers forced to cut down friends and comrades while trying to keep the upper levels safe.The Undead Solution
Though his General urged him to send for aid, Dyrack was unwilling to put his clan further in the debt of Clan Magrannor and stubbornly refused to ask them for help. He wouldn't even agree to send a messenger to inform them of the situation. It was at this time that Gulhilm Steelcuff arrived to offer a solution. Gulhilm was a runemaster and claimed to be able to create a force that would be unaffected by the mindflayers’ powers. Against the counsel of his advisors Dyrack agreed to Gulhilm's plans and ordered his people to create the devices Gulhilm required. When a delegation of priests came to protest that these things were the work of evil powers Dyrack had them imprisoned. The rune boxes Gulhilm had made did as he had promised and created a force that would be unaffected by the mindflayers - they animated an army of skeletons. Teams were sent out with the cubes to raise this unnatural force from the surrounding area and the new army was quickly ready to march. Not shackled by an emotional attachment to the ones they were fighting and unable to feel pain or fear the skeleton horde proved to be devesating shock troopers, breaking through the defences created by the mindflayers' forces. The power of the boxes was such that any of the dominated dwarves that fell would rise swiftly as a new soldier in the undead army. It took only a few days for the undead army to cleanse the lower levels of mindflayers and the enslaved dwarves. Although most of his people were sickened by the slaughter, Dyrack considered this a great victory and ordered a large celebration. At the feast he informed his council of his plans to use his new army to launch an attack on the Magrannor Halls. Horrified by how far their king had fallen, the council protested and Dyrack ordered them executed for treason. A young servant named Crepha Steelfist fled Drelkyte after witnessing this and ran to the Magrannor Halls. The guards there thought she was mad and sent for a priest to look after her. Fortunately that priest was more believing, and after consulting his brethren hurried to warn The Magrannor.Sealing Drelkyte
The priests advised their king that fighting an undead army in open battle had a real chance of simply swelling it's numbers. They instead advised sealing Drelkyte so that those controlling the army couldn't survive. The king baulked at this, refusing to condemn the people of Drelkyte to a slow painful death. That is until the priests told him about what had happened after Crepha had fled. Dyrack had been convinced by Gulhilm that all of his people were potential traitors and had ensured their loyalty by having his army slaughter them. A strike force of priests, wizards, and soldiers was assembled and sent to Drelkyte. Once there they collpased the entrances the bastion, sealing Dyrack, Gulhilm, and the skeleton army inside. Drelkyte was left sealed and abandoned for centuries until a group of adventurers was dispatched there by Tanai Cuinsear. Inside they found the place still infested with the undead. Drelkyte was destroyed when the adventurers activated a device given to them by the elven mage. It triggered a large explosion which not only destroyed the former bastion but also sealed the nearby pass through the Barrier Mountains.
Type
Military base / complex
Parent Location
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