Some Exploits in Dwarvish Caverns

Nazouralnittotzu

Fragment #1

"Some names of the primary surface hive vents and mine exits, and their meanings

Druckborghaw - "Forest Defensive-tower" - An isolated fortress colony.  The tower in question is the outer protuberance of the inner fortress, fasioned in a large mountain stack surrounded by a coniffer forest managed for pit props.

Gunkglalgchanagan - "Woman of the sky natural cave" - An old and mystical Dwarvish hive mouth set in a land studded with many vast natural caves, the largest of which takes the form of a miniature womb-cave of a deep Queendom, the main difference in form being that it is open to the outside along one edge.  It is believed a sky goddess denned up here to birth her children the bats.

Oddachailhjorigork - "Nobel Chailh's Grand Eating Hall Fortified Cave Complex" - The name of this wealthy hive fort was left over from imperial days. Who Chailh was is a matter of conjecture, though presumably the 'Gork' (Fortified Cave Complex) was added to the name later as the settlement grew.  This has long been a center for industry, harnessing the water of the Fwndyke Gartian. 

Nordemriecargor - "Northern Pit-Shaft" - This settlement also dates back to imperial times, only this was more of a gulag for dissident Dwarves. Although harsh to look at it is rumored to lead to some of the deepest and oldest Nazouralian Queendoms.

Borgbarddalm - "Defensive Smith" - Know for it belligerent and highly skilled artisan smiths. Where travelers go to who wish to own high quality weaponry .

Olingskogslesvig - "Hidden Hall Complex" - Not much is known about this subterranean city, other than it is very large and has a surface exit. 

Ddraeleng Trass - "Frail Mountain" - this mighty mountain copper mine is so riddled with shafts and adits that to walk across the surface is to risk almost certain injury.  However, being Dwarves they could not countenance open cast mining and thus the removal of the almost pure copper mountain, so the entire thing is diligently propped and banked by a dedicated team of engineers.

Garthvanittborgoch - "Gorge of the Defensive Hole"

Garthvanittborgoch - the capital mine exit of Nazuralnitotzu

The capital mine exit of Nazuralnittotzu, the secret fortified gorge from where the Rebel Dwarves held off both the empire and the revolting Human and Elvish slaves.  It has never been captured.  The mountains around are black from the coal smoke it belches day and night, venting the deep forges of the King and Queendoms bellow. It stands on some of the best veins of lead and silver in the north. Though these days the upper levels are open to non-Dwarvish travelers, snooping bellow the first line of inner defenses is treated with very well organised intolerance - I still have a lump on my shin bone from my arrest.

Nordott - "Stone Land/Rock" - Where the best building stone comes from.

Dugach Borgoch - "King Defensive Hole" - An entrance to a hive of Dwarves who owe their lineage to rebels who lived independently in secret in the days Empire.  Off the beaten track - her residents are closed and private even to other Dwarves - they are known in Dwarvish circle to be a bit in-bred.  Her artisans know everything about underground food cultivation however.  

Stordonafagel - "Bright/Colourful Palace Quarry" - This place is amazing in the Dwarvish world on three counts - Firstly the main surface settlement is not in solid rock but on deep deposits of highly varied clay. Secondly many of the mines and pits are open to the sky - many even 'open-cast'.  Thirdly is its shallow nature - only a few hundred feat deep.  It is the home of the pigment mines which Nazouralians use to decorate their halls. There is a thriving and vibrant culture here of singing and fighting and the arts.  It is also peculiar for having little regard for the gender boundaries in force in most of the rest of Nazuralnittotzu - Male and Female Dwarves mix freely and some Dwarves are known to have lived here all their lives without visiting the deep places.  A plaice to experience the true strength of Dwarvish Beverages.  I would name them if I could remember anything about them.
 

Sjocargor - "Deap Pit-Shaft" - This place is almost the exact opposite of Stordonafagel - gray and conservative and intolerably dull.  I shall say no more about it, other than Dwarves who have visited its deeper parts say if anything the conservativeness increases with depth.

Asen Gorg - "Gold Fortified Cave Complex" - An outpost for other Dwarvish outlying hives to trade with. Unbelievably rich. Most caverns will be lined with gold or obsidian or marble in tasteless excess. Far too gauche for me."

Fragment #2

"Nazouralnittotzu - once the rebellious frontier region of the old Dwarvish empires, an exile home for the unpopular and the destitute of the old deep King- and Queen-doms of the Dwarvish homelands, and now the one of the only surviving Dwarvish regions from that dreadful and amazing time in this part of North Eastern Ottarol. While there are isolated mountains around in the north where clannish hives of Dwarves carry on in the face of their isolation, Nazuralnittotsu is the only purely Dwarvish fully functioning country to survive.

"Skroam Blackbeard - surface leader of Durik Yolt, a lone mountain hive in the far north. This young Dwarve is almost unbelievably cunning, ruthless and loyal to his hive - a paragon of his people."

If you walk the corridors and caverns of this amazing relic of empirical Dwarvishnes you would be forgiven for thinking you where stepping back into the heart of those industrious times, but you would be mistaken. The Dwarves here are fiercely independent - all their songs and ballads relate to the brave souls who stood up against the old empire, who dug deeper than any official from the true heartlands could have guessed at, who formed deep secret kingdoms in the hot rock of the under-mantle and womb-like Queendoms even beneath them. And so it was that when the rebellions of the servants and slaves of the empire finally bought its vast reign crumbling mightily into dust this corner of the old Empire carried on.  Here they kept few non-Dwarvish slaves - it was Dwarves who did the work, here they where themselves slaves , but clever slaves, artisan slaves, rebel slaves - and yet, and yet...

One of the battlement corridors of the cliff side walls used to keep the mountain border with Gaer cleanly defined

They where still Dwarves, still capable of amazing societies, of amazing organization of amazing energy and invention.     This is how Nazuralnittotsu survived the post-empirical genocide, when Human and Elvish slave rose up and murdered Dwarvish master, and how, even a thousand years on they have never transgressed their own borders, nor allowed them to be transgressed..."

Fragment #3

"Dwarvish coridor decoration - 

Plain surface corridor

A fighting corridor on a surface portion of the deference's of the mountain border with Gaer. These corridors are hurriedly made and un-decorated.  No paint is used because the sunlight will fade the colours within a few hundred years, and this brief spell of time is just not worth building for.  Some are decorated by apprentices first learning thier craft.

The deepest that I could get in Garthvanittborgoch.

Another Dwarvish warning door. I regretted choosing this one.

This was the deepest I could creep before being caught in Garthvanittborgoch.  The bat wing labyrinth above the doors is a representation of one of the defensive strategies of a Dwarvish cavern.  Two of the doors are connected by a vast winding corridor, while only one leads down to the next level.  Picking a door at random may simply get you a few days (or more) of walking up and down stairs laced with traps.  The iron bindings on the doors are secret symbols to help choose the correct door.

Decorated ceiling from Oddachailhjorigork

This Ceiling was from one of the oldest and deepest parts of Oddachailhjorigork that I could access.  As always an image of Make the Goat God of mine collapse stairs down to frighten the real god away.  on the cusp of the barrel roof are makers marks and possibly some initials in old Gogian script.  these give the families of all the Dwarves who worked on this section of hall.

The runes around Make read - "Mak -  Nila Gau - Nit Arcon" - "Make - hunter of - the slopes".  This is a reference to the belief that Make dwells on the surface (proving his diabolical nature) and only comes bellow to hunt the incautious Dwarves who have not given due diligence to their work. The labyrinth along the spine of the roof can be followed.  In ancient times this gave knowledge of the way ahead to the initiated, but now this knowledge seems to be lost."