Great Dismal Delve
Ervenian Era, 1051 AB
The Great Dismal Delve is a sunless empire carved into grinding stone, sprawls through pressure-bent caverns and load-bearing vaults where the rock itself slowly flows like a glacier. Roads are ribs of reinforced basalt; ceilings are catenary domes braced with adamantine trusses; whole neighborhoods ride on screw-jacks that rise and settle with the plane’s tectonic breath. The air tastes of iron and wet clay, lit by seam-lamps, veins of glowcrystal coaxed to a steady, workmanlike shine.
Customs
The Weighing
All contracts are balanced on a scale; each party places a token of worth-stone remembers the exact mass.Clause of Collapse
Every deal names who bears loss if a tunnel fails; omitting the Clause voids the bargain.Hammerfall Ledger
Shift-change rite at the Anvil of Echoes; forepersons strike once for the living, twice for the injured, thrice for the dead.Quiet Hour
One bell per shift where tools still and faults are listened for; speaking work orders over the Anvil’s hum is taboo.Bond-Release
When service ends, a brace-pin is drawn; if the arch holds, the freed one leaves with honor. If it sags, debt remains.Geography
The Delve is a tiered labyrinth hewn around a colossal Loadstone, a mountain of dense ore whose gravity helps stabilize nearby caverns. From this anchor radiate concourse galleries wide enough for ore-wagons four abreast, spiral escarpments that corkscrew between levels, and counterfall shafts where ore and water are hoisted by endless chain. The dao have skinned the living rock with buttresses, grout-veins, and pressure arches; when the Plane shifts, the Delve flexes instead of failing. At its heart stands the Sevenfold Mazework, the palace-complex of the Great Khan, layered like a geode and reconfigurable at command.
Notable Locations
The Sevenfold Mazework
Also known as the Great Khan’s palace, which is seven nested rings of trapfold corridors, contract courts, and treasure ventricles that can rotate into new alignments.Gemwright’s Spiral
A descending helix of lapidary ateliers and assay shrines; every tenth landing holds a Witness Stone that records deals in crystal script.The Loadstone Docks
Winch-forests and chain-canals where ore slurries arrive; cargo cranes walk on cogged rails like iron giraffes.Market of Irrevocable Weights
Goods priced by burden; pay in coin or shoulder, oaths are struck on balance-altars.The Dust Warrens
Low-roofed living quarters for bonded labor and free miners alike, honeycombed with canteens and hot-stone baths.Anvil of Echoes
A cathedral-forge whose struck note travels the Delve, signaling shifts, summons, and siege alarms.The Quiet Fulcrum
A meditation vault on a perfect keystone; speaking above a whisper here is a fine.Guild of Grout and Brace
Engineers who inject alchemical grout and set brace-trees; they license all tunneling.The Pale River Gate
Pressure-ring locks that open to the Elemental Plane of Water source; used for cooling, trade, and emergency floods.Ash-Stop
A sanctioned efreet enclave bounded by fire-cordons and smoke-scrub chimneys where heat-forging is permitted.Travel and Access
Approach via load-roads (reinforced fissures), earthglide causeways keyed to dao tokens, or ore-rivers—slurries of grit and water that double as freightways. Ethereal travelers bleed in through brown Border Curtains to inspection vaults. Unkeyed teleport scatters into surrounding stone; sanctioned gates exist in Counterweight Courts under writ. Visitors receive a stamped Weight-Mark (tax ledger and pathpass) and a Strata-Map that updates as galleries shift.Law and Security
The Braceguard (dao wardens, jann deputies, xorn bailiffs) enforce Load Law: endanger structure, and the Delve punishes. Crimes of breath (toxic fumes), spark (unsanctioned fire), and unbraced excavation) draw swift redress: fines in ore, compulsory brace duty, or pressure exile (escorted beyond the Loadstone’s safe zone). Witness Stones archive verdicts; appeals are struck on the scales in the Sirocco-linked courts of the Mazework.Commerce and Diplomacy
Exports
Raw and cut gems, rare ores, brace-trees, grout alchemies, engineered keystones, and contract enforcement.Imports
Fresh air (stored in bell-flasks), cool water, foodstuffs, exotic cokes, and texts. Efreet, marids, azer, dwarves, and mercanes do business under posted brace codes. Slavery exists under dao law as bond-service; outside embassies often press manumission writs—negotiated, not assumed.Inhabitants
Dao houses and their jann factors dominate governance and commerce; earth elementals serve as warders, haulers, and quiet judges of faultlines. Xorn, pech, galeb duhr, and khargra haunt service strata; azer smiths lease benches under treaty; dwarven embassies and mercantile enclaves operate with sturdy caution. Mephits (earth, dust, salt) skitter as messengers; oozes are culled or corralled into digesters to keep the galleries clean.Localized Phenomena
Pressure Tides
Twice per day, the stone breathes; unsupported spans lengthen or shorten by inches, brace warnings chime a minute prior.Ore-Scent Drafts
Metallic scents ride micro-winds; trained noses can track a vein or sniff a cave-in.Gravity Seams
Narrow bands of skewed pull; miners mark them with hanging chains that lean the wrong way.Grinders
Slow-moving waves of microfracture that turn unworked stone to scree; grout spells can “freeze” them for an hour.Stone-Sleep
Long exposure lulls warm-bloods; crews rotate through hot-stone baths to stave it off.Seam-Lamplight
Glowcrystal dims before a collapse; wardens read the flicker like sailors read tides.Trait Type |
Description |
|---|---|
| Gravity | Heavy (creatures feel ~1.5× normal weight localized gravity seams can tug at odd angles in haul shafts. |
| Time | Normal. |
| Shape & Size | Vast but bounded city-realm embedded in an infinite plane. |
| Morphic Traits | Architect-morphicת dao engineers and palace wardens can re-route corridors, lock strata, or “temper” stone via ritual; unattended rock relentlessly creeps to close voids. |
| Elemental Energy | Earth Dominant. |
| Alignment | Neutral. |
| Magic | Earth, stone, acid, fortification, binding, and transmutation (stone or mud, metal shaping) are enhanced; air, levitation, most teleports, and uncontrolled excavation magic are impeded; fire burns oxygen quickly and sheds choking fumes. |
Type
Dimensional plane
Location under
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