Deorcost Campaign Locations

Last Updated: 2019-07-16

Overview

Dwarven Kingdom

• Plains of Avyon: Flat, featureless, sprawling plains, located between the Elven Cin Range and the Cauldron. Home of the Dwarves and the their massive above- and below-grade metropolises (e.g. Ferran and Gathela).
• City of Ferran: The epicenter of the industrial Dwarven industrial machine and their nexus to the deep Dwarves, the Druegar.
• City of Gathela: The Cauldron city and the Dwarven capital. The city lies on the edge of the Cauldron and is a launch point for Dwarven excursions into the lands beyond.

Elven Lands

• Cin Range: Towering mountain range, pushed up eons ago and gradually eroded into its current rugged broadness. Home of the Elven Kingdom. The Cin Range overlooks the Plains of Avyon and the Dwarven Kingdom. The preeminent city is Edhen.
• City of Edhen: The Elven capital and the location of the Kingdom's prized jewel, the Tower of Edhen, the powerful observatory and scrying platform that tracks and watches the entire Dwarven landscape below. The size and beauty of the landscape and hidden by powerful, permanent illusions.
• City of Ellon: The Elven mercantile nexus to the Feywild.

Feywild

• City of Ellon: The Feywild city of Ellon. The companion city to the Elven city on the same name on the material side of the portal. Although staffed by Goblins, the city appears to be governed by a mixture of Dwarves and Elves. The magic that opens the portal between the material and Fey world is powered by pure magic, distilled into a portable form and, shipped in daily by train. Long roads lead into the Feywild woods and plains where hunters and gathers collect rare bits of living treasure for sale on the other side.
• Neifur: Mid-sized city within the Kingdom of Paedon and the Never-ending Forest of Eilmynis.

The Cauldron: The dark, obscured lands beyond.

Dwarven Lands

The Plains of Avyon

• Called The Plains of Avyon (in Dwarvish) or The Great Vinyamen (in Elvish). The Plains of Avyon are vast, hundreds of thousands of square miles, and are located between the Cin Range and The Cauldron.
• Most land is unpopulated and open. The parts that are farmed are fertile.
• The pains are home to all cities within the Dwarven kingdom. Those cities (not all are covered in detail):
  • Ferran: The industrial epicenter
  • Bilnala: Large farming community that stretches around Ferran. Informally run by the government, but in practice independent.
  • Gathela: The Dwarven capital. Located on the edge of the Cauldron. The biggest city in Gadgha.
  • Nala (D): Wasteland. The dumping ground of industrial waste.
  • Khathola (D): Another, major industrial city unexplored by the party.

The City of Ferran

General Overview

• An industrial city on the open planes of Avyon (Dwarven) .
• The city is ringed by an outer, wide (multi-mile), upturned karst landscape of deep, meandering crevices, spires, and ragged precipices.
• A dark and sometimes multi-colored smoke is visible from the distant plane. The full extent of the darkened city is visible a few miles away.
• The town is built around mining, ore extraction, and refinement. A deep metropolis of activity above and below ground support the lightless, endless effort.
• Byproducts of the mining process spill and stream from the city as regular and magical effluent. A malevolent, deep hum comes and goes. There are regular, small earthquakes.
• Outside the fortress walls, a second ring city of underclass humans lives. They are workers, mostly indentured, who work in the vast mining complexes above and below ground.
• Elevated wire trains carry product and people to and from the city. The trains are suspended on thick, guide wires. These wires have no apparent support, and extend to unknown locations on the horizon.

The People

• Entrance to and from the city is carefully monitored. There are three main entrances in and out. All are guarded. Some contain magic portals that can scan mental currents for subversion, à la detect thoughts. People (i.e. Dwarves) must carry medallions for free travel.
• City's population is nearly 800k people, about 300k citizens (nearly all Dwarves) and 500k underclass, mostly human.
• Because of the severe pollution, most of the underclass are afflicted with some sort of biological abnormality. Most afflictions are easily hidden by clothing, but some workers have more severe afflictions like a vestigial arm or even a splice from another animal.

The Slums

• All races besides Dwarf are considered underclass. This includes all 'half' races like half-elf and elf-dwarf.
• Tieflings and Dragonborn races are very rare. A person could live a lifetime without seeing one.
• There are two ways for the underclass to make a living: criminal activity or (as most do) work in processing (mining, refinement, etc.).
• Different areas of the slums are controlled by different gangs. They provide protection, allocate resources, and in general improve the welfare of those within their boundaries. Intra-gang violence is real, although mostly unseen.

Underground and Underdark

• The city of Ferran is the bit of the iceberg above the horizon. Below ground, the bulk of the metropolis lives and toils. A majority are slaves, involved with the mining, breakdown, and refinement of Hara-laden ore.
• Three great hollow pillars, criss-crossed with lattices of cross-walks and elevators go all the way down to the Underdark and the kingdom of the Druergar.
• A symbiotic and inseparable relationship of trade and industry has formed between the two races, perhaps to the detriment of both.

City of Gathela

The main city

• Gathela is the capital of the Dwarven Kingdom, home of a million Dwarven citizens and other non-citizens.
• Entry and exit into the city, like Ferran is closely monitored. Only those with the appropriate medallions are allowed in and out of the city.
• The city is perched on the edge of the Cauldron. They maintain in an uneasy stasis with these lands. The shops and households board up every night to protect against the unpredictable raids of the flying beasts and demons that erupt from the Cauldron mists.
• The elites of Gathela live a separate city within the city. They're nearly exclusively Dwarven. The underclass that supports their lifestyle (butlers, cleaners, street sweepers, etc.) are mostly human.

Worker District

• A agglomerated mess of dense buildings, manufacturing plants, and warehouse dormitories in the north-east quadrant of Gathela.
• It encloses most of the underclass of Gathela. They are born, live, and die within its boundary.
• Potholes, fissures, and open stairwells expose the gridlock of architecture below ground. As in most Dwarven enterprises, the serious work is done underground. The air is caustic and electric. Odd blasts of heat sear exposed bodies.

The Fortress

• The main industry of the city is the creation of the Fortress. The Fortress is a small, floating city designed to be cast into the Cauldron, float above its surface, and serve as the base for raids and plunder.
• Two older Fortresses, the Fortress Miavin and the Fortress Arlin are out in the Cauldron lands and the City of Gathela waits for their return
• The manufacturing and support of its construction is kept under utmost protection and secrecy, even those it employs a large number of people.

Elven Lands (The Mountains of Cin)

Home of the Elves. The Elves live within great mountain range that borders the Plains of Avyon.

City of Edhen

General Overview

• The capital of the Elven empire. It lies midway up the Tavarland (Dwarven name) / Cin (Elven name) Mountain range. The mountain range border the great Avyon Plains on the East.
• The full resources and beauty of the city fortress are hidden by powerful illusions. Plain city walls are ornate. The plain scrub grass that laps up against the city walls is a deep moat. The medium-sized city with a meager front gate is a bustling metropolis. The reason for the secrecy is unknown.

The Tower

• Those who have the gift of true sight see the city's jewel: the tower of Tuhinga, the Elven tower, the Great tower. The tower fills your vision. The top is beyond casual sight, and multiples above the tallest spire of Ferran or Gathela. It dimensions seem to continuously change. The power of the illusion presses on the concious and can give one a headache.
• The Tower is the city's power over all. At its top is a observation post, powered and operated by the brief, taxing, symbiosis of person and magical machine.
• Those who can successfully operate the viewing platform are able to view, with impeccable vision, the entire land below. Figures a hundred or more miles away, for example on the parapets of Ferran, will fill the vision of a seer. Is the perfect telescope. The land below is fully within its view.
• Its view extends to the Cauldron and flying Fortresses of the Dwarven kingdom.

City of Ellon

• Sister-city to the Feywild [city of Ellon]{#city-of-ellon-feywild} (they share the same name). One of two well-known points of connection between the entire Elven and Dwarven kingdoms on the material plane and the Feywild.
• The connection is maintained by an artificial portal, powered by the constant influx of consumable magic power delivered by elevated trains.
• The party hasn't traveled to the Elven city of Ellon. They have only been to the Feywild sister city.

The Feywild

City of Ellon

Note: the description below describes the city prior to its complete destruction.

• Feywild sister-city to the Elven city on the material plane of the same name. They are joined by a portal. There are only two, major artificial portals linking the two planes in the Feywild. There are smaller, natural portals that are known by the various kingdoms and are carefully hidden from casual wanderers.
• Ellon is a thriving gateway city under control of both Elves and Dwarves, although most of the mundane, day-to-day hard labor necessary to upkeep the unnatural intrusion of Material Plane civilization in the Feywild is done by gnomes.
• The city is divided into two halves.
• Adventurers and merchants who have paid the high cost of using the portal, can travel down into the woods below.
• The city is run by gnomes.
• It used to be a thriving gateway city. Now (see Episode 17) its razed in the

The Feywild City of Ellon was destroyed in cataclysmic explosion in episode XXX.

Neifur

• Mid-sized city within the Kingdom of Paedon, the Never-ending Forest of Eilmynis.
• Within an expansive clearing, ringed by protective, thick brambles.