Fasturvault



Fasturvalt is the only permanent svirfneblin town
in the Azathyr. Originally established by the House
of Geidne (pro. Gee-ed-knee) one hundred and fifty
years ago, it was created to both clear out duergar slavers
who preyed on the Gnome King’s Highway and to
take advantage of the fine marble to be found in this
great cavern. The first lord of Fasturvalt (Lord Geirli
Knows-No-Fear) cleared the cavern of its duergar enclave
and founded the town. Since then the town has
prospered and its fine stonework and marble are now
famous both within the Azathyr and without.

However the town has always lived in the shadow of
the drow threat. The drow bore the former duergar inhabitants
no love, certainly. But the drow have always
believed that the entire Azathyr is theirs by right and
the svirfneblin intrusion grates upon them. Still, the
small quarry-town has always been a minor priority.

Finally about fifty years ago, the drow decided it
was time to take Fasturvalt. Lord Geiri, Lord Geirni’s
father, managed to head off their imminent attack
by making a deal with the devil. He traded stone for
peace. The drow, distracted by their own internal rivalries,
took the deal and Fasturvalt has been since left
alone to live in virtual isolation save for a few trade
caravans bound for destinations outside the Azathyr.

This message was last edited by the GM at 06:33, Sat 22 Apr 2017.

Features of Fasturvalt

Fasturvalt is a single gigantic cave that anywhere
else in the world would rate among the largest caverns
anyone has ever seen. Of course, here in the Azathyr
with such great open spaces as the Lake of Diamonds,
the Fungal Jungle, the Earth’s Wound and the great
vault of Taaryssia, it is simply standard fair.

The cavern ceiling rises more than a hundred yards
high at its central apex and is adorned with countless
natural hanging formations. Running right through
the center of this cavern is the Snabbinflod (lit. the
Quick Water). This aptly named river comes into Fasturvalt
from a tumultuous waterfall along its northwestern
wall and roars through the center of town.
The river is black, cold, deep and deceptively fast. The
song of the Snabbinflod (as the gnomes call it), a low
dull roar, never ceases in the cavern. While the gnomes
hardly even notice it, newcomers may find it quite annoying
and it can make sleeping in Fasturvalt difficult.

The gnomes never go swimming in the deadly Snabbinflod.
The waters are so rapid that they will sweep
you downstream, dash you against the rocks and drop
you several hundred feet down the natural pit at the
southern end of town into an underground river channel
where you will never be seen again. In short, there
is no fording this river.

The gnomes have cut a channel in their cavern and
created a man-made (gnome-made?) tributary of the
Snabbinflod that is slightly more forgiving. It is still
fast and powerful, but merely dumps you into the
stock lake where you can safely swim to shore.

The stock lake is also anything but pleasant. The
water here is murky and overgrown with mildly bioluminescent
cave algae that give the lake a sickening
pale green glow. The stock lake is teeming with blind
cave fish who thrive within their murky home. Every
rotten scrap and bit of waste that isn’t heaped on the
mushroom fields ends up here. Of course, these cave
fish are a major source of food for the svirfneblin and
small gnomish craft are always on the river dredging
the stock lake for fish large enough to harvest.

The other major source of food is the mushroom
fields. Several different types of fungus grow out of the
rich black substrate, but they all grow to be enormous.
The mushrooms are harvested when they are as tall
as corn stalks (about six to eight feet tall). The tough
fibrous stalks are used either as a wood substitute, fuel
for fires or as fibers for cloth and rope. The spores from
the massive caps are milled into sticky grey flour and
then baked into mushcakes. The flesh of the caps is a
staple of the gnomish diet and dominates every meal.

The people of Fasturvalt all but worship these mushroom
fields and in fact it is not only their main source
of food, it is also their graveyard. Whenever a gnome
of Fasturvalt dies, he is buried wrapped in porous
white fabric made of mushroom stalk fibers within the
rich black dirt of the mushroom fields. Outsiders often
see this as a grisly form of cannibalism, but the svirfneblin
believe it a great honor to return to the soil of
their beloved mother-cave.

Fasturvalt is a misty place. With the river and the
lake it is always damp and cool. That condensation
plus the ground water seeping in from above means
it is almost always lightly drizzling within the cavern.
Between the damp mist, the sound of the river and the
odors of the stock lake some would say that Fasturvalt
is a miserable place to live.

However the svirfneblin do not find it so. For them,
the cavern is mother. Everything they need is here. The
marble to be found in the quarry is the finest in all of
the Azathyr – dense and lustrous. The song of the river
is the sound of the Snabbinflod bringing them fresh
water to drink and bathe in. The smell of the lake and
the mushroom fields is the smell of life and prosperity.
The cavern feeds them, clothes them and in the fullness
of time reclaims them. Many of the deep gnomes
living here will never leave this cavern. Their whole life
is Fasturvalt.

Topography

Fasturvalt’s natural floor is not flat. The whole cavern
is a gentle slope, with the highest elevation at the
northwest and the lowest at the southwest corner.
Near the northwestern corner the slope becomes
more pronounced and the cave has two enbankments
that each rise about thirty feet. The first rise has a broad
natural stairway that the gnomes have broadened and
widened, while still preserving its natural beauty.

(Posting so the game isn't deleted)

(Posting so the game isn't deleted)