Stardeep

Stardeep was a small prison fortress sited in a small demiplane in the Ethereal Plane in a tenuous pocket near Sildëyuir. Stardeep was linked to Faerûn by a portal called the Causeway, appearing as a stone bridge over the Chabala Mere, a tributary of the Chabala River. The most important prisoner was The Traitor, but beneath Stardeep, the Underdungeon held a number of lesser prisoners.

Early History
Stardeep was created by the star elves as a prison for the Traitor and to guard against the Abolethic Sovereignty and the city of Xxiphu, sometime in the 4 century DR. Early in its history, it was staffed by such Keepers of the Cerulean Sign as Tardoun.

Nangulis Incident
Sometime around, the Traitor made one of his most successful bids for escape. The local Keepers, Nangulis of the Inner Bastion and Kiril Duskmourn of the Outer Bastion, resorted to a desperate plan: Nangulis sacrificed his soul to create a powerful blade, Angul, which Kiril wielded against the Traitor, forcing him back into imprisonment and weakening him considerably.

In the aftermath, Nangulis' Cerulean Sign was left to Captain Brathtar, while the sword Angul remained in the keeping of the steward of the Outer Bastion, Kiril. however, the intelligent sword proved too dominating for Kiril to handle. After Angul twisted her into slaying several children who had wandered too close to Stardeep during a routine patrol, she fled her post. After her escape, the post at the Inner Bastion was filled by Delphe, while the Empyrean Knight Telarian was promoted to Keeper of the Inner Bastion. The unused remainder of Nangulis' soul was preserved by Cynosure in the Armory of Stardeep.

Singing Chicken Incident
During Delphe's guardianship as the Keeper of the Inner Bastion, she received a report from Cynosure that a singing chicken had breached the Causeway and was headed straight for the gate. The chicken sang the King of Stars ballad. The incident turned out to be the construct's attempt at a joke, but it somewhat undermined the Keeper's trust for the defense system.

Telarian Incident
The Traitor's next bid for freedom involved slowly corrupting the dreams of Keeper Telarian, an avid user of divination spells. Telarian, while under the high priest's influence, conceived of a plan where he would free the Traitor in order to prevent the future emergence of Xxiphu. This plan involved creating a sword, Nis, such that it could be merged with Angul to create a weapon capable of destroying the Traitor's wards. To this end, he sought the missing sword, hiring the thief Gage to acquire the blade, or failing that, convincing Kiril to return to Stardeep, in late or early.

After Kiril returned to Stardeep, Telarian tricked her, combined the weapons, and then used the combined blades to shatter the wards keeping the Traitor imprisoned. The sword was so powerful he easily destroyed one of the main bodies of Cynosure (construct), and nearly struck down his fellow keeper, Delphe. Though he came very close, Gage turned on him at the last minute, and struck him down; Kiril's influence convinced the artifact to separate back into its component swords, and Nis lost its enchantment soon after. Telarian fell from the Throat into the Well, his attempt thwarted. The monk Raidon Kane helped rebuild the wards afterwards, and Kiril reclaimed her weapon, Angul.

Spellplague Incident
The death of Mystra in caused extreme ripples in the Weave, inducing massive failures throughout the systems in Stardeep. The Traitor was able to escape the prison; fortunately, he did not make it too far, as a powerful tree spirit, a Forest Monarch, captured him. By sacrificing itself, the tree spirit petrified itself alongside the Traitor, killing him in the process.

Inhabitants
Stardeep was normally inhabited by two star elven Keepers of the Cerulean Sign and around two hundred Empyrean Knights, as well as the sentient construct Cynosure.

Chamber of Surveillance
An instance of Cynosure, about tall was positioned on the ceiling so that it was always looking into the Well. Cynosure could speak from a red disc above the statue itself. A glass chair was suspended over the edge of the Well. The chamber was lined with mirror-smooth polished iron plate. The room was many-walled.

The Well
The well's edges were covered in glyphs signifying normal functioning. At the bottom of the Well, the Traitor's handprints were still engraved since his last escape attempt around the year. The sides of the Well were reflective, and a spiral staircase of glass plates could be made to emerge or retract into the walls. At the bottom of the Well, there was a bright layer of wards; beyond the layer lay the prison of the Traitor. In that prison, there was no afterlife to claim anyone's soul.

Cynosure Prime Chamber
The doors to this chamber were carved with a white tree on a cerulean background. A low murmur of clicks, bangs and whistles emerged from the room. The chamber was filled with hulking rectangular objects, each covered with glowing script. Cords hung from the ceiling, connecting those rectangular stone forms. The cords all connected into Cynosure Prime's main body, a 30-foot tall statue of mixed materials. Its chest bore an unblemished Cerulean Sign.

Tardoun Hall
Named after one of the first Keepers in the Fortress, Tardoun Hall was part of the common area of the Bastion. It had a frieze along both sides, depicting elves in a number of pursuits. There were doors leading to a lounge, baths, archives, a repository, Cynosure Prime's chamber, a dining hall, steep stairs leading down to the gate connecting both bastions, and past the stairs, Telarian's chambers.

Armory
The Armory was another hidden room in Stardeep, created by Keepers previous to Telarian and kept secret from all but Cynosure. The room contained a number of amenities, such as a furnace, forge, a magical fire, and high grade tools that could be used to forge magical weapons. Nangulis' leftover half-soul was kept there after he was used to craft Angul; Telarian used Cynosure's aid to convert the other half of the decanted soul to Nis.

Other Passages
From Cynosure Prime's chamber, there was a passage leading past a dining room to a set of marble stairs; at the end of the stairs lay the gate that connected the Inner and Outer Bastion, which had thick iron doors.

Epoch Chamber
The Epoch Chamber was a spherical divination chamber built by the Keeper Telarian to focus his talents. Keeper Telarian had completed it a few months before Winter of, possibly in. The device was a spherical cavity in Stardeep, a few levels beneath Telarian's provate quarters, just outside the limits of the Inner Bastion. The lower half of the room was full of a fluid he had distilled through dream-walking. The center of the room held a twelve-pointed star glyph carved onto the ground; Telarian was surrounded by skulls, butterfly wings, and incense while he operated it. The ground wobbled on top of the liquid layer. It could only be accessed through teleportation, usually by Cynosure.

War Room
The War Room was used for planning. It contained a large oaken table for maps and figurines, and an unlighted balcony overlooking its floor.

Causeway
The Causeway was a narrow land bridge that connected the main gate of Stardeep to the Yuirwood, across a planar boundary. Cynosure could open or close the causeway, causing it to dissolve into mist and closing the portal. Without Cynosure, only both keepers could open or close the Causeway. On the Yuirwood, the Causeway was flanked by two obelisks. When open, the causeway extended all the way to the gates.

A message was engraved around the gates, translated to multiple languages. Behind the gates on the Causeway lay the Grand Vestibule. Behind the gate there was also a guardhouse with an iron door, and a lever that withdrew the floor of the corridor connecting the Inner and Outer Bastions just outside the guardhouse, dropping intruders into the Underdungeon.

Parade Hall
The Parade Hall was used for combat drills and practice for the Empyrean Knights. It was just outside the barracks; to the west it held the many doors of the stables, while a high archway to the south marked the passage into the corridors of the Outer Bastion. A ramp providing access to the Underdungeon lay east.

Notable Inhabitants

 * The Traitor
 * Cynosure
 * Kiril Duskmourn
 * Nangulis
 * Brathtar
 * Telarian
 * Delphe
 * Thindhul
 * Dharvanum
 * Tardoun
 * Deobra
 * Dilthari