Dungeon of the Hark

Formerly called the Dungeon of the Hawk, the Dungeon of the Hark was the name given to an underground bandit stronghold and associated ruins in the Delimbiyr Vale. It was named "Dungeon of the Hark" after the first leader of the wererat bandits based there.

Location
It stood on top of a cliff amidst rocky ridges on the northern edge of the plateau that was the High Moor, and south of a bend in the Hark River (the southern branch of the Delimbiyr River) east of Highstar Lake.

It was located beneath the ruined village of Moorsedge. Moorsedge was a village founded in the waning years of the Fallen Kingdom. By the mid–14 century DR, very little was left of the village save a few stones, bits of masonry and the remains of an iron statue of some grand king or lord that had, over time, lost its head and arms.

Description
The ruins were all that remained of a once-fine village. However, some of the buildings had since been rebuilt and restored to be fit for habitation by the wererat bandits who later occupied the site.

A few tunnels among the ruins led underground, where there were a number of connections to the Undermoor region of the Underdark below the High Moor. These were the best way into the Undermoor for surface adventurers, but also the best way out of the Undermoor and onto the surface for its inhabitants. One winding passage, known as Illithidszilt-Ervvaut (the Flayers' Corridors), stretched roughly northwest to a river cave used as a secondary base by the wererats, commanded by the Hark's lieutenant, Hekkut the Molted.

Interior
Several holes and pits led into various warrens and a vast network of interconnecting tunnels that housed most of the Hark's lycanthropic brood and his bandit subordinates. The tunnels went deep enough to reach the Underdark where they connected with the Flayer's Corridor, a region of the Underdark inhabited by illithids.

Inhabitants
In the mid–14 century, this was the base of operations of a band of wererat brigands led by the Hark. Circa 1358 DR, they numbered sixteen, largely fighters and thieves, and by 1370 DR their ranks had swelled to twenty-five, having gained recruits from those victims infected by their lycanthropy. They were courageous and cunning. In hit-and-run attacks, but never the same way twice, they robbed travelers, caravans, and adventuring companies on the Delimbiyr River and fled back to the ruins. There they lived in the rebuilt remains of the village's former fine homes. When threatened, they escaped underground into the Undermoor and passed through the territory of its more dangerous denizens.

These included around a dozen ogres and the roper Xuchallit, who was an agent of the Beast Lord, and the occasional mind flayer. It was suspected that these mind flayers somehow controlled the activities of the wererats.

History
The stout halfling adventurer Cornelius Monadnock once delved deep into the Dungeon of the Hark and discovered the Imrisword and Coronet of the Shining Hart, which had once belonged to the halfling duke of Phalorm.

The Enclave of Echoes, a well-equipped and renowned Waterdhavian adventuring company, decided to go after the wererat bandits. They posed as caravan guards and counter-attacked during a raid, before pursuing the wererats into the Dungeon of the Hark. They were not seen again, and in 1370 DR folk across the North wondered at their fate. Meanwhile, the wererats carried on their raids as normal.

In 1372 DR, the Red Fellowship attacked the Dungeon of the Hark in response to increased raids from the Hark's followers. The Fellowship killed most of its inhabitants and looted anything of value. The Hark at the time escaped into an adjoining underground outpost, where he met his end at the hands of adventurers who were acting as the Fellowship's rearguard. They observed a mind flayer serving as his advisor.