Underdungeon

The Underdungeon was an unexplored series of tunnels that were found during the delving of Stardeep's foundations. They were widely considered too dangerous to visit. When Stardeep was secreted away to the Ethereal Plane, the Underdungeon somehow still connected it to Sildëyuir.

Location
The tunnel complex was found beneath Stardeep.

Structure
The structure was entirely below the surface. The only entrances were one guarded by the Edgewarden in Sildëyuir, and one on the Parade Hall of Stardeep.

Interior
One of the locations was a refuse pit directly beneath the Grand Vestibule, where the victims of a floor trap were led.

From the Sildëyuir side, a fungal garden lit up with faintly glowing blue spores was eventually accessible. One of its tunnels was full of revived fossils that might attack intruders. The local fungus hulks were not in friendly terms with the fossils. Another passage led to a chasm where a stone spider with a voice like a crying baby hunted sometimes. Despite the spider being made of stone, the zone was thick with cobwebs. One could arrive at Callambea there on a sprint.

The tunnels were closest to sedimentary stones such as salt and gypsum. There were numerous side passages; one of them in particular could accomodate five riders side by side. From the Stardeep side, the passage led to a screen of gold and green; though it was visually an obstacle, its magic was spent. It led to a giant chamber in the white stone, open to the sky, with only a giant pair of metallic double doors layered with coppery metal on the other side. Past those doors, a basalt passage across the white, bone-white rock spanning a few miles before reaching an underground ruined city, later christened Callambea.

Callambea
Both passages converged into a city eventually. From the outside in, the city was full of squat tenements of white stone. Closer to the center, there were balusters, fluted columns, and slender balconies. The ground was nonetheless littered with the fossilized or perhaps bodies of who seemed to have been the inhabitants. The central city hub had those petrified corpses as thick as cobbles. The ceiling arched into a vault with a gigantic violet light; beneath the flashing light, there was a pyramid of bodies, perhaps high, with a ruby throne on which the relic lich sat as of. That same year, after the defeat of the lich, Telarian named the locale "Callambea".

In one point, the path from Callambea to the Underdungeon had a wide tranche with slick walls, and at least one space on the higher part of those walls where one could observe people returning.

History
The Underdungeon was found while delving the foundations of Stardeep. While both entrances were known to lead through the same complex, nobody had actually made the trip between both; there were only sporadic investigations, such as one by Telarian and Brathtar. Nonetheless, it was known that the Underdungeon could connect Stardeep and Sildëyuir and that its tunnels extended to the edges of Sildëyuir on at least two places. Through the whole existence of Stardeep, nothing from the Underdungeon had come out to cause trouble, leading to the entrance on Stardeep's side staying unprotected save for a single instance of Cynosure. Conversely, no force from Stardeep had ever investigated the area in depth.

On, Telarian and Kiril Duskmourn both crossed the Underdungeon hoping to find Kiril and an entrance to Stardeep, respectively. They met at the ruined city, where they were attacked by a relic lich; after the battle, Telarian named the zone Callambea.

Inhabitants
The Underdungeon was known to be full of deadly, implacable foes. There were fungus hulks and at least one stone spider. There were also numerous revived fossils inside the Underdungeon; they seemed to answer to the relic lich that resided there. The nature of those undead was unknown.

Rumours & Legends
The few knights that had managed to return from Stardeep often spoke of pyramids of living stone, haunting whispers, and ancient beings, older then Sildëyuir.

The Keeper of the Cerulean Sign Telarian, while sifting for clues as to the nature of the city, received a vision from his sword, of a tower burning as it receeded into the sky, expelling a giant cloud of darkness over the city whose center he'd later name Callambea. The same sword claimed that the fossils belonged to a murdered species.

Appearances

 * Novels
 * Stardeep