Xorvintroth

Xorvintroth, nicknamed That Which Survives, was an ancient dragonborn city of Abeir, the sister-planet of Toril. The city had a tragic history, in which the brilliant scholars and made it such a singularly special place but ultimately set it on a path to destruction. Fearing their creations would be used for ill, city leaders began leaders began to pursue a utopian existence free for war, only expose their city to horrors from beyond reality.

The city was named after xorvintaal, the ongoing and ever-present contests of will and power between the dragons and dragonborn of Abeir. Ironically it was the fear of this barbarous conflict that led to Xorvintroth's downfall.

"To deny the radiance of the stars is to walk forever in darkness."

- An inscription written in draconic, found within a shrine in Xorvintroth.

Description
Xorvintroth was several miles wide in diameter. Its architecture comprised a network of viaducts and colonnades that wound around and connected its narrow and angular buildings. They were constructed from several green-hued minerals, including what appeared to be jade, and a translucent, viridian stone that appeared as an alien form of stained-glass. They featured intricate and over-adorned architecture, utilizing no right angles but rather forms that arced and crested over other like static waves.

Tableaus and engraved murals of daily life in Xorvintroth could be found throughout the city. They often depicted poised dragonborn scholars dressed in elaborate robes. Aspects of these murals flickered and shifted when not viewed directly, but remained static when focused upon.

Undercity
Beneath the city proper was a vast network of dungeons and passageways referred to as the undercity, or Xorvintroth Below. The spiraling Xorvintrothian architecture of the undercity was warped and twisted by powers from beyond the Prime Material plane.

Technology
The scholars of Xorvintroth developed devices that could harness raw magic, a source of infinite arcane power that could be extracted from the Far Realm. This power was unaffected by the constraints of the Weave ―the mystic force that governed the use of magic on Toril―which itself was not present on Abeir. The power taken from the Far Realm was channeled through conduits throughout the city and subsequently stored in self-contained devices. These 'arcane storage batteries' were used to power the fantastic machinery and magnificent devices dreamt up by the Abeiran dragonborn artificers.

Xorvintrothian artificers developed many marvelous and hazardous inventions, utilizing both arcane magic and psionics to further their technological advances. Among their great creations were: a teleportation ray, a gauntlet that channeled the energies of the natural world, stone pillars that could record and reproduce images of the past, clockwork beasts and metallic guardians that echoed the powers of the noble metallic dragons, and crystalline containers that were capable of harnessing various forms of energy, such as pure lightning and fire, as well as that which emanated from the menacing Far Realm.

The most wise and learned of Xorvintroth's inventors utilized powers of mind magic―also known as psionics―within the Astral Plane to best harness the powers that had extracted from alien planes of existence.

Atmosphere
"Those willing to deny themselves the radiance of the stars would be better to pluck out their eyes and cast them away."

- A more accurate translation of the aforementioned shrine's inscription.

The residual Far Realm energy that permeated Xorvintroth caused mild visual and auditory hallucinations to some that traveled within. Trespassers may have seen phantasmal darkness pass over them, heard faint and indiscernible clicking sounds, or witnessed the twinkling of malicious stars across the ceiling. This alien force, combined with the debilitating surrounding chill could be exhaustive for anyone not immune to their effects. It also inspired paranoid and delusional fears in the minds of many that entered within.

Geography
After bring transported to Toril, Xorvintroth lay beneath a large, crater-like valley in the Spine of the World mountains, three days' travel east of Easthaven. Over the years it had become blanketed with so much snow and ice, that only its tallest structures could be seen.

Geographical Features
A massive crevasse formed near the ruins of Xorvintroth, within which formed a spectral echo of the destroyed city. While a layer of ice formed above the chasm it could easily be cracked with enough pressure or weight above.

The ruins of Xorvintroth were accessible by means of long ice cave that opened out the side of a mountain, or by the series subterranean tunnels dug out by a group of aberrant arachnoids. These tunnels were filled with clouds of poisonous gas and corruptive energy that emanated from Xorvintroth's undercity.

Government
On Abeir, Xorvintroth was governed by sect of elder dragonborn artificers known as the Inquest. The city's four wisest elders in turn led the Inquest itself. These elders attained a form of immortality when―after their bodies decayed―their living brains were enshrined at a sanctum near the city's Chamber of Stars, just as 'spectral echoes' consciousness floated within the Astral Plane.

Defenses
The city of Xorvintroth was protected by a series of wards that prevented teleportation within or out of its borders.

Dragonborn artificers also built into the city a safeguard that would trigger in case the city ever faced true catastrophe. When triggered by a large enough event, Xorvintroth became encased in a massive dome of glassy, viridian stone. This barrier had to subsequently be punctured before the city became accessible.

Abeiran History
"Xorvintroth. That Which Survives. As the Great Mothers and Fathers wile away the eons playing their Great Game, our city proves to be the most valuable playing piece. Ne'er shall it be used. Ne'er shall it be lost."

- An inscription set at the base of a statue in the Chamber of Stars.

Xorvintroth was constructed millennium before the Era of Upheaval on Toril, a feat that required the labor of hundreds of dragonborn masons and laborers. The city became a destination for scholarly pursuits and arcane research, and grand telescopes were constructed upon its highest towers.

The city became imperiled however when the Inquest initiated research into the Far Realm, and opened portals to the aberrant plane of madness. The Inquest's elders began to fearing that their inventions would be used by Abeiran dragons for the eternal battle of xorvintaal. While in the Astral Plane they were contacted by a mysterious entity, and granted vision of a new green world on which they could settle. Inquest then began construction of a vast, extraplanar bridge that would allow their people to flee the never ending fighting on Abeir and find a new home planet.

Through their research the dragonborn scholars broke through the barriers of reality itself and trespassed into the alien reality of the Far Realm. Once within, they were granted them access to a source of infinite arcane power: raw magic.

The Inquest went too far however and the dark forces of the Far Realm poured through the portal. The first such being was an elderly old man that offered them further knowledge about the world they sought. His contributions to the Xorvintrothian cause were celebrated, and a statue of the old man was built amidst the city's grand towers. The moment the gate to the new world was activated, Xorvintroth was doomed. Tentacled monstrosities, figures composed of worms, and other horrors poured through the portal and rapidly overran the city. Many of Xorvintroth's citizens attempted to flee the catastrophe, but their efforts were directly stopped by the Inquest.

Torillian History
Xorvintroth lay dormant on Abeir until the Spellplague rejoined the planet with its sister-world Toril in the. The city was expelled from Abeir and transposed to Toril the depths beneath the Spine of the World mountains in coldest reaches of the North. The planar anomaly previously opened by the Inquest was transported to the rock beneath the mountains as well.

In the, a group of neogi aboard a deathspider touched down in the mountains near where Xorvintroth was buried, and abducted a group of goliath hunters as slaves. The neogi and their captured goliaths wandered into an area in Xorvintroth and were horrifically dismembered, and their remains strewn across the city's floor.

The Lost Goliaths
Evidence of the slaughter was found by the giff Lieutenant Prook and group of adventurers that went searching for the missing goliaths. They delved into one portion of the city near its prison, but were unsuccessful in their mission, having been turned away by the horrors inside. Prook then began to assemble a series of bombs to completely demolish the ruins and destroy the extraplanar monstrosities that threatened Icewind Dale.

The adventurers planted Prook's explosives throughout the city and finally rescued Nararhak "Tree-Eye" and the other goliath hunters. After scrambling to a safe distance away, they detonated the bombs―believing they had buried the haunted ruins once and for all. Ironically, the explosives did not harm the city itself, instead triggering the magical failsafe that enveloped the collapsed city in a sphere of virescent stone.

Unfortunately for the goliaths of Wyrmdoom Crag, the returned goliath hunters brought with them some of the dark force of the Far Realm. Another hunter named Kaskur "Spearsong" led his own unsuccessful search party for his missing clansmen. Kaskur and his hunters inadvertently picked up some of the dark force of the Far Realm that lingered within Xorvintroth's ruins. Upon the hunters' return, Far Realm monstrosities like flying horrors and dolgaunts burst forth from their bodies.

The Red Wizards' Schemes
A short time after the goliaths were rescued from Xorvintroth, a group of Thayan operatives began excavations of the ruins. They operated under the direct orders of Thay's undead regent, Szass Tam. Szass Tam sought to take control of Xorvintroth's otherworldly technology for himself and bypass Mystra's laws of magic that limited the power he and all other mages of Toril possessed.

A band of Thayan warriors made the journey to Xorvintroth and soon recovered many strange and fascinating artifacts for their Red Wizard masters. They secreted in supplies to their excavation site by means of dogsled caravans that traveled across the snowscape and set up magical barriers that prevention intrusions by means of the ethereal plane.

An esoteric Sharran cult known as the Tenebrous Creed began poking around the ruins as well, in search of some long-lost entity sacred to them. A third group also ventured into Xorvintroth: a collective of adventurers and Harpers assembled by Lady Remallia Haventree of Waterdeep. After seeking out knowledge about the Red Wizards' schemes involving the Far Realm, they established a Harper safe house under the Hall of Arcanists, and established an arcane gate that allowed entrance in and out of the city.

While investigating the Red Wizards' plans for Xorvintroth, adventurers allied with th Harpers discovered that the Thayans utilized slave labor to excavate the subterranean city. They worked with the slaves' leader―a githyanki named Jaan'vald Llanou―to sabotage the Red Wizards' operations, allowing many of the slaves to escape to freedom. The adventurers then delved into Xorvintroth's Supreme Forge, and fought back the Tenebrous Creed destroying an aspect of an elder evil they had conjured. The heroes then put an end to the Thayans' efforts to harness the power of the Inquest's Far Realm batteries by closing the portals within the Supreme Forge's manufactory. Finally, the adventurers delved into Xorvintroth's undercity and prevented that same elder evil―the fell entity known as Father Llymic―from gaining admittance to the Prime Material plane himself.

Rumors & Legends
Former inhabitants of Xorvintroth were believed to haunt the city in perpetuity, continuously reliving the events of their day of destruction forever among horrors they released.

A tiny sculpture in the city portrayed the quirky traveler Fizban, an avatar of the platinum dragon Bahamut. He was depicted his trademark floppy hat and canary companions in tow.

Notable Locations

 * Arcanist's Worship, the tower on the southern area of Xorvintroth that housed a number of fantastic devices and inventions, including a lone crystal golem.
 * The Arena, a multi-level coliseum built with specific gravity-related enchantments that allowed for skyblades matches.
 * Chamber of Stars, a grand dome structure some tall structure decorated with friezes depicting Xorvintroth's history. A single starstone golem―crafted to resemble a dragonborn scholar―stood within its center.
 * College of medicinal sciences, a large triangular in which scholars could perform intricate dissections and biological studies of Far Realm creatures.
 * Hall of Arcanists, a network of circular dormitories that housed Xorvintroth's arcane academics.
 * Hospice, a house of healing that also served as a hatchery for dragonborn eggs.
 * Library, the enigmatic repository of draconic knowledge that became twisted strange, purple-hued miasma. It was haunted by the ghosts of many long-dead dragonborn scholars.
 * The Observatory, the domed structure that housed a grand mechanical telescope that allowed the Xorvintrothian dragonborn to peer into the Far Realm.
 * The Orrey, a -wide device featuring a series of interlocking rings that was used to observe celestial bodies. It was constructed within a spacious domed building about in diameter. The word iskirthos, meaning "secret star", was inscribed upon one arm of the device.
 * Prison, a wide circular structure built from some unknown, green substance that resembled ice. Its surface was inscribed with several arcane runes and facet that allowed it to be unlocked. The prison's key comprised six smaller slivers that would join together when brought within close proximity.
 * Shrine to the True Father, an open courtyard with a -tall statue of anelderly man carrying a lantern out before him. The figure's visage had bulbous eyes and was adorned in a robe that hid five of his six arms.
 * Supreme Forge, the arcane worship of the Inquest that housed many of their most fantastic and devastating creations.

Inhabitants
After the portals to the Far Realm were opened, Xorvintroth became overrun with aberrant and monstrous horrors, including gibbering mouthers, star spawn, kruthiks, a particularly malevolent skittering horror, along with a dragon enthralled by an elder brain, and swarms of an elder evil's brood.

The cabal of dragonborn that doomed Xorvintroth arose after death as mindless ghosts from the Border Ethereal, with blazing stars in the place of their eyes. These ghosts haunted the frozen necropolis, and the adjoining chasm that manifested a spectral version of the city. Spiritual echoes of the city's dead were doomed to enterally enacted scenarios in which they fled from these ghosts.

Notable Inhabitants

 * Airavat, a disfigured hydra whose form had been twisted by the energy of the Far Realm.
 * Cordarra, the northlander captain of the Ddraig Aur who was enslaved along with her crew by Thayans to dig out the ruins of the city.
 * Dal'Targe, the member of the Red Wizards that served as an overseer for the Thayans' slaving operations in the city.
 * Father Llymic, an elder evil of the Far Realm that had previously been confined beneath the Thunder Peaks by elves of ancient Myth Drannor.
 * The Painter, a dragonborn-like clockwork automaton that spent its years trying to solve an age-old puzzle.
 * Shadow in the Ice, a particularly menacing skittering horror that remained trapped but cognizant in Xorvintroth, encased within its icy prison.
 * Uresgol, the elder brain that took over the body of the amethyst dragon Amaranthraxine.

Appearances

 * Organized Play & Licensed Adventures
 * A Plague of Ancients (Into Darkness • Volatile Thoughts • Burying the Past) • Dreams of the Red Wizards (The City That Should Not Be • Frozen Whispers • Uprising • Expedition to the Supreme Forge • Against the Machine)
 * Recipe for Retribution • A Song of Spears • Unsafe Harborage • To Walk the Cold Dark • Night Thieves
 * Recipe for Retribution • A Song of Spears • Unsafe Harborage • To Walk the Cold Dark • Night Thieves