Maskana

Maskana was a ruined fort in the Plains of Purple Dust, once a Mulhorandi fort built late during their rebellion against the Imaskari. It had been built atop an abandoned Imaskari fortress, where the Seventh Imaskarcana may have been kept.

Location
It was built into the side of a flat hill on the southern edge of the Plains of Purple Dust, a little closer to the Dragonsword Mountains than to the Giant's Belt.

Atmosphere
The hidden sublevel created by the Imaskari kept a constant temperature of 51 °F, and many of its rooms radiated strong transmutation magic due to the extradimensional spaces used. All the materials in the ruins were perfectly preserved, but the structure was unlit.

Structure
The outer walls of the structure, save the back wall on the hill, had all crumbled to at the most. The interior structures had disintegrated completely, for they had been built of wood rather than stone.

A fox-and-crescent symbol of the Imaskari Artificers' Guild marked a secret entrance to the underground of an abandoned Imaskari fortress, a hidden facility to research the abilities of unusual creatures. The facility's ceilings were and the structure contained multiple extradimensional spaces. Its walls were made of hewn purple stone in the same manner as other Imaskari structures.

Interior
The ruin had once been covered in Mulhorandi pictographic writing, as if fighting to erase its Imaskari origin.

Inhabitants
Nothing of worth was left in Maskana, but a few giant whip scorpions may have hunted there from time to time.

The hidden sublevel was protected by helmed horrors, crawling claws, and a trapped room where the walls would come together to crush anyone inside.

Tyaral, a priest of Bhaal, may have had two flameskulls with himself for protection.

History
This fortress was built just before the fall of the Imaskari Empire, to guard the revolting Mulhorandi against their incursions. The fortress fell into disuse and then ruin as the danger of such passed. The ruined fortress was then explored and looted thoroughly.

However, the fort had been built atop an older Imaskari fortress that had fallen into disuse centuries earlier. The Mulhorandi had chosen to build atop this location because of its extradimensional spaces, but in the chaos of the uprising, those plans were forgotten.

In 1372 DR, a scholar named Jarval Keth discovered the symbol of the Imaskari artificers on one of the walls. A priest of the dead god Bhaal named Tyaral tortured the scholar to learn of this, and discovered the secret entrance to the hidden sublevel. He went in, looking for powerful magic that his church could use in order to revive Bhaal.