Darkpool

Darkpool is a subterranean ruin. Once the underground orcish city of the Dazark, the entire sub-tribe of 5,000 was wiped out by plague over a century ago. Darkpool is now home to the one survivor of the Blood-Moon massacre, Hierarch Nezmajen.

Nezmajen is a man with a mission. He knows that somewhere in the Fellreev there is a buried Flan necropolis, and if he can reach it, he might be able to animate a vast undead army and march out to reclaim Molag. He cannot magically locate this city, though, and is currently dispatching small search parties to roam throughout the Fellreev and locate it. He believes that Nerull has set a great test before him, and that if he is successful, he will receive the Reaper's blessing, perhaps even becoming a Demipower himself. His power is such that his followers believe in him and regard him as some kind of divinely-inspired prophet. The thousands of humans in Jhanser's Lands are still loyal to him, though not wholly out of fear, and Nezmajen has some eighty surviving fighters, thieves and assorted murderers hiding with him. He has but two lesser priests of Nerull, however, and a pair of mid-level mages with him, so the magical forces he can muster are not great. For this reason, Nezmajen avoids any direct confrontation with Iuz's forces. Darkpool itself is a place haunted by magic. Shimmering, undulating pools of magical darkness flit to and fro within it, as if under their own volition. Shadows skulk in nooks and crannies here, hiding from the little light that filters through the heavy forest growth. in some of Darkpool's tunnel warrens, travelers can find themselves trapped in endless, convoluted passageways and usually die of starvation. Deep in Darkpool, below the caves occupied by Nezmajen and his troops, there are fell monsters aplenty such as ropers, phase spiders, deadly puddings, hook horrors, a pair of huge beholders, and very rare freak monsters such as mephits and sheet phantoms.

Nezmajen's magical scrying tells him that evil magic, deriving from a goblinoid Power and from some other unidentified source, lies in those deeper recesses, but he has not the numbers of men and spellcasters needed to take the risk of investigating there. Most important of all, absolutely no divination spells work on Darkpool. Attempting to even locate the place is impossible. However, such spells work normally inside Darkpool. Nezmajen himself is also wholly immune to all divination spells, which he interprets as a cloak of protectiveness cast around him by his malign patron Power, all the better to help him fulfill his unholy destiny.