The Swirlers

This cave system is so named because of its extremely intricate and unusual interior design. Crafted by a long lost dwarven clan believed related to those who constructed the bewildering Beauteous Cones (see From the Ashes, Atlas of the Flanaess) these mile deep caverns have been worked by pick and magic into shapes of eerie beauty. The caves and passages have long, flowing, graceful lines of sculpture with much fluting, many arches, and other similar features which are highly unusual in dwarven architecture. Because the typical ceiling heights are 25-20 feet, the 250 or so fomorians who have occupied the Swirlers are quite at-home here. This "tribe" is unusually well-organized, due to the vast numbers of humanoids around. The fomorians have learned the value of cooperating in defending their lair and in raiding into the hills beyond, As yet, Iuz's Urzun soldiers have not risked a full-scale assault on the Swirlers, since such a battle would cost them thousands of casualties and the fomorians aren't a big enough nuisance to justify such losses. Picking off individuals or small groups by night in the hills is the full extent of Urzun actions here. The traps the giants have prepared make ingress dangerous. A trio of priests of Karontor sit on the left hand of the fomorian's self-styled king, a great: brute of vast hulk and cunning. Treat him as an 18 HD monster with 120 hp and the strength of a cloud giant.

The defensibility of the Swirlers is strengthened by a secondary network of small, 4-foot tall tunnels which run parallel to the main halls and passages. Once used by young dwarves to surprise intruders, through the use of' murder holes, oil-pouring ducts, crossbow slits, spear traps and the like, they are now occupied by 200 or so members of the Maglaret tribe of goblins, who live in a strange symbiosis with the giants. The giants don't care for the taste of goblin overmuch, and are smart enough to see how the goblins' manning of traps in the small passage network is useful. The goblins are almost autonomous, and regard their lot as far better than serving the bullying orcs who would be their masters outside the caves. The giants throw them scraps of roast orc, ogre, and other unfortunates from time to time. To supplement this, the goblins hunt and trap goats, mountain hares and such outside. So the arrangement works fairly well.