Drik Haegunen
Drik Haegunen, the Runescribed Halls
(Upper Darklands)
Most duergar towns are filled with the clamor of industry and the roaring of forges, but Drik Hargunen is a grim and silent place. No person who cannot read both Undercommon and Dwarven is permitted to enter the city, because every available inch of wall space in the entire series of delved halls is covered with writing. Most of the writing is nonmagical, but significant portions are inscribed with rune magic. Those who can't tell the difference are a threat to themselves and others.
Drik Hargunen (large city): Magical; AL LE; 40,000 gp limit; Assets 48,694,000 gp; Population 16,555 free; Isolated (duergar 90%, derro 6%, human 2%, rock gnome 1%, svirfneblin 1% 7,792 slaves (goblin 59%, orc 23%, grimlock 15%, ogre 3%).
Authority Figure: Deep Scrivener Gain Hammerblows (LE male duergar cleric 14 of Laduguer), kader of the Runescribed Hall of Laduguer's Graving.
Important Characters: Berna Emberstoker (LN female duergar cleric 12 of Laduguer), Master of the Library; Ulfgang Swordmaker (NE male duergar fighter 6/wizard 9), leader of Clan Thaghulmar, the largest and most powerful clan of the city; Werrik Bonehand (CE male grimlock fighter 10), slave gladiator who plans to incite an uprising against the duergar.
Runescribes: About 200 of the duergar are runescribes - 3rd-level or higher clerics of Laduguer. The members of this temple hierarchy also serve as the bureaucrats who run the city's affairs, and they can provide a potent concentration of magical might in times of war.
Graven Servants: The Deep Scrivener is served by an elite order of duergar monks known as the Graven Servants of Laduguer. This special guard numbers 44 gray dwarf monks of at least 4th level.
Stone Guards: The army of Drik Hargunen numbers about 300 duergar and 1,100 slave troops, although musters of the city's clans could quickly add more than 2,000 skilled duergar fighters to the city's strength if needed.
Lying hidden under the Orsraun Mountains near Turmish, at a depth of about 2 miles, Drik Hargunen is a forbidding temple city devoted to the worship of Laduguer, the patron of the gray dwarves. Not everyone who lives here worships Laduguer, but most at least venerate the Gray Protector. The leader of the temple, and therefore the surrounding city, is called the Deep Scrivener, though this individual actually rules through a religious caste known as the runescribes. The temple city is an important trademeet for nearby folk of all, races, since several important caravan routes pass close to the city. Dunspeirrin is much lower down and less accessible, so merchants of the Upperdark prefer to do business in Drik Hargunen when possible instead of venturing into Dunspeirrin's depths.
Non-duergar in Drik Hargunen are few, but they live unmolested as long as they follow the rules. The runescribes don't expect anyone to worship Laduguer without understanding how or why they do so. False piety is not welcome within Drik Hargunen, and even Moradin's Worshipers are more welcome than those who lie about their devotion to Laduguer - though Moradin's worshipers are not very welcome.
Runescribes chisel runes onto every available surface, working continuously to record thousands of holy scriptures and writings in the very wails of the city. The script is frequently embellished with ornate pictures. Ceilings are never higher than 15 feet and occasionally as low as 5 feet to allow runescribes to reach the necessary runes. Dangerous runes are usually accompanied by warnings to avoid the area or directions on when and how to touch the rune in case of emergency.
About half the magic runes in the city affect areas close by. The rest trigger spell effects at a distance (many near the city gates). A small percentage, located near the central library, even trigger spells and effects at strategic locations outside the city. Only the runescribes understand the full complexity and placement of every inscription, but all residents know how to read and activate basic runes for common defense.
Because of the great expense these duergar have put into magical protection, the standing army is quite small. Most of its ranks are filled by slave conscripts who are given shoddy weapons and sent to clog avenues of attack in times of war. Conventional, nonmagical poison gas traps also surround the city at some distance, providing defense against magically resistant enemies.
Slavery is legal in Drik Hargunen, but most slaves are not allowed within the city for literacy reasons. Grimlocks are favored slaves, since they can never accidentally trigger a rune by sight, though they can still set some off by touch. Slaves and giant vermin (particularly steeders) are kept penned in nearby caverns outside the city gates.
Cooks and brewers in Drik Hargunen typically use poisons as spices and flavors in their food. The city is famous among duergar throughout the Underdark for the subtlety and flavor of its food and drink. The duergar themselves are immune to the substances in their food, but the residents take particular glee in feeding Drik Hargunen gourmet specialties to non-duergar and watching them succumb to the toxins. Diplomatically speaking, the runescribes find the Drik Hargunen cuisine a useful tool that allows them to feign anger over refusals of hospitality when they wish to do so.
Brief History
In 434 DR, Hargun Anvilbreaker, a prominent cleric of Laduguer, led a large group of zealots out of the great city of Dunspeirrin to found a temple city - a place where the worship of Laduguer (not Deep Duerra) would forevermore be first in the hearts of the gray dwarves. Dedicated to the written preservation of duergar history and devotion to the gray dwarf gods, the temple and monastery of this new city soon attracted a burgeoning community of gray dwarf craftsfolk. These dwarves came to build the temples and defenses, and then they stayed to enjoy the safety of the fortress they had made. Drik Hargunen has avoided open warfare with its parent city of Dunspeirrin, which is quite noteworthy for duergar. Usually, two duergar cities within a few days' march of each other battle until one or the other is subjugated. But now that Hargun himself is long gone, the city is slowly growing into a real rival for Dunspeirrin's trade and influence.
Despite the clarity of Hargun's original vision, Drik Hargunen's purpose has drifted over the last few decades. The city's merchant clans and crafters' guilds wield more power than ever before, and more than a few of their members have suggested that secular rulers should govern the city, leaving the runescribes free to attend their sacred duties. Deep Scrivener Hammerblows is incensed at such suggestions, and he makes frequent calls for renewed devotion. The runescribes beneath him are much more involved with day-to-day administration than with evangelism, and their hearts are more tuned to treasure and personal pleasure than piety.
Important Sites
Drik Hargunen is carved from the walls of a twisting chasm. Its halls stand one on top of another, like uneven spokes radiating from a central wheel. Huge masonry reservoirs forming the city's outer walls are rigged to unleash devastating floods at need.
The Central Library
Dead center in the network of low halls that make up Drik Hargunen is a large space containing hundreds of sliding shelves, packed tightly together. Each shelf contains thousands of metal plates, hand-etched with duergar history and religious literature. The city contains several libraries, but this is the main repository for the written word.
Students of history are often surprised and fascinated when they read the duergar version of the last ten thousand years of Underdark life, including alternative histories of Deep Shanatar and much information about illithid behavior. All this information is etched by hand into these metal pages in ornate, formal Dwarven.
Outsiders are allowed to conduct research within the library, but they must submit a written treatise of request in Dwarven specifying their interest and intent, and all materials may be handled only by runescribe librarians. Outsiders may look but not touch, and no materials are permitted to leave the library under any circumstances.
Slave Pens
Outside each of the two major gates and two minor entrances to Drik Hargunen are large rooms cut into the rock and divided into stalls. Each stall houses either a slave dormitory or a giant vermin pen. Slaves and vermin are considered roughly equal in status, so they are sometimes housed together, to the general detriment of the slaves.
These slaves mine for ore and jewels, work the city's outlying fungus fields, drill in defensive tactics and of course, tend to the vermin that the duergar use as pack animals and food. Only grimlocks are allowed into the city, and their hands are usually tied to whatever palette or wheelbarrow they are carrying to prevent accidental triggering of a rune.
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