The underdark of the Bad Mountains is a perilous place. The mind-poison from above sunk down and infected the first cities. The refugees fled west to the vast open cavern settling into new cities and building defenses against the incoming hordes of glowing zombies that spewed their poison. The cities and Eastern Way is sealed, for the good of the region.
This cavern boasts thousand-foot ceilings and a heavy river that runs from the western walls to the east. It would be a good channel for transportation if not for the creatures that lurk in the depths. The most western side dips considerably into icy crevasses, unusual for this depth. Legend says an ancient white dragon resides there, guarding its horde.
The thriving eastern wall houses a plethora of large, glowing flora as well as the myconids. These gentle beings peacefully traverse and honorably defend their homes and byways in the narrow caves and crevices.
The central region of the rocky plain fosters other glowing plants and small vertebrae. Abominable creatures stalk, of course, but prefer the narrow caves and tunnels to the vast open cavern. Undertrees, darkwood trees grow here and can be up to one hundred feet tall and thicker than ten umberhulks. These large trees provide housing and timber for the locals.
At the center of the cavern, colloquially known as Cientrool from the wildman dialect, the denizens tend to keep to themselves. The legendary "deep humans" reside in the forgotten forts of Lom Shanken and Lom Nandur, but deep within them. Duregar populate the South, planting their stakes in Mandivuor and Cuor Delf, the former constantly under pressure from the drow in their dark capital. Supposedly, Mandivuor contains passage to the lowerdark, and both desire control of the things lying within. Cuor Delf houses the dark sludge used to forge the Sludge Sentries for its renown. The duregar here are most unfriendly to their own kind, let alone any travelers; they keep their secrets hid.
Many drow call Abeirnecril home. The queen of these drow submits to the high queen under Hellia, but being so distant, she has virtual autonomous power. Raids to the nearby duregar and the illithid further underneath Dief Jund are common. The drow here are close-knit and fervent followers of Lolth. Thoundrul houses a sizable clergy and is the first city a drow will see in en exile. They will be dispersed to the nearby cracks and caves as the abominable driders. Only one of these outcasts has ever resisted the curse, some say, but the priestesses claim this heresy and refuse to acknowledge such a controversy.
Several pockets of wild humans stomp around the southeastern side of Cientrool and inhabit the East Ruins. The East Ruins were once homes of a coalition of humans and dwarves and gnomes who conquered and kept peace in the deep earth. Slowly, the toxicity and poison of the Cursed Badlands seeped down into the core of the confederacy, turning the ones here into either wildmen or a form of duregar who later assimilated into their brethren. The fallen gnomes found their svirfneblin cousins and assimilated as well. Since no fallen humans exist, the wildmen stuck to their own, or joined the ranks of slaves of the illithid.
The main earthen highways to the surface are facilitated by the Egxces in the East. These large, dilapidated roadways tie to the foot of the Bad Mountains in the Cursed Badlands. These were guarded by the human-dwarf confederacy knwon as Holward. The Holward knights had their barracks and strongholds in these Egxces and joint-trained on the aberrations that lurk in the shadows. The Egxces now, though, are a travesty of security. Large ruined wooden drawbridges over dry moats, fallen towers, crumbling and moldering thrones are all too familiar to adventures here in search of treasure, or fools that were unfortunately enough to stumble down from above.
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