Citadel of the Bloody Hand

Citadel of the Bloody Hand

The shield dwarves of Clan Melairkyn built the subterranean citadel of Melairgate in the early days of their settlement in the eastern spur of Mount Waterdeep. The citadel served as the primary entrance into Melairbode and as a trading station for the Stout Folk to meet with the Fair Folk of Aelinthaldaar. After the elves abandoned their capital, the shield dwarves buried the doors to the citadel and turned it into a warren thick with traps, guardians, secret passages, and peepholes reachable only from below.
During the reign of Ulbaerag, the inhabitants of Bloodhand Hold rediscovered the dwarf citadel and claimed it for their own. They sealed the passage leading down to the depths of Undermountain, and transformed the subterranean fortress into a defensive redoubt to which they could withdraw if necessary. The citadel saw infrequent use over the years when the settlement was threatened, but it was otherwise ignored. Knowledge of its existence was lost in the Year of the Splendid Stag (734 DR) when Raulbaera Bloodhand led her followers inland and the village of Bloodhand Hold all but died.
In the Year of the Black Wind (1262 DR), a contingent of Waterdeep's small Thieves' Guild (now the Shadow Thieves) found the citadel while exploring a stairway leading up from the first level of Undermountain (now known as the Falling Stair because of the spectacular collapse it undergoes whenever anyone approaches before it reverts to its unblocked state). Word of this discovery was passed back to the guildmaster, known professionally as the Bloody Hand, who cheekily decided to make the citadel his stronghold, despite the fact that it lay directly under Castle Waterdeep.
After securing the citadel from the roving monsters set loose by Halaster, the guild renamed it the Citadel of the Bloody Hand, and constructed two links to the city sewers, a secret passage into the castle above (through which they could send spies to observe goings-on), and an escape route exiting on the western face of Mount Waterdeep, just above the ocean. The Shadow Thieves operated from this fortified base for over three decades before being driven from the citadel in the Year of the Pointed Bone (1298 DR) after Lhestyn Silmaeril infiltrated the guild and revealed the existence of the Citadel of the Bloody Hand to the City Watch.
After the Shadow Thieves were driven from the city, the Lords of Waterdeep garrisoned the citadel and sealed the passage leading down the Falling Stair. The two passages to the sewers were left intact, garrisoned by the City Guard and employed by high-ranking occupants of Castle Waterdeep when they needed a discreet exit. The seaward section of the Citadel was given over to the Harpers, who transformed it into the fortified refuge known as Harpers' Hold, and knowledge of its existence is now the exclusive province of Those Who Harp and a handful of the Lords of Waterdeep.
In the Year of the Gauntlet (1369 DR), during Halaster's Higharvestide, a horde of goblins, ores, and ogres rushed up the Falling Stair and broke into the citadel. Although the Guard contingent prevailed, what seemed at first to be an easy victory proved anything but. In the wake of the goblinoid horde came a flood of living spells. These lingering remnants of Halaster's spells have somehow taken on sentience and refuse to dissipate. As their numbers have continued to grow, the Guard has been forced to abandon the Citadel, sealing off the passage into Castle Waterdeep. Harpers' Hold is still accessible to Those Who Harp, but many leading Harpers are growing concerned that this refuge might soon have to be abandoned as well. Although the Guard refuses to allow adventurers into the Citadel of the Bloody Hand to investigate, several groups have done so by making the perilous trek through Undermountain and then up the Falling Stair. Those explorers who have returned and spoken of their experience have vanished soon thereafter, possibly abducted by agents of the Shadow Thieves seeking word of their lost redoubt.

Type

Fortress