Neblinhala

Deep beneath the roots of the Galentaur forest to the east of Qualimor there is a vast network of caverns carved over millennia from the waters that seep down through the earth from The Festering Marshes and the Great River Argent (or Laureduin, in Elvish). These caves were once the upper reaches of an old Dwarfish kingdom, whose demise has been lost to history. Some say the Dwarfs were decimated in a centuries-long war with their Duergar kin, others say it was disease spread from the swamps to the north, and still others say these Dwarfs lost their minds to some alien foe and actually themselves became the Duergar who even now dwell deeper still beneath the Neblinhala.
These upper caverns still retain some of the Dwarfish angular stone-worked character, but have largely been rounded and transformed by the current occupants, a large tribe of Deep Gnomes, or Svirfneblin in their own tongue, who have spread throughout these tunnels and caves and made them their own. The Gnomes, talented miners and fierce warriors despite their often comical mannerisms, have been embroiled in a long and bitter campaign against the Duergar of the Lower Deeps, under the wise rulership of the irascible Chief Slibbenorbin. They are suspicious of strangers but easily spooked by magic. Whilst ‘Neblinhala’ is a term used for the entire extent of the upper caverns, it is more correctly the name of the main part of the sprawling subterranean city, which is tucked away in a deep and narrow tectonic crack, easily defensible and tricky for larger denizens of the Underdark to access.