The Descending Mines

The Tower

The Descending Mines are unique among the towers—rather than climbing upward, adventurers must journey down, down, down into the crushing depths beneath the Ironpeak Mountains. What began as the richest mining operation in dwarven history became a wound in the world, a breach into something that was never meant to be disturbed.

The dwarves sealed the lower levels with every ward and blessing they knew. It wasn't enough.

History

When Durin Ironbeard first led his people into the Ironpeak Mountains, they discovered veins of precious metal so rich that their wealth seemed guaranteed for all eternity. They built Khazad-Karn and began to mine, following the ore ever deeper into the earth.

For centuries, the mines expanded. New shafts were dug. New levels were excavated. The dwarves grew wealthy beyond imagination, trading their metals and gems to the surface world. They built wonders of engineering—elevators powered by underground rivers, ventilation systems that carried fresh air miles beneath the surface, rail networks that could transport ore faster than a horse could run.

Then they broke through.

The records from that day have been destroyed. The witnesses are dead—some by their own hands. What is known is that the miners struck something that was not stone, not ore, not anything that belonged in the natural world. And when they struck it, it struck back.

Floors

Floors 1-5: The Sealed Shafts

The uppermost levels of the corruption, heavily warded and constantly patrolled. The stone here still shows signs of dwarven craftsmanship, but it has begun to twist, forming faces that watch from the walls. The creatures that prowl these tunnels were once mining equipment, animated by a power that mocks dwarven engineering.

Floors 6-10: The Flooded Galleries

Underground rivers were diverted here, partly for mining operations and partly as a defensive measure. The water has become tainted, able to corrupt anything it touches over time. The creatures that swim these dark waters have never seen sunlight and need no eyes to find their prey.

Floors 11-15: The Mithril Veins

Once the most valuable section of the mines, where mithril could be extracted in quantities found nowhere else. Now the mithril itself has been corrupted, forming ore that looks precious but burns any who touch it. The shadows here move independently of light.

Floors 16-20: The Collapse

A section where the corruption has destabilized the stone itself. Tunnels shift and change. Gravity pulls in unpredictable directions. The creatures here have adapted to constant chaos, able to navigate spaces that make no logical sense.

Floors 21-24: The Breach

The original point of contact, where dwarven picks first struck something other. The corruption is strongest here, thick in the air, seeping from the walls. The darkness is absolute—not an absence of light but a presence of something that devours light.

Floor 25: The Deep

The domain of the Deep Guardian. Once a colossal dwarven construct built to seal the breach, it was corrupted by the darkness it was meant to contain. Three stories tall, its adamantine plates and protective runes now burn with sickly corrupted fire.

The Deep Guardian

The Deep Guardian was the dwarves' greatest creation—a massive construct designed to guard against whatever lurked in the deepest excavations. Built from adamantine and inscribed with every protective rune the runesmiths knew, it stood sentinel at the breach for centuries.

Then the darkness found a way in.

The corruption didn't destroy the Guardian—it transformed it. The protective runes inverted, becoming symbols of corruption. The watchful intelligence that animated the construct went mad. Now it guards the breach from the wrong side, preventing anyone from reaching the darkness below—or perhaps preventing the darkness from being contained again.

Those who have faced the Deep Guardian describe a relentless machine of destruction, its once-protective power turned to annihilation. Its eyes burn with corrupted fire, and its massive arms—built for digging through solid stone—crush challengers with mechanical precision.

Atmosphere

The Descending Mines feel oppressive in a way that goes beyond mere claustrophobia. The darkness here is hungry. It presses against torchlight, trying to smother it. Sounds are muffled, as if the air itself is too thick to carry them properly. And always, there is the sense of something vast and patient waiting just beyond perception.

"The deeper we dig, the darker it gets. And the darkness is digging too." — Warning carved in stone at the entrance to the lower levels