This part gives an overview of the fabled lost city of Gauntlgrym,and goes into detail about its “upper” strata.

Historical Errata

There’s another bit I missed when I glossed over the big-ass timeline at the beginning of the book, and now I must correct that here.

The dwarves of Gauntlgrym found the primordial Maegera early in their habitation of the city, but they left her sealed up for a few hundred years before messing with her.

The massive project that bound her into a sort of arcane power generator was a three-way joint project between the dwarves, the mages of Illusk and the elves of Iliyanbruen. As we saw in the post about Shandarar, they were still around for a few centuries after the fall of Netheril, so they took part in this as well. The book describes this as a positive example of what the three peoples can do when they work together, though it outlived their friendship.

Maegera’s power allowed the dwarves of Delzoun to create inumerable wonders, in the form of both potent magical items and marvelous works of infrastructure for their capital and their empire. Gauntlgrym became a big center of trade and even saw numerous human families moving there.

The reason it fell was because of the Orc Marches, a massive region-wide invasion by an army of orcs larger than any seen before or since. By the time this happened, the three peoples were no longer on speaking terms, as each had grown more arrogant and mistrustful over time. They could have banded together to repel the invasion, but each thought they could go it alone. Illusk fell first, and Delzoun was next, and only at the gates of Shandarar was the already-weakened orc army repelled.

Iliyanbruen would end up dismantling anyway when it tried to take the fight to the orcs in Illusk, as we saw earlier. Gauntlgrym was left alone since no one seemed to be coming up from there. Its dwarven and humans refugees scattered all over the Realms, with many of the humans joining Uthgardt tribes on the surface and the dwarves ranging out further to move to their surviving nations.

The empire of Delzoun and its capital of Gauntlgrym are today kinda like the dwarven equivalent of the Roman Empire in that stupid meme. No dwarf living today has ever laid eyes on the lost city, but they think of it regularly and describe it as the height of their civilization.

Gauntlgrym Today

Despite being lost to the surface, Gauntlgrym did not remain static in all these millennia. The orcs were kicked out by mind flayers; the mind flayers by derro; and the derro by duergar. That last one happened fairly recently in historical terms, so the duergar still consider themselves masters of the place. However, they are not the only people living there. There are other groups seeking to control the city, and literal multitudes of ghosts belonging to its original inhabitants.

Let’s take a look at the city from the outside in.

The Great Cavern

Whatever paths to Gauntlgrym exist in your campaign, they will always end here. This is a massive natural cavern filled with alien Underdark vegetation and labyrinthine formations of stone pillars and stalagmites. Small forts and balconies are carved into the walls and around the largest pillars - the remains of former guard posts. The bones of ancient battles litter the floor.

There’s a small lake at the center of the cave, and on one of its walls stands the massive mithral gate that leads into Gauntlgrym proper. It’s nearly impossible to open by mundane or magical means, but a true heir of Delzoun can open it with the slightest push. The cave is filled with your preferred selection of Underdark monsters, and also with two sapient factions.

The first is a group of old Ashmadai who came here with Valindra when she first tried to free the primordial in that Drizzt novel. The tunnels they used filled with magma at the end of that, so they became trapped here. Their first reaction to any strangers they spot is violence, though some of them might be prepared to surrender or betray the rest in exchange for a way back to the surface.

The second faction is the House Xorlarrin expedition, who arrived recently and built a hidden camp. They’re spying on the Ashmadai while looking for a way to open the gates. Their reaction to intruding PCs will be to remain hidden and spy on them as well, waiting to see if they can open the gates. If they can, the drow will follow them covertly, scattering if spotted, and will only attack if the PCs become distracted by some other enemy inside the city.

The Iron Tabernacle

The Iron Tabernacle was Gauntlgrym’s temple district, and was both the city’s physical and spiritual center. Its many temples and shrines were dedicated to Moradin and other good gods, and attended by a sizable contingent of dwarven and human priests. This enormous multi-leveled district was a marvelous sight to behold in its glory days, but now most of it lies ravaged by both time and by duergar impiety. The city’s new occupants have defaced every religious image and statue they could find, and stolen anything of value here, from precious relics to the mithral trim in the walls.

Still, the Tabernacle is so vast that some hidden shrines remain untouched and could be reconsecrated by PCs. There’s a text box here detailing the minor boons they can gain from doing so. An extended rest next to the restored shrine takes only three hours instead of six, and has no danger of being interrupted by wandering monsters. And if a member of the party is a non-evil dwarf or a worshiper of Moradin, they might gain the attention of one of the city’s ghosts, who will help them in battle the next time they fight (using a level-appropriate incorporeal undead stat block). Both benefits only happen once.

The Tabernacle is also the hub of Gaunglgrym’s ancient mine rail network. The rails connect directly or indirectly to every other district in the city, and are meant to be traveled by self-propelled mine carts that were used for bulk cargo transport back in the day. They still run according to their ancient schedules and could be commandeered by PCs. A big switching station in the Tabernacle can let them switch carts from one track to another. It’s an easy way to get around this vast city.

Or perhaps not so easy - there are some rules here that might come into play when a fight happens during a cart ride, or when a cart derails during a fight.

Ancient Cemetery

The lowest level of the Tabernacle is a massive collection of crypts, laid out according to a now forgotten scheme or tradition. Some are simple, some very elaborate, but all of them have the names, titles, and lineage of their occupants carved on their stone.

Unlike the upper levels, the crypts are intact. The many, many ghosts who roam the place attack any would-be vandals and thieves en masse, so the duergar stay away from here.

The ghosts will not bother the PCs at first, but will attack as above if they try to damage or steal from the crypts. The group should take care to remain on their best behavior while in this area.

Theme Tie-Ins and Impressions

The PC theme that’s most interested in Gauntlgrym is definitely the Heir of Delzoun. Finding this place is their life’s goal, so if your party includes one or more Heirs Gauntlgrym is going to be a vitally important place for the campaign.

For the Heir and most other characters who might be interested in finding the city, the true treasure here is all the historical and genealogical information contained in the crypt walls. It’s a major archaeological finding all by itself, which is reason enough for Oghma’s Faithful, but it’s even more valuable to the Heir and perhaps even to the Neverwinter Noble. All dwarves, and a lot of human nobles, keep pretty detailed genealogies of their own clans and families and these would be easy to connect to the ones in display here.

If the Noble could prove that their house is older than Neverwinter itself, then they might have an unassailable claim to the throne! And if the Heir’s ancestors are important enough, they might have a strong claim to Gauntlgrym’s throne, or perhaps to that of one of its successor states.

Of course, not everyone would be happy with these findings. There are plenty of dwarven nobles out there who built their prestige on forged lineages, and who would not want the world to discover this fact. And many others who would be more than happy to pull a Beloq and kill the PCs before they can announce their findings to the world, so that they can claim the credit.

The “default” way to arrive at Gauntlgrym is to navigate the river of flame beneath Mount Hotenow, but there could be other paths as well. Maybe they could take a detour through Hotenow’s Shadowfell reflection, or maybe there’s a mystical path similar to Shadowfell Road that takes those who follow it properly to the mithral gates.

In the next post, we dig too greedily and too deep.