Embervein Delve
A Mine of Riches and Ruin
Overview
The Embervein Delve is one of the last active mining operations in the
Fellholds, a precarious yet invaluable source of emberstone—a rare,
glowing red ore coveted for its potent properties in forging weapons and
empowering arcane constructs. The mine's wealth has drawn ambitious prospectors
from across the Ravaged Coast, but its depths harbor far more than mere riches.
History & Significance
The mine was originally established by dwarven prospectors from Pyrehaven,
determined to unearth emberstone’s full potential. Their colony grew around the
mine, a rugged settlement of stubborn miners, engineers, and traders. However,
despite the promise of fortune, the Delve has never been an easy place to work.
Over the years, entire expeditions have vanished into its depths, and those who
return often speak in hushed tones of whispers in the dark, unseen
things moving just beyond the lantern light, and tunnels that shift
when no one is looking.
The road to the Embervein Delve is no less perilous than the mine itself. Cave-dwelling monstrosities, feral troggoths, and even more unspeakable horrors stalk the treacherous paths leading to the colony. Only heavily armed convoys or foolhardy loners dare to make the journey, and many never reach their destination.
The Whispers Below
Some miners have begun to refuse to work the deeper shafts, claiming
that the mine itself is alive—that something ancient, something buried
beneath the emberstone, calls to them by name. These accounts are dismissed
by the mine overseers as superstition, but disappearances have become
more frequent, and even the most hardened prospectors speak of a presence
lurking within the depths.
Among the rumors, a few whisper of an underground ruin, buried beneath layers of emberstone. Some claim it is an ancient forge from a forgotten age, others believe it to be something far worse—a prison, meant to keep something locked away rather than to be unearthed.
Legends & Superstitions
- The Ember-Curse: Some believe emberstone itself is cursed, its power a lure to the greedy and the desperate. The more one mines it, the more the mine takes from them in return.
- The Sunken Door: A collapsed shaft is said to lead to a great obsidian door, humming with an eerie resonance. None who have found it have lived to tell the tale.
- The Hollow-Eyed: A few miners have returned from the depths changed, their eyes empty, their voices distant. They never speak of what they saw below, only that they must go back.