This temple-keep, a massive sea cavern on Adar’s southern horn, is the only point in all of Adar where ships can dock. Stone spires jut like teeth from the ocean floor near Dvaarnava, forming a deadly labyrinth made even more lethal by Adar’s storms.
Dvaarnava’s population lives in high grottos safe from the raging sea. The people glean a living from the calm waters that fill the lower levels of the cavern, as well as by farming in areas where sunlight reaches through the cracked stone. A market (an unusual feature for a temple-keep) generates a small amount of trade with travelers.
Dvaarnava is one of the few places where people pass into and out of Adar regularly. Ships sail to and from Ardhmen (see the Syrkarn sidebar) and points west, including Khorvaire. Most ship captains know the way to Dvaarnava, but few are willing to sail there.
The southernmost of Adar's temple-keeps, Dvaarnava is the only place in Adar where ships can still actually land. Dangerous spires of underwater rock form a maze that leads to a natural cavern in the sharp cliffs on the tip of Adar's horn. Only those who know how can even approach the cavern, and a further test awaits them—a sisiutl (20 HD; Stormwrack 159) guards the cave mouth as part of an ages-old pact. Only sailors who give the correct answers to the creature's challenges can pass within. The protectors of Dvaarnava can watch the sea passage and the grotto from galleries in the cliffs above, and some leaders in the monastery can grant access to those that do not meet the sisiutl's requirements. If necessary, watchers in the galleries can assault unwanted visitors with ballistae, arrows, and magic.
Dvaarnava's populace lives by fishing and collecting plants in the sea caves nearby, and it enjoys the sunlight that comes from the narrow fissures in the cavern ceiling. Storms are still common here, though, and habitable spaces are placed well above the water.
The fortress is located far from any other settlement, and the mountains around it are forbidding. Still, the Summit Road and xeph merchants also work in the city, making passage to and from Ardhmen in ships under privateer flags.
Dvaarnava is the gate by which many Adarans leave Adar for good. Vessels from the port carry goods and people through treacherous waters and Riedran lines, their crews knowing full well that any attempt to return to Dvaarnava could mean their deaths.