Undermire Dwarf-Door

The Undermire Dwarf-Door was a sealed vault entrance hidden deep within the Upperways beneath the Murkmire Marshlands, carved into an accessible passage in the Undermire. It was shaped by the Fold in the supposed visage of their secret god Virathul, its massive tentacled face emerging from the surrounding rock as both idol and warning. The door dominated a stepped chamber, its scale dwarfing any who approached, but whether the likeness was accurate or merely drawn from the Fold’s fragmented doctrine was never proven.

The vault was commissioned by the Fold at the height of its mercantile power; through its networks, the cult arranged for master Artificers and magical smiths from Brazenthrone to be quietly brought beneath the Murkmire Marshlands. These dwarves were given no context beyond the technical demands of the work. The structure was forged using alloys of antimagic metals and layered walls of force embedded directly into the surrounding stone. The door itself was bound into the same defensive lattice, rendering it immune to magical assault, alteration, or detection. No known Spell could open it, bypass it, or meaningfully weaken it.

The vault's placement beneath the Murkmire was deliberate. The marshlands’ preservative bogs and shifting tides masked above-ground entrances and erased traces of passage, while its unwitting protectors were unaware of the activities in the Deepways. The Fold could enter via passages from the sea unknown to most, and carry up their treasure using well-mapped tunnels. The rest of the Undermire was a hostile web of collapsed tunnels and drowned settlements from the Age of Giants, and discouraged all but the most determined explorers.

The Undermire Dwarf-Door could only be opened by a single mechanism: its locking geometry corresponded exactly to a key, one of a design far too unwieldy to be picked by any tool. Made of complicated knotwork, the only record of this key was the Dwarf-Door Tattoo Key, located on the right arm of Voice and held in Bleak End, ensuring the utmost safety of this important secret. As a fail-safe next to the Dwarf-Door, the fold had installed Glyphs along the passages of the halls leading to the Dwarf-Door, allowing them to trigger a cave-in if compromised.