A Refuge Amid the Strange

Fortunately, not everything in this dank, subterranean wilderness is unreal and hostile. Amid these abyssal reaches you can find traces of the familiar. Welcome them when you can, for they are few and well-hidden.

The most vital aid to your survival in this place must be the Shadowed Refuge. Located in the western end of the Foundations of Stone, not far south of the tunnels to Nud-melek and the Redhorn Lodes, this camp of the Free Peoples is easy to miss if you rush by. Do not risk the darker, eastern end of the region, however, until you find this safe haven. You may have need to return to it often.

Look up. Watch for a road that splits from the downward-sloping cavern floor and climbs toward the cave ceiling. At the end of that path, atop a plateau guarded by Elf-archers, hunkers the Shadowed Refuge. Stretching high and safe over the Orcs and spiders that riddle the tunnels below, this retreat is a temporary home for those hardy and curious souls who have taken it upon themselves to make sure the perils and plagues of the Foundations of Stone do not ruin the larger attempts to restore Khazad-dûm.

The refuge is built among ancient scaffolds left behind by the dwarf-masons of the past. Here you will find the region’s only Stable-master, as well as a Forge-master and Relic-master, traders, and a handful of determined folk with grand plans for this horrible place. Seek them out, especially those knowledgeable Elves hiding in the Refuge’s cave, so that you may take part in their missions to dilute the darkness here.

A few familiar sights, scattered amid the insane stones of this region, give travelers some assurance that they are not without allies in this hellish place.

Look, also, for campsites amid the strange stones in the east. You are not the first foolhardy hero to tread these shadows, and that fact should provide some small comfort. These camps mark the sites of notable—and gruesomely dangerous—domains of evil.

Two chilling and strange instances wait to be explored beyond these camps. One, called Skûmfil, teems with vile gredbyg and kergrim locked in a bloody battle for control of their gore-filled caves. The other is a bizarre and surreal place of ancient evils, shimmering vines resembling glowing entrails, and the remnants of some dwarf expedition long since destroyed. The less said about these horrid halls, the better. Unless you have the bearing and resolve to brave these insane places, it is best not to dwell overlong on them.

The Foundations of Stone teem with terrible spiders, webbing up cracks in the earth, their homes aglow with the light of giant, shining mushrooms. Their nests lay piled with sorry bones. Do not let yours join them.