Nuul'vasdum was once
one of the greatest of dwarven cities in ages past. It survived the Dawn War, a bastion of good
and set about rebuilding their part of the world. However, it did not last. It became to decadent, and like all great
empires of the past, feel to its own hubris.
The last king thought that he could overcome death and become immortal like
the gods he revered. His actions proved
the be the fatal pin in what was his house of cards. King Kharak
Aasulve the Battlehammer of Moridan, was the final king of Nuulvas'dum
and in his final act of insanity, on his deathbed he enacted his final protocol
and shut himself in his chamber with his clerics, mages and smiths. What came out thirteen days later was a
powerful mummy lord wrapping in metal bands of admantine and bronze. Soon his city and all its great works were
for naught as the massive deephold died from the civil war that erupted between
the old king and the new. King Kharak's own son Brendek
the Bold lead the people in fighting his father. For five years they
battled for control of the deephold until Brendek was struck down by his own
father. The remaining dwarves fled
Nuulvas'dum and the name became associated with death and a common curse among
the dwarves.
Over the years the
rift to negative plane grew and lessened, the undead became attracted to the
dead dwarven deephold. Among them was Erikol Wros, a lich of incredible power who had
just lost his lair when it became overrun by adventurers. He entered into a tentative alliance with the
mad king. They called forth all known
allies and set to create a city of the dead.
They have started with Brendek himself created in the form of a
deathknight to forever guard their city, becoming the Lord Commander of Army. His will finally broke. He is a sad dwarf making do the only way he
can. Secretly he is trying to break his
curse, end his father's life and bring down Nuulvas'dum, erasing it from
existence.
The roster has
changed over the centuries since the founding the Dead City. The King still rules and his son still
commands the army. Erikol still does his
eternal research greatly increasing the size of the planar rift between the
prime material and the negative plane.
An ancient vampire, Lord Akartrin
has taken up the mantle of slaver. He
and his brides (of both male and female vampires) search for slaves far and
wide to feed the eternal hunger, such as Erikol's phylactery.
A cabal of three
necromancers have taken up residence here.
There is Olaf the Heartrender, an
old man who is going crazy trying to become a lich himself. Little does he know that Erikol is sabotaging
his attempts because he does not like the old man, but he is a bit too powerful
to take on directly. It is mainly due to
his main apprentice Guldram. He is a tall and handsome man who is fast
overtaking his master in skill and power
He is also a sadist of the first degree though one would not believe it
for he is a charming man. Then there is Chant Ramka, a tiefling woman who is very gaunt
and very pale of skin and hair, and is as evil as they come. She is no one's apprentice having to scrape
for everything she ever had. She escaped
from the slave pits of the Emaan Empire when she was younger and despises the
Empire. She would like to burn the
empire to the ground but settles (for now) to take any and all Emaan slaves
that Lord Akartrin brings to Nuulvas'dum.
Skavasta is an ancient and malevolent wraith of
great power. He alone has retained a
semblance of who he is and has peddled that knowledge into something greater in
undeath. He was a spy and now that he is
a wraith he is master of secrets and the spymaster of the dread city.
It did not take long
for the Cult of Orcus to open a church in Nuulvas'dum. The current high priestess in charge is Peogli Rotworm.
She is a fat, corpulent woman who goes around being carried by a
palanquin that is carried aloft by eight powerful zombies. Fat, naked and gray of skin, she looks like Orcus when she wears her mighty head dress, a smaller form of Orcus anyway. She is an ugly woman who still commands great
respect. It is the center of all worship
of Orcus on two continents and aspirants make a pilgrimage there to the main
church.
The Bonecrafters are a guild of craftsmen who
make beautiful, if not macabre, pieces of art out of the skin and bones of the
dead. Using the ancient mummification
processes, they have even learned to harden the skin and bones to make armor
and weapons. There is a secret guild
within a guild however as some of the Bonecrafters are also thieves of skill
and daring. The head of the guild is a half-elf man by the named
of Jolic the Wizened, so named for the
his body is horribly withered due to the fact that he was caught by Erikol were
he wasn’t supposed to be. He wants to
bring down Erikol and he has a plan to destroy the lich for good. Jolic has been hidden away for years plotting
his revenge.
One might think that
it is a charnel house, that no one alive could live here. The city is divided into three sections. The lower city is home to low, living caste
of workers and slaves. It is home to the living. The Bonecrafthers
are here as are many of the slaves for sale.
There is the high city were the wealthy live. The High
Tabernacle of Orcus dots the peak and the screams and moans can be heard
day and night from its halls. Then there
is the under city where most of the undead citizens live, out of the light of
the sun. The under city is the main
dwarven city that lies within the mountain.
The King holds court here in a pageant of old, hoary times. Many of the dead dwarves go through what they
have done in life, endlessly mining or forging or clearing away rubble from
collapses in the deephold. All the while
Erikol works on increasing the fissure to the negative plane and open a gate to
the dead plane and cover the world in enteral darkness and despair.
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