First appearance: S2 Ep1, Fate of the Arbiter (Fate of the Arbiter Part 1) · watch it on YouTube
The abandoned dwarven fortress is a deserted stronghold tucked into the mountains, a day’s ride away. It appears in S2 Ep1, Fate of the Arbiter (Fate of the Arbiter Part 1). Whoever built it is gone, but they left plenty behind: a blade track, bones, wine, a gambling room, and a carved message about a hammer and a treasure.
Description
The fortress is marked by its columns, shaped like an old man’s face. They give the place the feel of being watched by an old man made of rock. It has a back gate and a great hall that has been demolished.
Then there are the trap halls, a string of rooms that alternate between deadly and oddly domestic. One holds a blade track. Another is a cellar of bones and wine. There are bedrolls where someone once slept and a gambling room. The trap halls also hold a bookcase and a crystal room with an iron gate fastened by three bolts.
The fortress also holds a cathedral chamber lit in purple. Somewhere inside, a carving mentions “the hammer that resides in the mountain” and “the treasure of the east.”
History
The fortress’s history before it was abandoned is unknown. Its builders, its fall and the meaning of its carving have not been explained. All that is known is what remains: the wrecked great hall, the trapped passages and the purple-lit cathedral chamber. These appear in Fate of the Arbiter Part 1.
The carving’s two phrases, “the hammer that resides in the mountain” and “the treasure of the east,” are the only words the fortress offers. What exactly they refer to has not been explained.