The Corsino Caverns

The River Corsino is a large subterranean river that rises in the mountains of the Ruby Reaches before plunging into the belly of Eriabourne’s Underdark. Surrounding it is a geological region sometimes called the Central Eriabourne Underdark Shelf, which houses many unique biomes and inhabitants. This Underdark region is more often referred to as the Corsino Caverns.
== Locations of the Corsino Caverns ==
* Old King’s Road - This underground dwarven road runs downhill from the city of Ironhearth Hall to the Corsino Gatehouse. Statues of dwarven heroes line the tunnel.
* Corsino Gatehouse - This old gatehouse is built where the Corsino river meets the dwarven road. It also marks the entrance to the Underdark proper.
* Corsino Trail - This rugged path is largely natural and runs alongside the Corsino river from the Corsino Gatehouse to Hollowhome.
* Hollowhome - An abandoned dwarf town in the northern caverns, Hollowhome has many abandoned dwellings built into the cavern floors as well as surface fortifications. It also has the remains of the only dwarven port in these caves. Velsaryn and his team had recently occupied the town.
* Engwe - An abandoned drow fortress built on a shore on the Upper Corsino. It was manned recently by Kessen Le’Dorien and his warriors.
* Wandering Way - An ancient meandering tunnel that weaves and winds down from Hollowhome to Deepscar Trench. No longer used they dwarves of Hollowhome, these tunnels of this region became occupied by the spiderfolk. Clouds of disorienting gas produced by madman’s puffball fungus can drive travelers to become completely lost, unless they’ve consumed the spiderfolk’s local protective concoction, a drink called groosh.
* Chatterloth - A spiderfolk village built on a large plateau above the brooding Deepscar Trench. Chatterloth is a farming and trading community which produces mushrooms, maggotflesh and spidersilk. Their local drink is groosh, a beverage made from fermented honeycaps, which contain spores that act as an antidote to several fungal maladies. A mysteriously large mutated cave hopper recently terrorized this village.
* Fungal Fields - A large vault-like cavern filled with mushrooms, lichens and spore pods. Some of these fungi glow with bioluminescence, but most are inconspicuous and opaque. Amongst the harmless honeycaps, white pods, mycimentia and stinkspores, spiderfolk harvesters gather what they can without alerting the giant centipedes that dwell in these caves. Some other fungi here include madman’s puffball, gutboiler, and iricenia. The caves were also recently home to the slaver Tirix, as well as a portal to Tazarus’ slave pens.
* Deepscar Trench - A silent lake in the centre of the caverns, these black waters are now used to allow juvenile kuo-toa the chance to grow strong by devouring each other. Most of those who survive return to Aava Zuiblix as full kuo-toa, but some continue to consume until they reach gigantic proportions. One such abomination was the creature Maurkh, which attacked the few traders still using the lake and the smaller denizens of the Trench alike. There are also two islands in the lake; one formerly  housed an outpost of the dwarves of Hollowhome. The other is further south and is home to several species of glowing fungi.
* Halls of Halflight - This ancient dwarven road used to connect Lower Quarrystone to Hollowhome, but now extends only to the Spiderfolk village of Chatterloth. Although this thoroughfare is now half-collapsed, the remaining half bespeaks a forgotten age when dwarves ruled the region. Sentries, murals, burning torch sconces and traders (both spiderfolk and dwarven) are frequently found along this road. There are also workers busy constructing a road that runs below the Wandering Way to reconnect Hollowhome and Quarrystone.
* Lower Quarrystone - This huge cavern houses about a third of the city of Quarrystone, but this includes all of the city’s mines, most of its banks, its barracks, and the castle of Lord Yendulf. It also houses the Brass Buckle, a famous dwarven tavern. An elevator system connects this cavern to Upper Quarrystone on the surface.
* Rootwarren - A labyrinthine network of tunnels to the south of Lower Quarrystone. 
* Guldybb - An abandoned kuo-toa village on a shore where the waters of Deepscar trench meet those of the Shivering Mire. This village was until recently occupied by the former kuo-toa monitor, Nilbool, but the kuo-toa were recently eliminated by the drow of Xannafett.
* Creighlock’s Cross - An ancient crossroads built during a period of dwarven dominance by dwarven hero Rance Creighlock. Until recently, it served as a boundary to the territories of the dwarves, the drow and kuo-toa - with the elimination of the kuo-toa threat, the region is now better held by the drow.
* Moss Mounds - In the large ancient caverns where the Upper Corsino diverges from Deepscar Trench, a radiant yellow moss covers the rolling slopes that rise from the river. Once home to a svirfneblin community, the caverns were recently ruled by the troll king Gabrok, who himself was made a pawn of the Illithid Blygdagg. The rolling mounds also hide a svirfneblin shrine to Daridan Starwater. The trolls themselves were later wiped out by the drow of Xanafett.
* The Many’s Lair - A huge reeking cavern that splits off from the Moss Mounds, this cave was recently housing an Illithid abomination used by Blygdagg to coerce the trolls of the Moss Mounds into submission. The region was then shrouded in thick supernatural mist, from which the piteous cries of the creature’s victims could be heard. The Many (as the creature was known to the trolls) lured its prey with enticing visions catered to them before striking with a paralyzing tentacle. The creature could assume various forms, but its true appearance resembled a squirming mass of toothed tentacles.
* Shivering Mire - A large swamp in the southeastern caverns, this freezing marsh is formed where the cold waters of Deepscar Trench mix with the silty debris of the Moss Mounds. This region is vast, with many water channels and islets that spread out in all directions. The kuo-toa were until recently the dominant force in the swamp, with a few straggling tribes (such as Arvak’s grimlock clan) being the only remaining races. With the defeat of the kuo-toa, the swamp is now essentially no man’s land.
* Xannafett - A foreboding drow city in the far south of the caverns ruled by Archmother Rayenna.
* Aava Zuiblix - This kuo-toa settlement lies in a cavern along the Corsino south of the Shivering Mire. This is a holy site of the kuo-toa and features a large temple to the Sea Mother and a sacrificial bloodletting cage built over the Spawning Pools for the ritual of Gogdoragg. This bloodletting orgy was predicated on the capture of blood from the royalty of other races. Blygdagg had usurped the role of monitor to control Chieftain Bluda and the kuo-toa, and was instead kidnapping these royal victims for unknown purposes.
* Swirling Salts - The Corsino River here plunges over the edge of an enormous cavernous shaft. From the edge of this cliff, it appears as an enormous pit that extends vertically as far as the eye can see, both up and down. 
== Inhabitants of the Corsino Caverns ==
* The dwarves of this region are active primarily in the west and partially in the north. Half of Quarrystone is built here, with an elevator system connecting it to the surface city. The abandoned dwarf town of Hollowhome lies in the north, and the Halls of Halflight are built and guarded by dwarves. Dwarves of this region include Torm Tatterbeard, Pavel the wayfarer, Lord Yendulf of Quarrystone, and Lorbar the iron merchant.
* The drow of this region are active throughout the caverns, save some regions in the west and northeast. They rule as the dominant force in the south from their stronghold city of Xanafett and bully and raid the neighbouring races if they show weakness. After the Bloodsworn killed the Illithid Blygdagg and revealed that the drow princess had been captured by kuo-toa, the drow descended upon Aava Zuiblix and slaughtered the survivors. Drow of this region include Archmother Rayenna, Prince Jazid, Princess Zavine, Velsaryn, Morgana, Kessen Le’Dorien, Malena, Inquisitor Avielle and Tazarus.
* The kuo-toa of this region were a dominant force in the southeastern caverns, throughout the swamp of the Shivering Mire and in their sacred spawning pools at Aava Zuiblix. They formerly arranged raids on neighbouring races and brutalized the other residents of the swamp. They were infiltrated by a mind flayer who transformed a young kuo-toa cleric, Blygdagg, into an illithid. Blygdagg usurped the old monitor by enchanting the kuo-toa chieftain and leading the clan to kidnapping important figures for the other races. This was done under the guise that they were intended for the sacrificial ritual of Gogdoragg (although their true intended fate remains unknown). Following Blygdagg’s death, the drow slaughtered the remaining kuo-toa before they could recover. Kuo-toa of this region include Nilbool, Chieftain Bluda, the abomination Maurkh, and Monitor Blygdagg.
* The spiderfolk of this region are a strange hybrid race apparently created by the drow aeons ago. They inhabit a small village called Chatterloth as well as the neighbouring caverns, which they plant with spores and name the Fungal Fields. The spiderfolk farm mushrooms to eat and feed to cave grubs, which they also eat. They also produce a drink known as groosh from fermented honeycaps, which protects them from the spores outside their village. They are primarily traders and are poor combatants, so they’re often bullied by the drow to the south. Spiderfolk of this region include Elder Vispyk, Prospesh the Proprietor (the bartender of Mushroom Drink Haven), Ciax Tyrene (a spiderfolk magical goods merchant), and the slaver Tirix.
* The trolls of this region were a small gang that followed a self-made king, Gabrok. Gabrok charged a toll for river passage past the Moss Mounds that the trolls called home. The king lived in fear of the Many, a nightmarish creature which Blygdagg had placed in a cave nearby. The Many haunted the living with promises to entice them to their doom. Gabrok sated the monster by leaving sacrifices he’d pluck from boats, or kuo-toa that were trying to swim past. He was eventually killed by the Bloodsworn, and his followers wiped out by the drow during their recent consolidation of power. Trolls of this region include King Gabrok and Torbok the Tollkeeper.
* The Svirfneblin of this region are an almost forgotten people that used to dwell in the region now called the Moss Mounds. Very few of these folk remain, and those that do are often the victims of the various brutalities of life in the Underdark. The Bloodsworn were able to save a number of these folk from cruel deaths at the hands of trolls and kuo-toa. They worship an old god known as Daridan Starwater. Svirfneblin of the region include Lujen and Tamin.
* The grimlocks of the Shivering Mire are a tiny group led by a warrior chief, Arvak. His mate was captured by the kuo-toa of Aava Zuiblix and they joined the Bloodsworn during the attack on the spawning ritual. As all of his warriors were killed in this attack, Arvak, his mate, and some orphaned grimlock young are all that remain of the tribe. Their fate during the drow reclaiming of the swamp is unknown.
* Although the illithid are few in this region, their influence has been clear and many followers of Dulshoon have operated from these caverns. These include the illthids Oobastis and Blygdagg, the abomination known as "The Many", the slaver Tirix, and the drow pariah Tazarus.
== In the Campaign ==
After the death of Oobastis, Azuk, Salazar and Keldin were faced with Keldar’s question of the fate of his wife. Nigby Knotstone was able to determine through his drow contact Malena that a dwarven prisoner had been seen taken by boat downriver from the Corsino Trail by unknown assailants. Before they left, Daskore Wolfsbane asked that if they find a portal stone, that they bring it to him for his research. The Bloodsworn set out down the Old King’s Road, passed through the Corsino Gatehouse and down the Corsino Trail into Hollowhome. Here they encountered Velsaryn and his team, who tasked them with defeating Velsaryn’s rival Kessen.
The Bloodsworn agreed, with Salazar sailing them downriver on a borrowed drow boat to Engwe. Navigating the rapids and rocks of the region, Salazar guided them to the river fortress, where they overwhelmed Kessen and his warriors. They returned to Velsaryn and delivered the head of Kessen Le’Dorien.
Velsaryn thanked them and announced their plans to leave Hollowhome. Determined not to let the drow warriors escape, Azuk attacked Velsaryn despite being wounded, and a short bloody battle ensued which left Velsaryn dead but both Salazar and Azuk grievously injured. With drow warriors on all sides, Keldin invoked the power of the Rod of Dramatic Escapes (a wand of random teleportation), which transported them to Freehaven, Altea.
Injured, stranded thousands of miles away but still alive, the Bloodsworn leaders spent the night in Freehaven. In the morning, they travelled to the mage’s guild and paid a wizard to teleport them to Quarrystone, from where they would resume the search. As the price of the magic was so steep, the Bloodsworn leaders instead opted to help the Freehaven Mage’s Guild at a later date at the Guild’s discretion, with Keldin offering his Helm of True Sight as collateral.
Riding the elevator down to Lower Quarrystone, Azuk, Salazar and Keldin returned to their mission. They spoke with Pavel the Wayfarer in the Brass Buckle, who provided them with a map of the region and provided some information on the various biomes of the area. They travelled up the Halls of Halflight to the village of Chatterloth, where they encountered the spiderfolk for the first time. 
Elder Vispyk of Chatterloth told them of their plight with the giant insectoid menace that was attacking his people. They travelled north into the Wandering Way, drinking some groosh that Prospesh had provided. Azuk determined that the tracks were left by a mutated cave hopper. He presciently protected himself from the monster’s acidic attacks with a spell.
After slaying the monster, the Bloodsworn returned to Chatterloth and were lauded as heroes. A dwarf named Torm Tatterbeard was now present, and he was searching vainly for a spiderfolk slaver who’d been capturing dwarves, but the spiderfolk knew nothing of him. They instead advised the Bloodsworn that drow had been more active in the area following the deaths of Kessen and Velsaryn.
Salazar, remembering the magic drow boat they’d used to navigate the river before, suggested returning to Hollowhome to resume their search. They returned to Hollowhome, only to find a drow patrol still present. They battled, with the drow eliminated save for one drow priestess who was taken as a temporary prisoner.
They took the drow boat from Hollowhome downriver once more, this time continuing all the way to Deepscar Trench. On the northern island, Keldin found a hidden stash of silver, while Azuk found tracks of dwarves, though they seemed unrelated to each other. 
Sailing further down over the black waters of Deepscar Trench, they heard the voice of a dwarf stranded on an island, calling for help but warning of a sea monster. Their vessel was promptly attacked by the monster Maurkh, a kuo-toa leviathan which arose from the waters and smashed part of the boat. Taking on water, Salazar barely brought the boat to the island’s shore, from where they were able to bring down the abomination as he struggled in the shallows. The grateful dwarf, Lorbar the iron merchant, thanked them for their kindness. Keldin patched the boat to a workable condition and they sailed to Chatterloth, where the spiderfolk helped Lorbar up the cliffs for his journey back to Quarrystone.
The spiderfolk also helped to repair the boat, and the Bloodsworn resumed their journey by travelling through the Shivering Mire. Their drow prisoner was particularly fearful of encountering the kuo-toa, and she begged vainly for release. At the kuo-toa village of Guldybb, despite initial hostilities, Nilbool was able to persuade the Bloodwsorn that his people had been infiltrated by a new mysterious Monitor. He advised them that the intruder was Blygdagg and that he now controlled Chieftain Bluda. He provided them with a starglass orb and a Psionic thinwhistle, both of which Keldin carries to this day.
They resumed their hunt through the swamp, meeting an undead bog giant in the freezing fog and encountering Arvak and his clan. Arvak’s mate had been captured by the kuo-toa and he and his warriors joined them in their mission, following their boat with her rescue in mind. 
As the Holy Ritual of Gogdoragg was taking place, there was only a single sentry guarding the river. He was taken down with thrown axes and arrows from the Bloodsworn before he could raise the alarm. They stormed into the temple of the Sea Mother, witnessing the bloody orgy in action - the prisoners in the bloodletting cage were being sacrificed, their blood pouring over the writhing mass of kuo-toa in the Spawning Pools below. 
Arvak and his warriors immediately jumped down into the pit and started brawling, while the Bloodsworn clambered up to the top of the bloodletting cage and fought Blygdagg and Bluda directly. Blygdagg revealed himself to be an Illithid, and he was promptly slain, his blood mingling with that of those below. The kuo-toa seemed uninterested in the activity above, and while Bluda regained her sanity, the Bloodsworn rescued the prisoners, although it turned out that Dagny and a mysterious drow had only been present as illusions that dissipated with Blygdagg’s death. 
Searching Blygdagg’s home, they found that the real prisoners had been kept in an underground chamber awaiting an unknown fate. The drow announced herself to be Princess Zavine, and both she and Dagny thanked them for their rescue.
Bluda and Nilbool remained as Chieftain and Monitor, with the declaration that they’d stop raiding the other races of the Underdark. Arvak and his mate had lived, but went back to their swamp with no other survivors. Zavine and the drow priestess were returned to the drow at Creighlock’s Cross, which eased tensions between the drow and the dwarves. Dagny was returned to an overjoyed Keldar, who thanked the Bloodsworn profusely and rewarded them richly for her rescue.
After Zavine's rescue, the Bloodsworn were surprised to receive a letter from the mind flayer Jazid. He met them at Chatterloth, where he revealed that he was formerly a drow prince of Xanafett who had been implanted with an illithid larvae by Dulshoon himself during the war between drow and illtihids. Rayenna had invoked the magic of a powerful diviner, and they made a unqiue pact - that Jazid's conscious mind would replace that of the illithid and he would be restored to control of his own body. A special arrangement for this was made with Lolth, that should Jazid perish before any of Dulshoon's original party at the time, then his soul would be devoured by the Spider Goddess forever. 
Jazid explained that this was why he'd asked for the deaths of the five illithids, and he here paid for the contracts on Squidface and Oobastis. He advised the Bloodsworn leaders that Geth had been dispatched to deploy a military presence in Coldharbour, and he'd keep looking for information regarding Dulshoon, though he suspected Dulshoon lay in the city of Umbrahal in the Lowerdark.
Before departing, the Bloodsworn travelled the caverns looking for further evidence of Illithid activities. They slew the troll King Gabrok in the Moss Mounds and the illithid abomination “The Many” that Blygdagg had left there. They then decided to search for the spiderfolk slaver they’d heard about, as he was referenced as connected to Blygdagg’s operation.
They found Tirix’s hiding place deep in the Fungal Fields, where he’d hidden the entrance with magic. A portal led from here to what would later be revealed to be Tazarus’ slave pens. Keldin constructed a hidden layer of wall to conceal the hidden Bloodsworn when Tirix returned. As soon as Tirix appeared with a new drow victim, Azuk, Salazar and Keldin smashed through the thin wall and killed him, retrieving a portal stone from his corpse. Peering into the portal they saw only stone walls, with no indication that this was what they were looking for. They left the Underdark temporarily, following Jazid's tip that Geth had set up a military presence in Coldharbour.
Weeks later, after the defeat of Geth in Coldharbour, the Bloodsworn returned to the Caverns to venture into that portal and investigate further what lay beyond. At Chatterloth, they discovered that Inquisitor Avielle of Xannafett had taken control of the village and she and her drow were pressuring the local spiderfolk for Tirix’s location, including killing one every day until the slaver was found. She was specifically seeking the captured drow wizard Morgana.
Azuk told her bluntly that Tirix was already dead, and that any more spiderfolk dead would result in their slaughter. Avielle was sufficiently intimidated by the threat, and the drow travelled to Engwe to receive word from the Bloodsworn on Morgana’s condition.
They ventured through the portal and into Tazarus’ slave pens, where he’d captured Morgana, Yeslow Durham, and his enormous ape to which many of the other prisoners were fed. Tazarus, running out of food and desperate to believe he was spared, was easily tricked and slain. Morgana returned to the drow, while the Bloodsworn pressed on through yet another portal.
This final portal took them to a courtyard in front of the old tower of Geth’s. It’s unclear if this is anywhere in the same region of the Underdark. Here the beholder Barunax followed the three during their investigation. Sensing that Geth was dead, Barunax suggested that they simply part ways, but the Bloodsworn were reluctant to spare a monster and they killed him. 
Searching Geth’s tower, they discovered a set of stone tablets which were written in a strange tongue. There were also maps, including one where the island of Ob (where Squidface was slain) was notably marked. There was also an Astral Gateway, which Azuk was able to interface with using memories provided from Geth’s helm. The Gateway activated, and they were transported to the Astral Sea. They found themselves in Norvath, the astral stronghold of the wizard Phaldax.
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