Underways

The **Underways** are a grand network of enormous underground tunnels that once belonged to the dwarven empire, spanning the length and breadth of Morgaea.

## Background

The Underways once linked the hewnholds with one another and to the surface. These subterranean highways were works of unparalleled artisan achievement, with centuries of planning and engineering demonstrated in the geometry of their walls. Statues of the Exemplars watched over passing travelers, and channels carried a flow of magma that kept the Underways lit and warm.

During the First Scourge, the dwarves were forced to close the entrances to the Underways, abandoning them to the fiendish hordes. The entrances still exist, but all are sealed by octagonal steel doors decorated with geometric patterns that form words. At the height of the dwarven empire, the Underways were busy with constant travelers and merchants, not only from the hewnholds, but from the surface. If a citizen of the Adamantium at its height were to see the Underways today, they would be shocked at the silence and decay that now reigns within.

This once-proud creation is now the source of much lament for what the dwarves have lost. Today, only two hewnholds remain inhabited: Ondrathum beneath the White Spine, and the recently rediscovered Nar-Lodahr deep beneath the Hunteron Mountains.

How much of the network is still open is unknown, as is how much of the Underways the fiendish hordes have corrupted. It has been centuries since the fiends invaded the surface, but the fact that it takes the fiendish hordes some time to break through to the surface (and the fact that they have to break through instead of just emerging) suggests that most of the official entrances are well-sealed. Entering the Underways is very risky, and there are many legends of travelers going missing in the hills near these entrances.

### Ondrathum

The entrance at the dwarven city of Ondrathum is also sealed, and no one is allowed to pass, though the gate is opened on occasion for one of the following reasons:

* People who have been granted access or authorized expeditions.
* Regular operations conducted by Ondrathum's army.
* New members of the Legion of the Dead who venture into the Underways, where they spend their last days fighting the fiendish hordes in hopes of redemption.
* Criminals punished with exile to the Underways, which is considered to be certain death and one of the most severe punishments.

### Travel

Travel within the Underways is difficult. Many of the caverns leading down have been partially filled in with rock and earth, either on purpose to keep what is down there from getting to the surface, or through neglect and the passage of time. Many smaller tunnels intersect with themselves, making navigation even more difficult, but sometimes allowing blockages or other obstacles to be avoided. There is air available even in the deepest portions, as the dwarven craftsmen that built the roads created an intricate duct system to supply it. Natural light however does not reach the Underways so molten rock, channels of magma, slow-burning torches that have been burning for centuries, and other forms of technological illumination are used to provide light. The intersections have dwarven runes carved into walls, which may indicate directions.

Along the network of passages are abandoned way-stations and forts, as well as the empty ruins of hewnholds lost to the fiendish hordes.

In the more ancient parts of the Underways, the walls and floor are covered with a substance of oil and filth; a visible indication of the taint, spread even to the rock itself, by the fiendish hordes that now inhabit the Underways.