Deep Pit

The Deep Pit is a deep and ominous pit at the centre of Vansreik that runs down to unfathomable depths. For centuries it has drawn the most ambitious, courageous and cunning people of the realm.¹

The dungeon beneath the city

The Deep Pit is a vast dungeon beneath the city, home to many mysteries and magical items. It holds the ruins of the old City of Mortenox, in its day one of the most magically prominent cities, and it is the main reason for Vansreik's booming trade in magical items.² A magical lake lies within it. The wizard Cherrybell Bellwater, who hopes to mass-produce magical scrolls, plans to use the lake to make an ink that can survive the process of the magical printing press she has in mind.³

Tickets

Entry to the Deep Pit is regulated by the noble houses of Vansreik. The right to enter, commonly called a Ticket, is a sought-after resource among the city's mercenary companies, and the mission orders needed to go down are issued only to its licensed companies. House Von Rain, as the current rulers of the city, has the right to issue the largest number of Tickets.⁴

Through its close ties with the noble houses, the Eagle Brigade holds a substantial number of Tickets, and trading them alone brings a large part of the guild's income.⁵ Turnip Bellwater of the Shortstack Stranglers now owns more Tickets than anyone else and means to profit from them.⁶ Others hunt for them constantly: Jogard Di of the Warmongers still searches for Tickets himself, and Shaila Bellwater takes missions from nobles at reasonable discounts in return for Tickets.⁷

Expeditions

Going down the pit is perilous. The Eagle Brigade's first Ticket came when its founder, Donald Whent, pulled strings and asked favours of the city's noble houses. Seven went down the hatch and came out three weeks later, three of them missing, carrying chests of magic items, long-lost works of art and tomes of arcane secrets.⁸ Matias Cain was one of those seven; on that mission he banished a powerful fiend back to its home plane, letting the party plunder its centuries-old collection.⁹

The Shortstacks, as the Shortstack Stranglers were first called, were changed by their own first mission into the pit. Turnip and six of his cousins went down, found a previously undiscovered section of the old City of Mortenox and plundered it. They also fell upon a heavily armed dark elven caravan carrying magic items to a dark elven city ten days away, and met a noble dark elven high priestess who called on the forces of the Abyss. Turnip reached her with his strangling wire and held on until her last breath, and the dark elves fled. The Shortstacks came home with their plunder, and from then on they were known as the Shortstack Stranglers. Turnip still tells the story to anyone who will listen, especially before he goes into the pit.¹⁰

The Warmongers are well known for their success in the Deep Pit, though Gregor the Brute never joins the guild's missions there.¹¹

Plans for the pit

Before he founded the Eagle Brigade, Donald Whent strongly supported sending the Reik Storms into the Deep Pit to secure a few layers of the old city. He believes that widening the borders of Vansreik into the pit would let the city prosper by uncovering artifacts lost for ages, and he tries everything to persuade the noble families to found a smaller settlement inside it.⁸

Matias Cain holds a more radical view: he wishes to use the Deep Pit as a source of power. His remarks on what should be done with it went against the views of the previous archbishop, and he was sent away as a priest to a smaller local church.⁹

Drawn to the pit

The pit draws people to Vansreik. Holden Fain came to the city a few years ago, interested in its story.¹² Sazz’rast Saveer was sent by his family to gather information about it, and saw no better way to learn about it than to go in.¹³ Shaila Bellwater began taking missions inside it only last year and has been down just four times, but the feeling has her hooked.¹⁴ Wanguff Volter has his eyes on his first Ticket.¹⁵

Deep Pit missions are a favourite job of many of the city's mercenaries, among them Donald Whent, Matias Cain, Jogard Di, Turnip Bellwater, Jax, Sophia Greendale, Tamryn and Valakar, and Ulvar the Hunter sometimes goes down with other companies.¹⁶