Demirkapı amethyst mines

The Demirkapı amethyst mines are mines of the dwarven kingdom of DağAltı in Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles"). They were the main source of black amethyst, which left the kingdom through the fortress of Gazad. The Demirkapı house held them, while the Demirsakal worked some of the kingdom's iron and ruby mines.^{1 2}

The closing

The old dwarf Deligöz said that the mines had been closed about twenty years ago, in an operation in which he had taken part. The duergar fought them there, and although duergar usually fled from the dwarves, that time they threw away their lives as if they feared someone else more; he had suspected a drow or human wizard behind them, but no one believed him. Since then no new amethyst had come out. He warned the companions of the duergar's natural invisibility, and remembered that when the dwarves wrote the runes of closing, the writing seemed to flow and change and a whistling came from within; he had put it down to his own clouded head.^{2 3 4 5}

An officer of Gazad told the companions that the mines lay within DağAltı, that much of the kingdom had been abandoned for want of people, and that the mine records were incomplete; they might have passed to the Demirsakal or remained in abandoned shafts.^{6 7}

The traveller Hermes had been there before. Many adventurers, he said, had died in those mines looking for precious materials and knowledge left over from the war. While fighting there, he and his comrades had found the space around them changing, until they stood at the edge of a cliff and a friend fell. In an unguarded duergar post they had found scrolls in a language they could not read; a comrade who began to translate them on watch noted that there were strange things in them, and died that night, and Hermes woke to a whistling breath.^{8 9 10}

The expedition

Guided by Hermes, the companions left the military town behind Gazad, passed the official road posts and went down into the tunnels. The first day passed quietly; on the second they found pit traps dug no more than a day or two before. At the second night's camp invisible attackers came upon them. They proved to be scouts sent to find the company and warn duergar warriors nearby, and their poison was meant to keep wounds from healing rather than to kill.^{11 12 13 14 15}

On a longer road around, they found eight armoured duergar lately killed, with no dead or weapons from the other side, and then a broader footprint. When they broke open the sealed gallery, they saw a red mark on the stone and signs of recent tampering. Inside, among many dead duergar, a slender, handsome man was wiping his weapon; he introduced himself as the sender of letters they had received, and said that duergar patrols passed about every six hours.^{16 17 18 19}

A first search of eight or nine hours, some ten kilometres of galleries, found nothing. The black amethyst had been taken out to the last crumb, while veins of gold and silver were left in the rock. At the end of the fifth day Hermes noticed an old wall built across a passage after the mine was cut, and Kemp broke a way through with a pick.^{20 21}

The walled ruin

Beyond the wall lay rusted iron fittings, moss-covered remains of dwarf size, iron bars, pressure traps that drove spikes from the walls, and rotted doors over old mechanisms. Among the finds were a short sword that looked like stone, an armour-like amulet with still mechanisms, and an emblem likened to old amethyst ornaments. The remains of a broken book in the hands of a dwarf-sized skeleton were joined again by magic, showing the letters XXX on its spine, though its text did not return.^{22 23 24 25}

On a stone plinth in the middle hung jet-black chains from three metal stakes, with a skull floating above them. When a companion reached for other remains a breathless whistle sounded, and old armoured skeleton warriors rose. A statue with a broken head had one hand open as if to hold a weapon, and the stone-like sword, which would not leave its bearer's hand, proved to be the key to it. A large journal held dated records of duergar research in that place.^{26 27 28 29}

Spoiler: The research journalGösterAçık ettiği: Sürgün Günlükleri #41 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

The journal told of Vilfort, already a wizard of the school of enchantment, who through the duergar's experiments gained mental powers beyond those of ordinary people and a lengthened life. The duergar had wanted to make him a weapon, but control slowly passed to him; they came to take him for a god and set him free, and he left about twenty years ago. The companions concluded that this former Archon wizard was the Puppeteer. The journal also recorded wars with the dwarves, but did not say why the black amethyst had been gathered to the last crumb.^{30 31}