[6] Mount Thahn

[Supremacy 3357]

Author/s: Lago

REGION 6: Mount Thahn

 

Bloody Research Notes: Mount Thahn

Day 1: Today I begin my trek to Mount Thahn, the colossal mountain in the centre of Athera. It is an intriguing target for scientific study as it is a frozen tundra, yet is surrounded by temperate to hot lands. This is a mystery I shall solve, and which will catapult me to recognition in the guild and that fool Havery will finally see me as a proper rival.

 

Day 3: Arrived at Mount Thahn. Was rudely thrown out of dwarven city built the upper slopes for attempting to enter the Remembrancer’s library. Apparently the dwarves take issue with having their doors broken open with axes, but they shouldn’t lock their knowledge away like that! Not from me, anyway. They can lock it away from Havery all they like.

 

Day 4: A little prospecting soon deduced why: the mountain stone is rich in thanhium, the heat-absorbing magical ore famously used by the Harbingers of Setherien when they invaded us in Anthos. The ore has many useful magical properties including use as a power source for enchantments. I will hire some miners at once!

 

Day 5: Unfortunately, setting up a thanhium mining operation could prove difficult. The dwarves have discovered and claimed the thanhium. All of it. They haven’t actually dug up but a foul smelling mountain dwarf informed me at swordpoint that it’s all theirs. Should I attempt to steal it from under their noses, they’ll likely respond by force of arms. I will search for a place where we could potentially mine the ore without them noticing.

 

Day 8: I discovered a cavern today. It seemed to warm as I went down, as if the thanhium were… missing. Surely there should be more of it as one goes down? It’s as if it’s already been dug up, but the dwarves live on top of the mountain, not below it. I will venture deeper tomorrow.

 

Day 9: I discovered a huge door at the end of the cavern. It looks dwarven, but different, like it’s centuries of architectural development ahead. Could the dwarves have developed time travel and invaded the past? I wouldn’t put it past them. That being said, stealing their time machine and claiming it as my own invention… Forget beating Havery, this could send me right to the top! I must open this door.

Day 13: No luck opening the door.

 

Day 17: Still no luck opening the door. This sure is an low technology door for future dwarves.

 

Day 20: It has occurred to me that the future dwarf theory is, to put it as the orcs would, a load of skah. The door isn’t a future door, it’s an ancient one. Have the dwarves devolved? I could believe that, they must have lost their brilliance with their height. Still no luck opening the door, but I suppose we could tunnel around it. Heard what sounded like people skulking around.

Day 21: This discovery is remarkable. I can’t write it down for fears I will lose these notes and Havery will steal my discovery. We collapsed the tunnel we dug and I will hire a full expedition to loot this place. We need to get out quietly though. The dwarves are onto us. I’ve heard they can be so quiet that they can sne

 

*The journal stops abruptly here.*

ANCIENT VERSE

The boarman walked on the mountain high

To the altar they built long ago

He knew in his heart twas his time to die

For the shaman said it was so

 

But his heart did not race in fear

He knew why he must now go

Up on the slopes of the mountain high

To the altar they built long ago

 

Sick he was not, nor old in age

Barely past his twenty-first year

Yet he went to the altar to gods of rage

Of flame, fury, fire and fear.

 

He climbed upon the icy peak

The altar lay just ahead

It was time to discard this body weak

He would die but would not be dead

 

He carved the circle in frozen mud

In the center a dwarven bone

He marked the ring with elven blood

Intermixed with the thanhic stone

 

He struck the ring with his ancient spear

And the altar lit in voidflame

The thanhium burned purple and clear

And thus over the mountains it came

 

Huge white teeth and huge black wings

Hellish thunder in flight

Archon of terror, devourer of kings

The dragon flew through the night

The boarman stood with spear in hand

As the mighty beast did near

He stood in thanhic ring of flame

His heart devoid of fear

 

The dragon swooped and in one sweep

Consumed the boarman whole

But this was not sign of boarman weak

For this battle was of the soul

 

The dragon writhed, its mind aflame

Two minds fought for control

The beast did falter in infinite pain

Conquered by boarman’s soul

 

Victorious he roared with fiery breath

His new wings took him to the sky

And then he tumbled and fell to his death

For boars know not how to fly

 

Mount Thahn is the great frozen mountain. Its frigid peaks stand apart from the temperate lands around it, and on its steps and ridges and beneath its surface the Dwarves of Urguan make their home.

Mount Thahn is named for the huge veins of thanhium beneath it. Thanhic ore absorbs heat, powering its many powerful yet dangerous magical properties, and any area with significant deposits of thanhium is trapped in an eternal winter in defiance of the climate around it. It is rumoured that in its deepest depths lies a Forgotten Dwarf thanhium mine similar to the cave of Khaz’Ardol in Anthos, but the Dwarves of Urguan have so far only scratched the surface of the mountain.

 

The Atheran mainland is mostly free of dragon roosts: they know better than to nest amongst the mortal races and most live either in secluded parts of the Uncharted (the wildlands) or out on the floating islands over the Abyss and are only seen when they fly over looking for food. At the peak of Mount Thahn is a dragon shrine and artifacts resembling those of the ancient Bohra. The historical implications of this remains unknown, but it could easily develop into a chain of events for the dwarven people.

 

(Moved to Mount Thahn) Forgotten Dwarf Varak City, Lago: “A Forgotten Dwarf city is built underground here. It is completely deserted but filled with fiendish traps. On the fifth and lowest level is a large chamber containing a floating, glittering red crystal, with the skeletal bodies of the city’s former residents around it. Next to it is a bookcase containing the last notes on it. (This is a new Varak, seeing as someone locked the last one up so that people couldn’t RP with it any more)”