Iltkazar

Though many suspect the truth about the king, none know it for

certain. King Mith is actually Mithbarazak, a silver great wyrm

who came to the dwarves decades ago to help them guard their

immense knowledge. Mithbarazak may also have had other, more

subtle reasons to watch over the last kingdom of Deep Shanatar,

such as needing an extremely safe place to keep his body during

his travels in the Astral Plane. When the dragon sleeps, he travels

astrally and has frequent audiences with powerful extraplanar

creatures. But twenty years ago, his astral form was captured by

a servant of Tiamat. Mithbarazak has been imprisoned on the

Astral Plane ever since, and he cannot free himself.

When Deep Shanatar ruled most of the southwestern Upperdark,

Iltkazar was a relatively small but important part of the

overkingdom. This subkingdom was the center of scholarship

and smithcraft in the realm. When the overkingdom collapsed

after the Kin Clashes against the duergar, Iltkazar survived, but

its citizens continued to fight off assaults from beholders, drow,

ground each time.

In 66 DR, a dying king and greatly reduced holdings made

for bleak prospects. On his deathbed, the last dwarven king of

Iltkazar named Mith Barak the Clanless his successor. Since his

ascension to the throne more than 1300 years ago, Mith Barak

has led the city wisely and secured the kingdom’s borders. Unfortunately,

his long sleeps do not allow the dwarves to contemplate

any great new projects for decades at a time. The council is

absorbed in fine interpretations of their sleeping king’s dictates,

and its members are fixated on maintaining the city rather than

taking initiative.

Every time the king awakens, he spends much of the next

twenty-five years overseeing attempts to rebuild the city to the

point where he left it seventy-five years earlier. King Mith has

never complained about or even addressed that problem, in the

same way that no one ever questions his mysterious seventyfive-

year sleeps. In his waking years, he rules justly and wisely.

In his sleeping years, the council rules in good faith but with

undue legalism.

In 1367 DR, the unthinkable occurred: King Mith did not

awaken at the appointed time. He continued to sit, unmoving,

despite his followers’ attempts to rouse him. For several years,

the dwarves argued over the appropriate course of action. At

last, just this year, some of the dwarves have become sufficiently

desperate in the absence of their king to act. One faction, which

calls itself the Unfurling Movement, has decided on a radical

course of action: seeking help from the surface to rouse their

king. The entire Regency Council hotly opposes this expedition,

and some have likened it to treason. Nonetheless, the leader

of the movement, Joshiah Stonefriend (NG male human Expert

6), plans to appeal for help on the surface with or without the

Council’s approval.

Most of Iltkazar’s surroundings consist of ruined dwarven holds.

Each time that waves of enemies have surged closer to the city,

the dwarves have retreated, abandoning their holdings.

Iltkazaran patrols still appear in these areas, but they don’t have

the numbers or military might to actually occupy them, so all

kinds of other Underdark denizens are free to roam in their

abandoned halls.

These tunnels are nearly the last of Iltkazar’s defended holdings

outside the city itself. Located about 2 miles from the city, these

mostly empty hizagkuur mines provide the easiest access to

Iltkazar from the surface or the west. The dwarves patrol these

passages rigorously and construct deadly and clever traps to discourage

unwanted visitors, so coming through this area without

a guide is a foolhardy proposition. Of late, patrols of gold

dwarves from the Great Rift and gray dwarves from Dunspeirrin

have become increasingly frequent visitors in this area, and

clashes between these two groups threaten full-scale warfare at

Iltkazar’s doorstep.

Though the drow in the region tend to stay in Guallidurth these

days, spiders of all sorts thrive in the outposts and strongholds

left over from the Night Wars in the Omlarandin Mountains,

directly above and to the north of Iltkazar. About once a year,

the dwarves send a few regiments up to beat them back, but far

more spiders infest the area than the dwarves could possibly

hope to eradicate.