Barakuir
(Deep Shanatar)
Lying under the west end of the Cloven Mountains in the Vilhon Reach, Barakuir was the original home of Clan Duergar. The kingdom was destroyed when illithids from the powerful realm of Oryndoll overran it and enslaved most of the occupants more than 7000 years before the start of Dalereckoning. The captive dwarves were bred into the psionic subrace known as the duergar. Although they later won their freedom and escaped illithid bondage, Barakuir never rose again. In 1101 DR, a nest of spellweavers on the run from a pod of beholders fled to this area from a site near Saelmur. These creatures still lurk in the ancient dwarven tunnels, and occasionally more beholders come looking for them. Meanwhile, several different duergar factions across the Underdark look at their old home longingly. Recently, ambitious duergar from Dunspeirrin have been launching repeated forays to the caverns of Barakuir, as part of their ongoing war with gold dwarf crusaders from the Great Rift over control of the caverns of Deep Shanatar.
Drik Hargunen, the Runescribed Halls
(Upper Darklands)
Most duergar towns are filled with the clamor of industry and the roaring of forges, but Drik Hargunen is a grim and silent place. No person who cannot read both Undercommon and Dwarven is permitted to enter the city, because every available inch of wall space in the entire series of delved halls is covered with writing. Most of the writing is nonmagical, but significant portions are inscribed with rune magic. Those who can't tell the difference are a threat to themselves and others.
Drik Hargunen (large city): Magical; AL LE; 40,000 gp limit; Assets 48,694,000 gp; Population 16,555 free; Isolated (duergar 90%, derro 6%, human 2%, rock gnome 1%, svirfneblin 1%); 7,792 slaves (goblin 59%, orc 23%, grimlock 15%, ogre 3%).
Authority Figure: Deep Scrivener Gain Hammerblows (LE male duergar cleric 14 of Laduguer), kader of the Runescribed Hall of Laduguer's Graving.
Important Characters: Berna Emberstoker (LN female duergar cleric 12 of Laduguer), Master of the Library; Ulfgang Swordmaker (NE male duergar fighter 6/wizard 9), leader of Clan Thaghulmar, the largest and most powerful clan of the city; Werrik Bonehand (CE male grimlock fighter 10), slave gladiator who plans to incite an uprising against the duergar.
Runescribes: About 200 of the duergar are runescribes - 3rd-level or higher clerics of Laduguer. The members of this temple hierarchy also serve as the bureaucrats who run the city's affairs, and they can provide a potent concentration of magical might in times of war.
Graven Servants: The Deep Scrivener is served by an elite order of duergar monks known as the Graven Servants of Laduguer. This special guard numbers 44 gray dwarf monks of at least 4th level.
Stone Guards: The army of Drik Hargunen numbers about 300 duergar and 1,100 slave troops, although musters of the city's clans could quickly add more than 2,000 skilled duergar fighters to the city's strength if needed.
Lying hidden under the Orsraun Mountains near Turmish, at a depth of about 2 miles, Drik Hargunen is a forbidding temple city devoted to the worship of Laduguer, the patron of the gray dwarves. Not everyone who lives here worships Laduguer, but most at least venerate the Gray Protector. The leader of the temple, and therefore the surrounding city, is called the Deep Scrivener, though this individual actually rules through a religious caste known as the runescribes. The temple city is an important trademeet for nearby folk of all, races, since several important caravan routes pass close to the city. Dunspeirrin is much lower down and less accessible, so merchants of the Upperdark prefer to do business in Drik Hargunen when possible instead of venturing into Dunspeirrin's depths.
Non-duergar in Drik Hargunen are few, but they live unmolested as long as they follow the rules. The runescribes don't expect anyone to worship Laduguer without understanding how or why they do so. False piety is not welcome within Drik Hargunen, and even Moradin's Worshipers are more welcome than those who lie about their devotion to Laduguer - though Moradin's worshipers are not very welcome.
Runescribes chisel runes onto every available surface, working continuously to record thousands of holy scriptures and writings in the very wails of the city. The script is frequently embellished with ornate pictures. Ceilings are never higher than 15 feet and occasionally as low as 5 feet to allow runescribes to reach the necessary runes. Dangerous runes are usually accompanied by warnings to avoid the area or directions on when and how to touch the rune in case of emergency.
About half the magic runes in the city affect areas close by. The rest trigger spell effects at a distance (many near the city gates). A small percentage, located near the central library, even trigger spells and effects at strategic locations outside the city. Only the runescribes understand the full complexity and placement of every inscription, but all residents know how to read and activate basic runes for common defense.
Because of the great expense these duergar have put into magical protection, the standing army is quite small. Most of its ranks are filled by slave conscripts who are given shoddy weapons and sent to clog avenues of attack in times of war. Conventional, nonmagical poison gas traps also surround the city at some distance, providing defense against magically resistant enemies.
Slavery is legal in Drik Hargunen, but most slaves are not allowed within the city for literacy reasons. Grimlocks are favored slaves, since they can never accidentally trigger a rune by sight, though they can still set some off by touch. Slaves and giant vermin (particularly steeders) are kept penned in nearby caverns outside the city gates.
Cooks and brewers in Drik Hargunen typically use poisons as spices and flavors in their food. The city is famous among duergar throughout the Underdark for the subtlety and flavor of its food and drink. The duergar themselves are immune to the substances in their food, but the residents take particular glee in feeding Drik Hargunen gourmet specialties to non-duergar and watching them succumb to the toxins. Diplomatically speaking, the runescribes find the Drik Hargunen cuisine a useful tool that allows them to feign anger over refusals of hospitality when they wish to do so.
Brief History
In 434 DR, Hargun Anvilbreaker, a prominent cleric of Laduguer, led a large group of zealots out of the great city of Dunspeirrin to found a temple city - a place where the worship of Laduguer (not Deep Duerra) would forevermore be first in the hearts of the gray dwarves. Dedicated to the written preservation of duergar history and devotion to the gray dwarf gods, the temple and monastery of this new city soon attracted a burgeoning community of gray dwarf craftsfolk. These dwarves came to build the temples and defenses, and then they stayed to enjoy the safety of the fortress they had made. Drik Hargunen has avoided open warfare with its parent city of Dunspeirrin, which is quite noteworthy for duergar. Usually, two duergar cities within a few days' march of each other battle until one or the other is subjugated. But now that Hargun himself is long gone, the city is slowly growing into a real rival for Dunspeirrin's trade and influence.
Despite the clarity of Hargun's original vision, Drik Hargunen's purpose has drifted over the last few decades. The city's merchant clans and crafters' guilds wield more power than ever before, and more than a few of their members have suggested that secular rulers should govern the city, leaving the runescribes free to attend their sacred duties. Deep Scrivener Hammerblows is incensed at such suggestions, and he makes frequent calls for renewed devotion. The runescribes beneath him are much more involved with day-to-day administration than with evangelism, and their hearts are more tuned to treasure and personal pleasure than piety.
Important Sites
Drik Hargunen is carved from the walls of a twisting chasm. Its halls stand one on top of another, like uneven spokes radiating from a central wheel. Huge masonry reservoirs forming the city's outer walls are rigged to unleash devastating floods at need.
The Central Library
Dead center in the network of low halls that make up Drik Hargunen is a large space containing hundreds of sliding shelves, packed tightly together. Each shelf contains thousands of metal plates, hand-etched with duergar history and religious literature. The city contains several libraries, but this is the main repository for the written word.
Students of history are often surprised and fascinated when they read the duergar version of the last ten thousand years of Underdark life, including alternative histories of Deep Shanatar and much information about illithid behavior. All this information is etched by hand into these metal pages in ornate, formal Dwarven.
Outsiders are allowed to conduct research within the library, but they must submit a written treatise of request in Dwarven specifying their interest and intent, and all materials may be handled only by runescribe librarians. Outsiders may look but not touch, and no materials are permitted to leave the library under any circumstances.
Slave Pens
Outside each of the two major gates and two minor entrances to Drik Hargunen are large rooms cut into the rock and divided into stalls. Each stall houses either a slave dormitory or a giant vermin pen. Slaves and vermin are considered roughly equal in status, so they are sometimes housed together, to the general detriment of the slaves.
These slaves mine for ore and jewels, work the city's outlying fungus fields, drill in defensive tactics and of course, tend to the vermin that the duergar use as pack animals and food. Only grimlocks are allowed into the city, and their hands are usually tied to whatever palette or wheelbarrow they are carrying to prevent accidental triggering of a rune.
Dunspeirrin, City of Sunken spires
(Middle Darklands)
One of the first cities founded by the duergar after they escaped their thraildom beneath the mind flayers, Dunspeirrin is an old and powerful city that dominates the Underdark for scores of miles in all directions. It lies beneath the Orsraun Mountains, carved into a thicket of massive stalactites that dangle high above a great subterranean chasm. Encompassing more than a thousand such dangling, hollowed-out speleothems, Dunspeirrin, (or "Underspires," as it is commonly known) is linked into a nigh-impregnable stronghold via a network of stone ledges and arching bridges. Four massive causeways link the city with apertures in the chasm walls.
The citizens of Dunspeirrin are first among the duergar in their mastery of psionics, the Invisible Art. Almost two thousand years ago, at the height of its power, Dunspeirrin was the realm of the duergar warrior-queen Duerra, who wrested the secrets of the mind from the gods of the mind flayers. Duerra earned divine ascension for her mighty deeds and wars of conquest, and she is still the special patron and protector of the city.
The City of Sunken Spires is one of the largest and wealthiest trade centers of the Underdark. Its citizens constantly seek slaves to fill the ranks of its armies and work in its mines. In addition to captured drow, svirfneblin, and shield dwarves, slavers of the Vilhon Reach and Dragon Coast send a steady stream of human slaves into the depths in exchange for duergar steel and gems.
Dunspeirrin's long-standing martial tradition was reignited by the return of Deep Duerra's avatar in the form of Dunspeirrin's Queen Mother and regent during the Time of Troubles. In the fourteen years since the Year of Shadows, the duergar armies of Dunspeirrin have clashed with the surface-dwelling shield dwarves of Ironfang Keep (this Campaign of Darkness continues fitfully even today), the illithids of Oryndoll, the drow of Undraeth (beneath the Aphrunn Mountains), and small communities of drow, shield dwarves, and svirfneblin beneath the Dragon Reach. The Steel Kingdom is now engaged in an ever-expanding war with gold dwarf crusaders intent on reclaiming the caverns of Deep Shanatar, and its forces may be dangerously overextended.
Fraaszummdin, Steederhome
(Middle Earthroot)
This small duergar settlement is renowned for its mastery of vermin and Underdark beasts of all sorts. The town is known as Steederhome because of its especially hardy and responsive steeder breeds, but the gray dwarves of Fraaszummdin also raise many other kinds of Underdark working creatures, including pack lizards, riding lizards, giant beetles, trained monstrous scorpions, and various breeds of deep rothé.
Fraaszummdin (large town): Conventional; AL N; 3,000 gp limit; Assets 462,300 gp; Population 1,124 free; isolated (duergar 96%, human 2%, half-orc 1%, hobgoblin 1%); 1,958 slaves (hobgoblin 49%, orc 39%, half-orc 9%, human 2%, ogre 1%).
Authority Figures: Deeplord Sobja Fraasz Verminwise (N female duergar fighter 6/druid 6/vermin keeper 3), leader of Clan Fraasz and therefore master of the city.
Important Characters: Cressen Hormyeth (NE male duergar aristocrat 3/ranger 7), chief of Clan Hormyeth; Mynthir Mithralbit (LE male duergar expert 4/fighter 6), chief of Clan Mithralbit.
Deeplord's Guard: fighter 8, fighter 7, ranger 6, cleric 6, fighter 5, warrior 5 (2), cleric 4, fighter 4 (2), warrior 4 (4), cleric 3 (3), fighter 3 (5), warrior 3 (5), fighter 2 (3), warrior 2 (14), fighter 1 (4), warrior 1 (16). The Deeplord's Guard serves as the city's constabulary and the personal guard of Sobja Fraasz. Its members are mounted on steeders when on duty.
Fraaszummdin proper is a compact community located about 4 miles under the Sunrise Mountains of northern Thay. But the town's influence spreads much farther than its boundaries, sprawling across seemingly endless tunnels and caverns to a depth of 8 miles, and extending out under the Endless Wastes. This area is called "the Wandering," and some duergar stay out there for months tending the town's livestock and training mounts for eventual sale. Fraaszummdin's steeders are renowned throughout the Earthroot. The city's stylized brand on such a creature is a virtual guarantee of quality and good breeding.
Though most residents of Fraaszummdin are evil, the citizens seem positively lighthearted compared to the grim-faced duergar of other communities. Their relative isolation from the worst of Underdark threats allows these gray dwarves to focus on the task of raising beasts of burden and mounts; rather than staying a jump ahead of their enemies. The closest Underdark community of any size is the Trun'zoyl'zl district of Undrek'Thoz under Thay, and the drow there seem willing to leave these duergar alone as long as they pay yearly tribute.
When threatened, every duergar in Fraaszummdin takes up arms, and trained giant vermin from the near Wandering are called in to protect the city. Attacking forces usually have to slog through miles of hostile monstrosities to even reach the city. As threatening as armored, angry duergar may be, a gauntlet of steeders, giant beetles, and huge monstrous scorpions can wear down even the toughest soldiers. More often, thieves or raiders try to steal livestock from the Wandering. Such raids are not uncommon, and gray dwarf trainers and breeders are expected to be able to take care of themselves, since help can be hours away.
Clan Fraasz, the oldest and most prestigious of the city's duergar clans, has dwindled over the years and is now little more than a figurehead role in the leadership of the city. Today, two larger and wealthier clans dominate Fraaszummdin: Clan Hormyeth and Clan Mithralbit. Clan Hormyeth is richer and better connected with Underdark clients, but Clan Mithralbit is generally thought to raise superior creatures. The two clans feud constantly, although this conflict usually manifests as a sullen, spiteful rivalry.
Visitors to the city are expected to take one side or the other early on, and most do so inadvertently by simply approaching a random duergar for business. Both clans pay close attention to the loyalties of newcomers, and neither is above intimidating or attacking newcomers who are about to strike a deal with the rival clan.
As a member of neither clan, Sobja Verminwise interferes as little as possible. But when the Hormyeth-Mithralbit rivalry gets out of hand and forces her to take action, she is swift and draconian, usually commanding either exile or death for the miscreants. Even the most ardent supporters of the clans have learned that arranging vermin fights in a neutral clan's training space or holding a skirmish in the Wandering is more prudent than trying the Deeplord's temper.
Slavery is legal and commonly practiced in Fraaszummdin. Slaves have a genuine chance to buy their freedom over 20- or 30-year periods (a relatively short time for duergar, but less so for the slaves). Those who do so occasionally stay on afterward as free citizens of Fraaszummdin, since their vermin-handling skills are most useful in the place where they learned them.
Brief History
The duergar of Fraaszummdin have slowly migrated eastward over the last 2,000 years in search of suitable space for raising their steeders. Each move usually brought them in contact with some other Underdark community, whose encroachment made raising the creatures problematic. Each time the city has moved - from beneath Amn to Cormyr, the Dalelands, Impiltur, and Thesk - it has left behind a small remnant too stubborn to move again. Thus, villages and small towns of duergar who raise steeders and riding lizards dot the Middledark all along the town's line of travel.
Fraaszummdin has been in its current location for nearly 350 years. At this point, the only thing the Hormyeth and Mithralbit clans can agree on is their desire to stay put - no matter what.
The Wandering
Fraaszummdin has few noteworthy sites other than the clan strongholds, but it is surrounded by an extensive patrolled area. This vaguely defined region extends for tens of miles in all compass directions around the city, and as deep as 4 miles below it. Tunnels and eaves claimed in the Wandering are often hundreds of feet long and wide, and most are gated off as corrals and paddocks. The duergar expand promising caverns into enormous training spaces, excavating stables, tack rooms, and trainer sleeping quarters off the edges.
The first sign that a traveler has reached the edge of Fraaszummdin's territory is usually a stout metal gate bolted into the rock around a tunnel mouth. Opening such a gate without hailing a trainer is not only impolite but also dangerous. Verminous creatures usually know their trainers, but they attack other creatures in the training space without delay. Killing one, even in self-defense, carries a fine of at least 1,000 gp to reimburse the owner for losses.
Gracklstugh, City of Blades
(Middle Northdark)
Seat of the duergar Deepkingdom, Graeklstisgh is the strongest gray dwarf realm in the Northdark and arguably in all of the Underdark. The ceiling is perpetually covered with thick, reeking smoke that rises from the city's countless forges and smelters. The duergar smiths who live here turn out quality weapons and armor of all kinds. Most of their wares are for sale, and their largest markets are other duergar and drow.
Gracklstugh (metropolis): Conventional; AL LE; 100,000 gp limit; Assets 200,340,000 gp; Population 26,390 free; Mixed (duergar 86%, derro 9%, durzagon 2%, orog 2%, stone giant 1%); 13,678 slaves (goblin 39%, shield dwarf 29%, ore 19%, svirfneblin 9%, human 4%).
Authority Figures: King Horgar Steelshadow IV (LE male duergar fighter 9/wizard 9); Diinakvil Rylafyrn (CE male derro sorcerer 15), derro savant leader.
Important Characters: Durna Thuldark (LN female duergar expert 8/fighter 4), head of the merchant council; Grim Herald Morsidin Gboomstorm (NE male duergar cleric 15 of Laduguer), high priest of Laduguer; Stonespeaker Hgraan (N male stone giant cleric 7 of Skoracus Stonebones), Stonespeaker to the Deep King; Themberchaud (CE male adult red dragon), the Wyrmsmith of Gracklstugh.
The Stoneguard: King Horgar's royal guard consists of almost 500 veteran duergar soldiers, most of them duergar fighters of at least 3rd level. Each of the city's clan lairds can also muster additional forces when needed.
Below the Evermoors at a depth of 5 miles, the bustling duergar city of Gracklstugh straddles a narrow rift known as Laduguer's Furrow. The north end of the settlement is a pebbly beach on the Darklake. Gracklstugh proper is a huge city, but its various outlying districts and fungus fields occupy the tunnels for miles around, pushing the total population of the Deepkingdom to around 90,000 duergar, plus another 60,000 slaves.
Like other major Underdark communities, Gracklstugh is strong in trade. The duergar usually prefer to carry their wares out to markets elsewhere rather than welcome external traders, so caravans containing top-quality weapons, armor, and other= metal goods constantly leave the city for Menzoberranzan, Mantol-Derith, Skullport, Sshamath, and Ooltul. The City of Blades earned its name because of its reputation for quality weapons; so no one complains to the duergar's faces about the markup for transportation costs.
Gracklstugh's magical defenses are weak, but the Deepkingdom boasts the best army in the Northdark - thousands of trained veterans armed and armored with superior dwarven steel. Tarngardt Steelshadow, Horgar's predecessor, was no interested in expanding through conquest, but Horgar has chosen to set a different course. He took advantage of Lolth's silence by launching a mighty invasion of Menzoberranzan.
At first glance, Graeklstugh seems like Hell's own foundry. The main cavern is dominated by colossal stalagmites that have been hollowed out and converted into great stinking smelters. The city glows with firelight and the ruddy yellow gleam of hot iron at all times, and the air is filled with hissing steam, reeking smoke, and the endless clanging of hammers. The folk of Gracklstugh practice many trades besides smithwork, but the heart of the city is the working of metal.
The red dragon Themberchaud, known as the Wyrmsmith of Gracklstugh, keeps the forges of the city hot with his fiery breath. An order of duergar cleric/psions tends to the red dragon and guards his hoard while he slithers around the city, blasting the forges to life with his flame. In return for this magnanimous service, Themberchaud's hoard is regularly fattened, and he feasts on ill-tempered slaves.
Gracklstugh is a city of endless toil. Each trade or craft practiced in the city is the domain of a specific clan. Important trades such as foundry work are the province of several competing clans, but other clans working at less important (or necessary) tasks often consist of a few dozen craftsfolk at best. The families that govern each clan comprise the city's nobility, and the leader of a clan is known as a laird. Unlike the drow Houses, duergar clans do not engage in endless vendettas and schemes of advancement; gray dwarves who find themselves at the bottom of the pecking order tend to resign themselves to their fate or work harder to advance, rather than plotting to pull down their betters.
The power in Gracklstugh lies somewhere with the lairds of the great clans (particularly the merchant clans), the throne and the scheming derro savants that live within the city. Horgar intends to take up the reins of rulership with a firm, unwavering grasp, and reclaim the power that his grandfathers wielded in bygone years. Naturally, the great lairds and the derro have no wish to see him succeed.
Brief History
As the overkingdom of Deep Shanatar crumbled beneath Amn and Tethyr, dwarves of all kinds moved north. Many of these were gray dwarves who had escaped illithid thralldom and fled Oryndoll. The city of Gracklstugh was founded as the first major duergar settlement in the North in -3717 DR. The industry and warlike ways of the gray dwarves allowed them to stake their claim on the excellent site, with easy access to the Darklake.
Gracklstugh grew rapidly into a major city. In -3392 DR, King Horgar Steelshadow II declared his sovereignty over all duergar communities in the Northdark and took the first steps toward forging the Deepkingdom. Although many outlying duergar clans resisted Graeklstugh, Steelshadow's armies overpowered each such outpost and brought it into the fold.
The Deepkingdom of the duergar has endured for four and a half millennia, sometimes united and aggressive beneath a strong king, other times weak and divided by clan struggles. For the past few centuries, the Deepkingdom has been slowly retreating, and the duergar kings have pulled their reach back to the small area surrounding Gracklstugh itself.
The recent death of King Tarngardt Steelshadow and the accession of his grandson, Horgar Steelshadow IV, has signaled a bold shift in the city's fortunes. Publicly, Tarngardt had balanced the Council of Lairds, the Council of Savants (powerful derro savants); Clan Caingorm (a stone giant clan that has traditionally held the king's ear), and the Merchant's Council against each other - an arrangement geared to benefit the Deepkingdom. In secret, however, the Council of Savants was controlling the old king and several of his lairds through bribes, threats, and enchantments.
Thorough as they were, the savants discovered (too late) that they had put too little effort into manipulating the king's grandson, Horgar. Horgar did not fall for the savants' flattery, and he resisted their efforts to charm him. Worse yet, he created a power base of his own by purging the corrupt Stone Guard and installing loyal captains and soldiers in the king's own guard. Once he had secured his own survival, Horgar had his grandfather discreetly assassinated and ascended to the throne. Now that he is king. Horgar plans to rid the Deepkingdom of the savants entirely and at least expel, if not kill; all the derro in Gracklstugh. The savants have realized their gross miscalculation, and they are even now plotting to remove Horgar before he can do any more harm.
Meanwhile, the Council of Lairds is split. Several key lairds remain under the sway of the savants, but loyalty to the crown runs deep. If the king forces them to choose sides, the true number who would choose fealty and face the consequences of derro threats is unknown. The giants of Clan Cairngorm are unswervingly loyal to the crown, but their leader, Hgraan, personally dislikes Horgar for his ruthless ambition. Some of the giants suspect that Horgar arranged Tarngardt's death, and the new king neither confirms nor denies such rumors.
Lolth's silence and the evident weakness of Menzoberranzan to the north have provided Horgar with an excellent opportunity to divert attention from his politicking with an external war. The king figures that a successful campaign against the drow will provide him with the glory and plunder needed to secure his throne forever. If the duergar attack on Menzoberranzan should falter, Horgar plans to expose the secret plotting of the derro and fix the blame for defeat on them as the prelude to a terrible purge.
King's Knife
Gracklstugh's soldiers carry a variety of weapons, but each carries a short sword with a serrated edge and the likeness of the king cast on the pommel. Though much longer than a knife, this sword is called a king's knife. According to the Stone Guard tradition, a duergar soldier must carry his king's knife at all times and surrender it to the king on demand. Failure to do either is a grave dishonor.
As a sign of his laird's favor, a particularly heroic duergar captain or champion is sometimes awarded a magic king's knife, which has the following properties:
King's Knife: In the hands of a gray dwarf, this +2 short sword grants two additional uses per day each of enlarge person and invisibility, for a total of three uses of each ability per day.
Moderate transmutation; CL 6th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, enlarge person, invisibility, creator must be duergar; Price 13,170 gp; Cost 6,740 gp + 514 XP.
Important Sites
Visitors to Gracklstugh most often arrive by boat, landing in the Darklake district. Several inns, taverns, and businesses catering to travelers can be found here, as well as dismal marketplaces for duergar wares. The gray dwarves do not permit folk of other races to venture any deeper into the city without a sizable escort.
Laduguer's Furrow
This rift breaks the city into northern and southern districts. Nearly 200 feet deep, the rift has a packed gravel floor and extends roughly 1/4 mile beyond the main grotto of the city in both directions. Dwellings are carved into the sides of the rift, and wide ramps lead to-the bottom from the main level of the city.
The eastern section of the rift is the city's derro quarter. Almost all of Gracklstugh's derro congregate here, generally keeping to themselves. The savants have their own secret passages leading to the Underdark beyond the city, and derro can come or go by these routes as they please.
Cairngorm Cavern
This remote section of the city, set back several hundred feet from the main cavern, houses the stone giants of Clan Cairngorm. Their dwellings are spartan but suited to their needs. Led by the strict Stonespeaker Hgraan, the giants are loyal to the Deep King and do not fear the derro.
King Horgar has taken to visiting Cairngorm Cavern twice every tenday to confer with the Stonespeaker, though his visits rarely last more than an hour. Their relationship is cool, but the amount of time they spend together seems suspicious to the derro.
Darklake Docks
These busy docks are used primarily by flat-bottomed rafts made of zurkhwood and lacquered puffball floats. Some of these ramshackle barges are powered by mindless undead, such as skeletons or zombies, that are bolted to the oars or paddlewheels and used as tireless necromantic engines. The rafts are ungainly, but each cart carry tons of trade goods, and the duergar send out shipments with pure dwarven consistency.
