POI Name: The Ashen Mine
Credits: Image 1 / Image 2 /
Type: Mines / City
Position: Deep within the Ashen Lake region in the province of Pestilence Hollow. It sprawls beneath the lakebed, hidden from the barren surface above.
Consolidation Thread: N/A
Architect: The Eshkin as per the edicts of the Council of Thirteen
Description: The Ashen Mine is a sprawling subterranean city-mine complex hidden within the bedrock of the Ashen Lake. The city pulses with the eerie, green glow of Doomstone crystals, embedded throughout the tunnels and caverns. Blackened, jagged rock formations jut from every surface, interwoven with a complex network of rusting metal walkways, gnawing pits, and dark forges where the Eshkin slaves work endlessly. Diseased fumes hang thick in the air, twisting reality and feeding the ratmen's mad frenzy to harvest the valuable Doomstone from the veins that run deep beneath the lake. Overhead, looming stalactites resemble the fangs of some ancient beast, and echoes of distant machinery fill the air, creating a constant dissonant hum. The Ashen Mine is both a place of brutal industry and festering corruption. Rarely do outsiders enter, but within it, all the vermin's nightmarish technologies and alchemical horrors are devised, constantly spilling pollution into the lake above and the hollowed rock around them.
ATTRIBUTES
- Defence: High
- Defensive Elements:
- Labyrinthine tunnel network to disorient invaders
- Doomstone-infused barricades and traps
- Guarded by mutated Eshkin beasts and rat warriors
- Defensive Elements:
- Offence: High
- Offensive Elements:
- Doomstone-fueled weaponry
- Monstrous Eshkin creatures lurking within paired with stationed ratmen armies
- Offensive Elements:
- Durability: Low
- Scarcity: Unique
- TvM Requirement: 4vX
STRENGTHS
Doomstone Abundance: The Ashen Mine holds a vast reservoir of Doomstone, a rare and potent resource, making it invaluable for Eshkin alchemy, corruption, and weaponry.
Industrial Efficiency: Eshkin engineers and slave laborers work relentlessly. This supplies nearby Eshkinforces with a steady flow of weapons, armor, and corrupted provisions, solidifying the Ashen Mine as an invaluable logistics hub in the province.
WEAKNESSES
Corrosive Environment: Prolonged exposure to the Doomstone-tainted air and water weakens even the Eshkin inhabitants over time.
Poor Structural Integrity: The mine’s twisted corridors are prone to collapse due to continuous excavation and Doomstone-extraction.
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
The Ashen Mine’s origins date back centuries when it was first a modest dwarven outpost known for small yet rich mineral veins, hidden deep within the eerie caverns beneath Ashen Lake. The dwarves, initially uninterested in the seemingly desolate lake, later discovered traces of a mysterious mineral Doomstone, that subtly warped the stone it touched. Suspecting it might be a source of vast power, they began experimenting with it. However, the corrosive fumes and odd mutative effects on workers led them to abandon further excavation, leaving the mines barely touched and sealed away.
Generations later, the Eshkin Hegemony of Esh unearthed rumors of the dwarven Doomstone outpost buried beneath Ashen Lake. Krathor the Wicked, leading the ratmen's invasion, seized the lake and razed the surface settlements, claiming the caverns below. Here, the rats found a treasure trove of raw Doomstone veins twisting through the bedrock. The council saw this as an omen from the Horned Rat himself, marking the site as a sacred stronghold. They promptly renamed it the Ashen Mine and designated it as a vital resource and ritual site for the Eshkin.
Under the councils command, the Ashen Mine grew into a symbol of vermin conquest and industry. The city expanded into a sprawling network of mines, alchemical laboratories, and slave pits, all fueled by the supernatural energy of Doomstone. Over time, Ashen Lake’s waters darkened as toxic fumes from the mine seeped into it, warping not only the land but tainting the entire province of Pestilence Hollow. The mine’s establishment marked the first true expansion of Eshkin influence in the world, a foothold from which the Council of Thirteen plots further corruptions and conquests.
