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Notes from my stay with the Dwarves of Green Cavern.
9th day of the seventh moon of the twentieth year of Lord Gangtal’s rule, forever may it continue.
Unlike all other dwarven people I have spent time with, the Dwarves of Green Cavern are clean shaven. It was shocking to see the full face of a dwarf, they are very much like our own. Though I suppose that shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s just that one has come to think of dwarf faces as twice as long as they are on account of the beard. The jaws are wider and less defined than human’s on average but as with humans there is great variety within the population.
It is not only the beards that the Green Cavern Dwarves shave, they also tend to keep their hair at least tightly trimmed down, if not shaved as well.
“It just messes you about in the water.” Trensadale, my host for my stay here, tells me when I ask about it.
Local legend claims that these caverns were dry when their ancestors first settled in the area. A difficult claim to believe when you see it. Other than the thin strip of dry land ringing Black Lake, upon which the dwarves have built their city the whole place is underwater. However, I must grant there must be some truth to the statement, I have felt the stalagmites below the surface of the lake with my own two hands. By my best estimations they demonstrate the same construction patterns of those formed on dry land. It is a processes that would be impossible to replicate in an aquatic environment. Despite this, there is no one within living memory nor any indication in the earliest writings in their archives, that anyone remembers such a time.
Despite the unusual living conditions the Green Cavern Dwarves are dwarves, and dwarves of any stripe are born builders. The Green Cavern Dwarves have devised a complex system of “bubbles” throughout their submerged cave system. These bubbles create pockets of air that let them swim through these caverns to where they collect precious stones and metals. The mining processes is quite different underwater, and it takes them a very long time to get anything out. Which is why, as I'm sure anyone reading this must be aware, the Green Cavern Dwarves don't export much of either. The most important resource for trade here is the Green Powder, for which the cavern gets its name. It is said to cure almost any ailment. Our scientists have attempted to study this powder and there is great debate about whether or not it is derived from stone or plants. When I came here I was of the opinion that it was a plant. Those who insist on stone ignore much scientific data on their blind assumption that no dwarven society would be farmers. However I am now unsure what possibly could be grown in this unusual environment. I had thought it to be some kind of lichen perhaps, that grew on the damp cave walls. But the cave walls are not damp, they are drenched and there is no sun to feed them. Part of my mission in these parts was to see if I could learn the secrets of this mysterious medicine, but I felt no closer to discovering any answers.
On my last day here Mordunar, the leader of these dwarves agreed to allow me to see the place where the powder comes from, under the condition that I tell no one of what I have seen, nor endeavor to bring anyone else to the location it is taken from. He need not have worried, I would never be able to navigate the underground tunnels on my own.
We surface-dwellers, as the dwarves call us, have little understanding of true darkness. Even on the blackest night there is still some ambient light from the stars that filters past the clouds. Wait long enough and eventually the eyes will adjust enough to see a little. There is no ambient light in the caves. The only light is the one you bring with you and no fire yet invented can last long submerged in a lake. They don’t even have lights in their bubbles, for fear it would turn the air sour.
Once we enter the water there is only darkness and once the first cavern is breached even the dim light of the city is gone. We follow a navigation system they devised made of rope with different knot patterns to direct us from one bubble to the next. Imagine, if you will, our city with its many roads that cross each other and amble out to the surrounding towns and you will begin to understand what their rope system is like. They learn these knots as children and for them it is as easy as navigating from Cherry Road to Oak Street. For me it is nothing but certain death.
We follow these ropes from bubble to bubble through the interminable darkness. I must admit the darkness and the knowledge that above me was only water and stone caused me a great deal of distress as I followed Mordunar through the caves. I considered more then once asking to turn back.
It was all worth it though.
As we passed through another tight stretch of cave I saw something I had begun to fear I would never see again. Light. As we swam the light grew brighter and brighter until we emerged, not in a bubble, but in a huge open air cavern where sometime long ago the roof had caved in, opening the space to the sky.
I have never been more happy to see the sun. I have never appreciated the beauty, the warmth, the richness of sunlight as much as I did at that moment. In the bright sunlight I could see for the first time that the water is not black as it appears in the caves, but the most startlingly bright blue and in the soft soil on the cavern floor, nurtured by the bright sun and fed by the mineral rich waters of the cave , grow hundreds of emerald green trees. They sway in the currents of the water as though it is but wind ruffling their leaves.
I cannot describe to you their beauty, you will have to take my word for it. These wonderful trees in this beautiful cave, hidden from the rest of the world by walls that must reach hundreds of feet up and a nearly intransversible waterway, are the source then of the powder, I had come to seek.