The Orin

The Orin
The Orin is a large underground complex in the North of the Crowlands.


The black trees give way as you ascend the Ice Valley.  As the ascent continues rocks begin to disappear and you enter a thick glacier that rises around you.  Within a span of miles it is like entering a new world of nothing but Ice.  The clans do not like to come here, the game is scarce but they have other reasons.  They will not enter the pass.  They fear it, consider it cursed.  For a time these felt like foolish superstitions that are common among the mountain clans.  The terrain was icy and cold but otherwise not so unique in the mountains of the North.  I would soon learn that their fear of this pass was warranted.

Within a few miles from entering the glacier the scenery shifts again.  The geography takes a dramatic turn and becomes far more dangerous.  The glacier forms into a 6 mile long bridge of sheer ice.   Though the bridge is nearly 50 ft wide it does not feel wide enough. The walking here is treacherous as it can slope sharply to either side.  The bridge hangs suspended, bizarrely so above a massive canyon that connects the glacier with a looming mountain.  The bottom of the canyon can not be seen.  The wind here is fierce and visibility is often reduced to nothing in bouts of blowing snow.  Our expedition lost 5 men and 2 mules to this passage.  Footings were lost and they simply slid off into the darkness.   Rescuing them was impossible as the difficulty of maintaining one's own footing would be imperiled.  Those that attempted rescues fell too.  Into the black oblivion beneath the bridge.

On the other end we came to what might called a gate but that does not do the monstrous thing justice.  We estimated the thing's size to be at least a 100 ft high.  The gate ascended far into the sky and in poor visibility it took us some time to make sense of what it was.  Finally, a moment of calm descended into valley for us to gain clear perspective.  We beheld a giant crystal skull, whose maw was a gate into the great complex complex beyond.  The face of the thing was foreboding.  Its fangs were razor sharp and as hard as steel preventing further exploration.  

The Skull was covered in ornate ruins and diagrams.  Our resident dwarf  from the kingdom of Umbre analyzed the ruins.  He said he did not recognize them and quickly decided they were not made by Dwarves, Tals or Alves.  While large the gate did not see capable of easily admitting frost giants, a subject we long debated as the size of giants was hotly contested.  The Dwarf admitted through gritted teeth that the craftsman ship was as exquisite as they were alien.  We have make sketches of these ruins but found of them no record or likeness in any library.  We suspect them to be supremely ancient from the period before Man, before Tenj, before Tal, into the most ancient time of Rex.  The period is said to have been dominated by giants and the creatures of Rex.  The Orin though if this theory holds true lends evidence to the possibility that their were others races living alongside them. Advanced races surely in that most savage of time.

The Grinning Gate as we came to call it was not made of stone, nor of Ice.  It was not cold to the touch instead it seems to be made of a type of crystal that resisted being iced over.  Our Dwarven expert though knowledgeable in thousands of gems and stones could not identify it either.  The substance was stubborn beyond reason and we were unable to take samples.

We camped at the gate for 3 frigid nights and without finding a way to enter were preparing to return home.  On the third night, we were awoken to a terrible bout of tremors that shock the earth beneath are feet.  Leaving our tents confused in the night, and looking about by torch light we found the grinning gate had opened.  There was moment of silence and I dare say horror as we sat there breathing the thick air pouring from inside the thing.  A fight broke out between those that wanted to explore further and those that wanted to head home.  In the end 3 men and the Dwarf returned for ObongMoTo tower.  Later we learned only the Dwarf successfully survived the pass.

The rest of us pressed on, into the darkness, into the mystery that is the Orin.

The Grinning Gate of the Orin - Notes of Explorer Rigard Hix


In the far North there hiding among-st the ice storms and frozen wastes lies the mystical city of Ath.  The City of Ath is ancient capital of the elemental Frost Giants who still rule there.  The city is home to a variety of magical creatures, and persons who were invited to live in the city.  The city is not easy to get to through the South.  The sheer mountain range to its stop has only two known ways to get through.

One is through the dangerous mountain pass of Selene that is guarded by the Sisters of Selene.
The other is the underground Mountain Tunnels of the Orin.

The Tunnels of Orin appears similar in many ways