Far to the northeast of the Daqan Baronies, the sturdy rock that shields Mennara's raging heart grows thin. Great gouts of tempestuous fire and molten stone erupt from the ground. Sharp-toothed obsidian crags, black rock ridges, and smoldering rivers of lava radiate out from the center of the heath, but surrounding it is some of the most picturesque lands in all of Mennara. Crystal-clear streams, wildflower-dotted plains, and mighty evergreens shelter this primordial landscape, where rich volcanic soil and mountain snowmelt combine to foster a lush and verdant paradise. This impossible land of life and death is known to mortals as the Molten Heath.
The Domain of Dragons
At the center of Molten Heath lies its Heart, an isolated collection of volcanoes. Lava rivers flow from their flanks, inundating the surrounding lands in a constantly changing morass of molten and cooling rock. A maze of lava flows and molten streams cuts through a nightmare landscape of razor-edged obsidian outcroppings and drifting dunes of rock ash. Higher up, among the volcanoes’ calderas, the dragons make their roosts. Younger drakes live in the cooling lava tubes and caves along the flanks of the mountains, while the elder wyrms haunt the burning craters at the very summits.
The Heart and its immediate vicinity is hellish landscape of fire and smoke that only a dragon could withstand. The constant eruptions unleash vast lava flows that never truly cool. Instead, they fill in canyons and gorges with vast lakes of searing liquid stone. Dragons wing across the surface, hunting the salamanders and perching upon the charred islands to rest and converse with others of their kind.
Little is known of dragon society, mostly because few outsiders have managed to travel to the Molten Heath, observe them, and survive the experience. Scholars do know that the dragons of the Molten Heath—unlike the feral beasts found in much of Terrinoth—are fiendishly intelligent, and they dominate the scattered tribes of dragon hybrids that roam the ash dunes and basalt slopes. The histories even tell of a Dragon Rex, the most powerful of her kind, who rules over the entirety of the Molten Heath.
The dragons dominate the heath, lording over the other creatures that dwell in the foothills of the draconic demense. The dragons' civilization is a rich as any to be found elsewhere, but their motivations are utterly enigmatic to the other races of Mennara. The dragons do not tolerate intruders, but many come nevertheless to seek out ancestral lands and the hoards of magical items the dragons claimed in the Third Darkness.
Millennia of eruptions have pushed the Heart above the Verdant Ring. Slopes of shattered basalt and chunks of scoria edge the Heart, punctuated by the occasional smoke-belching crevasse and bubbling hot springs. But as one descends further into the valley, the hellscape gives way into a plain of heather and gorse, with shrubs and even conifer trees fanning outward from the Heart. Wild berries and grains sprawl across the landscape, while fantastical fruits and nuts hang heavy from the branches of trees. The Dwarves have long strove to reclaim the bounty of the Verdant Ring, and now other peoples of Terrinoth look north and see a potential sanctuary from the scourges of war—if only they can keep the dragons at bay.
The Karok Doum
At the far edge of the Molten Heath, long-slumbering mountains brood over the scattered ruins of the first Dwarven civilization. Shattered and seared by dragon fire in an ancient war, the fallen walls and crumbling towers of Karok Zon, Dorgol Visoth, and Morath az Moran—the great capital of the lost kingdom—yet stand. Their empty windows keep a watch upon their abandoned nation, known as the Karok Doum.
Although much of the cities have been reduced to firescarred rubble, the dragons could not destroy Dwarven craft completely. Each Dwarven settlement was encircled by a wall of obsidian, stamped with runes of fire so that it would never melt. These walls stand as ever, even if their iron gates have fallen, and they are tall enough to be visible for miles across the blasted expanse of the Heath.
Once inside, any would-be adventurers find broad streets radiating out from the center of the city, lined with the shattered basalt remains of the low, broad Dwarven houses, inns, smithies, and granaries. Forges and smithies took advantage of the more gentle volcanic activity that lingered at the edges of the Heath. In the center of each city, the brass and gold towers have been seared down to slag-tipped stumps by dragonfire. One can even find the hardened puddles of molten gold in the streets; a kings’ fortune forgotten under a coat of drifting ash. Some whisper that these cities are haunted by old spirits of dwarves who fell in defense of their lands.
And it is possible that beneath the ruined towers, a greater treasure could be found. During the Years of Fire, the Dwarves were forced to leave many wonders behind as they fled their kingdom for new lands in Terrinoth and Dunwarr. Rumors abound of secret vaults full of gold and jewels, or weapons and armor made powerful by the earliest rune-craft. Some Dwarves even believe that one of the cities still contains the hidden workshop of Helka the Bold, mother of the Dwarves and first of the runescribes. If any dragon runes lie forgotten within those chambers, they could contain power far beyond the ken of today’s Dwarven kingdoms.
But setting foot in the remains of the Karok Doum is not for the faint of heart. The ruins of its cities are infested with all manner of foul creatures. Great salamanders nest within the walls. Smaller char-worms and ripper spiders keep to the shadows, waiting for their unsuspecting prey to let down their guard before striking. Some of the smaller drakes also prefer to live among these ruins instead of the center of the Molten Heath, where they can avoid the domination of their elders.
Black Ember Gorge
Once one of the straightest routes out of the Molten Heath and into the surrounding mountains, Black Ember Gorge is now a deep cleft running between the shattered cliff walls. This was the sight of the last stand of Helka and the Dwarven armies against the dragons, and where, it is said, she unleashed her most fearsome runecraft.
Whatever Helka did split the earth asunder so deeply that the fires of Mennara still smolder within its base. Noxious fumes billow forth from the crack, overwhelming those foolhardy enough to stray too near. In fact, those few who travel to the Molten Heath tend to avoid the Gorge entirely, preferring the narrow goat-trails through the mountains that lead around it.
Little evidence remains of the great battle fought there. However, at the far end of the gorge, the skeleton of a great wyrm still lies. It appears to have been skewered by a towering basalt spear that erupted from the earth and still holds the bones transfixed to this very day.
References
- Realms of Terrinoth