An old city from the old civilisation is buried here. Remnants of futuristic structures made up of stone-like concrete and metal.
Overview
The Buried City is the largest known ruin of the civilisation that occupied Terra before the Great Eruption. It sits deep in the Underdark’s Crystal Layer, interred beneath crystal and cooled magma from Titania’s eruption roughly 400 DR. What remains standing is built from a stone-like concrete and metal alloy unlike anything the current civilisation produces — proof, alongside the Sarcophagus network, that whoever lived here built with knowledge well beyond what Terra’s settlers have since recovered.
Notable Features
- The Sarcophagus — Located on the city’s western edge, connected to an old reactor-plant to its south. This is the specific installation the deep-delve party (Bam, Grunk, Strunk, Schinsharo, Kazaman) explored across several sessions, including the murals in its entry hall and the handprint panel that matched Schinsharo’s hand.
- Deactivated warforged prototypes — Found dormant throughout the ruins, remnants of the old civilisation’s own constructs.
- Grey oozes, shadows, and earth elementals — Reported denizens of the ruins and surrounding chambers, resting undisturbed until the city was entered.
- Vitrified remains — Crystallized dwarves and elves were found deeper in a metal corridor near the Sarcophagus, alongside the creature the party has taken to calling the Dragon Swan (see The Sarcophagus below Terra for the encounter itself).
History
Built during the old civilisation’s height (roughly 0–400 DR), when the elves designed and the dwarves constructed the Sarcophagus network across the island. When Titania erupted around 400 DR, lava filled the tunnel networks and buried the city under ash and cooled magma, ending the civilisation and sealing the ruins for over a thousand years. The Sarcophagus facility on its western edge survived the eruption structurally, along with much of the city’s stonework, but nothing living remained.
Discovery
The Buried City was rediscovered by delving group #710 (Bam, Grunk, Strunk, Schinsharo, Kazaman), dispatched by the Dwarven Union to investigate quakes and howls reported near Malachite and Chrysalis City (see Echoes from the Deep Dark). The party passed through the Underdark’s mushroom forest and crystal cavern layers before reaching the city itself, and from there into the Sarcophagus.
Notes
- No vault material describes the reactor-plant south of the Sarcophagus in any further detail beyond its existence and connection to the site — left unexpanded rather than invented.