Name: Cress d’Chath
Leaders: Matron Lythrizass of First House Uuthli Chath
Type: Drow city-state.
Emblem: The emblem of the city is a spider web woven of sziinj. The emblem of First House Uuthli Chath is a black web against an oval of blue flame.
Location: Beneath the volcanic mountain range running up the western coast of southern Illandria, and perfectly centered between three active volcanoes.
Monetary unit: Standard underdark currency, ingots.
Ethnicity/Race: Drow and assorted slaves.
Language: Drow, undercommon, duergar.
Religion: Lloth and a secondary, unrecognized following of the obscure deity Pyrimoru, goddess of volcanoes.
Climate: Warm, ranging from humid to arid depending on altitude.
Resources: Sziinj, other precious metals, gems, poisons, drugs, slaves, fine weapons and armor, fine jewelry, magical paraphernalia, osquip hide.
Flora and Fauna: Various algae and fungus are farmed by primarily duergar slaves. Shvraath, an odorless, luminescent crimson lichen, is cultivated throughout the drow city. It absorbs and feeds on the poisonous fumes of magma streams. Elsewhere it is found wild, growing inside live volcanoes. Herds of rothe are kept for meat, and a number of caverns contain breeding populations of fire toads, magically restrained packs of osquip, and a crossbreed of fire and subterranean lizard only found in Cress d’Chath. The fire toads and osquip are kept as food for the lizards, as well as for numerous fire snakes and salamanders that are both kept as pets and encouraged to propagate in the surrounding tunnels. At least one hell hound usually accompanies any group larger than five outside the city, and fire mares are frequently used by the priestesses for any extensive forays. In the lower regions of the city, the air is dry and warm. In the upper regions, a subterranean river that flows above the city lends humidity to the atmosphere, but doesn’t cool it much. Flame spiders are both kept as pets and wild in the surrounding caverns.
Known Dangers: Magma pools and streams, fire snakes, salamanders, hell hounds, subterranean fire lizards, flame spiders, duergar and drow. On the surface above there are numerous fire giants, although they are not unified into clans or tribes.
History: Cress d’Chath was founded by the matron who still rules it, Lythrizass Uuthli Chath. Counted a fairly minor house in the hierarchy of Vvrok’uvin, Uuthli Chath had little chance of ascension within the greatest city of the drow. The house priestesses and mages specialize in fire magics, and, with several other minor houses, chose to relocate to an area better suited to this skill. There is a nexus of Stone Fyre beneath the center of the city, twin to that of Chaos Fyre under the sea to the east. Tapping this nexus and with considerable sacrifice to Lloth, House Uuthli Chath created six great Flame Orbs through which they maintain some control over the three volcanoes around them, enough to keep them from actively erupting. Through this means, they not only protect the city from a major natural hazard, but also control the city itself. The secrets of the Flame Orbs are a closely guarded House secret. If Uuthli Chath is deposed through any means, the sudden loss of the controlling orbs could very well cause all three volcanoes to erupt simultaneous.
Recently several small clans of duergar moved into the area, but subsequently they have almost all been added to the population of slaves in Cress d’Chath.
Duergar minors are particularly valued as slaves by the First House, for it is Uuthli Chath that controls the sziinj mines. Sziinj is a peculiar metal found only in that area of Illandria. Difficult to mine, it has no more magical value than any other precious metal, although when tempered it is harder than gold or silver. The value of it is in rarity and appearance; when in its natural form, sziinj is a dull grayish white. After smelting and tempering it develops all of the vivid, opalescent colors of fire.
Notable & Notorious Individuals
