Vyndurvoht, The Dwarven Mesa Library
Welcome to Vyndurvoht, the dwarven book vault. Far in the highest reaches of the Vyndur mountains, a hollowed-out cloudshard spire protects the world from the most dangerous texts. Evil books are cared for by northern wardens, the noble dwarves who guard the books from the outside, and the outside from the books. If you've ever wanted to GM a haunted library, this city gives you everything you need.
Our guides introduce you to the three orders of Vyndur dwarves: the honorvórn, inkbinders, and forgelords. You'll also learn about the five categories of dark tomes: spellcasting, taboo, imbued, maddening, and sentient. The library is filled with traps, clever mustelids, and hidden passageways. Magic ink creates powerful arcane effects that will affect the way any traveler makes their way through the unhallowed halls.
The theming is a bit crazy here: this city is a library, it's a giant tower carved into a frigid mesa, and it's all about dwarves and their idiosyncratic culture. This is (admittedly!) a niche combination, but it's one that works perfectly if you've got players who want to plunder magical secrets or explore their dwarven heritage. If you'd rather steal some of our worldbuilding and apply it to a library of your own, we give you plenty of tools to flesh out the stacks of great archives.
While in Vyndurvoht, your players may have to:
- Assist an arcane exodus of the stone spire
- Steal an accursed text
- Survive a city-wide lockdown
- Confront the darkness that lingers deep below the city
Maps
Unlike previous boroughs, Vyndurvoht is a decidedly vertical town. Instead of the maps working seamlessly side-by-side, they work seamlessly as one tall stack. Our first map is the top layer of that stack, the peak of the mesa in which they've built their town. Discover airship docks, the majestic Honor Hall, and the shaft leading down into the central hollow spire. A blizzard variant is perfect for all of your winter adventures.
Then, descend into the butte and discover the labyrinthine library halls. You'll find offices, traps, endless archives, and the Great Inkwell itself. Further below that, adventurers will come face to face with the molten factory workshops of the forgelords.
Finally, at the bottom of the tower, it becomes obvious that carving out Vyndurvoht is an ongoing affair. The digsite continues in the bottom of the mesa, clearing our more room for more books, workshops, and homes.
In ramshackle tents at the base of the tower, the accursed martyrvórn keep warm while waging an endless war against the darkness that corrupt each of the gerat dwarven library.
Unique to Vyndurvoht, we have essentially created interiors for every single “building” in the town. In addition to a complete interior map of the inner floors, we have beautiful interiors for every single structure on the top level as well. Explore the barracks where the knights steam in saunas. Arrive in style at the airdocks. Eat a crummy meal within Fjar Ost, the dwarven “hotel” that caters to library patrons.
For all of the lower floors, we provided a “corruption” variant for terrifying battles against the darkness. If you're going to do a spooky library adventure, you'll have to force your players to face their fears eventually.
Music
For frigid dwarven adventures, you need some epic dwarven tunes. “The Sixth Exodus” is our most bombastic adventure music we've released yet, with blaring war horns and thrilling drums. “Permafrost Wasteland,” “Spirit of the Forgelords,” and “Down in the Dregs” get you in the right mood for your adventures. “Kallam the Cursed” is great for spookier moments while you're wandering the halls. Finally “The Things You Do Not Know” is the first vocal tune we've released, an unsettling dwarven worksong that tells the tale of the bizarre library.
