Duerheim (The Scar)

Monsters call it The Scar. A swathe of soot and ash which follows dwarven refineries and furnaces along the rim of the mountains. Here in the upper reaches of the northern subcontinent, the normally rugged wilds thrust up into peaks which rival the Gray Mountains in the West. Called Tuchnaka by native tongues, they form a border between the southern human colonies and the frozen north. Reaching all the way to the sea they also open a perfect subterranean entrance to the colonizing dwarves. Moving not overland but by tunnel, they have penetrated far deeper into the uncivilized realm than their crusader cousins. Monsters see their great smoke stacks rising from the rock but can do little about them.

Beneath the earth the dwarves command gangs of slaves, mostly goblins and orcs, along with indentured dwarves. They are searching for enchanted ores, whose refined alloys are called mithril. Necessary for runecrafting and thus for the dwarven military, mithril is the lifeblood of their economy. Unfortunately it is also the lifeblood of the earth. The magical flows in the ground conduct along crystallized veins of mithril called ley lines. As the dwarves remove these they disrupt the natural flows of magic and thus interfere with the natural processes the monsters, particularly the Dungeon Lords, depend upon