Rumors of the Catacombs

* A mad wizard dwells deep in the Catacombs. He commands strange and terrible spells so powerful that neither the Lord of Atharavon nor Triads from the Veiled Society have never been able to defeat him. If he ever decides to emerge and claim or destroy Atharavon itself, there is no one powerful enough to stop him.

• Somewhere below Atharavon is a cavern full of gems, linked by a magical gate to a mountain-top in the heart of The Melinar Forest. The mountain’s peak is an eons-old spawning-ground for evil dragons. It is guarded by old and evil dragons too feeble to fly, but at the height of their cunning and mastery of magic and dragonfire

• Slavers dwell in the uppermost rooms and passages of the Catacombs. They creep out into the sewers by night to snatch folk from all over Atharavon, then take them back into the depths. An entire underground city exists deep under the surface city of Atharavon. Only those in the know can reach it (by secret passages below the Governor's Palace and some of the noble villas). It is a place where slaves work ceaselessly to enrich the noble families of Atharavon .

• The Black Hand Thieves Guild, banished from Atharavon long ago, still lurks deep in the Catacombs, waiting and scheming to win back power in the city above. They are behind a hundred little thefts and disappearances while their blades and trained were-rats make the sewers unsafe for honest folk to venture into.

• The dwarves who built Nekrum Feyr were all devoured by monsters long, long ago, but their many traps and secret doors still hide entire rooms full of gold. No one knows exactly how to find these hidden caches, but many heard tell of the ghosts of Delarkyn Clan who trace the steps to their golden hoards every night.

• A band of a dozen beautiful vampire maidens dwells in a grotto on one level of the Catacombs. They come out at night, wandering the city streets; searching for luckless men who become their prey. The most handsome become their undead servants and lovers, and the others are simply murdered.

• Finarfen; the builder of the Catacombs as they are known today, cloned himself before his death. One clone later became a lich, and it dwells in the still-sealed Chamber in the lower levels. The chamber is connected by a long spiral staircase and tunnels to the Catacombs. In the depths of the Catacombs, the lich experiments and studies, creating ever-more-powerful spells. His spell-casting caverns and antechambers, crammed with thousands of spell-books, are guarded by magically trained and bound dragons and other, invisible guardian creatures.

• Secret temples exist in great numbers in the Catacombs, particularly those of evil gods not welcomed in the city above. The priests of these deities are engaged in an endless, bloody war for supremacy in the dark tunnels beneath the city. A fight involving summoned and animated monsters, hired adventurers, and unwitting or kidnapped volunteers who are thrust into the middle of this endless, nightmarish struggle. Priests often use this enforced battle duty as a punishment for their wayward and faithless followers. This is also used as a way of getting rid of vocal opponents of their temple. Some even suggest that every temple in the city has a well guarded, secret tunnel linking it to the Catacombs.

• There is a secret plot by the Dark-Elves to capture the entire maze of the Catacombs, and to use it to invade the surface.

• A mad necromancer inhabits part of the Catacombs. By night, he emerges to steal vagabonds, the sick, and the dead from the city to serve as raw materials or spare parts for the undead legions he creates. His creations roam the Catacombs and guard his lair. He has special guards near his lair which consist of three headless giant skeletons with glowing stone swords. The touch of these fell blades transforms those struck into zombies, under the command of the skeletons.

• The City Guard of Atharavon has several trained monsters to fight for it in battle. The monster-pits are hidden somewhere in the Catacombs below Atharavon. If the soldiers encounter unruly adventurers or ruthless law-breakers, they dump them down trapdoors to the light-less caverns where the ever-hungry monsters roam.

• One of the oldest tales of the Catacombs, many still tell of the six Lost Wizards. These wizards, rivals and contemporaries of Elashar, came to the region seeking something from the master of the Underhalls. Tales digress with each telling, many believing the wizards sought knowledge while others say revenge brought them here. Despite these differences, the stories say the wizards now lie dead or imprisoned in the Catacombs; their bodies interred with powerful magical items and lost magical knowledge.

• Recently, new explorers into the Catacombs have been told of rewards offered by the Lord of Atharavon for the destruction of evil temples underneath the city. All adventurers need to do is bring evidence of the temple's destruction up to the Governor's Palace and they will be duly rewarded.