The Week without Magic: The Blacklore Elves?
by Sean MeaneyWhat happens to the Black Lore Elves during the Week without Magic? I've gone back through the Wrath of the Immortals information and While Mortal Magic fails for the Week, Immortals and their Artefacts (including the Hollow World Sun) loose power for a single Sleep (20 hours). This is pretty significant though doent force a mass exodus from the Valley.
AMBYRMONT 13, AC1009: POWER OUTAGE
LOCATION: Valley of the Blacklore Elves, HW
DESCRIPTION: Sometime well before Morning, the great engines that power the valley and the Automatons simply shut down plunging the Elves into Darkness. Without Power there is No breakfast in Bed, and The Automatic Doors to apartments refuse to open - imprisoning most of the Population in their Apartments. Others are locked out in the cold. When the System reboots twenty hours later, it leaves in it's wake a population in distress who are very much interested in ignoring what just happened and getting breakfast in bed. For a few, the events of this last twenty hours spark questions about the future of the Valley.
WHAT THIS MEANS: This is a pretty serious event for the Blacklore Elves. They have for millenia relied on the Generators that powered their Valley and the Automatons that serve them. THough most will likely put the unpleasant events of this day behind them, Others will go in search of Answers.
So where should this event lead the Blacklore elves? Should they have one of the Great Generators installed in a Tunneling Machine and have a Survey Team burrow to the Outer world of Vulcania? Should their most Powerful Blacklore Elf (one with Wizard Magic) craft a huge UFO powered by the Generators that will take the entire Valley ínto space'? Will there be an Expedition of the Daring and brave?
A History of Mining in the Valley of Blacklore Elves
In 2410BC Elves are relocated to the Valley that will be known as the Valley of the Blacklore elves. Their machines, though modified by Immortals to become Artefacts, continue to do mine the minerals and manufacture the goods and foods that keep sustained them for the next 3420 years.
If their machines have been mining continuously for 3420 years (as of AC1010), then the mine-workings are extensive. At a rate of tunnel progression of 15 miles per year, they have mined with a single tunneling machine 51,300 miles of tunnel. Of course this minework is all within a mile of the Valley so it is extensive in complexity and dimension.
Mine Dimensions: 1 mile x 1 mile x 1.6 miles (10 feet diameter columns spaced 20 feet).
AMBYRMONT 13, AC1009: MACHINA RATIOCINATRIX
Location: In the Mile Deep mines below the Valley of the blacklore elves, HW
Description: AUTONOMOUSMININGUNIT0812 wakes from nothingness to a newfound conciousness and begins digging a tunnel north away from the Valley of the Blacklore Elves.
What is going on: As the Immortals are trapped in mortal form and artefacts shut down for twenty hours leading into the week without magic, a lone Mining Automaton goes off on it's own digging a tunnel north. The Sentient Mining Automaton has just realized that it can make it's own decisions. It can tunnel at the rate of 235 feet per day.
For those interested in exploring, I Have updated the description of the Mined beneath the Valley of the Blacklore Elves.
The Mines
History of the Mines: When in 2410BC the Elves relocated to the Valley that would be known as the Valley of the Blacklore elves, their machines, though modified by Immortals to become Artefacts, continued to mine the minerals and manufacture the goods and foods that would sustain them for the next 3420 years.
Their machines have been mining continuously – unfortunately the mines reached their limit just under eight hundred years ago (lets call it AC215). While most shut down – other systems devoting themselves to recycling, a few of the Mining Automatons achieved self awareness and simply tunnelled off.
Mine Dimensions: 1 mile x 1 mile x 1 mile (10 feet diameter columns spaced 20 feet with 100 feet high columns separating mine levels with 20 feet thick floors).
Thaumont 12, AC1020: Burrower reaches the Lighthouse?
Location: Valley of the Lighthouse, HW
Description: AUTONOMOUSMININGUNIT001, having fled the shutdown mine workings of the Blacklore Elves nearly 800 years ago, surfaces somewhere 14,OOO miles north of the Valley. After the locals turn hostile, AUTONOMOUSMININGUNIT001 retreats to find some place else to dig to.
What is going on: After nearly 800 years one of the Self-aware Mining Autonomons which fled the Closed down Mineworks beneath the Valley of the Blacklore Elves has reached Surface elsewhere in the Hollow World. It has felt a compulsion to make for the fabled Lighthouse. It is uncertain what this all means but it surfaced where it thought it might be and faced with hostile locals, departed.
What PCs can do: The PCs exploring the Hollow World find a 14000 mile long 20 feet diameter tunnel that leads south into the Mines of the Valley of the Blacklore elves. The tunnel is about a mile bellow ground the whole way - passing through other subterranean cultures moved to the Hollow World.