#103 Glittercrust Gem Nursery

Age: 900 Years

Hidden or Lost?: No

History: ‘The stone is the mother and her children make us rich.’ So goes the historic slogan of the Glittercrust Gem Nursery, one of the largest and most successful jewel mines in all of the 40 Dwarven Delves.

Located in the cliff face of a massive subterranean cavern, overlooking a long-buried magma lake known as the Tempering Sea, the Glittercrust operation produces the finest gems of nearly every variety. Founded millenia ago by the adventurous dwarf explorer Gird Glittercrust, the nursery sits in the ideal position to cultivate precious stones. Thanks to the endless heat rolling off the surface of the Tempering Sea, the stone nearby can be made as malleable or unbreakable, porous or dense, heavy or light as the gem-tenders like. This has allowed Glittercrust to establish discrete environments for the growth of nearly every variety of gem.

Combined with some innovative temporal spells to speed up the hardening process, the nursery can effectively create jewels on demand. Whether it’s rubies the color of a blazing sunset, sapphires that recall the ocean’s depths, or ingots of onyx with a darkness deeper than shadow, Glittercrust can provide. The nursery also cuts the gems and enchants them with powerful stonehexes, drawing on the power of the broiling magma ocean on their doorstep.

Of course, the unlimited wealth that the unique mine provides has attracted a great deal of unwanted attention. To protect their processes, Glittercrust only allows those free of magic within their halls, other than the time mages employed to grow the gems. Many thieving crews, and even a conquering army have tried to break into the Glittercrust Nursery and take control of the operation’s riches, but old Gird foresaw such incursions, and so founded an order of landbound warriors known as the Worm Cavalry who are charged with protecting the site. Riding giant blind worms that they have spent centuries taming, the Cavalry has never been bested, above or below the ground.

Yet even with all of its success and fame, Glittercrust still holds mysteries. Most evident is the titanic gem that has been growing up out of the Tempering Sea in recent centuries. Some believe it is simply another massive gift of the rock, but others believe it may be a reckoning. A looming judgment on the Glittercrust Nursery itself for playing god with the land.

1. The First Cut

2. The Life Veins

3. Glory’s Descent

4. Ruby Quarries

5. Emerald Ways

6. The Worm Calvary

7. Diamond Depths

8. Cutter’s Quarter

9. The Mage Halls

10. Unknown Stones

11. Sapphire Expanse

12. The Yawning Mine

13. Gem Vault

14. The Forbidden Door

15. Blacksmith’s Dock

16. Child of the Tempering Sea