Underground Empire

Beyond the forest of the gateway, there is a broad expanse of grassland dotted with trees, shrubbery, and large rocks. The ground seems shattered, with cliffs and drops, and narrow ridges providing relatively unstable pathways up and down. Scattered across the plains that might once have been flat are small, narrow caves that lead downwards. Many are dead ends -- some are too long to find an end of. Some, however, lead down into the earth, into caverns filled with gleaming crystal glittering in the rock. The way is lit only by a faint glow from the crystals, and only hearing, smell, and touch are reliable in the darkness. Most of these caverns join together into a single massive one, deep and long and the ceilings much too far to be visible, lit by the same softly-glowing crystals as in the smaller caverns. In this cavern, there is a scent of life, tinged with death and blood and hunger and malice, and the air is filled with silence. This place is obviously inhabited, but none except its inhabitants and their sacrifices get this far.