Deep Delvers

After the Ninth Descent collapse, the survivors formed an informal rescue compact. Their numbers grew as unlicensed miners and displaced crews discovered that the Delvers would guide them through dangerous workings without asking who held the paper claim. For years they were a small mutual-aid network, marking safe air pockets, maintaining ladders, and retrieving the lost. Their watershed moment came when a surface syndicate sealed a known bypass during a dispute over ownership, trapping a crew behind a fresh collapse. Varek's people breached the seal from below and brought the miners out. The operation saved lives but destroyed claim records and machinery, turning a tolerated nuisance into a declared hostile network. In the years since, the Delvers have expanded into old shafts and lower root passages, learned to work around shifting gravity, and built a reputation for finding routes others deny exist. Their reach is now substantial, but their authority remains local and earned. They have never agreed whether they are a union, a rescue compact, or an insurgency that has not yet admitted what it is.

Faction · Chaotic Neutral

Deep Delvers

High-strata authorities describe the Deep Delvers as trespassers, ward-breakers, and saboteurs.

Type: Subterranean hostile…
Size: Medium
Reach: Quiet but persistent in…
Base: No permanent settlement; mobile caches and temporary junction camps in the lower passages surrounding the Verdant Heart Nexus.

Overview

How it began

The Deep Delvers began among miners, shadow-dwarf irregulars, and pathfinders trapped below the Ninth Descent when a root surge folded the shaft and broke its lift chain. The licensed rescue crews turned back after the first aftershock. Varek Iron-Lung, then a mine-runner and sapper, organized the survivors into small teams that followed warm drafts, tapped hollow stone, and cut a bypass through a flooded seam. Vala Deep-Gaze, already known for finding paths through lightless passages, led the first group out and then went back for the injured. They emerged days later through a disused drain, carrying the names of those still missing and the location of a safe route no official map acknowledged. The survivors returned for the lost, then kept the bypass open. Their first rule was simple: no one seals a way out while people may still need it.

How to know them

MottoKeep a way back.

EmblemA hand-lamp drawn below a hooked root, its flame represented by three short cuts. Members scratch it where a tunnel remains passable, but add a broken line when the route is unsafe.

Colours

Soot black, Root-brown, Dull copper

Signs

A hand-lamp cut beneath a hooked root
Three short scratches beside a usable route
A broken chalk line marking a path that should not be taken

DressThe Delvers wear practical layers of dark, close-fitting work cloth, patched leather, and mineral-stained wraps. Their gear varies by crew; most carry a hooded lamp, rope, chalk, wedges, and a short tool that can serve as a weapon in an emergency. Their emblem is usually scratched into a buckle, lamp shutter, or tool handle rather than displayed openly.

Standing

AlignmentChaotic Neutral

AgeFounded 43 years ago, after the Collapse of the Ninth Descent.

WealthModest in coin and formal holdings, but comparatively rich in tools, supplies, route knowledge, and access to places others cannot safely reach.

What they say they want

Keep emergency corridors open for miners and travelers in danger.

Warn people about unstable shafts, shifting gravity, and other subterranean hazards.

Expose claims that conceal dangerous workings or prevent rescue access.

Preserve practical knowledge of the lower passages.

What they are doing now

Keep three emergency corridors around the Verdant Heart Nexus open through the current surge season.

Find the source of fresh tremors and charged-metal fumes reported in the lower root passages.

Prove that a surface syndicate's claim to an abandoned shaft rests on forged survey marks.

Recover a missing scout team without exposing the route they used to reach it.

Prevent the discovery of a sealed chamber that Varek believes could draw dangerous attention to the whole network.

Where it leads

A network of dependable rescue corridors and shared hazard knowledge that no single syndicate, authority, or faction can close for profit or political leverage. Varek imagines a discreet compact; Vala wants the routes and their risks understood by everyone who must travel them. Neither has persuaded the other that their version can survive contact with power.

How others see them

High-strata authorities describe the Deep Delvers as trespassers, ward-breakers, and saboteurs. Miners who have been guided out of a collapse often call them the only people who came back. To outsiders, their marks are ominous signs of a hidden network; to those who travel below, the same marks can mean that a path is still safe enough to try.

People

5 ranks

Commander

Commander Varek Iron-Lung

Controlled, pragmatic, and wary of spectacle. He can be generous to people in immediate danger and ruthless toward anyone who knowingly seals a way out.

The Breath and the Far-Eye2 members
Varek Iron-Lung and Vala Deep-Gaze share command. Varek directs operations, discipline, and demolitions; Vala controls scouting, route knowledge, and field safety. Either can veto a mission that risks the network's survival.
Passage Stewards13 members
Experienced route captains who maintain caches, assign patrols, and settle disputes over passage use. They advise the leaders, but cannot compel a crew to accept a dangerous order.
Pathfinders84 members
Veteran scouts who test routes, carry signals, escort travelers, and update maps. They often work in pairs and report hazards through coded marks.
Cutters and Sappers191 members
Miners, tunnel engineers, and combat sappers who shore, open, or collapse workings. Teams are trained to stabilize a route before extracting salvage.
The Holds560 members
The broader membership: miners, shadow-dwarf irregulars, guides, supply carriers, and proven survivors. Members keep their own crews and may refuse jobs that violate the network's rescue obligations.

Other key members

Chief Scout Vala Deep-Gaze Chief Scout; adult female shadow-dwarf, level 15 Gloom Stalker Ranger. She oversees reconnaissance, route marking, and survival training.
Kjell Sumpwise Senior sapper and likely successor to the Passage Stewards' council. He argues for publishing verified hazard warnings, even when they reveal Delver routes.
Iivana Pathfinder and informal negotiator. She may become a bridge to outsiders or a source of dangerous leaks.
Oskari of the Lower Root Scout and keeper of unusual hazard reports. He has found signs of a pattern in tremors and charged-metal odors near the lower root passages.

How they are organised

How it is runDecentralized survival network with a shared rescue compact and field-command hierarchy

Who comes nextThere is no hereditary succession. If either leader is killed, missing, or unable to serve, the Passage Stewards choose an acting replacement from among proven members. A new Commander must be accepted by a majority of Stewards and must earn support from active crews; the Chief Scout is selected by the pathfinders. Varek and Vala each have a stated preferred successor, but neither preference is binding.

How they recruitProspective members are recommended by an existing crew, then assessed through practical work rather than ceremony. They must read route marks, secure a rope line, identify signs of bad air or unstable stone, and make a judgment call during a staged rescue. The final test is not whether they reach the end first, but whether they return with their partner and report hazards honestly. Successful recruits swear the rescue custom before a Passage Steward.

To join

Demonstrate practical skill in mining, scouting, engineering, rescue, or subterranean survival.
Complete a supervised route test without abandoning a partner or ignoring a marked hazard.
Accept the rescue custom: anyone encountered in immediate danger is to be helped when doing so does not knowingly doom the rescuers.
Agree not to sell route knowledge or cache locations without consent from the Passage Steward responsible for them.

Operations

What they do

Maintaining emergency routes and rescue caches

Guiding people through old shafts and unmapped bypass tunnels

Surveying unstable workings and documenting hazards

Challenging fraudulent or dangerous claims to abandoned mines

Salvaging usable tools and supplies from deserted workings

Training members in subterranean survival and controlled demolition

How they do it

Use small, self-directed crews and avoid gathering the full network in one place.

Mark safe and unsafe routes with coded scratches, chalk, and discreet stone arrangements.

Open bypasses with hand tools and controlled demolition, then shore them before moving supplies or people.

Expose suspect claims by comparing old survey marks, physical workings, and testimony from former crews.

Disable dangerous machinery or collapse access when a working threatens lives, accepting that authorities may call the act sabotage.

Use decoy trails, false echoes, and temporary caches to frustrate pursuit.

Services for hire

Passage escortA fair share of recovered supplies, a reciprocal rescue favor, or an agreed payment in provisions and tools.
A guided crossing through a known route. The guide may refuse entry if the route has changed or the traveler intends to exploit it.
Working surveyLabor, materials, or a favor for the crew that maintains the route.
A practical assessment of a shaft, support system, air pocket, or suspected collapse hazard. It is a field judgment, not a guarantee of safety.
Emergency recoveryNo fixed fee during an immediate emergency; later assistance may be requested to replace used supplies.
A rescue team dispatched when people are trapped in a reachable working. The Delvers will not promise recovery where entry would predictably kill the rescuers.
Claim examinationA contribution of reliable reports, route maintenance, or supplies; payment alone cannot buy access to restricted maps.
A review of suspected fraudulent claim marks using local testimony and physical evidence. The Delvers do not issue legal rulings, but their findings can undermine a claim.

What they can do

Custom faction capability: The Deep Delvers can usually identify an established hidden bypass or cache within their sphere, though changing ground may make old information unreliable.

Custom faction capability: Their sappers can open, shore, or deliberately collapse a small section of tunnel using mundane tools and planning. Larger structural changes require time and may cause secondary hazards.

Custom faction capability: Delver route marks and echo signals let trained members communicate basic warnings without speaking aloud.

Many individual members are capable scouts, miners, guides, or combatants, but the network's strength comes from local knowledge and coordination rather than supernatural certainty.

What they have

Access to old shafts and bypass tunnels whose locations are known only to trusted crews

Mobile stores of rope, wedges, lamps, braces, and emergency provisions

Experienced miners, shadow-dwarf irregulars, combat sappers, and veteran pathfinders

A network of coded route marks and echo signals

Scattered evidence concerning disputed claims and the Ninth Descent collapse

Where they are weak

Their knowledge is local and perishable; shifting ground, surges, and altered air can invalidate a trusted route.

They lack the numbers and supplies to fight a sustained campaign against organized authorities or syndicates.

The network's secrecy makes coordination difficult and leaves members vulnerable to false signals and forged marks.

Rival crews may disagree about whether a passage is worth the risk, delaying a rescue at the worst moment.

Their refusal to recognize many legal claims gives authorities a ready pretext to arrest or attack them.

The tension between Varek's secrecy and Vala's willingness to share route knowledge could divide their leadership.

Territory

Headquarters

No permanent settlement; mobile caches and temporary junction camps in the lower passages surrounding the Verdant Heart Nexus.

KindHidden, rotating subterranean junction and supply network

The Delvers have no fixed headquarters. Their closest equivalent is a concealed junction chamber beneath an old mine spur, fitted with hand winches, rescue stretchers, spare lamp oil, chalk boards, and a low stone cistern. Its entrance is disguised as a collapsed dead end. The chamber is rotated among several locations as routes become unsafe or compromised.

Lands they hold

Old shafts abandoned or left unmapped by surface operations

Unlicensed bypass tunnels and disused mine spurs

Lower root passages surrounding the Verdant Heart Nexus

Temporary camps and supply caches along routes where the stone remains stable

Outposts

Ninth Descent cacheAn abandoned mine spur above the lower root passagesStores rescue gear and preserves a memorial list of those lost in the founding collapse. Its exact location is known to the leadership and a few senior pathfinders.
The Warm SeamA shifting bypass near a stable route toward the Verdant Heart's outer cavernsProvides a temporary refuge, water, and a place to shelter injured travelers during tremors. It is abandoned whenever the air grows metallic.
The Chalk TurnA disused junction among older shaftsServes as a training point where new members learn route marks, rope work, and the difference between a warning sign and a claim sign.

Secrets

The big secret · GM only

The Ninth Descent did not fail solely because of natural movement. Varek possesses fragments of a survey slate showing that support stones were removed before the collapse, but the slate's surviving marks also point toward a Root-Sovereign route-keeper who later helped save Delver crews. He has never established whether that person ordered the removal, was deceived, or tried to prevent a larger disaster. Revealing the evidence could split the Delvers from one of their few practical allies and reopen old claims for retaliation.

What they really want · GM only

Determine who altered the supports before the Ninth Descent collapse, even if the answer threatens a current alliance.

Prevent private claimants from gaining exclusive control of routes required for rescue and survival.

Learn whether the changing lower passages signal a wider danger without bringing an uncontrolled rush of outsiders to the core.

Preserve enough independence that the network can refuse orders from both authorities and syndicates.

Hidden plans · GM only

Varek is quietly collecting proof that the Ninth Descent collapse was accelerated by deliberate interference with its supports. He has withheld parts of the evidence because it could implicate people who now cooperate with the Delvers.

Vala wants to establish a reliable, privately maintained map of the lower passages, despite knowing that any complete map could become a weapon in the hands of claimants or authorities.

Several senior members intend to make the emergency corridors permanent commons, even if doing so requires destroying legal records and machinery that would let surface powers reclaim them.

A small circle within the network is studying whether the recent surges are linked to disturbances in the Verdant Heart's ley-core. They fear public confirmation would bring prospectors and arcanists into places the Delvers cannot defend.

Smaller secrets · GM only

Several caches contain more food and medicine than the Delvers officially admit, reserved for evacuations they expect but cannot yet prove are coming.

A few high-strata wardens have quietly used Delver routes to reach stranded workers, then denied the arrangement in public.

Vala keeps a route record that deliberately omits passages near the core, not because they are impassable but because she fears what would happen if they became popular.

One of the Delvers' old signal patterns has been copied by someone outside the network.

What insiders say · GM only

Trouble inside · GM only

Varek favors controlled secrecy and carefully selected interventions, believing a visible war would destroy the network. Vala argues that withholding route knowledge can be as deadly as a locked gate. Passage Stewards are split between those who want formal agreements with Root-Sovereign route-keepers and those who fear any bargain will invite outside oversight. Younger members want to expose every fraudulent claim publicly; veterans remember that exposure brings patrols, retaliation, and people who mistake a rescue map for an invitation to mine.

Crimes · GM only

Plot hooks

5 hooks

1
The Route That Wasn't There
Personal; moderate danger from unstable passages, with social tension over trust and route secrecy.Reward: A rescued contact, safe passage through a restricted region, and the Delvers' cautious confidence.
A character's relative or former crewmate has disappeared in a shaft officially listed as sealed. The Delvers offer a route in, but Vala insists the party leave the map behind when they return.
2
Marks on Borrowed Stone
Local; a time-sensitive investigation that can become a rescue or confrontation.Reward: Evidence of claim fraud, a negotiated passage agreement, or valuable access to a cache.
A syndicate begins installing claim markers around an abandoned working that the Delvers use as an emergency corridor. The party must determine whether the claim is fraudulent, protect trapped miners, or broker a compromise before the Delvers cut the access supports.
3
The Tilted Passage
Regional; hazardous exploration with competing obligations and uncertain terrain.Reward: A rare route into the deeper caverns, Delver support, and clues about the changing surges.
A tremor strands a group of travelers near a lower root passage where gravity has begun tilting without warning. Varek needs outside help to recover them, but the only viable route crosses a warded boundary and passes close to a site the Delvers are concealing.
4
The False Echo
Faction-scale; demands investigation, negotiation, and survival under pursuit.Reward: A chance to expose an infiltrator, recover part of Varek's evidence, and influence the Delvers' next direction.
A copied Delver signal draws several crews into a dead-end shaft where a trap has been prepared. The party can hunt the imitator, protect the survivors, or follow the signal's trail toward evidence connected to the Ninth Descent.
5
A Pulse Beneath the Roots
Campaign-scale; the route is perilous and the consequences of discovery could alter alliances across the Verdant Heart Nexus.Reward: A major revelation about local instability, new allies among the Delvers, and leverage in disputes over access to the lower passages.
Oskari reports a repeating pattern of tremors, charged-metal odors, and shifting routes near the core. Vala wants a discreet survey; Varek fears the finding will draw prospectors. The party may help establish what is happening, then decide who deserves to know.

Work they offer

1Escort a scout to verify whether a supposedly sealed route has fresh air and sound supports.

2Recover a lost survey slate from an abandoned working before a claim crew removes the evidence.

3Find a missing Delver team without alerting the high-strata wardens.

4Help stabilize an emergency corridor while a tremor cycle continues.

5Carry a warning to a Root-Sovereign route-keeper before a planned demolition damages a living root.

What gets in the way

A route opened as an emergency escape can become a smuggling passage or a shortcut into a protected root chamber.

Delvers destroy or conceal maps when they believe a route is too dangerous to circulate, frustrating rescuers who need that knowledge.

Members disagree over whether abandoned workings are common survival resources or should be returned to the people who first claimed them.

The network's silence protects its scouts, but it also lets surface authorities describe every rescue as sabotage.

Rumours

1True: the Delvers keep caches of rescue gear along routes missing from official maps.

2True: at least one high-strata warden has privately relied on their passages.

3Partly true: Varek's lungs were damaged in the Ninth Descent collapse, and he now avoids long climbs.

4False: the Delvers are tunneling toward the heart of the Verdant Heart Nexus to steal its power.

5False: every person who joins the Delvers must take part in sabotage.

6Unproven: the network has found a passage where the stone answers knocks with its own rhythm.

Deep Delvers

Deep Delvers

Overview

How it began

How to know them

Standing

What they say they want

What they are doing now

Where it leads

How others see them

People

Commander

Other key members

How they are organised

Relations

Operations

What they do

How they do it

Services for hire

What they can do

What they have

Where they are weak

Territory

Headquarters

Lands they hold

Outposts

Secrets

Plot hooks

Work they offer

What gets in the way

Rumours

Media

Turn Deep Delvers into a sheet