Shadowdweller00, thanks for the Christmas gifts! I can't unpack it all in one post, lol
Wave Echo Cave: The spellforge in the cave is actually powered by magical energy syphoned off from a sentient evil artifact buried in the rock nearby. Beyond canon - the facility was formerly seized from a group of duergar who contructed the original artifact.
Yes! Origin for the artifact. Duergar are level-appropriate
now, but I'd rather fire some imaginations with a vision of an artifact forged in Hell -- where I'd like to take the PCs when they're 13th-ish level (15th?). I'm super keen to track down Inferno from 1980, which I'm hoping is as excellent as this
exciting review:
Ed Greenwood's version of the Nine Hells is the one I knew and loved as a teen. It took at least some inspiration from Dante, and the circles were fleshed out with nasty and compelling environments. But Geoff Dale's version, which I discovered long after my gaming years, is better -- and far more harrowing. In depicting the torture of souls, Dale gave us Hell not only in terms of the way most of us think about the place, he was able to align it with a supreme work of literature, just as Ravenloft was made out of Dracula. The Christian baggage isn't an obstacle to those (like Dale) who are willing to put some effort into the workarounds.
So let's see what kind of energy we can get with an idea mashup …
In the First Age, Nokhthwar the Pit Fiend rose to power on the Prime Material Plane as a sadistic tyrant until he was killed by a god who thrust him miles deep in the rock.
Just after he died, Nokhthwar's Iron Crown collected his soul into the haunting black sapphire gem at the centre of the crown. The Iron Crown casts a
Soul Bind on command (1 time/day), and it collected its master's soul when he died.
The gem is an extradimension pocket that can only be perceived if the gem is viewed with
Eyes of minute seeing, and there happens to be a pair in the minerals lab of Goudy Whyhelm Trifeelix (gnome wight, alchemist, gemologist and former wizard). Viewers gazing through the
Eyes see a few acres of Hell, populated with six or so bored Spined Devils (CR 2) and a stewing Pit Fiend (CR 20). The hundreds of damned souls that once populated the landscape were "expended" in the fight against the god. To quote
Inferno (from the
review again):
The damned appear much as they did in life. They are reborn in the Nine Hells in a form of flesh and blood, although they are gaunt and frail. Through the tormenting of the damned, devils harvest the power inherent in the mortal soul -- power to fuel infernal rites, to animate infernal constructs, to strengthen archdevils, or to fortify defenses. Although most damned souls are imprisoned until expended, a scant few -- those who served the Nine Hells with particular ability in life -- are rewarded with transformation into lesser devils so that they may continue to serve the Nine Hells throughout eternity."
When the Iron Crown is charged, it means that landscape is populated with souls being tortured. Under Nokhthwar the Pit Fiend's hand there was always a surplus, but the landscape is utterly void of souls at the moment. The six spined devils inside have themselves been tortured with 512 years of boredom and unending hunger punctuated by fits of rage and torment at the hands of Nokhthwar the Pit Fiend, vexed at the twist of fate that has him hoisted by his own petard.
The spined devils are desperate to play cat and mouse and poke at prisoners again. It's their purpose. Nokhthwar the Pit Fiend yearns for his skeleton to be retrieved from the rock so that he has a body (of sorts) to inhabit, once he's released from the Soul Bind. Nokhthwar must have his bones nearby to inhabit when the black sapphire gem is dissolved in the stomach acids of an ancient black dragon, or the gem is smashed on the Anvil of Angband in Hell.
If his skeleton is destroyed, Nokhthwar will not want the black sapphire gem destroyed, as Nokhthwar's soul would return to hell. Nokhthwar fears this. He fears harsh demotion upon returning to Hell, where his political alliances are antiquated. He has no leverage there. Without a body to inhabit, Nokhthwar will continue to make this pocket of Hell his small kingdom, and always press the owner of the Iron Crown to send him fresh souls to torment and devour.
The pit fiend's bones are being carefully excavated by the crews under the direct supervision of more intelligent undead (wights and deathlocks). They have already recovered the crown and at its command have stored it in the gem vault for now, the most secure vault in Wave Echo Cave (other vaults include the mithral ingots vault, the forge vault -- racks of unenchanted yet nonetheless mithral gear of all kinds -- and the Forge of Spells vault protected by a Spectator).