Abandoned Mines (A)

Deserted eons ago, the great Abandoned Mines stretch from one end of Albion to the other, connecting all dungeons in the realm with rideable mine carts.

Lore
When Arawn created the Inconnu, his main task for them was to tend to the dead in Annwn. But when their services were not needed by Arawn, the Inconnu needed a place to be. Putting the living with the dead introduced the potential for angry dead, which is something Arawn wanted to avoid. He randomly chose an Inconnu, named him Jaro'yen for simplicity's sake, and ordered him to build a Crypt for all the Inconnu. Arawn told Jaro'yen to use as many Inconnu as needed, provided it did not interfere with any mission Arawn may have given them and to do whatever was necessary to get the Crypt built. After giving Jaro'yen a vision of what the Crypt should look like, Arawn went to see to other more important things. Since Inconnu did not question the orders of their lord, Jaro'yen simply nodded and set about to build a city.

To anyone other than an Inconnu, the task of building a city from scratch would be an immense challenge but to an Inconnu it was simply another assignment to be completed. Never having built a city before, Jaro'yen used his freedom from Arawn to secretly watch the people of Albion, especially the Arawnites that were building the temple to Arawn. As he watched, Jaro'yen saw that the people used stone, wood, and metal to build the temple and he decided that those would be the same materials he used for the Crypt. Jaro'yen then returned to Annwn to begin building the city for his people.

Upon returning to Annwn, Jaro'yen ran into a large problem in constructing the Crypt. Annwn was plentiful in incorporeal spirits and the souls of the dead but it lacked the wood, metal and good stone for building a city such as Arawn wanted. He searched the Deadlands of Annwn and other parts of Annwn, but was not able to find anything else that would lend itself well to building. Knowing that Arawn would not accept a lack of proper materials as a reason for the Crypt not being built, Jaro'yen set out to find the materials he needed.

Jaro'yen knew that Albion could provide the stone, metal, and wood needed to build the Crypt. Taking a group of Inconnu, Jaro'yen went off into a distant part of Annwn and opened a portal from their world into the depths of Albion. Once the portal was stabilized Jaro'yen ordered the other Inconnu to dig a tunnel to a small cave that lay just outside the portal. Once they reached the cave, Jaro'yen ordered the Inconnu to begin to cut blocks of stone from the walls surrounding the cave. These blocks of stone were then taken back to the lands below the Deadlands of Annwn and construction of the Lower Crypt was begun.

Because of the vast amount of stone needed for the buildings, soon the small cave had grown into a large one. As more and more stone was quarried from around the cave, tunnels were left where the stone was removed. It was as these tunnels were being made that Jaro'yen discovered that there were deposits of silver ore within the stone. He ordered the other Inconnu to collect this silver ore, and after watching how the people of Albion work with the metal ore, had the Inconnu begin to do the same. Soon there was silver to use in the construction of the city.

As construction upon the Lower Crypt was nearing completion, the Inconnu made a second discovery. As the Inconnu quarried the needed stone, their tunnels became longer and longer. Since they often did not pay attention to the direction in which they were digging, the tunnels twisted around in all directions. One day a group of Inconnu removed a large block of stone to discover they could see daylight on the other side. They had dug all the way to the surface of Albion. One of the Inconnu fetched Jaro'yen who then cautiously stepped outside the tunnel entrance. After determining they were alone in the area, the Inconnu began to explore.

Jaro'yen was pleased to see that there were a lot of trees in the area. He had watched the Arawnites use wood in their temple and knew it would be helpful in constructing the Upper Crypt. Not knowing how often the people of Albion wandered by this spot, he ordered only a few trees cut down and taken back to Annwn. He then ordered the Inconnu to dig other tunnels to other parts of Albion and gather trees here and there, and told them to make sure that the entrances to the tunnels were well hidden. With the quarrying of stone, the gathering of ore, and the collection of wood, soon the Inconnu had quite a set of mines and tunnels running beneath the surface of Albion.

Jaro'yen and his Inconnu team, with the help of the mines, were able to finish the Upper Crypt in a short amount of time. Even after the Upper Crypt was complete Jaro'yen ordered that the entrance to the mines be left open so that the Inconnu could obtain any materials they needed to maintain the Crypts. On one of their maintenance trips into the mines, Jaro'yen and a few other Inconnu discovered that one of the hidden entrances to the mines was open. Although they found evidence that someone from the surface had entered the mines, they were not there now. The Inconnu sealed that entrance then finished their tasks.

Unfortunately that was not the last time they found a hidden entrance opened. As more and more people explored Albion they uncovered the Inconnu's carefully hidden mine entrances. Because the tunnels were confusing, very few people actually ventured deep into the mines, but Jaro'yen was still worried that one day someone would find the entrance to Annwn, but he hesitated to close the mines completely, for the resources it provided were helpful in keeping the Crypt in good condition. But then something happened that changed Jaro'yen's mind and drove him to close the mines completely.

A group of people from Albion had managed to make their way deep into the mine tunnels and nearly discovered a group of Inconnu at work. The Inconnu had heard the noisy Albions coming down the tunnel and managed to hide themselves in the shadows. The Albions entered the room where the Inconnu had been working and were surprised to see signs of work there. They touched the hammers and pick axes the Inconnu had been using to dig the ore out. After a quick search the Albions headed back to the surface and the Inconnu went back to work. A day or so after the almost encounter with the Albions, the Inconnu who had been working in the tunnel became very ill. Arawn saved them from dying, but he was angry with Jaro'yen for allowing the Albions to enter the mines. Jaro'yen took a group of Inconnu and went and sealed each tunnel entrance to prevent the surface-dwellers from entering, then sealed the portal from Annwn into the mines, sealing the mines forever, or so Jaro'yen and the others thought.

Many, many years later, when trouble began to rise in the Lower Crypt and the Deadlands of Annwn, the Inconnu were in need of stone to build barricades and metal ore to forge armor and weapons. By that time the Inconnu had become immune to the diseases of the Albions, so Arawn ordered the mines to be reopened once again. During the time the mines were closed, evil creatures moved into the mines and the tunnels were now unsafe for travel and work. But since the Inconnu were unable to disobey an order from Arawn, they fearlessly entered the mines to obtain the materials needed to defend the Crypt of the Inconnu from evil.