Carkulroth

Meaning "sheltering dark", it was the stronghold of the Une-Makkar near the Shadow's Teeth about an underground acre or more. It has more than 3 levels and the pits.

The entrance is a rough keep made of big black unmortared stone blocks, topped with battlements. A spiked gate of iron-reinforced timber blocked the way in.

By night, Carkulroth was alive with activity. Soon after dark, several parties and hunters leave the stronghold to the forest. Tse'Mara settled on the battlements like pigeons on a balcony. !Structure

Surface level
Inside, there is a corridor walled with a dozen feet of stone and timber-roofed that sloped downward. The passage ended in a series of deep wells and wooden ladders led downward. Small lights shone at intervals, tiny sparks that were caged fireflies.

Second level
A ladder leads down into a wide fire-lit hall. Its walls were of rough-hewn stone, decorated with shields, crossed spears and animal trophies. A half-dozen side passages led from it. Throgs turned haunches of meat over huge fires. Copper cauldrons bubbled over other firepits. Females balancing sloshing urns on the head walk around.

Most of the hunters dump their kills on wood tables or hung them from hooks in the ceiling, and leave.

Passages branch to corridors, pierced with crude doorways covered with hanging blankets. Deeper, the firefly cages became fewer in number. A side chamber is filled with tables and benches, its walls decorated with hunting trophies and crossed spears.

This narrow hallway lined with doorways leads to a bend with passages leading downwards. A side passage led to a room with workers loading heavy sacks. Turning right leads to a small chamber with a stairway leading down to the storeroom

Dungeon level
After a long way, past a landing, and then a small chamber with three passages branching out of it, a well stands in the middle, a bucket beside it. The left passage, leads down. The stonework here seemed rougher, more natural. The passage was dark and poorly lit, and suddenly widened into the storeroom, a cavernous chamber filled with wooden barrels. A wooden doorway with a faint light under it leads to the dungeons.

The dungeon room was squarish, about ten paces on a side, lit by the glow of a shielded brazier filled with hot coals. There was a closed wooden door at the far end and five evenly spaced trapdoors about the room, and a low table. Behind the guards' table was a cross-shaped wooden frame, its sides pitted and stained. Beside it was a long coil of coarse rope, a bucket, and a many-thonged whip.