A few features and landmarks worked up to try and keep the main passage interesting. Travelling deeper I plan to link in with the volcanic nature of the area with geysers and lava flows. Any suggestions for other features most welcome.
In the entrance to the passage lie the remains of a Juggernaut, a huge golem left by Slerotin to guard the entrance to the Passage. It forms a stopping off point for almost every adventurous soul venturing into the depths and most leave some mark on it to record their arrival and, somewhat less frequently, their departures.
For the first few miles the main path weaves through clumps of boulders that have fallen from the ceiling, and avoiding the many shallow pools and small streams in the area.
Next explorers arrive at Jenkin’s Step. A tectonic shift has lifted the whole floor at the passage by about forty feet at this point forming a small cliff. Several small waterfalls tip over the lip and feed a significant pond that has collected at the base. There are several tales to explain why it is called Jenkin’s step (none of which I’ve thought of yet) but all are wildly contradictory. There are several flights of steps hacked into the rock and also a crude winch designed to lift pack animals up to the higher levels.
A couple of miles beyond the step is Camp #1, a large open area off the side of the main passage. Rumours claim that when the first explorers arrived it was populated with still-functional automatons, lights and ancient furnishings. If this was true it has now been stripped back to bare stone, however it is noticeably warmer than the surrounding tunnels so it is a popular rest stop.
A long stretch of damp tunnels are adorned with numerous stalactites and stalagmites. There are also numerous naturally formed caves and tunnels formed by the water flowing though the porous rocks in this area. Many of these connect to The Tangles although most of the residents take pains to ensure that routes leading to their territories are inconspicuous.
The end of this region is marked by ‘Old Bob’, a particularly massive stalagmite hunched in the centre of the passage. Often utilised as a camp site Bob is adorned with large amounts of graffiti, some slowly being obliterated by continuing encrustation, some quite ornate.
A few miles deeper and the party has reached the trench. A gentle dip in the passage has collected a significant lake generally thirty to sixty feet deep and occasionally the ceiling dips low enough that it gets close to the surface. Stalactites in these areas sometimes reach down to the water. The inky waters are bitterly cold and stretch for several miles before shoaling back to the surface. Rumours insist that there are tunnels in the darkness below the surface and dangerous aquatic monsters stalk these caverns.
The trench is fed from the depths by the Roaring River, at first at least a strange name for this sluggish river of moderate size although it does have the power to cut a channel into the floor of the passage. As travellers head deeper into the tunnel they notice a deep roar, at first subliminal, but steadily increasing until the air seems to throb.
Pressing on the party comes to the Hall of Thunder – the passage is severed by a huge cavern where a mighty underground river plunges into the depths, a small fraction of which spills into the tunnel mouth to form the river. It would seem that this feature was present when Slerotin drove the Passage through this area as a wide bridge of pure force spans the gap. Unfortunately for those hoping to use it to travel deeper into the Passage erosion has destroyed one of the ziggurats that anchor the ends of the span and it now flickers on and off at unpredictable intervals.