* Restricted Information: Keragund only

The lore of the Keragund

1. The Cult
2. The Secrets
3. The Purpose
4. The Organisms
5. The Media

1. The Cult

The Keragund ("Growers in Caves" in Khuzdul) are a Druidic Cult amongst the Dwarves who instress and gain their media from organisms.  They use the magic of Oreads, and are able to operate Druidically underground.  They are referred to, somewhat derogatorily, by other Druids as the "Tunnel Rats".  However this is no insult to Dwarves, for whom the rat is a useful and nutritious animal.

There are sects of the Cult amongst the Gabilkhazâd and Taramkhazâd, but it is strongest amongst the Gizdîm, who are the closest to Nature of all the Dwarves.  The major Keragund sects amongst the Gizdîm are based in the Gasrâk and the Kum-Valga in the Overworld and Flerrig in the Underworld.  The Sacred Sites of the Keragund of Flerrig are as follows:

Sacred Heart of the Far Lands: the Shining Caves

1. Far Cave / Circle
2. Flerrig Cave
3. The Red Caves
4. The Silver Caves
5. The Hidden Caves
6. Grell Circle
7. Bone Caves / Circle
8. White Circle
9. Sea Caves / Circle
10. Lonely Circle
11. Heath Crossing Circle
12. Vclo Desert Circle

All the above Sites are in the Underworld Forest of the Far Lands.  Sites 7 to 12 above are in the custody of the Beastmaster Cults of Kargen.  By the Year 2503 the Keragund had withdrawn a permanent presence from most of Sites 1 to 6 above, visiting them only occasionally.  However in the Spring of 2504 they dispersed from the Shining Caves to the outlying Sites again.

2. The Secrets

Most Druids dismiss organisms as being the least of Nature's creatures.  Seduced by the gaudy foliage of the woods, they believe the underground to be a harsh and empty place, devoid of the life and beauty of Nature.  How little they know.  How much they fail to see.

For in the quiet and dark places beneath the earth, from which springs forth all life, grow the organisms.  These simple and highly specialised creatures maintain the fertility of the soil, by breaking down the remains of all life, as it returns to the earth, and returning it to fertilise the soil.  Deeper still, in caverns and tunnels through the rocks, the more advanced organisms feed, sustain, and feed upon the monsters and other creatures that inhabit the depths.  These organisms, the moulds, slimes and oozes, are the chief inspiration, resource and Druidic Media of the Keragund, as they journey deep beneath the mountains of their homeland.

Their most mystical journeys take the Keragund deep into the bowels of the earth.  There in the darkest tunnels they seek the greatest treasures prized by the Dwarves, the largest and most beautiful of gems, the purest of mithril and the legendary adamantine, and also the greatest of organisms, which have achieved a sentience allowing them to communicate with the Keragund.  But the Keragund also operate very effectively on the open slopes and peaks of the mountains of the Khazâd-Valga.

The Keragund are friends of the Oreads, the Nature Spirits of the mountains and underground, and they revere QUAYAG, God of Organisms, Who has granted to the Oreads and the Keragund the Organic Cycle of Druidic Spells.  The Binders amongst them Summon XAQ, Demon of Organisms.  Several of them are Alchemists, exploiting the unique properties of organisms.

3. The Purpose

The Keragund exist to maintain the delicate balance of the underground world, which is so crucial to the health of the Natural world above.  By their cultivation and understanding of organisms, they assist their people in surviving and prospering in the harsh environment of the underground, and are therefore accorded great respect in Dwarvish society.

4. The Organisms

5. The Media

The Keragund may harvest the above organisms and use them as Druidic Media for the Spells indicated above.  The bonuses given are:

5.2    If harvested oneself:

    5.2.1    With an implement not made of gold or mithril: +2; or

    5.2.2    With a golden spatula: +3; or

    5.2.3    With a mithril spatula: +4; or

    5.2.4    With a golden spatula and collected in a golden receptacle: +6; or

    5.2.4    With a golden spatula and collected in a mithril receptacle (or vice-versa): +7; or

    5.2.4    With a mithril spatula and collected in a mithril receptacle: +8; and

    5.2.5    In addition to the appropriate above bonus for harvesting oneself, if harvested on the Cd specified in the table above as giving maximum bonuses when harvested then: +5, giving a maximum total bonus usually achievable of +13.

The usual Media (privet / holly / ivy / mistletoe) have half effect (FRD) for Spells within their respective Cycles, and Mistletoe has one quarter effect (FRD) for all Spells (including those of the Organic Cycle), except within the Druid Cycle, when it has half effect as above.

Instead of harvesting a specimen to be used as a medium from a live organism, the Keragund Druid may touch the associated gemstone to the organism, incanting in Old Speech to the effect that he foregoes taking the specimen, and expending SP equal to the plus on Spells the specimen would have given (depending on the means the Druid had available to harvest it, and which he demonstrates and refers to in the incantation: e.g "I forego taking a specimen from you with this mithril spatula, into this mithril bottle, on this Midsummer’s Day").  The plus is then stored in the stone, to be expended later.  No more specimens may be foregone during any Caeriad than could properly have been harvested from the organism without harming it.  The total pluses that may be stored in a stone (aggregating their values) equal its weight (in weight points) times its value (in gold pieces).  Pluses must be expended in amounts equal to the pluses that would have been given by the specimens that were used to store them.  Each stored plus decreases in value by one on each New Moon, in the usual way.  Stored pluses also decay as per paragraph 9.3 of the Druidic System.  However a new plus may be stored in a stone in excess of its capacity, and the oldest stored pluses, sufficient to allow the new one to be stored, are automatically erased. Already harvested specimens may be stored in stones for half effect (FRD), but at full SP cost.  Pluses expended from stones are not cumulative with any other media plus.

Go to Keragund Spell List

Back to top of document

Back to Druidic System

Back to Cults page

© P.R. Wild, 13 September 1999, 14 August 2002