A Visitor's Guide to Nokt: Outside of Nokt: The High Cliffs Ruins

The High Cliffs Ruins, at first glance, seem simply to be the remains of an extensive castle complex of human design atop an impressive range of cliffs on the northern edge of the continent. While that impression would not be wrong, it would also not be entirely right.

The Ruins are actually the remains of the main “base” for the Mind Flayers, generations ago. Their deep cavernous rooms and corridors were built before the humans’ castle, and incorporate many levels and secret entrances/exits (some have yet to be found to this day!). When the Illithid-dominated humans arrived to build their castle complex above these caves, they built them with direction from the Mind Flayers, layering new tunnels, walls, and defenses on top of the ones the Mind Flayers had built, strengthening them and, also, directing attention away from the older tunnels. In most cases, the old tunnels and rooms were completely obscured by the new construction, hiding the Mind Flayers’ base from most eyes.

At the end of the Great War, many of the Illithid caverns were collapsed in onto themselves, sealed up, or otherwise made inaccessible. Still, rumors persist that caves are still accessible, that they are chock full of treasures and deathtraps... and that, perhaps, the Mind Flayers are going to return and re-take what they see as rightly theirs...