Shindaerey North Quarry



"Some days stone, some days iron. Shiver, then still. Air tastes like blood, then nothing but dust."

- A group of rats

Shindaerey North Quarry is an abandoned mining complex on the North face of Shindaerey Peak, outside of Karnaca. This specific area is a weak spot, where the world and the Void have merged to become one. This has affected the mine to such a degree that both it and the surrounding North Quarry Town were entirely abandoned. It has become the secret lair of the Cult of the Outsider, which Billie Lurk visits during the mission A Hole in the World.

Ancient History
Three thousand years before the Great Burning, the Envisioned led a young boy to the North face of Shindaerey Peak where they entered the Void and broke apart the gate to the Ritual Hold. There, they sacrificed him to create the Outsider and maintain the world's existence. While the ritual's altar and Twin-bladed Knife were either removed or disappeared from the location, the Envisioned remained there to guard the gate to the Ritual Hold to prevent anyone from reaching the physical body of the Outsider. Their prolonged exposure to the Void eventually turned them into speechless stone creatures, their mind locked on their task for all eternity.

Modern History
Thousands of years later, during the Second Silver Age of Karnaca (late 1700s to 1850s), the Shindaerey Mining Company established the Shindaerey North Quarry on the same spot where the Envisioned once entered the Void. The place happened to contain thick veins of silver said to be worth thousands of coins per nugget. While mining claims on Shindaerey Peak were purchased very quickly, the Shindaerey Mining Company led a recruiting campaign for miners through posters and the Karnaca Gazette. Soon, prospectors from Karnaca and beyond flocked in the quarry in search of fortune.

The mining complex was fairly large and included housings, sanitation facilities, offices, repair workshops, a factory to process silver ore, a company supply store and even a Rail Car station for trips to and from Karnaca. The quarry itself was serviced by large train carts and had multiple entry points and mining shafts going deep into the mountain. The nearby North Quarry Town also provided houses for the workers.

In 1849, Delilah destabilized the Void when she tapped into its power to break open a gate to the world at Stilton Manor. This event started tearing apart the border of the world and the Void across the Empire of the Isles, with catastrophic effects at the Shindaerey North Quarry where said border was already the thinnest. There, Hollows manifested themselves while many workers began to report hallucinations including the air splitting apart, headaches, memory loss and flashes of light. These hallucinations became larger, with some workers hearing entire conversations by people who were not there, and one worker screaming when her entire house disappeared. Progressively, more miners were reporting strange occurrences, such as tunnels suddenly appearing already excavated and entire sections of the mine disappearing for hours on end.

At the same time, the air quality in the mines reached a hazardous level. Many miners chose to leave the Shindaerey North Quarry, and those that remained threatened to strike. The Shindaerey Mining Company denied the accusations but offered counselling to all miners affected by these hallucinations. The paranormal phenomena amplified, with the entire mining complex disappearing for days at a time, and its inhabitants lost sense of what was real and what was illusion. Eventually, everyone had fled and the mines were abandoned, with the exception of one last inhabitant who discovered the Eye of the Dead God while exploring the mine shafts.

By 1851, the Cult of the Outsider had learnt of the supernatural occurrences at the Shindaerey North Quarry and took a Silvergraph of its entrance vanishing from existence. They invested the empty mine shafts to set a research station to push further their studies of the Void while also keeping guard of the Ritual Hold as their ancestors did and still do. The existence of the quarry eventually disappeared from public knowledge; by 1852, neither the witch Breanna Ashworth nor Sister Lena Rosewyn of the Oracular Order could find trace of it in the newspapers nor at the Serkonan Cartographic Society.

Layout
Access to North Quarry Town is from the Shindaerey North Quarry Terminal Station on the rail car line. To the left of the entrance archway is the shower block, and the dormitories are located above the passage leading to the quarry proper. While many of the buildings in North Quarry Town are blocked up, one was a store before.

Passing through the passage underneath the dormitory takes one across a train line and to the entrance Shindaerey North Quarry itself. The main area of the quarry is protected by a combination lock. The quarry's main building is to the left, and includes a large storage area / workshop, with some offices and showers in some of the smaller interior rooms. In the upper floor of the main building is the ore processing room.

Beyond the gate is the main area of the mine. The main quarry train line splits into four here, a sawmill is off to one side, and a weight-sensitive lift is built into one of the walls. The lift will not operate without the equivalent weight of three or more people. A tunnel at the top of the lift leads to the ore processing room, and the entrance to the Cult of the Outsider's library is in this area too.

Trivia

 * Wild wolfhounds can occasionally be found roaming North Quarry Town, but the Cult of the Outsider prevents any from entering Shindaerey North Quarry itself.
 * If Billie listens to groups of rats at the quarry, they often talk about the transformations that occur there.
 * Operating the lift gives the special action Basic Engineering.
 * Residents of North Quarry Town include Adrastos, Connor, Niall, Siobhan and Juana Gallardo.