Ghak

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Ghak is a enormous subterranean ruin under Iizus Yeldah. It was built in the Demon Spawn War (8972 GE - 9493 GE), a time when demons poured out of the Abyss attacking Bal-Kriav and other worlds of the Mortal Systems.

Ghak was built by demons and mortal slaves under the demon lord Orcus. It shielded a rift linking Orcus's abyssal realm with Bal-Kriav's Adunamar Region. It became Orcus's capital of his Bal-Kriav holdings. In the Hoof Front, 9262 GE, the Covenant legions under Asmodeus overwhelmed the defenders by sheer numbers, driving the demons back through their rift.

The strategy of demons at all levels is attack in mass numbers, from all directions, and continue to press the attack until the enemy perishes or they have exhausted their numbers - which is rarely the case for their numbers are often grossly lopsided in their favor with figures like 10:1, 100:1 or even 1000:1.

The Siege of Ghak was one battle that we had the numbers, outnumbering our enemy 50:1. They didn't stand a chance, and acted accordingly, abandoning their sergeants and captains, and their commander Orcus. Their retreat was only a short respite, for they would suffer a much more terrible fate back on Thanatos when Orcus had these cowards tracked down.

- Geryon, planetar commander of the Arin'cal Legion, from his tome - "Demon Principles of War"

The main ways of reaching Ghak is by descending two great icy rifts atop Inzurakthol. The northern rift is Kulaan Ruus, and the southern one is Reym Kulaan. Before the cataclysm that befell Inzurakthol, these rifts were only three hundred feet deep, with many roads descending down to Ghak's fortifications and passages. When the verdant valley of Inzurakthol was swept by blizzards and then glaciers, the rifts were for a time covered under ice and snow. After several years fissures opened, then deep cracks, then the ice and snow gave way leaving foggy rifts several thousand deep. The air around these two rifts is unusually warm and smells of sulfur and putrid rotting vegetation. The heat coming up from the bowels of Ghak and the strange odors are a product of abyssal energies bleeding through a closed gate that once linked the world Bal-Kriav with Orcus's home world Thanatos.

Ghak is a sprawling ruin, flooded in some areas, that covers a vast area of the Underdark. It is the abode of humanoids, monsters, demons, and beasts of the light-less depths of Adunamar.