The Onon Caves

South of the Arch, through thick trees and swamps, bone totems hang from the branches marking a border that should not be crossed without permission. Beyond them, the earth opens into a spiraling descent, and the Onon Caves begin. This is the home of the Mountain People, a tight-knit Lascarian community that has carved a life from the darkness beneath Misery Bay. The caves feature crystal clear pools, stalactites, and stalagmites forming massive columns in chambers that branch into narrower tunnels reinforced with old mine timbers.
  The Mountain People practice Tribes of Seasons worship, with Father Night and Mother Luna at the center of their faith. Outside the cave mouth sits the Onon Shrine, a stone altar decorated with fat-burning candles and sweet herbs where visitors must leave a sacrifice before any negotiation begins. Deeper within, the Quiet Pool serves as both baptismal font and funeral ground. When one of the Mountain People dies, the community eats the remains at the pool's edge, believing the soul becomes trapped in the still water and can offer reflections of wisdom when asked. Those not consumed near the pool are believed doomed to roam as soulless husks. The Warren, a network of twisting tunnels, houses families in rooms with shelves carved into stone walls and animal skin floor coverings.
  At the system's lowest point lies the Pit, a hole so deep that holding a candle reveals nothing of the bottom. Dropping a stone produces clattering that fades into silence. Recently, the silence has been replaced by wails and cries rising from below. Lascarians who venture too deep are going missing. The truth is that countless dead have accumulated at the bottom over years, clawing over each other, pressing upward through tunnels that are almost crowded. Some of the Mountain People believe Father Night has sent a creature into the Pit and that only a sentient sacrifice will appease him. If nothing is done, within a few years the dead may overflow to the surface.