Hmm... wizard 9, troll 2, undeath 4, manticore 5? Okay.No expeditions were being sent underground anymore, which was unfortunate because a dangerous predator, manticore, had arrived from elsewhere in the valley and settled in the caves not far from the grove. The wild herds that used to provide its sustenance had all migrated away from the freezing landscape, so the creature resorted to more dangerous prey: the Theliiri.
The dwarves tilled their underground farms, the mushroom harvest finally becoming large enough to sustain them completely without reliance on stored supplies. It wasn't exactly palatial cuisine, but it kept them alive.
Galkagaval at last had time and resources to map the full extent of the goblin citadel, and they discovered an abandoned temple with its gold furnishings still intact. The goblins had built it when they first discovered the now-depleted gold vein. A few of the crazier outcasts saw this as a sign and set up a shrine dedicated to Kostru, the human god of greed.
In the fall of 72, an exile named Ÿare Mithamathaci undertook a journey into the caves. Ÿare was a master of venoms, and he had been unable to find any useful ingredients on the surface since last year. He knew that the caves were once home to primordial beasts and hoped to use transmutation to recreate some of their properties in creatures of today. It would take many, many experiments to do so, so Ÿare settled down underground and set out to collect herbs growing on the goblin battlefields of old.
His first creation was Ulireare, not a true living being but a blob of matter possessed by a summoned spirit. Its birth was something of an accident, but Ÿare learned a lot from it. It was new magic, a crude form of that used by the Creator himself in a time before time.