Yathrebu is a network of underground passages beneath Caldero, one of the nodes where the Shadowfell crosses into the material plane. It was the base of Drakthar and the setting of the Path of Drakthar.
| Type | Place (underground) |
| City | Caldero |
| Inhabitants | Shadowfell creatures, darklings |
| Events | Path of Drakthar |
| Houses of the Cycle | ⛓ House of the Band · ☷ House of the Descent |
| Spanish entry | Yathrebu — los pasadizos subterráneos de la Senda de Drakthar |
Description
Yathrebu lies beside the dormant volcanic crater but is not part of the serpentine cave system guarded from below by the Serpent-Moon. Its layout follows ancient ritual work, not natural geology: galleries walled with stacked cobblestones in caustic-toned mortar, extinguished lamps in niches every twenty paces, and inscriptions in a language the Decadian archive does not translate.
The main entrances are narrow mouths scattered through Caldero’s lower quarters, disguised as cisterns or sealed wells. Very few know the layout.
The Shadowfell
Yathrebu is not a stable portal but a porous membrane. Shadowfell creatures, among them skulks and shapeless darklings, pass into it without summoning if they find the right cracks. Drakthar, a Shadowfell operator, ran extortion, minor kidnappings, sabotage of minor guilds and manipulation of information networks in the lower quarters from several nodes.
The Path of Drakthar
The second major mission of La Jabalina in the present cycle took place inside Yathrebu:
- Teo lost his arm in one of the passages, covering a companion during a fight with darklings; the loss bound the group together.
- At one node, the pole from which Sila’s bond comes spoke to her. She chose the group.
- Clues found there showed that Lord Valanthru and Titti Frame profited from the chaos Drakthar sowed, exposing a network of noble corruption.
Drakthar was defeated at one of the central nodes.
Aftermath
The passages were not cleansed. The membrane with the Shadowfell remains, other creatures occupy secondary nodes, and other operators could settle there. Caldero’s church does not acknowledge Yathrebu publicly or send clergy to seal its nodes.
La Jabalina later went back underground, “levantando la perdiz” (flushing the partridge) in Mascor Blancarba’s phrase, and sank the group’s javelin into a filthy coffin in one of the deep nodes, marking the place as one where the band has acted.
Role
The archive holds that Yathrebu is a minor outlet balancing the greater seal kept by the Dark Chapel: the negative pole escapes through it without breaking that seal. If Yathrebu were closed, the pressure on the Dark Chapel could break the seal. Discreet Decadian clerics sense this, and the institutional silence works as a policy of balance.