The Caves of Chaos are a region of caverns in the subsoil of the valley of Helix, with mouths at different heights, where Cursed Orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and medusas live in an uneasy balance.
| Type | Place |
| Spanish entry | Cuevas del Caos |
Approach
From Helix it is two or three days; by the route from Adwen, seven or eight hours over ground “half marshy, but cold, like a half-frozen creek”, to “a path and an entrance into the forest”. A local figure told those coming out: “you are the Caves of Chaos”. The forest allows an unseen approach; a brook separates the camping ground, two or three kilometers away; the Caves of Chaos camp lies a mile south of the entrances. The caves lie on the route to the Blackwater River. On one visit winter was ending, trees still bare; outside the caves it was “cold, ice”.
Description
Several entrances and “caverns at different heights” are visible; one mouth exits upward onto the valley. Travelers letter them “from A to G, at least”, but maps also cite J and K. Caves C belong to the Cursed Orcs, who had wolves. Inside are bones of beasts “but also of humans”. Some call them the Cuevas Húmedas (“Wet Caves”).
Inhabitants
They coexist in “a certain harmony, in quotation marks”, each people on its own level. Medusas attack adventurers: of two found, one killed a member of the band before falling. Criminals escape through the caves, and “adventurers can disappear” there.
Role
“First they clean the Caves of Chaos”: clearing them is required before they can hold and care for a young girl turned into a medusa. Expeditions are named for them (“in search of the Caves of Chaos”), and “the Caves of Chaos were difficult”.
Conflicting accounts
- Distances disagree: two or three days from Helix; seven or eight hours via Adwen; ten to twelve miles from an unnamed city, “rather far but through the forest”.
- The catalog ends at G, but maps name J and K.
Open questions
- How many caves are there, and who holds each letter besides C?
- Are the Wet Caves the same complex?
- What does “cleaning” mean, and what sustains the “harmony”?
- The unexplored chambers are undescribed.