The Mines of Vaardmur

Fortune favours the adventurous...

One day, a group of cartographers attempting to accurately map the entire area of Mount Argent stumbled across a deserted Owlbear cave, and noticed something curious at its limits... The presence of iron seams; enough to warrant further investigation. The lead explorer, Ingrid Vaardmur, initially shared the claim with her fellow surveyors, and they worked with the locals of Vanden's Rest to break through deeper into the mountain. Shortly after the mine was established however, Vaardmur bought out the other shareholders and renamed the mine after her family, profiting hugely from the enterprise. With her new-found fortune, she commissioned the construction of Erstrye Château. The mine's discovery, as well as the Château's construction, brought work to Vanden's Rest, as well as the necessary wealth to trigger an expansion to the settlement.

Purpose / Function

These mines stretch deep into the Mountain, yet it has far from exhausted the wealth of iron that can be found here. Quartz has also been extracted from the depths. Should other varieties of semiprecious materials be discovered, Ingrid Vaardmur reserves the right to these ores herself and retains all profits. On the other hand, the community takes a large percentage of the profits from the iron and quartz production. People tend to neither scorn nor compliment this arrangement.

History

Some residents of Vanden's Rest will staunchly advocate that the abandoned owlbear cave where the mine was initially found is the same cave outside which Vanden the Strong-Handed trained with his owlbear rival. Excavations have revealed no evidence of an owlbear grave near this site, however, as it is said that Vanden buried the owlbear at the place where they trained. Despite this, several locals protested the "desecration" of this area in favour of the mine's construction, but were largely silenced due to lack of sufficient evidence to prove that this area was sacred to Vanden. For the full legend of Vanden the Strong-Handed, see his profile.