Crossing

"Lovely place to call home, long as you don't mind all the stumps with beards stinking up the place." - Dwarf-disliking local.

Crossing is a city of industry, grit, and unspoken deals, a bustling trade hub perched at the northwesternmost edge of Lough Icewind like a weary traveler waiting for the next opportunity. Built at a crossroads where roads split toward The Cloudrend Mountains, Moonpine Forest, and distant Gullsperch, it is a city of movement, its people never still, its wealth never stagnant. The Ironhand Republic’s deep-rooted presence ensures its forges never cool, its lumber mills never cease, and its crime-riddled markets never shut down. Whether it’s a merchant offloading a haul of Moonpine timber, a dockhand overseeing the latest Lough Icewind shipment, or a smuggler slipping contraband beneath the city's ever-watchful enforcers, Crossing thrives not on law but on momentum, the kind that makes fortunes or gets people killed. But trade is not all that defines it. The scars of expansion linger in the slums of Laborers' Row, where crippled workers, once pioneers carving a road through the mountains, live out their days bitter and broken, abandoned by the kingdom they helped build. Meanwhile, the Ironhand Enclave, an autonomous Dwarfish stronghold, keeps the city’s wealth and industry in lockstep with their underground empire, making it clear that while Everwealth may claim dominion over Crossing, true power here is measured in ore, steel, and the weight of a well-placed bribe.

Demographics

Crossing is a city of movement, its population shifting with the tides of trade and labor, though its core remains a mix of humans, dwarves, and frontier workers. The largest Dwarfish population in Everwealth resides here, spilling out of the Ironhand Enclave and into the city proper, where their stonework buildings, deep-seated forges, and underground halls shape both the skyline and the streets below. Humans dominate the merchant and agricultural classes, their farms and mills lining the southern farmlands, while outcasts, adventurers, and smugglers form a constant undercurrent of activity beneath the surface. Laborers from Gullsperch’s mountain road project still pass through, many now retired, crippled, or resentful, swelling the ranks of the impoverished underclass that lingers in Crossing’s shadow. For those at the top, wealth means sponsoring trade, for those at the bottom, it means surviving until tomorrow.

Government

On parchment, Crossing falls under the jurisdiction of Opulence's provincial governor, with an appointed mayor at its helm. In practice, power flows where coin dictates, with merchant guilds, Dwarfish trade houses, and crime families shaping its every decision. Unlike Bordersword, where military presence governs with an iron grip, Crossing’s rulers are those who can pay for influence and keep it. Law here is less about justice and more about pragmatism, bribery is expected, and those who refuse to play the game quickly find themselves locked out of the city’s wealth, or worse. The Ironhand Republic maintains a strict grip over its own people, running its Enclave like an independent fortress-state within the city. Everwealth’s officials tread carefully here, knowing that crossing the Ironhand means losing access to their finest steel, stone, and gunpowder-a cost the kingdom is unwilling to pay.

Defences

Crossing is not a city of towering walls or mighty battlements, yet that does not mean it is defenseless. Stone-braced buildings serve as impromptu fortifications, while the Ironhand Enclave itself is an underground fortress, impenetrable to all but the most suicidal invaders. The city’s true defense, however, lies in its people—armed merchants patrol the roads, smugglers have their own network of hidden passageways, and mercenary guilds ensure that anyone who disrupts trade meets an untimely end. The Blackridge Syndicate, one of the city’s most infamous criminal organizations, controls much of the underworld’s muscle, making them a force to be reckoned with. And then there’s Lough Icewind—a barrier and a lifeline in equal measure. Any would-be attacker must either march the near 200-mile journey from Catcher’s Rest or brave the lake’s treacherous currents and hidden dangers. Most choose neither.

Industry & Trade

Crossing is a trade titan, its economy built on timber, steel, and contraband. Lough Icewind serves as its lifeline, cutting shipment times down by half and allowing vast quantities of grain, ore, textiles, and raw materials to move between Crossing, Catcher’s Rest, and Rootthorpe. While Catcher’s Rest claims dominion over the lake’s most refined maritime operations, Crossing specializes in its raw industrial might—loading barges with unprocessed ore, unfinished lumber, and bulk goods that feed Everwealth’s expansion efforts. Despite its bustling wooden docks, however, the lake itself is not forgiving. During winter, ice drifts form treacherous obstacles, and in the warmer months, storms roll down from the mountains, swallowing vessels whole. To combat this, Everwealth has long relied on its small fleet of pre-Schism steel ships, remnants of a forgotten era, their massive hulls patched and reinforced for centuries. Though far outnumbered by the city’s fleet of standard wooden vessels, these ancient warships—stripped of their outdated artillery—serve as the backbone of Everwealth’s maritime industry, ensuring that the lake’s unpredictable fury never fully halts trade.

Infrastructure

Crossing’s streets are functional rather than beautiful, a tangle of paved roads, reinforced timber structures, and iron-clad bridges connecting its key districts. The Ironhand forges, ever-burning, churn out steel, while the massive lumber mills process Moonpine and Boulderrain timber for both construction and shipbuilding. The docks along Lough Icewind are the city’s beating heart, its cranes, barges, and merchant fleets ensuring a constant flow of goods between Everwealth’s central regions. However, expansion has come at a cost. The lake itself was manually dredged and widened between 224 CA and 319 CA to better secure trade routes with Catcher’s Rest, a process that both strengthened the region’s economy and left permanent scars on its geography. Even today, ghost stories circulate about the workers lost in the depths, their bodies never recovered.

Districts

Crossing is divided into four primary districts, shaped by the city's function as a trade hub and labor center.

• At the city's heart lies the Merchant's Belt, a sprawling marketplace filled with granaries, smithies, and trading halls, where Dwarfish and human merchants barter over shipments of iron, grain, lumber, and stone. It is also home to the largest gambling dens and smuggling rings, where coin flows just as freely in illegal trades as it does in legitimate business.

• To the north, the Ironhand Enclave stands as a Dwarfish stronghold, built into the hills and deep caverns beneath the city. Here, Dwarfish forges burn at all hours, producing high-quality weapons, armor, and architectural stonework. Unlike the rest of Crossing, crime is swiftly punished within the Enclave, and even city officials tread carefully when dealing with the Ironhand Republic’s autonomous rule.

• To the west, the Farmland Quarter stretches toward the open plains, where wheat, barley, and livestock farms supply not only Crossing but the outposts along the western road to Bogshield. The timber mills also reside here, processing logs felled from the northern forests before they are shipped south or repurposed for Gullsperch’s roads.

• To the east, the Laborers’ Row houses those who built the roads through the mountains, as well as the crippled and aging pioneers who remain. Ramshackle homes, hastily built as “gifts” to workers who survived the grueling 20-year effort, now stand as half-rotten husks, home to resentful families and those too poor to leave. Many of these men and women turn to crime, or live off bribes and under-the-table deals, knowing they were discarded by the very kingdom they labored to expand.

Assets

Crossing’s greatest strengths lie in its location, industry, and dominion over the westernmost shores of Lough Icewind. The granaries and wheat stores ensure that both local populations and distant settlements receive steady food supplies, while the Ironhand forges continue to craft some of the finest steel and stonework in Everwealth. The lumber mills, churning with the constant demand for timber, provide reinforced ship hulls, trade crates, and construction beams that fuel the kingdom’s expansion and military needs. But beyond these well-known industries, Lough Icewind is the city’s lifeline, ensuring vital trade routes between Crossing, Catcher’s Rest, and Rootthorpe remain open year-round. The lake’s strategic importance cannot be overstated—without its waterborne trade, Crossing’s road-bound merchants would be forced to brave the treacherous 200-mile stretch of unsettled wilderness east to Catcher’s Rest, a journey made deadly by Everwealth’s infamous lawless stretches. The lake cuts shipping times in half, allowing barges and surviving Pre-Schism vessels to carry shipments of iron, coal, wheat, textiles, and stone between settlements in a fraction of the time required by traditional caravan routes. Despite being overshadowed by Catcher’s Rest’s dominance over maritime trade, Crossing holds its own, thanks to its logistical mastery and historical dredging efforts, which expanded Icewind’s navigability between 224 CA and 319 CA. Though scars of the expansion remain—workers lost to the lake’s depths, whispered rumors of unseen things unearthed in the dredging process—Crossing thrives on the back of its connection to Lough Icewind, ensuring the city’s lifeblood continues to flow.

Guilds and Factions

• The Merchant’s Consortium controls the official trade networks, ensuring Crossing’s industries remain competitive, or rather, ensuring its wealthiest citizens continue to profit at the expense of those beneath them.

• The Ironhand Republic, maintaining strict political autonomy, controls the Enclave’s underground halls, ensuring Dwarfish industry remains unchallenged by the greater kingdom. Though separate from Everwealth’s official government, their control over forges, stone quarries, and even elements of lake trade gives them more power than most Everwealthy nobles.

• The Blackridge Syndicate, a ruthless criminal enterprise, dominates smuggling, black-market dealings, and underground labor rings. Their reach extends across Crossing’s docks and through the lake’s hidden piers, ensuring contraband moves freely between the three major settlements.

• The Olive Branch Shipping Company, while headquartered in Catcher’s Rest, maintains a strong foothold in Crossing’s docks, providing reliable lake-bound transport for merchants unwilling to risk overland caravan raids. Unlike some of the lake’s more dubious shipping outfits, Olive Branch prides itself on efficiency and reliability, even if its rates are significantly higher than its competitors.

• The Sword-Arm Shipping Company, a grittier, riskier alternative, operates out of both Crossing and Catcher’s Rest, ferrying ore, steel, and lumber across the lake, as well as weapons, illicit goods, and the occasional fugitive looking to escape the wrong kind of debt.

While these factions operate independently, they all understand one thing: without Lough Icewind, Crossing’s prosperity would be little more than a mirage.

History

Crossing’s origins predate its industrial rise, once little more than a caravan stop along the Amber Hills, a waypoint for merchants traveling between Everwealth’s northern frontier and its central provinces. But its fate changed during the brutal expansion efforts toward Gullsperch. In the late 200s CA, Everwealth launched a large-scale effort to solidify trade networks across the interior, including the controversial dredging and widening of Lough Icewind’s key routes to ensure year-round access. What began as a pragmatic expansion project soon became a grueling, decades-long undertaking, where hundreds of laborers died from exhaustion, drowning, and unexplained disappearances beneath the water. The years 224 CA to 319 CA saw Crossing’s lake-bound infrastructure grow exponentially, as entire dockyards, shipping industries, and waterborne trade companies sprang up to take advantage of the newly expanded routes. By the 400s CA, Crossing had firmly established itself as the western hub of Lough Icewind’s trade, but at a cost—the very workers who carved the roads, built the docks, and expanded the lake found themselves cast aside as newer industries reaped the benefits of their suffering. Their descendants now inhabit Laborers’ Row, where resentment toward the kingdom still lingers. Though Catcher’s Rest now dominates much of the lake’s broader trade, Crossing remains its most vital secondary port, ensuring that Everwealth’s goods flow across the water with ruthless efficiency... When possible.

Points of interest

• The Ironhand Enclave – A fortified underground district where Dwarfish smiths and merchants maintain total control over their affairs.

• The Dust Road Taverns – A line of infamous drinking dens where laborers, smugglers, and mercenaries trade coin, secrets, and stolen goods.

• The Golden Grain Exchange – The largest grain trading hub in Northern Everwealth, where entire harvests are bought and sold in a single afternoon.

• The Broken Hammer – A tavern and refuge for retired laborers, many of whom were crippled or discarded after Gullsperch’s expansion efforts.

Tourism

Few visit Crossing for leisure, but many come to do business, seek work, or disappear. The merchant halls, gambling dens, and taverns draw travelers, criminals, and frontier workers, while Dwarfish enclaves attract traders looking for high-quality metalwork.

Architecture

Crossing’s architecture is a fusion of Everwealthy and Dwarfish styles. Sturdy stonework, timber structures, and reinforced roads define the city, while the Ironhand Enclave boasts underground halls, intricate carvings, and forge-lit tunnels.

Geography

Crossing sits at the northernmost edges of the Amber Hills, where rolling highlands fade into the steep foothills of the Cloudrend Mountains. The city is uniquely positioned between two distinct forests, making it a key supplier of timber and wild game. To the north, the Boulderrain Woods stretch into the mountainous terrain, their hardy trees and dense undergrowth providing natural fortifications but also sheltering bandits and predatory wildlife. To the south, the northern tip of the Moonpine Forest spreads in thin but plentiful patches, a landscape of softer woods, fertile soil, and gentler slopes, ideal for farming and grazing livestock. Though the land can support agriculture, it is rugged, with rocky outcroppings, uneven pastures, and hidden crevices, making large-scale cultivation difficult outside the farmlands surrounding the city. The region’s elevation grants breathtaking views of the Cloudrend peaks, visible from nearly anywhere in the city. However, this rugged beauty comes at a cost—landslides, rockfalls, and unpredictable terrain shifts are common, making expansion beyond the city's foothold difficult. Though Crossing is not as isolated as the true mountain settlements, the surrounding cliffs, forests, and hills make it a natural choke point for travel north into Dwarfish lands, east to Gullsperch, and west toward Bogshield.

Climate

Crossing experiences a cool, temperate climate, with long winters and unpredictable storms rolling down from the Cloudrend Mountains. Snowfall is common six months out of the year, with harsh winds and freezing rains making travel treacherous in the colder seasons. Spring and summer bring warmer, milder conditions, though the mountain air keeps temperatures lower than the plains to the south. The proximity to both forested and mountainous regions results in frequent mist and fog, which can linger in the valleys and streets for days at a time, obscuring visibility and heightening the city's already mysterious atmosphere. Rainfall is moderate but consistent, keeping the soil fertile enough for farming, though unexpected cold snaps in early spring can destroy crops if planting is mistimed. Thunderstorms in late summer are frequent, bringing sudden downpours and powerful winds that test the durability of Crossing’s wood-and-stone structures. While the forests provide some shelter from these harsh elements, they also serve as a breeding ground for deadly blizzards, which can sweep down from the peaks with little warning, trapping travelers and workers in the roads beyond the city’s safety.

Natural Resources

With rich farmland, bountiful timber reserves, and an endless supply of iron, coal, and stone, Crossing is well-situated to fuel both its own growth and that of Everwealth. Lough Icewind provides freshwater fisheries, and its depths hold deposits of silt rich in minerals, further bolstering agricultural yields. However, while the Blackridge Syndicate ensures a steady stream of luxury imports, Crossing itself lacks many high-value resources, forcing it to rely on trade with Catcher’s Rest and the greater kingdom.

Founding Date

86 CA

Alternative Name(s)

'Four-Path City', 'The City of Choices'.

Population

45,000

Inhabitant Demonym

Crossers.

Owning Organization

The Monarchy