Overview
Hidden among bushes, a tunnel burrows into the foot of a soaring, snow-capped mountain. Above the mouth of the tunnel is a wooden plank with the words "Mountain's Toe" carved into it in Common.
The Mountain’s Toe Gold Mine, recently bought by a no-nonsense man named Don-Jon Raskin, has been troubled by recent productivity problems. Raskin has set out to check on the mine himself, but he doesn't know that the troubled mine has recently been taken over by a band of
wererats calling itself the Whiskered Gang.
Mine Features
All tunnels and caverns in the mine are hewn from rock that has thin veins of gold ore running through it. Other common features are described below.
Ceilings
Ceilings throughout are 8 feet high and braced at regular intervals by wooden pilasters and beams.
Doors
All doors are made of wood with iron hinges and handles. The doors are fitted with
locks, but none of them are locked. The keys needed to unlock and lock them are gone - stolen by the previous overseer who fled the mine.
Light
Oil lanterns hang from ceiling hooks in every room and tunnel.
Mine Locations
M1. Guard Post
This cave is guarded by two female
wererats in hybrid form. They offer to escort new arrivals to the mine's overseer, Zeleen Varnaster, in area M4.
M2. Wooden Posts
Wooden posts used for shoring up tunnels and caves lean against the walls here.
M3. Crates and Barrels
Stacked against the walls of this storage area are a dozen empty
crates and a similar number of empty
barrels.
M4. Wererat Den
Scattered about this cave are
pickaxes and
shovels. The northeast section contains four
giant rats. The southwest section contains five male
wererats in
human form plus a female
wererat named Zeleen Varnaster - the leader of the Whiskered Gang. If Zeleen dies, another wererat takes over as leader as long as any of them survive.
The wererats invaded the mine after
orcs pushed them out of their previous lair - the
Shrine of Savras along the Triboar Trail. The wererats say they'll go back to their old lair if adventurers get rid of the orcs at the shrine, but this is only a ploy. The wererats have no intention of abandoning the mine.
Anyone who searches the cave finds two
sacks hidden under debris. One sack contains ten fist-sized chunks of gold ore worth 10 gp each. The other holds 82 sp, 450 cp, and a pair of
goggles of night.
M5. Storeroom
A dozen
crates of dry foodstuffs and nine
barrels of drinking water are stacked in the middle of this cave. There is a total of 720 days' worth of
rations and 360 gallons of drinking water.
M6. Sleeping Quarters
This cave contains a dozen wooden cots.
M7. Gold Storage
This cave contains two wheelbarrows and an empty bin.
M8. Equipment Storage
Pickaxes,
shovels, and wheelbarrows are stored here.
M9. Dead End
Leaning against the back wall of this tunnel is a dead female
Tethyrian human miner with a
pickaxe. Inspection of the corpse reveals that the miner was stabbed to death.
M10. Overseer's Office
The
wererats ransacked this cave, whose furnishings include a desk, a chair, an empty wooden
chest, and a cot.
M11. Carrion Crawler
A
carrion crawler lairs in this tunnel, the north end of which is 20 feet up the mountain's rocky slope. Anyone can scale the slope with a successful DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check. The crawler can't open the door at the south end of the tunnel, so it clings to the ceiling in the middle of the tunnel and attacks anyone who approaches from either direction.
M12. Sleeping Quarters
This cave holds six wooden cots.
M13. Rat-Infested Cave
This cave contains five
giant rats that attack anyone who opens the doors to area M14.
M14-M15. Miner's Retreat
These caves are home to five hungry
dwarf miners named Eldeth Strongheart (LG female
shield dwarf commoner), Traubon Rumnaheim (N male
gold dwarf commoner), Dalgal Torevir (N male
shield dwarf commoner), Olunt Fireforge (CG male
gold dwarf commoner), and Brottor Eversharp (CG male
shield dwarf commoner). The miners refuse to surrender the mine to a bunch of "filthy
rats." The
wererats assume these miners will flee or die of starvation eventually.
M16. Graveyard
This field contains a ring of earthen graves with
pickaxes sticking out of the ground where headstones ought to be. Buried here are ten miners who died fighting the
wererats for control of the mine.
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