Phandalin Miner's Exchange

The Miner's Exchange is a trading post where local miners have their valuable finds weighed, measured, and paid out. In the absence of any local lord or authority, the exchange also serves as an unofficial records office, registering claims to various streams and excavations around the area. There isn't any real gold rush in Phandalin, but enough wealth is hidden in the nearby streams and valleys to support a good number of independent prospectors.
The exchange is a great place to meet people who spend a lot of time out and about in the countryside surrounding Phandalin.
The guildmaster is an ambitious and calculating human woman named Halia Thornton. • In her attempts to establish the Miner's Exchange as the closest thing the town has to a governing authority, she acts as more than a simple merchant. • She is also an agent of the Zhentarim, a powerful organization that seeks to exert secret control over the North through wealth and influence. • Halia is working slowly to bring Phandalin under her control, and can become a valuable patron to the characters if they don't cross her. • Halia doesn't know the location of Cragmaw Castle, but she has heard that the Redbrands have a goblin minion serving them. ○ She suggests the goblin might know the location. ○ She leverages this information to try to persuade the characters into helping her deal with the Redbrands.
Quest: Halia's Job Offer. If approached by characters she believes she can control, Halia explains that the Redbrands are a problem. • She tells how the ruffians loiter around the Sleeping Giant tap house and have a base under Tresendar Manor, on the east edge of town. • She then offers the characters 100 gp and a ruby statue to eliminate the Redbrand leader, whom the outlaws call Glasstaff, and bring her any correspondence found in the leader's quarters. • Halia doesn't reveal that she wants to take over the Redbrand operation herself. A DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check indicates she has ulterior motives for wanting the Redbrand leader dead.
JOINING THE ZHENTARIM If the party disposes of the Redbrand leader, Halia Thornton approaches certain members of the group to urge them to join the Zhentarim. She speaks with those who share the Zhentarim's pursuits, such as wealth and power. Even if the party wipes out the Redbrand gang, Halia might still extend the offer in an effort to gain friends (and spies) within the party. If a character agrees, Halia gives the individual the title of Fang.

Parent Location

Phandalin

Owner

Halia Thornton

Owning Organization

Miner's Exchange

Related Plots

• Phandalin