Geography
Geographically, the city is located on a small plateau northwest of a lake in the middle of the mountains. The place is difficult to access, and the inhabitants of the place are cut off from the rest of the world, indeed it takes a week to reach the town, subsidies, and tax collections are only fortnightly there.
Description
The Wand and Hammer
This shop displays a sign featuring a wand crossed with a blacksmith’s hammer.
A forge sits dormant in the far corner, a blacksmith’s anvil and a quenching trough beside it. On the opposite side of the room are two workbenches with stools.
Stonemason’s Workshop
The front door of the stonemason’s home and workshop are open. Blank headstones stand in front of the house, and one beside the doorway is engraved with the words “Tiris Frosthair, Stonemason. Inquire at Back.”
At the back of the house, a work area holds more blank headstones and slabs of granite and marble. Carving tools hang from the wall. A hammer and chisel lie on the ground beside a half-finished headstone that reads:
ADALYN CREEN
May you alw
This grand, two-story brick house is in better shape than the smaller houses. Heavy wooden double doors are flanked by dark windows, and chimneys anchor the building at each corner. In front of the house looms a wide, ancient oak.
Knacker's knothole is the large ancient oak in front of the mayor's house. His hollowed-out tree trunk split open by a lightning strike. Its gnarled branches reach toward the clouds like twisted fingers, and its rough bark is pockmarked with large knots and beetle holes.
Knacker's used to serve as the town gallow, but his fate changed when he became sentient, and Knacker's Knothole is now a strange shop.
Graveyard
A crooked, wrought iron archway stands at the entrance to the graveyard. Headstones sit at odd angles, some toppled completely. Small cairns, rather than inscribed headstones, mark the graves toward the back.
Gallows
Under the lifeless gaze of the town’s founder, so-called criminals are led to the ramshackle gallows to answer for their transgressions, real or perceived. Hastily cobbled together—in a paranoid mania—from the battered timbers of an abandoned barn, this grim construction stands as testament to the true fragility of civilization. People do not know what evils they are truly capable of until adversity lays them low.
The town lack a jail, and outcomes or bandits that have the misfortune of getting caught in town are swiftly dealt with. an abandoned barn on the outskirt serves as a gallow.
Thick, corded rope (AC 12, 2 hp) can whistand a weight of up to 650 pounds. Stool are placed under the wooden beam when the punishment is necessary, and kicked. A projectile aimed at the rope from a distance farther than 30 ft. adds +1 to the rope's AC per 10 ft. If a rope is swinging due to a body hanging, this attack is made at disadvantage.
Society
Law
The city boasts a military force. Use the Guard Arrival Times table to determine how long it takes for guards to arrive at a location after a crime or similar incident is reported.
History
Galeo, established by Lord Borwnoak after settlers discovered jewels within the mountainside some 100 years ago, did a booming business in both the raw ore and the refined jewel. Due to the rough terrain and the harshness of the climate, the village never grew large. It intermittently hosted a succession of traveling merchants who came to the village for a week or two, sold and traded their wares, then left again. The nearest civilized settlement was three days’ ride on horseback down the mountainside.
Collapse of the mine
1119 AD
An explosion rocked the jewel mine, collapsing the tunnels and burying workers under tons of rubble. Sixty miners were underground that day. Over thirty of them died in the initial collapse, and a large rescue operation was formed in the following days.
Unfortunately, and the instability of the tunnels made rescue of the others slow and dangerous. The miners who survived the collapse were trapped for days or weeks before they were rescued—or perished in the deep, alone and terrified. Ultimately they had to stop the search due to fears of more cave-ins if they attempted to remove any more of the rubble, even with miners still missing. In the end sixteen came out alive. Eleven were never found.
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