Hammerfast

A dwarven hold cut from the rock of a deep vale in the Dawnforge Mountains. It is one of three dwarven towns in the Eastern Borderlands area, including Hammerholme and Thunderdelve. Hammerfast is the largest and wealthiest town in the region with a population of around 1,000. The Trade Road runs through the citadel gates and continues eastward beyond the Dawnforge Mountains. Hammerfast is governed by a council of masters, each the leaders of one of the town’s powerful guilds. The current High Master is the leader of the merchant guild, a dwarf named Marsinda Goldspinner. The other council members are Loremaster Geld Seekingstone and the Master Artisan Frelda Blackshield. The Guard and town defense is managed by Tenkar Stoneshield, Lord Commander. The dwarves of Hammerfast look to their own first and don’t give away anything for free, but they are honest and industrious. Hammerfast was built from an ancient dwarven tomb, and interactions and sightings of dwarven and orc ghosts are not uncommon. Hammerfast was once a necropolis, a collection of tombs where the dwarflords interred their people. As the dwarves’ wealth grew, their burial chambers changed from simple stone sepulchers to lavish treasure vaults filled with the material wealth garnered over a lifetime. Hammerfast transformed from a graveyard into a storehouse for treasure, and thus it became a target. A hundred years ago, the Bloodspear orc tribe invaded and sacked Hammerfast in the Bloodspear Orc Invasion. The Bloodspear victory was made possible by finding a route to circumvent Sentinel Fortress, which guards the main pass between the Wild Reaches and Eastern Borderlands (also called the Inner Reaches). The Bloodspear Orcs discovered a long forgotten, but more dangerous and narrow pass that passed the (then) abandoned dwarven citadel, Hammerholme and circumvented Sentinel Fortress, and conquered the Hammerfast necropolis, but gained little from it. The orcs killed the priests and warriors tasked with guarding Hammerfast and started to loot the place, but the dwarves’ burial chambers yielded their treasures only grudgingly. In time, the dwarves returned to Hammerfast. Hammerfast was transformed into a town of the living. It has since grown into the largest and richest settlement in the Dawnforge Mountains. Yet although Hammerfast has changed, its past lingers on. The remaining sealed tombs stand untouched on pain of death by decree of the Town Council. Ghosts still walk the streets, some of them orc warriors slain in the Bloodspears’ attack, others priests of Moradin or the necropolis's doomed guardians, and even a few of them dwarves laid to rest here long ago. Hammerfast is separated into a Gate Ward, Trade Ward, Craft Ward and the Lore Ward. Vistors to Hammerfast arrive at the Gate Ward, a small, walled-off section of the town that once served at the living quarters and garrison for the town's necropolis's living inhabitants. Today, the Gate Ward is Hammerfast's doorstep, a place where visitors and residents mingle to conduct business. A market unities traders from the Inner Reaches with the few travelers from beyond and the Barony of Atlan and Barony of Bortlan. The Hall of Justice reminds the fold of Hammerfast and all its visitors that the dwarves lack any tolerance for troublemakers and criminals, yet this neighborhood is also a haven from smugglers, thieves and rowdies. To many travelers, the Gate Ward is Hammerfast. They have no need, and probably lack permission, to enter the other wards. The rowdiest and most chaotic of the wards, the Gate Ward is the ideal place to go if you are an adventurer seeking a job, a thief in need of a fence, or a hothead in search of a brawl. The town elders accept that some level of illegal activity is inevitable in any settlement. They just hope to keep it confined to the Gate Ward.

Soldiers and Guards

There are three main groups of guards and soldiers. The guards for the Gate Ward that greet newcomers and keep law and order wear chain male, gray surcoats with hammer motif, and armed with clubs and crossbows. Most are worshippers of Moradin, and many have his hammer holy symbol as pendants. The guards in the Trade Ward have black surcoats with a gold coin, which is the symbol of the dwarf god Vergadain, and hammers and crossbows. The different gold coins that they wear are:

The guards for the town of Hammerfast itself are better armed and with higher quality armor, including armor scale male with plate over, red under coats with black dragons, dragon helms with bronze dragons and black dragons on plate, with the standard weapons of spears, axes, daggers and crossbows.

Even during the golden age of the Sua Hill Dwarves, the Lore Guild was famous as the repository of dwarven history and lore. The Lore Guild consists of professors, researchers, and sages. As the center of learning, Hammerfast attracts students from far and wide. The economic and political advantages that accrue to Hammerfast as the intellectual center of the region, especially after the influx of refugees from the Sua Hills, contribute to the prestige of the Lore Guild. The largest collection of dwarven books know in the human world is stored in the Grand Library. It is a power magnet for sages, historians, and anyone else interested in ancient, especially dwarven, lore. The Head Librarian is Alzar Scrollkeeper. The Lore Spire is also a great center of learning, and a place where dwarves to study history, philosophy, mathematics, engineering, and other subjects. Unlike the Grant Library that is open to the any citizen of Hammerfast and accessible to foreign scholars, the Lore Spire’s library is closely guarded. Enrollment as a student requires noble blood, large contributions, or references from the high and mighty. Rumors persist of dark tomes of blasphemous knowledge.