Frontier
Festive
Modest prices
Pick & Perseverance
the saloon at the mouth of the first vein
A cloud of coal smoke and frying fat meets the sharp metallic tang of fresh silver the moment you step inside. Lanterns hang from rafters strung with miners' pennants proclaiming the lucky strike; a fiddle rarely quiet, and a wooden floor stamped from boots and ore hammers thumps underfoot. Stalls and long tables groan with platters of stew and slabs of bread; laughter and bargaining tumble together as claim-holders swap tall tales and the barkeep hands out free rounds whenever a new prospector arrives with a polished nugget. Behind the bar, a low iron stove keeps the air warm and the stew bubbling, while a noticeboard near the door is pinned with claim maps, reward notices, and one hand-lettered warning about trespassers.
A battered iron pick crossed over a smoking pipe, both riveted to a scalloped wooden slab; the paint is flaking but fresh silver leaf highlights the pickhead, no words.
Gerrun Ironmantle
Dwarf
Manner
Quirk
Stats
Veinfire Sling
5 spA hot, spiced concoction of juniper and bitter with a sliver of rock sugar—warms the throat and sharpens resolve; drinkers gain advantage on one Int (Investigation) or Wis (Perception) check to notice mineral seams or hidden markings for the next hour, but suffer a -1 penalty to stealth for 10 minutes due to a faint cough and singed eyebrows.
Modest (5e lifestyle: about 1 gp a day)
Miri Two-Knots · barmaid
A spry human with soot-blackened braids who knows every miner's drink and every unpaid debt.
Old Bram · cook
A silent half-orc who ladles thick stew and can point out a fake nugget by weight alone.
Hobb the Fingerless
A grizzled halfling prospector missing two fingers who wants a band of able-bodied folk to reclaim an old, 'cursed' claim where his partner vanished.
Deputy Lest
A nervous human deputy keeping an eye on claim disputes and quietly trying to find the overseer who disappeared with a ledger of bribes.
Cora Brightpick
A young miner who found the first big vein and keeps showing everyone a shimmer of silver dust she won't speak plainly about.
1
Hollis Reed, the foreman of Claim Eight, vanished two weeks ago after promising a 'clean vein'—his pack was found near the old crosscut with claw marks on the wood.
2
A cart of ore bound for the town smelter was waylaid; the driver swears a pale man in a dustcoat offered him a pouch of coins to bury the wagon at Devil's Hollow.
3
An old miner in the east camp, Orna Kettle, claims she saw a glittering door of native silver deep in the abandoned shaft beneath Stonebridge—she's offering a free share to anyone who brings her the rusted key hidden beneath the saloon's eastmost floorboard.
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