THREE UNIQUE TRAITS
There are three points that make Hammerfast unique.
Hammerfast is a town where the living dwell among the dead. The buildings are tombs and sepulchers, cleared of rubble and refurbished to serve as homes and businesses.
Some of the tombs remain sealed. Their treasures are a powerful lure for adventurers, but raiding such a tomb is punishable by death. In some of the inhabited tombs, secret doors to forgotten passages and chambers await discovery.
The dwarves must endure the presence of orcs. As part of the divine compact that created the town, Gruumsh demanded that his dead be honored, too, by a temple devoted to his power.
The Guilds
The town’s three guilds—the Trade Guild, the Lore Guild, and the Craft Guild—govern Hammerfast. Each guild elects three members to the Town Council. The Council then elects a High Master. The High Master serves as the town’s executive, overseeing daily functions and managing affairs with other settlements in the Nentir Vale
The consent of a majority of the Council is required to pass a law, and so the guilds constantly forge and break alliances in order to pursue their separate interests. The guild with the most influence over the High Master gains a further advantage in these maneuvers, since the High Master casts the deciding vote in case of ties. Marsinda Goldspinner, the leader of the Trade Guild, has been High Master for four years and shows no inclination to step down. The other guilds are content with this situation as long as the town continues to prosper.
Trade Guild
The other guilds rely on the Trade Guild to move their products far and wide. With its control over commerce, the Trade Guild is the most powerful group in Hammerfast. The Trade Guild maintains strong connections with other settlements, including Nenlast, Fallcrest, the Seven-Pillared Hall, and Winterhaven.
Lore Guild
The Lore Guild consists of professors, researchers, and sages. As the center of learning in the Nentir Vale, Hammerfast attracts students from far and wide. The economic and political advantages that accrue to Hammerfast as the intellectual center of the region contribute to the prestige of the Lore Guild.
Craft Guild
The Craft Guild is the largest guild currently active in Hammerfast. For years, the independent miners, prospectors, smiths, and other artisans in Hammerfast negotiated individual contracts with the Trade Guild. The Craft Guild was formed twelve years ago as a way of presenting a unified bargaining front. Since then, the Craft Guild has enjoyed a steady rise in power and wealth, and its membership continues to increase as the town prospers.
Hammerfast Wards
Hammerfast is divided into four wards. Three of the wards are home to the major guilds in town, and the fourth, the Gate Ward, serves as a gateway between Hammerfast and the rest of the world. This section provides general overviews of each of the wards.
The Gate Ward
Gate Ward Description
Visitors to Hammerfast arrive at the Gate Ward, a small, walled-off section of the town that once served as the living quarters and garrison for the necropolis’s living inhabitants. Today, the Gate Ward is Hammerfast’s doorstep, a place where visitors and residents mingle to conduct business. A bustling market unites traders from the Nentir Vale with those from beyond the Dawnforge Mountains. The Hall of Justice reminds the folk of Hammerfast and all its visitors that the dwarves lack any tolerance for troublemakers and criminals, yet this neighborhood is also a haven for 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’re 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.
The Trade Ward
Trade Ward Description
The Trade Ward is the economic heart of Hammerfast. Merchants gather here to buy and sell goods from across the Nentir Vale. Compared to the rowdy, chaotic Gate Ward, the Trade Ward is relatively quiet and sedate. By night, the streets are all but deserted as the traders head home, their goods safely locked away in warehouses. A number of shops and a few high-end inns dominate the neighborhood
The Lore Ward
Lore Ward Description
History walks the streets of Hammerfast, so its study is vital to the town’s continued success. The Lore Guild’s first members were the sages who struck the covenant with the gods that allows the dwarves to live in Hammerfast. This history reminds residents of their debt to the guild and to the gods. The guild’s ongoing work produces the knowledge that allows the living residents of Hammerfast to coexist with its ghosts. Students from as far away as Winterhaven come to study with the scholars of the guild, bringing both prestige and income to the town.
The Craft Ward
Craft Ward Description
The Craft Ward is a mixture of hard work and youthful exuberance, centered around the Craft Spire and the many workshops that surround it. The crafters that live and do business in Hammerfast are based here. In the same way that the Lore Ward serves as a center for scholars, the Craft Ward is home to many experts in weaving, smithing, and other crafts.
Geography
The land around Hammerfast is at best rugged, difficult terrain and at worst nearly impenetrable mountain slopes. Bitter winds sweep across the peaks during the winter. Although snow is relatively rare in the Nentir Vale’s lowlands, it piles up among the peaks. The town closes down as winter sets in, with the dwarves content to toil in their workshops and other townsfolk hunkering down for a long winter.
In contrast, the summer months are hot and dry. Wildfires are a risk on the mountain’s wooded slopes, and travelers without knowledge of local springs and streams should carry plenty of water when they venture out of the town. Luckily, the heat keeps most dangerous creatures in their lairs during the day, but travel by night carries a significantly greater risk of encountering monsters or bandits.
Dawnforge Mountains
Legend holds that the Dawnforge Mountains arose when Torog nearly erupted from the Underdark through to the surface of the world, and the peaks’ steep slopes and rocky, forbidding facade support the tale. They stand against the sky, a wall of rock and stone bounding the Nentir Vale’s eastern border. Most of the mountains are covered with evergreen forests, although the three most notable peaks in this region, the Sentinel, Mount Starris (named for the wizard), and Forgepeak, rise above the tree line.
Foothills
To the east of the mountains rise wooded foothills. Adventurers move at three-quarters of their speed in this terrain. It is home to goblins and orcs, although the monsters tend to stay clear of the Trade Road. Away from the road, travelers must take care. The humanoid tribes in this area are in a constant state of war with one another, and grisly markers (such as severed heads or piles of bones) lay out each tribe’s boundaries.
Forgepeak
This massive peak (Q-21) towers over the surrounding mountains. Visible from across the entire vale, Forgepeak has never been scaled. Legend says that the red dragon Calastryx slumbers within its lair hidden in Forgepeak.
Glimmer Peak
This small settlement is the center for mining in the area south of Hammerfast. Glimmer Peak sits along the shores of Glimmer Lake. Rumors persist that the palace of a fey lord long ago sunk beneath the lake. To this day, fishermen sometimes report vague images of a grand, ruined fortress deep within the water.
Lake Dunmere
This body of water has a number of small fishing villages along its shores. A large manor house and village once stood beside Lake Dunmere, but both were destroyed by the Bloodspear orcs during their invasion. The ruins of the manor and village still stand, as do the cellars beneath them.
Rushing River
Few travelers use the major waterway in the region, because many monsters lurk along its banks and the difficult terrain makes patrols impossible. Bandits are the only beings who risk traveling by river, since it allows them to escape with booty while avoiding guard patrols.
Trade Road and Iron Road
Two roads cross the mountains in this region. Both are kept in good repair by the dwarves, although in the winter the constant snows make them nearly impassable. Adventurers can travel along the road at full speed. Although not frequented by the monsters that live among the hills, the roads are still a magnet for bandits and other threats.
Dungeon of the Fire Opal (G-19)
The ruins of a monastery stand on the northern slope of the mountain in this hex. The monks of the Enlightened Flame once dwelled here, but they were slain by marauding gnolls more than fifty years ago. The gnolls came in search of a great fire opal, a gem said to contain the bound spirit of a powerful efreeti lord. The gnolls never did find the gem, but rumors persist of secret passages and tunnels within the dungeons beneath the ruins of the monastery.
