A dwarven fortress cut from the rock of the Dawnforge Mountains, Hammerfast is the largest and wealthiest settlement in the region. It is also the most haunted. The Trade Road runs up to 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 inhabitants of Hammerfast look to their own first and don’t give away anything for free . . . "true to the nature of most dwarves", but they are honest and industrious.
The current fortress of Hammerfast is the third such "structure" to stand on the site and currently has a population of just over 3,000 rugged dwarves. The first was a Dwarven necropolis. As the nearby Dwarven colonies grew rich and prosperous, so to did the tombs and businesses catering to the dead interred there. So rich, that it drew raiding parties and eventually an Orcish horde. The orcs slaughtered the living dwarves and set about plundering and despoiling the tombs of the dwarves. Eventually, the easily plundered treasures and loot were played out, and the remaining tomb complex traps and now vengeful undead outweighed reward of the remaining treasure.The orcs traveled on, leaving the necropolis a ruin. With the fall of Nerath, and the subsequent fall of the Dwarven colonies to famine, plague, and roving monsters caused the local Dwarven communities to make a fateful choice. "Why waste fortifications on the dead?" And thus, the ruins of the Necropolis of Hammerfast became the living city of Hammerfast. A strange (and epic!) tale tells of the negotiations between the dwarven clans and the orcish warbands, and the clerics and shamans of Moradin and Gruumsh hammering out their arrangement.
Today, Hammerfast is thriving with stark reminders of it's past. The remaining sealed tombs stand untouched on pain of death by decree of the Council. The ghosts of orcs and dwarves still walk the streets in the deepest depths beneath the fortress, 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 the dwarves laid to rest here long ago.
Such creatures enjoy full citizenship in Hammerfast, as long as they observe its laws. In a sacred compact struck with Moradin and Gruumsh, the town's founders agreed to respect the dead and defend their resting places in return for the right to settle here.The upper levels are filled with dwarves, who are wary of outsiders, but will warm to anyone who will spend coin in their town. The lower levels are home to many business dwarves, such as smiths and miners. These areas are much less welcoming to foreigners due to dwarves not liking outsiders near areas of financial importance.
Hammerfast is a three-tiered fortress carved into the stone of the Dawnforge Mountains depths. The interior features extravagant masonry such as marble columns, archways, bridges, and buttresses, all of which are lit using a reddish-glowing stone called candlerock. A large metal forge envelopes the center of the city. Stairs and chain elevator systems near the edges of town are used for transportation between the higher and lower sections of Hammerfast.
The lower section of Hammerfast, near the mines, is darker than the upper levels. This area consists of several large structures and a giant domed temple made of flawless bronze in the center with doorways on each side, as well as a very large foundry with giant metal piping that filters off most of the smoke.
Off to the side of this section is the Darkhold Quarry mithral mine. The mine itself is made up of three deep holes that stretch down under the mountain. The expansion of the city shows in the mine design as well as the appearance that, once a section of the mine is hollowed out, the city slowly seems to expand downwards. Many mining buildings stretch around the center of the quarry. There are also a series of tunnels that go off to the sides of these main tunnels. Unbeknown to the dwarves of Hammerfast, one of these mining tunnels had broken into a cavern system that lead down into the Underdark but as of yet nothing has come from the depths beneath the city.
The Top Slab, also called the Arch, is built on a massive ring that sends neighborhoods and tunnels deeper into the mountain around it. Here is where most residential life is rooted, with thousands of stone-built abodes dotting the walls. A fine layer of soot tends to coat much of this slab, due to imperfect ventilation from the industrious center slab.The Center Slab, also referred to as the Heart, marks the widest and most varied rung on the journey through Barad-dûm, and is stratified between the the residences of Hammerfasts dwarven elite and its wealthy merchant class. At the exact center of the slab-dwarves are very particular about geometrical symbolism-is the Pyrethrin, seat of the Iron Keeper. Radiating out from the Pyrethrone are the various fortress-manors of the dwarven noble houses, with several Carver barracks in easy reach.
Just below, the outer rings of the Center Slab are occupied by most of the city's non-mining businesses, from smithies, breweries, and jewelers, to tailors, butchers, and even tinkerers like the gnome-run Crack sackle Union.
The Bottom Slab, or the Pit, is the industrious center of Hammerfast, boasting many blast furnaces, courtesy of the Bronze Metalworks and their competitors. A network of fungus-farming paths called the Glowgrove works its way around this level, passing through all sorts of caverns. The mushrooms are harvested by the Toppers, the dwarven agricultural league that got their name from the small topside farms they tend above the city.
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