Gnome Village

Dwarven Village It stands in the Mountain Range, and the gnomes did not choose their place for the good of their lives. Defender Payon He tells it plainly: the growing kingdom in the west had to be abandoned when the orcs drove it out, and the people settled here, in the Deep Mine area. He doesn't regret the move—"this mountain range is full of treasures."

The village is held together by guilds. The Gray Column is a society of architects and miners, guarding the secrets of geometry, measurement, construction, and mechanics passed down to their ancestors by the goddess Maphr: its engineers developed mining throughout the Ridge, its architects built the underground labyrinth of Mlan, and it owns the local deposits and the Mithril Mines. Nearby, work the White Column, which builds, the Black Anvil, which manufactures, and the Bronze Key, which conducts research.

The village outskirts are a training ground. The assistant sends newcomers outside the gates to hunt long-tailed keltir, gremlins, and wolves, warning them that the wolves are dangerous, and that it's too early to mess with the goblins: they're smarter and stronger than they look, and always come to the aid of their own. By level ten, it's the turn of the black forest wolves and the Utuku orcs with their warriors. Garum werewolves and goblin bandits await across the river. By level twenty, he says, you can hunt anywhere in the mines.

This is also where the mines' supply lines begin. The Gray Column miners live at the mine face and send to the village for supplies: they get a bag of explosive mixture from the merchant Charlie, miner's boots made of extra-strong leather from Garita, a case of beer brewed in Dion from the warehouse foreman Reed, and a pickaxe from the blacksmith Bruno, if he hasn't forgotten about the order.

There's also the Temple of Mafra in the village. Finds that no one else can sort out are brought there: for example, fragments of orcish maps with chrysolite veins—the priestess Chicherin, a former apprentice of the cartographers' guild, folds a whole map from four parts.