(Pop: 2,500) Nestled in the rocky crags of the Cairn Hills region of the Barrens, Diamond Lake is a large mining settlement located upon the shores of its namesake.
Diamond Lake is a poor, gritty, mining community which remains little more than a lawless frontier settlement. Although the town is officially under the rule of the Freehold of Norwald, because of its remote location, it enjoys a great deal of local autonomy.
Diamond Lake's official ruler is Governor Lorstan Neff; a weak and corrupt bureaucrat who remains in power solely due to his political connections in the city of Redmark. In truth, the town is actually controlled by the Lakeside Mining Guild, a group of six greedy and competitive mine-owners. The most powerful and influential of these owners is Balabar Smenk. Neff only holds his own against the Mining Guild because he is under the protection of his brother Allustan, a wizard who took up residence here five years ago.
In ages past, Diamond Lake boasted an export even more valuable than its mines, in the form of treasure liberated from the numerous tombs and burial cairns crowding the hills around the town. These remnants of a half-dozen long-dead cultures once commanded scandalous prices from collectors, whose insatiable desire for ancient artifacts triggered a boom in the local economy.
Those days are long gone, though. The last cairn in the region yielded its treasures decades ago, and few locals pay any mind to stories of yet-undiscovered tombs and un-plundered burial cairns. These days, only a handful of treasure-seekers visit the town, and even fewer return with anything more valuable than a wall rubbing or an ancient tool fragment. Today, the iron and silver extracted from its mines are Diamond Lake’s only real source of wealth.
In the surrounding mines, hundreds of laborers spend their days underground, breathing stale air in cold, clammy passages of rough-hewn rock. These hard-working miners are the life-blood of Diamond Lake’s economy. The fruits of their labor enrich the owners, while their weekly pay cycles back into the community through a handful of gambling dens, brothels, ale halls, and temples located along the “Vein,” a strip of seedy establishments located along the town's main square.
Most residents of Diamond Lake can be categorized into two groups: those with nowhere else to turn and those who exploit them. Because work in the mines is so demanding and dangerous, only the hardiest of folk are employed here. Many are foreigners, displaced from their native lands by war or famine, or dwarves whose natural skills in dark, underground environments suits them well. Overall, Diamond Lake is a dirty and sullen town, often prone to unpleasant bursts of violence.
To keep order, and maintain the flow of profits from the mines, a force of sixty well-armed mercenary soldiers is stationed at the Garrison. These soldiers are not stationed here to protect the citizenry, but to defend the mines from bandits and lizard folk from the neighboring Steaming Marsh. The garrison is commanded by Captain Trask, who enforces law and order an iron fist.
Despite its misery and squalor, Diamond Lake remains crucial to the economy of the Freehold, and it is often said that even in faraway Redmark, Viscount Argus Theed takes a keen interest in local affairs and expects the arrival of tax payments regularly.
Prominent NPCs
- Allustan Neff; local wizard
- Balabar Smenk; mine-owner
- Balthus Ellival; mine-owner
- Dietrik Tilgast; mine-owner
- Gaspar; local weaponsmith
- Kasilda; local shopkeeper
- Kullen; bartender at Feral Dog (half-orc)
- Lorstan Neff; Mayor of Diamond Lake
- Merric Lhazar; mine-owner
- Ragnar; mine-owner (dwarf)
- Saffron; local fortune-teller
- Tidwell; storeowner, specializing in gems (halfling)
- Torstan Gansworth; mine-owner
- Trask; Captain of the guard
- Valkus; Cleric of Ethenghar
Locations
- Feral Dog (tavern)
- Twilight Monastery
- Whispering Cairn
Map of the Town
