Vidural Village & Mine

Population: 237


The dwarven village of Vidural is more heavily fortified than a village of 237 souls might seem to merit, but the fortifications are truly to protect the wealth of the small but lucrative mine beneath the Gongadur Mountains.

Only a handful of the 42 residences within the village walls have vegetable gardens. Most of the village's meagre agriculture is grown outside of the northern wall, but the wealth comes from the mines, and most of the villagers buy food brought in regularly on merchant caravans. Every family in the village has at least one member who works in the mines, and the rest work to support the miners.

The village has one inn: the Silver Hammer Inn & Stables. The inn, primarily used as the local tavern for the residents, has a handful of rooms available for paying guests. Others may pay a smaller fee for the privilege of hunkering down by the fires overnight, though others may choose to camp outside of the village walls.

A medic, located near the mine's gates, serves both the miners and the rest of the village. A few warehouses owned by the mine's administration are used to store ore about to be shipped to Gongadur's capital city. In the southwest corner of the village, the Miner's Guild represents the interest of mine workers rather than mine owners, serving as a labor union for the workers.

A portion of Glesmar Lake has been partially walled off to provide a safe place for the residents to swim and to launder their clothes.

Even residents who do not work in the mines themselves have frequent reasons to enter the mines, for the village's only temple is located there. The Mess Hall is used not only by the miners but also by the residents privileged to live in one of the seven luxurious suites beneath the mountain. The village's only blacksmith is also located here. The washroom is primarily used by the residents under the mountain, but some miners clean up here before returning home. Water heated by the mighty furnaces in the blacksmith's and the washroom is piped throughout the mountain facilities, including to the kitchens off of the Mess Hall.

Five rooms under the mountain are used by the mining administration. Clerks in the outer office dispense each miner's pay every week. Two senior officers share an office here, but the mine's administrator has his own spacious private office. A storage room serves as both a supply room for the miners as well as an armory should the mine be attacked. In another secured room, much of the mine's raw ore and processed metals are stored here before being prepared for shipping. For added security, the valuables are kept behind iron bars in a locked room. In a pinch, one of the cells can also be used as a make-shift prison.

The miners have two routes to reach the veins of ore that they are digging: a shaft on the north side with a winch pulley system to lower them down, or tunnels on the northeast side that wind deeper into the mountain.