Sapphire Lake

Small mining town in Central Goethe

Alignment. Generally neutral

Population. c. 1,100

Demographics: 92% human (70% northlander, 20% southlander, and 10% eastlander), 4% dwarven (mostly granite and iron dwarf), 2% halfling (all silverhand), 1% gnome (mostly riddlearth), 1% other (elf, half-elf, half-ork, mongrelfolk, ork)

The small mining village of Sapphire Lake is nestled amongst the rocky crags of the Cairn Hills, and lies about a week northwest of Birthright to which it is subject. Iron and silver (and to a lesser extent cobalt and copper) from Sapphire Lake’s mines fuel the markets in Birthright and support its soldiers and nobles with the raw materials necessary for weapons and finery. This trade draws hundreds of skilled and unskilled laborers and artisans, all hoping to strike it rich.

Desperate folk toil in lightless depths for a pittance while corrupt mine managers live in comparative largesse, ruthless scheming to undermine one another while protecting their piece of the pie. Much of the village's residents can be broken down into two groups: those with nowhere else to turn and those who exploit them.

Despite its squalor, Sapphire Lake is crucial to the economy of Birthright. The city’s chief man in the region is Governor Lanos Dusk, a man eager to solidify his power and keep the mine managers in line. Dusk exerts his capricious will via the agency of the grandiloquent Sheriff Denrick, a man so renowned for corruption that many citizens assumed the announcement of his commission was a joke until he started arresting people.

The alliance between the Governor and his pocket police might not be enough to cow Sapphire Lake’s powerful mine managers, but Lanos Dusk holds a subtle advantage thanks to the presence of his distinguished brother, the scrupulous Allustan Dusk, a wizard returned from Birthright who retired to Sapphire Lake five years ago. None dare move overtly against Dusk so long as Allustan is around.

Instead of scheming against the government, Sapphire Lake’s mine managers plot endlessly against one another, desperate to claim a weakened enemy’s assets while at the same time protecting their own. While they are not nobles, the mine managers exist in a stratum above normal society. They consider themselves far above their employees, many of whom are indentured or effectively enslaved as part of a criminal sentence. The miners’ loyalty tends to map directly to the working conditions, pay, and respect offered to the miners by their wealthy masters.

The most ambitious and manipulative mine manager in Sapphire Lake is Benedict Smalls, a disquieting schemer who hopes to gain a monopoly on the town’s mining patents by forcing his enemies into bankruptcy and offering to buy their claims at the last minute for fangs on the gryphon.

**ARCHITECTURE**

Sapphire Lake crouches in the lowland between three hills and the lake itself, a splotch of mud, smoke, and blood smeared across uneven terrain marked by countless irregular mounds and massive rocks. The oldest buildings pack the lakeshore along Front Street, where fishing vessels once docked and stored their impressive catches. That commerce has abandoned the town entirely, for the glittering blue waters that once gave Sapphire Lake its name are now so polluted as to make fishing impossible. Many old warehouses have been converted into cheap housing for miners and laborers, and no one is safe outdoors after dark. As one walks north along the streets of Sapphire Lake, the buildings become sturdier, and the spirits of their inhabitants likewise improve. A great earthen road called the Vein bisects the town. With few exceptions, those living north of the Vein enjoy a much better life than the wretches living below it.

**THE VEIN**

A main road in Sapphire Lake that bisects the town. With few exceptions, those living north of the Vein enjoy a much better life than the wretches living below it.

All the town’s social classes congregate in the Vein’s central square. Roughly every two weeks someone in the town upsets someone else so greatly that the only recourse is a duel to the death at the center of a ring of cheering miners. On less violent nights, the square is still home to a thousand pleasures and poisons; if Sapphire Lake is a creature, the Vein’s central square is its excitable, irregular heart.

**FRONT STREET**

Front Street is a long road along the south side of the village that more or less parallels Sapphire Lake itself. This lends itself to the nickname, “Lakeside.”

**OUTSKIRTS**

The Outskirts typically include everything that is not within the village proper.

**OVERLOOK**

Overlook is a small hill beyond uptown that quite literally overlooks the entire village.

**UPTOWN**

Uptown are the residential areas and shops that are located north of the Vein.