Diamond Lake

The Town of Diamond Lake is home to over one thousand citizens, most of whom are workers in its nearby mines. Humans make up an overwhelming portion of the population, with a small percentage of Halflings and gnomes calling the town home.

Diamond Lake is set between three hills and on the shore of the lake itself. The oldest buildings of the town are set around the lake shore where the town once enjoyed a profitable fishing business. Years of mining, however, have polluted the lake to such a degree that the fishing trade has virtually vanished. Now the remaining buildings have been converted into cheap (and largely unsafe) housing for Diamond Lake’s poorest mine workers.

In the northern part of town are newer and sturdier buildings. The town’s more affluent citizens live here and generally spirits here are higher than in the lower part of town.

The most notable feature is a great earthen road called “the Vein” that splits the town in half. In the center of town along the Vein is the central square, where all the town’s citizens come for entertainment. All manner of bars and taverns can be found here, from the exotic Emporium to the seedy Feral Dog.

### Notable Locations

#### 1 - The Emporium:

Zalamandra’s Emporium combines a gambling hall, scandalous entertainments, and a brothel with a “Gallery of Science” that promises to astonish and offend all comers. The Emporium was originally run by Zalamandra (female human) and Professor Montague Marat (male human, once the proprietor of a traveling sideshow), but he departed three years ago. Nearly a dozen of his former employees remained behind, the most notable being the affable wild man Shag Solomon (male of unknown race), an aristocratic if toothy gentleman covered from head to toe hair. Other residents of the emporium include Gaspar (male human), the attendant at the front door, Tom Shingle (male of unknown race), a misshapen contortionist, Ariello Klint (male halfling), a pyromancer, Chezabet (female human) the fortune teller, and Kurlag, an imposing bouncer (male half-orc). Folks of all social classes gather at the Emporium day and night, and Zalamandra and Kurlag ensure that even sworn enemies leave their feuding at the door.

2 - Lazare’s House:

a cozy gaming parlor located on the Vein’s (the main road through town) central square. It is much more stylish than the garish Emporium, and attracts a more cultured clientele. Dragonchess is the game of choice at Lazare’s House, a game similar to conventional chess but played on a three-level board. Lazare (male  human) was once a mine owner (having bought the mine with his winnings as a dragonchess player), but was bankrupted soon after he arrived,  his mines taken over by Balabar Smenk. Lazare is a widower, and dotes on his daughter Dannath, a reminder of his lost love and better days.

3 - The Feral Dog:

a cheap but busy ale hall with an unsavory reputation. The feral dog offers cheap ale, brawls, and dog fights as welcome distractions from the humdrum boredom of the mining life. One of the more notable regulars at the taproom is Kullen (male half orc), an albino rumored to work for Balabar Smenk as an enforcer.

4 - Church of Iomedae:

This church is run by Jierian Wierus (male human), a bombastic orator prone to populist rants extolling the virtues and values of the common man. He preaches a creed of common sense, honesty, and self-sacrifice, and encourages the faithful to show their penance to Iomedae by whipping themselves as an act of self-mortification. The mine managers, government, and other religions all see Wierus as a menace. Wierus leaves day-to-day operations of the temple to his acolytes, including Hameneezer (male human). Spell casting and healing potions are available at half-price to those who both follow Iomedae and regularly attend the services. Three sermons are given each week, all of which are well attended.

#### 5 - Tidwoad’s:

Tidwoad (male gnome) is a cantankerous gnome jeweler, and the closest thing to a bank in Diamond Lake. His shop is protected by a shield guardian named Festus, and he frequently boasts that it is completely theft-proof. Several gnomish lodgers stay in rooms above his shop, with an outside entrance so that they don’t have to go through the shop. Tidwoad is willing to exchange coins for gems for a small fee. He also isn’t averse to buying non-gem valuables, for the right price.

#### 6 - Sheriff’s Office:

The headquarters for Sheriff Cubbin, Deputy Jamis (male human) and the rest of the constabulary, rather closer to thugs than law officers. Rumor has it that the constabulary will look the other way if properly bribed.

#### 7 - General Store:

Taggin (male human) runs this store, with an inventory that includes adventuring gear as well as mining equipment. Numerous tables are filled with lanterns, coils of rope, mining gear and breathing masks. Anything not in stock can be ordered from the city of Absalom for an extra fee. Taggin makes a point of staying out of other people’s business.

#### 8 - The Hungry Gar:

A restaurant, with a head chef who claims to serve the finest meal on the Vein. Locals tend to disagree.

#### 9 - Jalek’s Flophouse:

A former fish warehouse, converted into a flophouse when the lake turned foul. Lodging can be had for a mere 5 coppers a night, payable to a massive mute half-orc named Golot. Jalek (male halfling) himself is seldom seen.

#### 10 - Smenk Residence:

This is the home of the prosperous mine owner Balabar Smenk. Guards patrol the street in front of his home brandishing lead pipes and advising the curious to get lost. However, Smenk’s front door is always wide open because of an old public promise he made that he would always be available to his miners.

#### 11 - Deepspike Mine:

This long abandoned mine was the first mine acquired by Balabar Smenk when he arrived in Diamond Lake. It has long since yielded all of its ore and is now used for storage.

#### 12 - Garrison:

This is a keep holding over 60 soldiers from the city of Absalom, tasked with patrolling the northern hills and keeping an eye on the lizardfolk-infested Mistmarsh. A third of the soldiers are out on patrol at any given time. The garrison is commanded by Captain Tolliver Trask (male human), well-respected in Diamond Lake. His chief advisors are Valkus Dun (male human), the Chief Cleric of Torag in Diamond Lake, Dietrik Cicaeda (male human), Chief Cartographer, and Chief Scout Merris Sandovar (male human), and a former member of the nearby Bronzewood Lodge druidic community. The three lieutenants of the soldiery are Dobrun Trent (male half-elf), Mikkela Venderin (female human), and Trovost Skunt (male human).

The Chapel of Torag is within the garrison walls, and boasts the second largest congregation in Diamond Lake (after Iomedae). Rumor has it that Valkus Dun was assigned to this chapel owing to political maneuverings in Absalom. He arrived in Diamond Lake two years ago after the previous high priest vanished. Velias Childraumun (male human) handles most of the healing needs in the garrison, and offers free curative spells to those faithful in the service of Torag. While he generally agrees with Jieran Wierus that the city could be improved, it is known that the two generally dislike one another. Mélinde (female human) is another notable member of the chapel, a paladin who acts as Valku Dun’s advisor. She is often seen playing dragonchess at Lazare’s House, and has been known to aid adventuring parties in search of a skill blade.

#### 13 - Lakeside Stables:

The stables are run by a portly ostler name Lanch Faraday (male half-elf). Customers commonly complain of mysterious bruises on their horses, but the price is low at 5 sp per day.

#### 14 - The Midnight Salute:

This house of ill repute, notably less exotic and less expensive than the Emporium’s Veiled Corridor, typically caters to the Garrison crowd. It is run by Purple Prose, a female elf. Her workers are generally known for their discretion.

#### 15 - The Spinning Giant:

This is a two-story tavern frequented by the garrison soldiers. A fresco of a dancing imbecilic hill giant is depicted on the front of the tavern, with the door between her ankles. This is portrait of Flailing Felanore, dim-witted giantess captured by the garrison 40 years ago, and kept by the tavern as a mascot. Felanore died from an outbreak of the Red Death plague nearly 20 years ago, but her image remains on the tavern. The tavern’s patrons consider themselves among the more honorable of Diamond Lake’s residents. They do not tolerate thieves and have been known to dispense their own justice. The patrons are openly disdainful of Sheriff, as well as the poor of the town. Such people are “advised” to head to another establishment.

#### 16 - The Captain’s Blade:

a weapons shop run by Tyrol Eberly (male human), who claims to have once been a watch captain in the city of Absalom. He has most melee weapons in stock in normal or masterwork versions, and is willing to send away for items he lacks. For ranged weapons, though, he’ll suggest that the buyer try Venelle’s shop and to be prepared to pay well. He also claims to have several magic items for just the right customer. Ebberly is a notorious gossip.

#### 17 - Venelle’s:

Venelle (female human) is a bowyer and a fletcher, and also carries many other weapons and armor imported from Absalom. She also claims to have several special arrows for the adventurer who names the right price. She has something of an elven look to her, and has many friends in the Bronzewood Lodge. Like Ebberly at the Captain’s Blade, she can send away for items she does not carry.

#### 18 - Allustan’s Residence:

The “smartest man in town” is a friendly wizard named Allustan (male human). The fresh painted, well-tended yard and peaceful meditation garden of his house stand in sharp contrast to the normal state of this seedy town. Allustan offers his service of a sage to those who can afford his fees (20 gp per question).

#### 19 - Tilgast Residence:

This large estate is enclosed within a wooden stockade. It is the home of Gelch Tilgast, one of Diamond Lake’s powerful mine owners. The residence contains a large stable with seven fine thoroughbred horses. Gelch allows a few residents of the town to also stable their horses here for 1 gp per day, where grooms can tend to the animal’s every need.

#### 20 - Old Piers:

nearly a century after main tailings and other pollution killed the lake that gave the Town of Diamond Lake its name, rotting carcasses of once elaborate piers are all that remains on the lake’s edge. A retired marine named Durskin (male human) has one of the few intact ships left on the lake (the Autumn Runner); another available for hire is the Harkness, maintained by the Cult of the Pale Lady (worshippers of Pharasma, goddess of death and magic).

#### 21 - Able Carter Coaching Inn:

the Able Carter Coaching Company maintains an inn in each of its satellite towns. This particular inn offers 20 rooms at the rate of 1 gp per day, and stabling for 5 sp per day (for inn residents only). One wing of the inn has recently been taken over by a rambunctious band of seven Halflings from Elmshire.

#### 22 - Parrin Residence:

This is the home currently lived in by Luzane Parrin. She inherited her fortune, along with three mines, after her mother died during the sickness referred to as the Red Death. She once lived in the home now belonging to Balabar Smenk, but was forced to relocate here to this run-down manor three years ago as her fortunes have turned sour.

#### 23 - Greysmere Covenant:

Representatives of the dwarven stronghold of Greysmere (several days to the south) stay here. The current representatives are Dulok Blitzhame (male dwarf), Galuth Grobadore (male dwarf), and Bitris Ruthek (female dwarf).

#### 24 - Gansworth Residence:

This manor home lies at the heart of Diamond Lake, at the end of a cul-de-sac marked by a memorial obelisk dedicated to the memory of a mine collapse over 70 years ago. It is a two story structure with a low wall that is guarded at all times.

#### 25 - The Rusty Bucket:

A restaurant that long ago specialized in fish, but since the fishing trade has vanished he now offers more land-based fare. Chaum Garnsworth has a reserved table here, and often holds meetings here. The restaurant is generally considered neutral ground between the mine owners.

#### 26 - Moonmeadow Residence:

This is the home of Ellival Moonmeadow, owner of one of the mines that surround Diamond Lake in the Cairn Hills. Ellival is known as something of a recluse, preferring the company of grey elves to that of humans. The only thing that draws him out into the public is to search for capable opponents at dragonchess. This home shows element of Elvish design, with a central courtyard containing a meditation garden and several exotic animals. The manor also has a private dock and a fast boat sculpted in elvish motifs that is said to cross the lake in under twenty minutes.

#### 27 - Osgood Smithy:

the distinctive “O” of smith Manlin Osgood (male human) is well-known enough in the region that is often forged by lesser blacksmiths in an effort to pass off inferior wares. Osgood has a team of seven apprentices and journeymen, and makes quality armor as well as more ordinary items.

#### 28 - Smelting House:

The oligarchs of Absalom built this smelting house to settle disputes and conflicts between the mine managers. Runoff from this fortress-like building accounts for the majority of the pollution that killed off the lake. Vulgan Durtch (male humans) is the chief smelter but is rarely seen. Benazel the Alchemist (male half-elf) has a business in the northwest tower of the smelting house, and sells many potions and alchemical items.

#### 29 - Diamond Lake Boneyard:

the Cult of the Pale Lady (serving Pharasma) tends the graves in this graveyard.

#### 30 - Neff Manor:

This is the home of Governor-Mayor Lanod Neff. It is a large manor house sitting atop a hill that overlooks Diamond Lake. A large wooden stockade wall protects the house. Much of the town’s government business is conducted here, as the residence contains several meeting rooms and guest rooms for visiting dignitaries. This mansion is always under construction as Neff consistently claims the need for more space. Many people in town believe Neff continues building to keep pace with the rising stature of the town’s powerful mine owners.

#### 31 - Dourstone Mine:

This extensive iron mine has been in operation for centuries, far before Diamond Lake fell under the rule of the City of Absalom. Many of the town’s residents work here.

#### 32 - Abandoned Mine:

This mine has been out of commission for some time. It has been abandoned for so long, in fact, that most everyone has forgotten its name.

#### 33 - Menhirs:

a worn stone ring sacred to druids and rangers, and visited often by members of the Bronzewood Lodge.

#### 34 - Old Observatory:

an order of monks serving Celestian once occupied this observatory, but it has been long abandoned.

#### 35 - Dourstone Residence:

This is the home of the powerful mine owner Ragnolin Dourstone. This multi-story expansive home oversees the operation of the nearby Dourstone mine that has sustained the town’s economy for centuries.

### Nearby Locations

#### The Twilight Monastery:

About two hours north of Diamond Lake, a towering crag called the Griffon’s Roost casts a dark shadow over the muddy road to Elmshire. From a perch hundreds of feet above looms the cat-infested Twilight Monastery, a three-towered monument to Baklunish monks out of the distant west. Two score monks honoring the goddess Xan Yae dwell with the monastery, dedicating themselves to a litany of exercises meant to perfect the body and spirit. The secretive monks hold dusk as the holiest of hours, and sonorous chants emit from the Twilight Monastery’s central courtyard when the night sky appears in the heavens. Foremost among the monks is Izenfen the Occluded (female human); a peerless masked combatant thought to be one of the wisest figures in the hills. Travelers frequently seek her council, but most leave Diamond Lake without ever having gained access to the Twilight Monastery, for Izenfen deigns to speak with only a handful of pilgrims. The courtyard of the monastery is dominated via an immense mirrored lens called the Censer of Symmetry, said to be an aid to astrology. Junior monks polish its smooth surface throughout the day, and the whole of the order is prepared to defend it with their lives.

When word of the Censer’s predictive prowess spread to the miners of Diamond Lake 20 years ago, a desperate contingent petitioned Izenfen to predict the location of the richest unclaimed local ore deposits, appealing to her compassion with tales of starving children and dangerously unpaid debts. The masked mistress of the Twilight Monastery rebuffed their pleas, triggering the miners’ contingency plan – an ill-fated invasion of the monk’s compound that left seven miners dead. Only a single member of the order perished – Imonoth, Izenfen’s beloved daughter.

Immediately thereafter, Izenfen gathered a cadre of stealthy assassins who venerated Zuoken (Xan Yae’s servitor) from the ranks of her best warriors, and silently set them upon the surviving invaders who still nursed wounds in the petty shacks along Diamond Lake’s waterfront. At an annual celebration called Darkstar’s Kiss, the monks of the Twilight Monastery recite from memory the names of all fifteen miners murdered on that night, reminding themselves to always remain vigilant to the encroachment of outsiders.

Rumors suggest that Izenfen’s masked silent killers remain active to this day, citing the disappearance or mysterious deaths of nearly a dozen political enemies with the town. Although the monks of the Twilight Monastery keep mostly to themselves and desire only to lead lives of undisturbed contemplation, they frequently appear on the streets of Diamond Lake to reprovision or to engage in the trade of kalamanthis, a rare psychotropic plant grown regionally only on the slopes of the Griffon’s Roost. Proceeds from this trade account for all of the monastery’s activity, but initiates of the order are forbidden from taking it in all but the most controlled ritual circumstances. Kalamanthis is popular among all classes of Diamond Lake, but the real business is centered in the nearby city of Absalom. Both the wagons loaded with kalamanthis and the returning coaches laden with city coin go unmolested in Diamond Lake, for all fear Izenfen’s relentless invisible killers.

#### The Bronzewood Lodge:

The ring of crumbling menhirs on the bluff overlooking Diamond Lake is a remnant of the Old Faith, the Flannae druidic culture that once inhabited the region. They too came to the hills for the ancient cairns, seeing them as monuments to great ancestors of the invisible past. Although Suel and Oeridians displaced the native druids during great migrations over a thousand years ago, pockets of indigenous architecture and culture remain. Foremost among these near-forgotten practices is the veneration of Obad-Hai, the Shalm, the brooding patron of wilderness and natural order. Druids and rangers who honor the Shalm and the other deities and fey spirits of the Old Faith routinely congregate in great moots three hours northeast of Diamond Lake, at an ancient megalithic structure called the Bronzewood Lodge. Devotees of Ehlonna or the elven pantheon are welcome at these meetings, if a bit gruffly, but all other attendees must be invited personally by someone already within the circle of trust. At these great moots, the woodsfolk observe rituals from long ago, celebrate with great contests of strength and wit, and debate policy regarding the natural affairs of the region. A small permanent community inhabits the Lodge itself and the wooded copse surrounding it. Perhaps 30 assorted druids, rangers, and scouts protect the sacred site and keep watch on the nearby roads and valleys. Occasionally, they step in to rescue a traveler from some natural menace, but just as often they warn explorers to stay on the roads and let the wilderness take care of itself. Their leader is Nogwier (male human); an aged proponent of the Old Faith who strives to keep the focus of his community on preservation of a near-extinct way of life and away from anger at the Absalom and its operatives in Diamond Lake, whose avariciousness continually rapes the land. Nogwier urges cautious cooperation with Lanod Neff via a former Bronzewood man named Merris Sandovar, who now works as the garrison’s chief scout, but he wishes that Absalom would have given him a more reasonable governor-mayor than Neff, and knows he won’t outlive him. The Lodge itself is a twelve-chambered structure composed of piled megaliths covered by earth. The cairn’s central gallery contains a huge uprooted petrified bronzewood tree planted upside down so that its roots are exposed. Nogwier and his three servitors (female humans) use the tree as a massive altar. Other chambers contain the sorted, commingled bones of generations of druids as well as priceless natural treasures accumulated over the course of centuries.

#### The Cairn Hills:

A few hundred years ago, intrepid explorers discovered a fantastic cache of priceless artifacts entombed in one of the hundreds of ancient burial complexes hewn into the crags surrounding the city of Absalom. The trove attracted legions of treasure-seekers to the Absalom (then a mere trading post), and unbelievable wealth plundered from the tombs. The wealthiest explorers became the city’s first nobility, and Absalom quickly became associated with easy wealth and fabulous archeological artifacts from long-dead civilizations that appeared to predate the emergence of gnomes and dwarves in the region. But the wealth didn’t always come easy, as many of the forlorn tombs provided deadly surprises in the form of bound demon guardians, relentless constructs, and ingenious magical wards and traps. The hilly lands surrounding the city became known as the Cairn Hills, and the hunt for lost treasure became an important part of the region’s cultural heritage. But the treasure didn’t last forever. Eventually, the cairns dried out, and unplundered tombs became more and more difficult to locate. Every decade or so a lucky explorer managed to strike it rich, but even more came away from their endeavors with nothing more than broken ankles and clothes singed by the fires of ancient protections. Several vanished entirely. Over the years, the Cairn Hills began to lose their allure, and the City fell upon difficult times.

#### Blackwall Keep:

Blackwall Keep is a small, stockaded fortification with a single tower hosting some 40 militiamen. Patrols going through the Mistmarsh often assemble here. Though this keep technically is not located in the Cairn Hills, it is under the command of the Commander of the Cairn Hills. The road to Blackwall Keep is not particularly safe. Bandits and hostile humanoids are the primary threats.

#### Stirgenest Cairn:

An empty cairn near Diamond Lake. Allegedly the subject of interest by a newly arrived group of adventures.

#### The Whispering Cairn:

Another empty cairn, the subject of many dares amongst the children.