The Seven-Barrel Shed
The Deep Vein Drilling Co. warehouse stands behind the company's shop as a squat, overworked storehouse for drilling equipment and water-testing supplies. Its name among local workers is the Seven-Barrel Shed, a reference to the day a failed test well flooded the floor and floated seven empty barrels through the loading doors. Outsiders insist the barrels belonged to a brewer, but the drillers know they were old chemical casks used for water samples. The building serves as a supply depot, records office, repair shop, and staging ground for expeditions into the surrounding scrub.
The Seven-Barrel Shed
Dry, noisy, and close with the smell of iron filings, lamp oil, old canvas, and dust. Every footstep stirs grit from the rafters. Chains clink in the yard, wooden models creak in the wind, and the steady ring of a sharpening wheel carries through the building.
The Deep Vein Drilling Co. warehouse stands behind the company's shop as a squat, overworked storehouse for drilling equipment and water-testing supplies. Its name among local workers is the Seven-Barrel Shed, a reference to the day a failed test well flooded the floor and floated seven empty barrels through the loading doors. Outsiders insist the barrels belonged to a brewer, but the drillers know they were old chemical casks used for water samples. The building serves as a supply depot, records office, repair shop, and staging ground for expeditions into the surrounding scrub.
Patient with honest questions, suspicious of grand claims, and stubbornly protective of his crew. Bram dislikes discussing the Anomaly Artifact in the open, but guilt and curiosity make him eager to learn whether it is connected to the strange water readings found near old wells.
History
Stored Goods
The front half stores boxed drill bits, coiled rope, canvas water bags, survey stakes, stamped forms, and iron fittings. The rear half holds heavier gear on timber racks, including augers, pump rods, pipe sections, winch parts, and cracked wooden well models used to explain drilling work to customers. Nothing is labeled elegantly. Workers identify most items by scratches, weight, or where they remember leaving them.
Permit Office
A narrow office cage sits above the warehouse floor behind a grille of blackened iron. Inside are permit ledgers, fee schedules, sealed water samples, blank applications, and a locked tin box containing copies of old drilling claims. Bram Copper keeps the current records in plain view, but older paperwork concerning the traveling caravan and Water Testing Permit #2 is hidden beneath a false ledger shelf.
Loading Yard
The yard is arranged around a packed-earth turning circle. A hand-cranked hoist stands over a loading pit, allowing workers to lift drills and pipe from wagons. Two wooden rig models lean against the fence, one missing its tower and the other marked with faded chalk measurements. Wagons can be unloaded quickly, but the crowded yard gives a nimble thief many places to disappear.
Repair Bench
The company keeps a practical repair bench near the back doors. A forge, oil barrel, sharpening wheel, and bins of salvaged bolts allow the drillers to restore damaged equipment without sending it to a blacksmith. Bram's excavation tools remain separate from the ordinary gear. Their handles are wrapped in fresh cord, and no worker admits to touching the dirt still packed into their teeth.
Denizens
Patient with honest questions, suspicious of grand claims, and stubbornly protective of his crew. Bram dislikes discussing the Anomaly Artifact in the open, but guilt and curiosity make him eager to learn whether it is connected to the strange water readings found near old wells.
A broad-shouldered senior driller with sunburned cheeks, a careful manner, and permanently dust-stained hands. Bram is willing to discuss the Anomaly Artifact if the party proves they are not treasure hunters looking for a quick sale. He knows the black fabric dissolved during excavation and suspects the object was buried deliberately.
The company's records clerk and yard keeper. She speaks softly but notices every missing tool, altered ledger, and unfamiliar boot print. She will help the party inspect permit records if they agree to recover a stolen water sample from the dry wash outside the compound.
A wiry wagon driver who knows the company's routes and has carried equipment for traveling crews. He is quick with jokes and quicker with excuses. Kett claims to have seen Marra's caravan years ago, but his account changes whenever someone asks what cargo the caravan carried.
Rumors & Plot Hooks
- 1.The traveling caravan's Trail Boss, Marra, was the original owner of Water Testing Permit #2 and may still know who first found the strange underground readings.
- 2.A sealed permit ledger disappeared after Bram brought the Anomaly Artifact into the shed.
- 3.The company has been quietly charging Bulk Aquifer Extraction Fees for a well that no longer produces water.
- 4.Some workers believe the black fabric around the artifact was not cloth at all, but a skin that had been wrapped around the object while it was still alive.
- 5.The seven barrels from the warehouse flood were never recovered. One is said to have turned up miles away, full of clean water despite having been empty when the flood began.
Classified Entry
Bram's excavation notes contain a detail he has hidden from everyone else. The artifact was not found at the bottom of the borehole, but lodged inside a smooth cavity that had no tool marks and no natural entrance. The cavity was lined with the same black residue left behind by the dissolved fabric. A faint trail of that residue runs beneath the warehouse floor toward the old stone foundation, suggesting that the artifact may have been moved through the ground rather than carried there.
Turn The Seven-Barrel Shed into a sheet
A high-res, share-ready sheet you can post or print.