Battlemap
The Shift Below
Every helmet on the wall carries a shift number, and the newest one is still wet with mine dust.
The Outpost level is a compact stone keep built around an abandoned mine access. Its upper rooms served as barracks, records offices, and shrines for Mirabar's miners, while its lower chambers now shelter a restless dead captain and the miners he condemned. Every locked door bears the same warning scratched into the iron: Do not wake the shift below.
Cold iron, wet granite, lamp oil, and old coal dust fill the keep. Wind moans through arrow slits above, while chains clink below and faint hammering sometimes rises from the sealed mine shaft. Most rooms are lit by smoky blue everburning lamps, though several gutters near the floor.
☠ Threat
Captain Oshu Daga, the dead commander of the final shift, haunts the outpost as a spiteful wight-like revenant. He commands the miners he betrayed and seeks the glittering ore buried beneath room-5. The ore feeds his unnatural endurance, but exposing his written order or consecrating the lower shrine can strip away much of his protection.
History
Mirabarran surveyors built the keep as a fortified mining outpost over a promising silver vein. Captain Oshu Daga commanded the last expedition, but the miners found ore that pulsed with strange light and began hearing voices below. Fearing a claim dispute and a panic, Oshu sealed the lower shift underground, falsified the records, and died defending the keep when the trapped miners returned as revenants.
Encounter Table
CRDead guards patrol with blank faces and rusted weapons, following the old watch route.
Pale miner spirits crawl along walls and whisper partial names from the final shift.
A hunched scavenger made from loose tools, wire, and ore fragments searches for anything metallic.
Rumours & Whispers
A lantern still burns in the sealed outpost, though no one has entered it since the last mine collapse.
The old captain buried a fortune in silver beneath his command room and killed anyone who knew the hiding place.
Miners hear a bell underground whenever someone in the camp lies about a missing worker.
The keep's shrines are not abandoned. Someone has been leaving fresh water in them.
Mirabar's old claim records say the outpost was built over a mine that never officially existed.
Quest Hooks
Quest giver: Toma Reed, a blunt Mirabarran claims clerk
A Mirabarran clerk asks the party to recover the original shift ledger before a rival mining company finds it and uses the evidence to seize the outpost's claim.
A legal share in the mine and 75 gp in recovered fees
Quest giver: Sefu Kato, foreman of the eastern dig
Miners in a nearby camp hear hammering beneath the keep every night. Their foreman wants the sound stopped before the workers abandon a profitable tunnel.
A silver-studded miner's pick and free passage through the camp
Quest giver: Shisui of the Three Lamps, a traveling priest
A shrine keeper believes the trapped miners can be released if the old captain's signet is returned to the lower altar and the names of the dead are spoken aloud.
A blessing that grants advantage on one death saving throw to each character
Quest giver: Vako Nesh, a cautious caravan broker
A black-silver crystal recovered from the keep whispers directions toward deeper tunnels beneath Mirabar. Several factions would pay dearly to obtain it.
150 gp, a map of nearby trade roads, and a lead to the Glittering Mines
Corridor Notes
Black iron hooks line the walls, each holding a miner's helmet marked with a shift number. Several helmets contain fresh dust despite having been untouched for decades.
A narrow drainage channel carries reddish water toward the lower shrine. Tiny silver flakes occasionally glitter in the muck.
Arrow loops overlook the approach from Room 1. The murder holes are still usable, but their wooden shutters have swollen shut.
Boot marks cross the dust from Room 10 toward Room 12, though no living sentry admits to using the passage.
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