The main area of the this medieval town is located around the center of a massive underground cavern. The town extends to cavern walls seen off in the distance and some shops are built into the cavern walls. However, a tavern near the main settlement has decent food and beds available for travelers from deeper underground or the surface dwellers that manage to find their way here. Other businesses also are near the center settlement and deal with more reputable clientele than those closer to the cavern walls.

The Hollow of Oreska

“In the Core, they weigh their gold; on the Rim, we weigh our breath. Both can run out faster than you'd think.”

Sly Rengo, Rim-side Fixer

• SettlementOreska's ReachThis tiered settlement acts as the primary gatehouse for surface dwellers seeking the riches of the deep. The Crystal Core is a hub of high-end commerce and luxury, while the Rim serves as the labor force and industrial engine. Bridges of braided iron and stone connect the central island to the outer wall shops. It is a city of sharp contrasts, where the wealthy live in perpetual light and the poor dwell in the cold, gray periphery.
• TavernThe Low-Hang InnThe inn's ceiling is covered in bioluminescent moss that pulses rhythmically with the collective heartbeat of the crowd. Mama Thistle enforces a strict No Magic rule during meals to prevent food spoilage or mental manipulation.
• ShopVane's ExquisitesValerius uses a silk handkerchief to cover his mouth whenever someone he deems lower-class speaks to him. He insists on being addressed as Master Vane and frequently checks a gold pocket watch.
• ShopThe Scrapyard ForgeGrout continuously hacks up thick black soot into a rag and refuses to acknowledge customers unless they place their gold on the anvil first. He speaks in short, gruff sentences.

population

5,200

government

The Gilded Circle (Oligarchic Merchant Council)

primaryIndustry

Glow-gem Mining and Subterranean Trade

defenseLevel

High in the center; Moderate and mercenary-led on the periphery

• NPCValerius Thorne-AgisValerius is a man of precise cruelty. He is unfailingly polite to his peers but treats those from the Rim with the clinical detachment of a doctor looking at a tumor. He prizes stability above all else, believing that the suffering of the many is a fair price for the refinement of the few. He is prone to long silences where he simply stares at the ceiling, making others wonder if he is listening or if he is hearing something they cannot.
• NPCRengo 'Sly' MalatestaRengo is a man of professional contradictions. He is famously generous with the orphans of the Rim, often buying them whole crates of fruit, yet he is known to ruin adult business partners over a single copper debt. He presents himself as the quintessential 'man of the people,' speaking with a rough, comforting cavern-slang, but in private, he is cold, calculating, and possesses an elitist disdain for those who cannot see the 'big picture.' He is genuinely loyal to those he considers 'his people' until their existence threatens his survival, at which point he becomes a ruthlessly efficient cleaner.
• NPCMama ThistleMama Thistle is a study in maternal iron; she is deeply compassionate toward the broken and the destitute who wander into the Rim, yet she possesses a razor-sharp tongue for those with status. She treats surface-dwelling travelers with a nostalgic warmth that masks a keen-eyed evaluation of their utility. While she will offer a free meal to a starving thief, she would sooner throw a high-born diplomat out of her door than allow them to look down on her 'children' of the cavern walls.
• NPCThrainn 'Driller' GroutGrout is a man of absolute constants who trusts the structural integrity of stone more than the word of any person. He is rudely dismissive of casual pleasantries but becomes obsessively talkative when discussing masonry or the 'rhythms' of the earth. He treats his tools with fatherly affection but views his own physical exhaustion as a mere inconvenience to be ignored.

1. 1Investigate the recent 'wall-shakers'—minor tremors focused specifically near the Wall Shops that the Core leadership ignores.

   If they succeed

   Players discover an illegal mining operation undermining the cavern's stability and gain the favor of the Rim-dwellers.

   If they fail

   A section of the cavern wall collapses, destroying three businesses and trapping civilians.

2. 2Deliver a sealed crate of 'Refined Sun-Salt' from the high-end shops in the Core to a contact in the cavern-wall tavern.

   If they succeed

   The contact reveals the salt is actually a component for a ritual to dim the sun-crystal, rewarding the players for their discretion.

   If they fail

   The players are mugged by Rim-side bandits; the theft triggers a brutal crackdown by the Core's Grotto Guard.

The cavern floor vibrates with a low-frequency resonance from geological shifts or ancient machinery below.