Local lore whispers that beneath the tavern lies an old anvil-stone, an ore vein blessed (or cursed) by a forge spirit. Duergar sometimes bind small iron charms to the stone to secure short-lived luck. Stories say the echo-well can carry a whisper from the Sooted Anvil to a forgotten forge three miles away — but only if the message is paid for in genuine blood-iron (a ritual token). The tavern's ledger is rumored to contain a page that names a duergar who once betrayed a clan and was buried alive under a collapsed shaft — that name, if spoken aloud inside the tavern, invites calamity.