The Dwarf Kingdom of Throal lies at the center of our West Marches game. It will serve as your home base and place of refuge. Your character will return here after every outing, and leave for each expedition completely refreshed and renewed, all damage and wounds mended and all Karma replenished.
For our purposes, Throal will also be the stage for any non-critical, mostly unmoderated role playing you wish to do as your character. This is intended only as a way to enrich your experience with no stakes. Money, goods, or services cannot change hands between players except in a purely cosmetic or superficial way. However, if you wish to role play out your purchase of general adventuring supplies as an in-game reflection of the changes that you're making to your character sheet, that is acceptable.
This style of play will be conducted on it's own Discord Server, separate from the Primary Server.
These three truly massive granite arches were once all that stood between the people of Throal and the Scourge beyond the walls. Now they stand open in in proud defiance, as both a testament to the will to endure and the courage to face what may yet come.
Each arch spans a space 50 yards wide and 100 yards high, separated from each other by vast block of granite 50 yards wide and 30 yards deep.
The now open doors themselves are equally impressive, constructed as they are of magically augmented stone, wood, interlaced with kernels of True Earth and True Wood set in frames wrought of iron and orichalcum. The doors are each 10 feet thick.
During the day, the Grand Bazaar is an explosion of colors, sounds and smells. Shopkeepers and street vendors loudly hawk their wares, the aroma of perfumes and charred meat linger in the air, and the cacophonous din of all this activity registers as a constant background hum of noise and life. There is a method to the madness, however, and the officials responsible for licensing the merchants ensure that stalls and booths providing the same goods and services are grouped together to encourage competition and fair pricing.
But at night, it's a different story. The streets clear and stalls and booths are left deserted, boarded up for the evening. Aside from the occasional guard patrol, the Bazaar is eerily silent and still.
Immediately beyond the Bazaar, you will find the region know as the Dahnat, the most impoverished and rundown neighborhoods of Throal. Populated mostly by beggars and other people who have fallen on hard times.
Simple, one room dwellings line the halls and tunnels, and potentially housing up to 20 or more family members in very close quarters. Some shops do operate in the Dahnat, selling threadbare goods and other other low quality provisions. This region is also home to several of the industries that make use of cheap labor, such as weaver workshops and tanneries.
For an adventurer down on their luck, accommodations can be procured from shabby flophouses for as little as a copper a night. Don't expect much more than a mat on the floor, though, with the expectation that you'll find your own meals elsewhere.
This is where the Throalic equivalent of a middle class make their homes and run their businesses. Though not so desitute as those in the Dahnat, they residents of the Wedshel are by no means fabulously wealthy. They are simply the average citizenry of Throal.
Typical homes of the Wedshel neighborhoods are typically hewn directly from the mountainsides, and all relatively similar in construction. These dwellings are much more spacious and accommodating than those found in the southern Dahnat neighborhoods, and often incorporate a large single sleeping area for all members of the household, as well as separate rooms for dining, cooking, socializing, and storage.
Lodging is the Wedshel is typically available for 1-3 silver pieces a night, with meals included. Though these inns are by no means the epitome of comfort and luxury, tenants can reasonably expect some privacy and a bed to lay their heads.
This region of Throal is also home to dozens of local neighborhood taverns. You're likely to find something for just about any taste, and many establishments cater to a specific clientele.
Toward the farthest in ends of the Halls of Throal one will find the Estates. These impressive manors house the wealthiest of Throal's citizens. These properties are rarely if ever sold, and tend to remain in a single family's ownership down through the generations.
Estate homes are large enough to house separate families all with individual sleeping quarters, and many also offer sleeping quarters for servants and staff. Many also include workshops or offices that allow their wealthy residents of conduct their business or passion projects within the comfort of their own home. Additionally, most estates also include an armory, barracks, ballroom and dining hall and private libraries.
The Great Library is a massive complex situated in the heart of Throal's Inner Kingdom. The sheer extent of the collections housed within are rivaled only by the Eternal Library of Thera.
In addition to featuring countless tomes and texts available for perusal by the general public, certain other books and scrolls are available only by request, and only if your application to view them is approved by the head librarian. The Library is fully staffed by librarians and their apprentices, who have each spent years learning the intricacies of the elaborate filing system used to catalogue the contents of the Library. The facility itself also houses the private quarters of the Head Librarian. The Library is also equipped an enormous storage room, where many centuries worth of books, artifacts, and perhaps even unimaginable danger lie forgotten within the dusty stacks.
The Crystal Greenhouses are an astounding feat of magical engineering, and served as Throal's lifeline during the centuries when the gates remained closed against the Scourge outside. There are 30 such greenhouses in total, all situated together in the very most Northern reaches of Throal's halls. The roof of each greenhouse is fitted with an intricate array of of thousands of magically altered crystals that have been specially designed to give off artificial sunlight. In addition to supplying the whole kaer with the fruits, vegetables, and roots necessarily for survival, a handful of the greenhouses were dedicated to growing a curious plant called Stoveplant, a stalky hybrid plants that has only a rudimentary leaf and root system with a disproportionately thick woody stem which burns slowly, gives off ample heat, and produces very little smoke.
The Throal mountains contain a number of minerals and precious metals within its depths, including silver, gold, and orichalcum. Generation upon generation of Dwarf mining has lead to a complex network of tunnels around Throal as miners seek to uncover these riches. These passageways now extend dozens of miles in all directions from Throal's center, and miners continue to excavate new passages and shafts. However, any such tunnels have fallen into disuse or have been almost entirely forgotten, except by those who choose to these passageways as an ideal location to meet in secret.