Kraghammer

Dozens of dwarven redoubts rose and fell in the tunnels beneath the Cliffkeep Mountains during the Calamity, and in the uncertain years that followed it. Legend holds that a great civilization called Uthtor once reigned supreme in the Cliffkeeps, and that all of the deep settlements are fragments of Uthtor's glory, fractured by teh Calamity. Over the centuries, these fragments divided and coalesced dozens of times until, finally, those who remained came together to create Kraghammer.
Clan Jaggenstrike united thousands of dwarves, gnomes, and other dwellers of the deep halls in the creation of Kraghammer. Having quietly died out centuries ago, the clan now holds a position of mythic reverence within the city. Kraghammer's founding was dedicated to the Allhammer, divine creator of the dwarves and patron of creation and ingenuity. This god's industrious spirit filled the people of Kraghammer and blessed them with rich veins of platinum, mithral, adamantine, and other precious metals that have sustained them since the city's founding.
An ominous walk of a thousand stairs climbs the side of the mountain to the gates of the city—carved from the mountain itself, just wide enough for two dwarves to walk abreast. With the path too steep and treacherous for carts or common beasts of burden to traverse, traders and trappers use giant goats to transport their goods to and from market, while wealthy dwarven merchant lords employ serfs and laborers to carry their goods. Kraghammer's impenetrable adamantine gates stand at the end of a perilous bridge overlooking a hundred-foot chasm guarded by three watchtowers carved directly into the mountain.
Within those gates, the massive stronghold is made up of three cylindrical levels called "slabs" that descend deep beneath the mountains. Kraghammer's granite walls are lit by roaring fires, enchanted torches, and shimmering candlerock, which glows with internal fire. Even when the evening fires are extinguished, the amber light of the Bronzegrip Metalworks at the base of the city bathes Kraghammer in its warm glow.

Isolation of Kraghammer

It's not easy being an outsider. Kraghammer has long been a city of dwarves, for dwarves, and anyone else within the city is an interloper. Some traditionalists within the city still think that surface-born folk should spend as little time in Kraghammer as possible, so as not to dilute the ancient splendor of their culture.
Yet times are changing. A coalition of people, ranging from dwarves to gnomes to traditionally surface-dwelling people who have made Kraghammer their home, have demanded that the Great Houses amend the city's most xenophobic laws. Despite the angry protests of the city's most bigoted dwarves, the Great Houses have acquiesced to the requests of their people. This is due in no small part to these protestors having the support of the current Ironkeeper—Palluda Zuurthrom has long been a proponent of Kraghammer entering the Republic of Tal'Dorei and ending their cienturies of relative isolation.
No non-dwarf has ever served as a delegate of the houses, let alone Ironkeeper. Progress is slow, especially in Kraghammer, but it is happening. The most despicable of the city's xenophobes have left of their own volition, creating other dwarven settlements throughout the Cliffkeeps where they can keep to themselves and "their own kind" in peace.

Crime

Citizens of Emon who visit Kraghammer often marvel at how lawful and organized the dwarven enclave is. Crime is ostensibly low within Kraghammer thanks to the Carvers' protection, but this peace comes at a cost. Crime is low because the courts of Kraghammer almost always reach a guilty verdict. As a long-lived and durable people, most dwarves, particularly those with a family reputation to uphold, would rather plead guilty and endure years, even decades, of hard labor than disturb the fabric of their society by fighting conviction.
Beyond this, corruption is rife within the Carvers, and they are able to brutalize even innocent people with relative impunity. This corruption is shielded from public scrutiny by the vast wewalth and political influence of House Glorendar, their patron house. Becauses of Gleorendar's close ties with the Carvers (and the mutual benefits thereof), corruption has been hard to uncover within either organization.
Over twenty years ago, however, a gnomist journalist named Ida Mudrake uncovered something damning within the vaults of House Glorendar, bringing some hope that change may yet move steadily forward. She has been forced to flee the city and now lives with a security detail in Emon, but she works tirelessly to bring the crimes of House Glorendar to light. Many in Kraghammer hope that this evidence, whatever it is, will shake both Glorendar and the Carvers to their foundations. Many more fear that even true justice is not worth the chaos that bringing Glorendar's misdeeds to light will cause.

Demographics

73% dwarves, 8% gnomes, 5% humans, 14% other races

Government

Kraghammer law is written by a consortium of the five most powerful houses within the city, each appointing a delegate to serve on their behalf. That tenuous union of houses is kept by the city's executive officer, the Ironkeeper. The Ironkeeper is elected by the houses and carries a term of ten years, with no term limit, though most Ironkeepers contain their rule to three to five terms.
The current sitting Ironkeeper is Palluda of House Zuurthom. She rose to prominence advocating for the rights of workers in the wake of the Chroma Conclave, and is a strong advocate for uniting with the Republic of Tal'Dorei to  strengthen their might against future supernatural threats. She is sitting comfortably in the midst of her second term and enjoys strong support from members of Kraghammer's working class—and staunch opposition from traditionalists, who cling to the city's fading culture of isolationism.
The laws of the city are enforced by a military class of elite warriors called Carvers that act as guards, soldiers, and jailers under the guidance of the Ironkeeper. Becoming a Carver is a lengthy, rigorous, and taxing pursuit, and many who choose to join fail to complete their training.
Most who join the Carvers are dwarves from families with centuries of history within the Carvers. This isn't just because of the pressure to uphold their family's honor. Most hopefuls are also those who value Kraghammer's ancient traditions and rigid social order—a set of beliefs largely held by dwarven clans with long family histories. Once officially named, a Carver is given a homestead built into the center slab of the city, a set of oimmaculate armor and weapons, and a steady income.
In the years following the defeat of the Chroma Conclave, the famously isolationist and xenophibc houses conceded to formally make an alliance with the Republic of Tal'Dorei. An ambassador from Kraghammer now sits on the Tal'Dorei Council, and rumors are beginning to circulate within the city that the heads of the Great Houses of Kraghammer are in talks with the Tal'Dorei Council to make Kraghammer an official constituent city-state of the republic.

Geography

Though the Cliffkeep Mountains themselves are blanketed in thick snow, the bone-piercing chill does not extend into Kraghammer itself. Heat from the Bronzegrip Metalworks and the other blast furnaces of the Bottom Slab rises and permeates the entire city, though the Top Slab still grows cold in the winter. The city itself is carved out of the granit core of Mount Kraghammer; though the dwarves rarely see the night sky, the inner walls still sparkle like starlight in the amber glow of the furnaces.

The Top Slab

Also called the Arch, this uppermost tier is the entry level of the city, built on a massive ring. Like a hub with many spokes, countless neighborhoods and tunnels spread out from the Top Slab. A fine layer of soot tends to coat much of this slab, due to imperfect ventilation from the industrious center slab; despite this, this level is where most people make their homes, with thousands of stone-built abodes dotting the walls, while poular taverns like the trendy Firebrook Inn and the historic but austere Ironhearth Tavern fill alcoves pushed into the rock. For hundreds of years, most non-dwarves within Kraghammer were relegated to living in a Top Slab neighborhood called the "Otherwalk". These days, non-dwarves live all over the city, and the Otherwalk has been renamed the Cavernwalk. It's still mostly inhabited by non-dwarves, and it has a vibrant culture all its own.
As members of the Kraghammer working class, "Topslabbers" either make the long commute to labor in the Bottom Slab or work in the Toppers' farms above the mountain. Others are indentured servants to wealthy dwarves in the Middle Slab and only return to their families on the Top Slab on their monthly day of rest.

The Center Slab

Also referred to as the Heart, this middle tier is the widest and most varied rung on the journey through Kraghammer. It is stratified between the residences of Kraghammer's old money (its long-established noble houses) and the new (the wealthy merchant class). At the exact center of the slab is the Pyrethrone, seat of the Ironkeeper. The geometric symbolism of the Pyrethrone being at the dead center of the city is a fact most visitors to Kraghammer hear ad nauseum. Radiating out from the Pyrethrone are the various fortress-manors of the dwarven noble houses, with several Carver barracks in easy reach.
Below, the outer rings of the Center Slab are occupied by most of the city's non-mining businesses, from smithies, breweries, and jewelers to tailors, butchers, and tinkerers like the Cracksackle Union. The Hunter's Club is also well known as the chief provider for non-imported meats to the city, sending parties into the mountains or the nearby Torian Forest for wild game. The extravagent marble temple known as the All-Hammer's Will stands on the center slab of the city, the grandest of all shrines to hte most worshipped deity under the mountain. Enormous in size and impeccable in both detail and architectural design, this hall calls to artisans and crafters throughout the city for inspiration.
Of the five noble houses, only two conduct their affairs entirely in the Center Slab. The magically talented Lord Steddos Thunderbrand and his family are known to rarely leave their mansion, except on business with the Ironkeeper. Wallera Glorendar used to oversee the combat training of all Carvers within Kraghammer, but hasn't been seen in public for twenty years. Her daughter, Kazya, runs all her affairs within the public eye.

The Bottom Slab

Best known as the Pit, this tier is the industrious powerhouse of Kraghammer, boasting the most forges per square mile of any location in Tal'Dorei, courtesy of the Bronzegrip Metalworks and their competitors. Most of these forges are potent, highly industrialized, and mechanized blast furnaces. The expansive Keenstone Quarry is chief among the numerous mining operations that have tunneled through the depths of the mountains—depths whose true dangers are obscured by centuries of legend, and therefore not fully understood.
A network of fungus-farming paths called the Glowgrove works its way around this level, passing through all sorts of caverns. The mushrooms are harvested by the Toppers, the dwarven agricultural league that got their name from the small topside farms they tend above the city.
Three of the five dwarven houses have business interest in the Bottom Slab, though they direct its operations from the next tier up. Nostoc Greyspine is the grim overseer of Keenstone Quarry. Haddi Bronzegrip is the foredwarf of the Bronzegrip Metalworks; she claims to be the wealthiest dwarf in the North, a claim no one has ever been able to successfully dispute. Blenton Zuurthom is an architectural savant, and one of the older and kinder nobledwarves; he tries his best to oversee every major construction project in the Bottom Slab.

Points of Interest

Kraghammer has a number of famous landmarks, as well as a few mythic locations said to exist in the caverns beneath the city, as depicted on its map.

The Starshrine (Top Slab)

Most dwarves worship the Allhammer, and his teachings of community and ancestral piety have been all but completely subsumed into Kraghammer's culture at large. For outlanders of different faiths, however, the monolithic religious culture can feel inescapable. Shrines to all the Prime Deities have spread throughout Kraghammer since the fall of the Chroma Conclave, but the Starshine was the first.
When the world trembled at the might of Thordak the Cinder King, tremors rocked the upper layers of Kraghammer, causing certain caverns to collapse—and in some cases, to reveal places of great beauty. The Starshrine is a vast grotto whose granite walls mysteriously sparkle with a perfect replica of the stars of the night sky. It can be found within the Top Slab's culturally diverse Cavernwalk district. If a character prays to a Good or Neutral deity here, there is a 1% chance per character level that their prayer is answered, as with the cleric's Divine Intervention feature.

Cracksackle Guildhall (Middle Slab)

The headquarters of the Cracksackle Union looks unlike anything in Kraghammer. It's made of a dozen glistening steel domes like sleek metal igloos, and the light of unusual experiments flicker through its slitted windows at all hours of the night. Most within Kraghammer consider the building an eyesore, but all interested in technological tinkering and ingenuity love it for its uniqueness. If nothing else, it plainly displays the oft-baffling ingenuity of its tinkerers.
The Cracksackle Union was founded by gnomish refugees from Wittebak nearly four hundred years ago. While intrinsically tied to the Bronzegrip Metalworks for resources, contacts, and distribution, the Cracklesacklers have made themselves indispensible to the dwarven elite with their inventive contributions to mining and masonry technology.
On any working day, a dozen tinkerers, many of them gnomes, will set up shop in the courtyard, selling strange and untested devices they have made in their workshops. Someh non-magical curiousities that can be purchased here include:

• Dynamite (50 gp), range 30 ft., 4d6 fire damage to all creatures and objects in 20-foot radius (DC12 Dexterity save for half), detonates at the start of the thrower's next turn after 6-second fuse
• Glue bomb (50 gp), range 30 ft., creatures within 20-foot radius must make a DC 12 Strength or Dexterity saving throw (target's choice) or be restrained. A creature may make another DC 12 Strength check as an action to escape.
• Stink bomb (25 gp), range 30 ft., creatures within 20-foot radius must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1d6 rounds, detonates after 6-second fuse
• Wind glider (200 gp), requires 1 minute to harness. While harnessed and falling, the bearer falls at 30 feet per round, and the wind glider carries the bearer 40 feet in a line each round until they land. You can change direction each round. While harnessed, your movement is halved and you have disadvantage on attack rolls. A wind glider has an AC of 10 and 5 hit points.

Keenstone Quarry (Bottom Slab)

Despite all of Kraghammer's wonderful crafts and goods, its most significant export is raw stone—most of which is excavated from Keenstone Quarry, making the quarry's owner, Nostoc Greyspine, a very rich dwarf indeed. As the legend of Vox Machina spread across Tal'Dorei, Overseer Greyspine got an idea: open the quarry to adventurers. Vox Machina famously entered the vast network of dangerous tunnels beneath Kraghammer from a fissure at the depths of the quarry, and countless imitators have tried to follow in their footsteps—some emerging with fabulous treasure, but most never returning at all.
To take advantage of this opportunity, Greyspine has advertised the quarry far and wide as the "Gateway to the Depths" and posted an entrance fee of 25 gp per adventurer. Of course, neither Greyspine nor the staff of the quarry bears any liability for death, dismemberment, or emotional trauma sustained within the depths.

Hall of Burning Mushrooms

The Bronzegrip Metalworks just carved deeper into the mountain to expand their furnaces, only to discover the most magnificent cavern: a mile-wide cave filled with bioluminescent purple mushrooms. Industry had to move in, and the Bronzegrips hired Wyrmhide Thunderbrand and his pyromancer brigade to torch the cavern. The mushrooms never stopped burning, and the myconoids that lived in the fungal forest never stopped fighting. Adventurers known within Kraghammer may be asked by House Bronzegrip or Thunderbrand to cut through the inferno and destroy the myconoid monarch.

Type

Large city

Population

73,550

Location under

Cliffkeep Mountains

Owning Organization

Houses of Kraghammer