The Sink

Known to most people in the northern cities of the City-States as "that hole in the ground down south", The Sink is actually one of the larger sources of wealth within the region. Part stone quarry, part gold mine, The Sink provides finely-cut stone for highly important building projects as well as the gold that goes into production of the currency used across Human lands. It is also notable as the only known settlement of true Dwarfs on Lasair, their works spreading out from the Sink underneath the south.

Geography

The Sink lies in the southern reach of the City-States region, within sight of the Shifting Jungle. It includes the southernmost city of the region, though most people in the northern cities don't know it exists as anything more than a mining complex. It began millennia ago as merely a place where caves had collapsed at some point after the fall of the Giants. This low depression in the earth would be gradually eroded over time thanks to rain and wind, which exposed and weathered the upper layers of the marble that makes up the stone in the area of the lowlands along the coast.
There is no record of when the first Dwarfs appeared at the Sink. The dwarfs themselves are uncertain of their origins (there's a small sect that believes their origin to have been the Sink), only having developed a taste for history once they became aware of how much they felt the lack of having one. Regardless of when that happened, however, their work has left an indelible mark in the stone of the Sink.

The Quarry

Where once there was a rough and jagged depression there is now a miles-wide artificial ravine a few hundred feet deep. The walls are mostly vertical, shining in bands of grey and white. The walls are frequently stepped in areas where an active cut is underway, with blocks of the marble sitting on squat carts ready to be carried away to the collection point at the. At multiple points, slowly-climbing ramps have been to a narrow ledge built around the walls, allowing for these blocks to be carried to the main hub of the quarry at the northeast corner of the Sink. From there the marble is shipped on large, heavy wagons to the port at Surtor for shipment to the north.

Interspersed with the ramps and with active cuts are many visible windows and doorways. Dwarven residences and workspaces are built into the walls of the Sink, giving the impression of the terrain being a giant inward-facing city. Indeed, the Sink itself is a city with a fairly large population - one of the largest in the City States - but much of that city lays underground and out of sight.

The Mine

Hidden behind maze-like entryways, the true wealth of the Sink can be found below the surface. Underneath and within the marble that makes up the ground here, the Dwarfs also discovered several rich veins of gold. Over the centuries the dwarfs have carefully and meticulously carved through these veins, accumulating the gold into bars for storage, which are stacked in towering vaults carved into the marble stone. Some measure of this wealth is spent every year, making its way into the economy of the City-States Region, mostly being used to make bulk purchases of lumber and food, and from there becoming the coinage that circulates throughout the region.

The mines - and the city that has been built within spent veins - underneath The Sink are labyrinthine, extremely difficult for any non-native to navigate. While the dwarfs are generally a welcoming and friendly people when interacting on the surface, they have gone to extreme lengths to keeping the extent of their subterranean city secret. Only dwarfs who were born here, or who prove themselves exceedingly loyal to the city on the surface, are allowed to know of the existence of the wealth that lays underneath what most of the region considers merely a big hole.

Who Knows This?

An Intelligence (History) skill check will bring to mind the following depending on the character's roll:

• DC 5 (Common knowledge):
  There is a large mine in the south where lots of dwarfs live. 
• DC 10 (Could hear it from travelers):
  The Sink is a quarry that supplies a lot of stone to the City-States Region 
• DC 15 (Education covered it):
   The Sink is the only known settlement of dwarfs in Lasair, and was founded before most if not all of the cities in the region.
• DC 20 (Learned Historian):
  Caravans visit regularly, but dwarfs almost never actually leave the city. A lot of wealth passes in and out of the city. 
• DC 25 (Subject Matter Expert):
  There are a lot more dwarfs living hidden away underneath The Sink than should be possible just from living within the walls. The math doesn't work out.
• DC 30 (Directly Acquired Knowledge):
   There is an entire sprawling city underground - The Sink is merely the entrance; the surface-facing facade.

Bonuses

• Dwarfs  who are from Bastion obviously know everything above. Visiting The Sink more than a few times gives advantage on rolls.