Ironmaster

This isolated, stone-towered city of mountain dwarves is built into the rock walls of a frozen valley; many of its storage chambers and passageways are tunneled out of never-melting ice, so that the buildings merge directly into the valley-side. Ironmaster's arms are a red anvil on a grey, diamond-shaped field, the long points of the diamond vertical.

Geography
Ironmaster Vale is the first break in the towering cliffs known as the Cold Run. These cliffs run northeast from Icefang Point, west of Fireshear. Ironmaster fills this valley; its stone towers rise like spikes from the valley floor, and the rooms and passages of the city weave in and out of the never-melting ice and stone of the valley walls. The Shaengarne River flows down from Icewind Dale to meet the Sea of Moving Ice here, plunging through Ironmaster Vale in a ceaseless roar. The dwarves siphon off its waters with over 60 scoop-tunnels and viaducts. They.ve built an elaborate series of spill basins and diversions to avoid flooding during the spring runoff. Ironmaster.s food comes from several sources. Subterranean caverns provide mushrooms, and hunting and spearfishing are common along the Shaengarne River and the Cold Run. Anything not available by these methods is acquired by trade.

Inhabitants
Ironmaster is home to around 9,000 hard-working dwarves; no non-dwarven races are welcome in this city.More than 3,000 are trained and equipped warriors. The clanmaster keeps his standing army of 300 dwarves busy patrolling the land and underground passages.

Trade
From the deepest tunnel passages of the city mine-shafts lead down to extensive iron deposits - not rich or rare, but far greater in extent than found elsewhere. The dwarves refine this, and fashion it into pots, pans, and "forge-bars" (flat bars that a smith elsewhere can readily forge into something). Dwarven ships go back and forth from Fireshear with goods, and other items are traded through underground routes using secret surface caves near Hundelstone.

Outsiders
Stone, menhir-like markers, with the arms of Ironmaster on them are found around the valley. Nondwarves within the boundaries outlined by these markers are attacked on sight. Humans who are truly ignorant of the dwarven ban on intruders may be spared, but the dwarves still confiscate ail weapons and valuables. They may put the humans on a ship or forcibly guide them, blindfolded, through passages to Hundelstone, releasing them at night in unfamiliar, broken terrain.