Mountain's Toe

Mountain's Toe, also called the Mountain's Toe Gold Mine, was a Neverwinter-owned gold mining operation in the Sword Coast North.

Description
The relatively small mine was a series of small, tall caverns connected by a maze of  wide tunnels supported with wooden posts. Rivulets of gold could be seen in the rock walls of nearly every section. The western tunnels contained storage for tools and foodstuffs as well as sleeping areas for the miners filled with wooden cots

The mine had entrances on both the eastern and western sides of the foothill in which it sat, plus a tunnel that opened onto the cliffside up. A sign above the western entrance identified it as "Mountain's Toe." In the late 15 century DR, the entrances were somewhat concealed by overgrown bushes.

Geography
The mine was located in the foothills of the Sword Mountains northeast of Phandalin. The entrance sat at the base of the northern spur of a tall, snow-capped mountain. This spur was only about wide, which was likely the source of the name "Mountain's Toe."

History
In the late 15 century DR, a crew of sixteen human and dwarven miners worked in Mountain's Toe. The mine was owned and operated by a consortium in Neverwinter, under whose oversight the gold production failed to meet expectations.

Production plummeted to zero during the reign of the white dragon Cryovain in the region. He seized Icespire Hold as his lair, which forced the previous orc occupants to flee into the foothills. In turn, these orcs occupied the shrine of Savras just south of Conyberry, displacing the previous wererat occupants. These wererats, who called themselves the Whiskered Gang, then invaded the Mountain's Toe mine, killing eleven of the sixteen miners and claiming the tunnels as their new home. The surviving miners holed up in the eastern section of the tunnels where they barricaded the doors and refused to retreat. They established a small graveyard outside the eastern entrance for the ten of their comrades whose bodies they recovered, and then dug in to wait for reinforcements.

Around this time, the mine's owners had decided to install a new and more driven overseer of the mine, Don-Jon Raskin. They dispatched him from Neverwinter to Phandalin, and then hired Phandalin's townmaster Harbin Wester to find adventurers to escort him the rest of the way to the mine.

Appearances

 * Adventures
 * Dragon of Icespire Peak