The Mine - North Oxbow Works

Also called: The North Oxbow Works, Oxbow Mine; among miners simply “the Works.”

Summary

A compact but richly veined hard‑rock mine two miles north of Evenshade close to a bend of the River Chionthar (north--downriver--from the village).  The Works exploits an ancient contact zone where river‑cut bluffs expose intrusive seams.  Current production focuses on iron (banded iron formations) and tin (cassiterite in quartz veins), with minor silver and trace gold recovered from sulfide‑stained lodes and alluvial pockets.  Older drifts once yielded copper, lead, and a celebrated but now‑exhausted lazurite (lapis) pocket.

Type: Industrial site (mine & smeltery hamlet)

Owner/Steward: House Evenshade (charter), year-to-year leased to the North Oxbow Guild Combine

Oversight: The Watch of the Scroll (safety and records The Temple-Library of Oghma (assayers’ ledgers, mineral catalog)

Exports: Pig iron, tin ingots, mixed concentrates; small bars of silver; occasional gold nuggets

Imports: Timber props, oil, salt, tool steel, dried rations

Workforce: ~60–80 in season (half in the stopes, half in surface works)

Mood: Industrious; proud of careful engineering; superstitious about “blue echoes” in the old lazurite drift

Geography & Approach

• Setting: Perched above a river oxbow where the Chionthar swings west before easing north again. The main adits (horizontal access passageways) face east into a schist bluff; spoil tips terrace the slope below.
• Distance & Direction: ~2 miles north (downriver) of Evenshade. A cart road hugs the river; a haul‑cable ferry crosses a short cutbank when the water is high.
• Natural Features: Birch and alder copses; bedrock of slate and schist intruded by pale granitic dikes; cold springs seep year‑round.

Geology & Resources

• Iron: Banded iron formation (hematite‑magnetite) accessible via the Red Stope. Smelted on‑site into pigs.
• Tin: Cassiterite veins in the White Vein adit (quartz with tourmaline). Tin is crushed, washed, and roasted for shipping as ingots.
• Silver (minor): Fine argentite and native silver along the Grey Ladder drift; typically recovered as a by‑product during cupellation.
• Gold (trace): Flour gold and rare stringers in sulfide lenses; panned from mill tailraces after storms.
• Legacy Pockets: Abandoned Azure Drift (lazurite) and Old King’s Nose (galena & chalcopyrite) are mostly worked out but carefully timbered and mapped by the Temple‑Library.

Surface Works

• Stamp & Wash Yard: Water‑driven stamps feed a sluice maze; fines are settled in lined ponds to prevent river contamination.
• Bloomery & Finery Hearth: Produces pig iron and limited wrought for toolmaking.
• Assay House: Jointly manned by guild assayers who test the purity and quality of the metals and minerals mined, as well as a scribe of Gond; maintains the Ledger of Veins and weekly purity tests.
• Field Shrine: Discreet alcove to Oghma with votive chits from miners recording notable finds.
• Barracks & Canteen: Low, whitewashed stone with slate roofs; the canteen serves thick barley stew and river eel in season.

Underground Layout (Player‑Facing)

• Main Adit (White Vein): Sloped rail; ventilation via brattice cloth and a roof vent.
• Red Stope: Broad chamber, orderly room‑and‑pillar supports; iron seam visible as dark, lustrous bands.
• Grey Ladder: Tight, stepped drift with iron dog‑ladders; “silver bells” (calcite chimes) tinkle when the air changes.
• Azure Drift (sealed): Timbered gate, temple seal, and a chalked warning: “Echoes carry further than voices.”

Operations & Safety

• Method: Hand drilling, black powder shots, careful sequencing to minimize shock; timber sets with wedge keys; scheduled “still hours” twice daily for listening checks.
• Water Management: Sump gallery and chain pumps; spring water is clean and prized in town.
• Safety Rules: Helm, lamp, and whistle required; no singing in the Grey Ladder (superstition… and practical breath‑saving).
• Record‑Keeping: Every new pocket sketched and deposited in the Temple‑Library within 3 days. Falsifying a vein map is a crime under Evenshade charter law.

People of Note

• Master Warden Rilka Voss: Flinty dwarf engineer; believes in “measured risk.” Keeps a pocket abacus and a sheaf of old Azure Drift rubbings.
• Foreman Jace Merrit: Human; raised on the river; can read wind in the brattice cloth like a sail.
• Scribe‑Assayer Ilven Dore: Quiet devotee of Oghma; insists on double‑entry ledgers and meticulously labels sample jars.

Economy & Trade

• Tin for Tools: Tin shipments often return as tool steel and fine chisels from Iriaebor smiths.
• Iron to River Mills: Pig iron feeds repairs for the lumber mill and dock fittings.
• Silver Tithes: A fifth of silver takes is minted into temple marks used to endow scholarships for village apprentices.

Laws & Customs

• Charter Clauses: Land and sub‑surface rights held by House Evenshade; extraction leased to the guild with safety oversight by the Watch of the Scroll.
• Resonant Triple (Portable Alarm): Three hand bells forged and tuned to complementary tones, linked by a leather yoke so they can be carried together. Usually kept locked in the assay office. Their combined peal carries cleanly through drifts without provoking the Azure Drift’s uncanny harmonics.
• Signals: One long = shift start; two long = clear the stopes; three short = flood watch; alternating fast peal = cave‑in/evacuate.
• Custom: The carrier chalks a blue mark where the Triple is rung below ground to “anchor” the sound.
• Blue Echoes: Miners leave a blue chalk mark on beams before powder shots—“to give the echoes a door.”

Hazards & Encounters

• Natural: Sudden groundwater surges after upriver storms; collapses in old lazurite chambers; pockets of choking dust.
• Fauna: Chalk‑white cave newts (harmless), skittering rock beetles, the rare owlbear sniffing the offal pits in high summer.
• Unnatural (rumor): A faint, harmonic hum in the Azure Drift that sets teeth on edge; tools left there gain a pale blue sheen for a day.

Plot Hooks

1. The Blue Ledger: A missing folio from the Ledger of Veins hints that the Azure Drift isn’t exhausted—and that someone plans an unsanctioned night dig.
2. Tin and Trouble: Impurities in tin ingots threaten a large order; players must track a forged assay stamp.
3. Flood on the Oxbow: A storm surge traps a crew beyond the Grey Ladder; rescue requires bracing the roof and re‑routing water through a forgotten side run.
4. Echo Thief: Something in the sealed drift repeats whispers out of order—sometimes repeating words no one said.

GM Secrets

Using the Works in Play

• Skill Challenges: Engineering checks to plan braces; group endurance to run chain pumps; social checks to earn the wardens’ trust.
• Rewards: Pure tin ingot (component for fine clockwork or spell foci), “Blue‑tinged” tools (cosmetic psionic shimmer), a stamped iron chit redeemable for dock repairs or a scholar’s favor in the Temple‑Library.

Sidebar: Timeline

• Years Ago: Small lapis pocket discovered; Azure Drift opened; strange acoustics noted.
• Then: Temple‑Library maps and seals the drift after micro‑collapses and unsettling phenomena.
• Now: Iron and tin fuel Evenshade’s growth; talk of extending the Red Stope under the oxbow to intercept deeper seams.

Map Sketch Aid (Text Description)

• River forms a horseshoe oxbow around the bluff; Works sits at the inner bend’s throat.
• Main Adit midway up the bluff; Stamp Yard and Assay House on the terrace below; Bloomery near the downriver end for draft.
• Azure Drift entrance is higher and sealed with a timber gate and temple sigil.

“The truth speaks quietly,” reads a modest plaque in the assay house. “So we keep the place still enough to hear it.”