Gate Town

Before the discovery of The Dungeon, when it was still called Aspen Hollow, Gate Town had a population of nearly entirely humans, with minorities of halflings, dwarves, and orcs. Today, Gate Town has one of the most diverse populations in Primus, second only to the cosmopolitan city of Highport.

The town council of Gate Town is led by an elected mayor, who nominates various respected representatives of city interests to serve as Counsellors of _____, for example, the Councellor of Trade. The mayor's nominations can be overthrown by popular vote. These representatives are typically elders with respectable careers in the fields they represent. People who have lived in Gate Town for less than a decade are ineligible as counsellors or mayoral candidates.

Gate Town Proper is defended by a wooden palisade made of felled evergreens, sharpened at their tops. Several newer residences press up against the outside of these old-but-effective walls. The walls have a gate on each end of the main road, which is attended by an interior gate-house after dark.

Unlike most burghs of its size, Gate Town offers nearly anything a canny Adventurer could want. Most basic exploration equipment such as pitons, rope, lanterns, and ten-foot-poles can be purchased or even constructed in the local market. Local smiths got their start in pick-heads and nails, but have quickly learned to hammer the dents of breastplates and forge battleaxe-heads as well as woodcutting axes.   However, more complex equipment usually still involves the outside world to some degree - waiting for rare materials to arrive by the carter, for instance.

A cobbled main street runs through the town from north to south, though the southern trail is significantly better-maintained, as it connects Gate Town through the Royal Road to not only the capital, but also to the nearby Kingdom of the Vale. Several smaller streets branch out from the main, connecting residences and businesses. Most of these are earthen paths worn down by foot traffic.   The town boasts no exceptional feats of engineering - the largest building in town used to be a refinery for the mine, but has long since been repurposed as a hostel. Gate Town gets its water from a central well, as well as a nearby mountain stream.

Though unofficial, Gate Town has a clear division between the older, more regularly-arranged structures of Aspen Hollow, and the newer, more crowded buildings that went up after The Dungeon became famous. The original town layout was fairly compact, with a few businesses and a town hall arranged around a market square with its central well, and residences spreading outward from there.   When The Dungeon began to draw startling numbers of not only adventurers demanding beds, swords, and bars, but also merchants and artisans to supply these things, the village becoming increasingly better-known as Gate Town suddenly faced a need to expand, without any readily-available space in which to do so, since the entire village was fairly closely ensconced by the mountain slopes, as well.   As a result, Gate Town locations tend to be adapted from what used to be personal residences, due to their proximity to city centre. The newer structures and even neighbourhoods are also more crowded,, as buildings are expanded or squeezed-in to avoid the difficulty of constructing on slopes, where both inclines and the risk of rockfalls and avalanches prevent true expansion.

Though founded to support a coal mine that has long since run dry, Gate Town's most valuable asset today is unquestionably The Dungeon, which draws countless adventurers and merchants who prefer to buy their supplies locally rather than wait weeks for carters to haul them in from the prairies.

Aspen Hollow was founded as a mining location - little more than a bunkhouse, office, and other facilities for the nearby coal mine. As the mine's success grew, more workers were hired, and carters began making the journey up the mountain to profit from the remote population's desire for the comforts of Noriand's more populous regions.   When the mine ran dry, Aspen Hollow suffered a significant population loss, as the miners went home and so did the merchants who relied on them. But for a few, the sleepy mountain ville had become home, and there they stayed, fishing the rivers, quarrying the stone, and trading by carter with other outskirt hamlets.   The discovery of The Dungeon reinvigorated the town quickly. First the local inn, initially little more than a bunkhouse where visiting merchants or travellers stopping on the way through the pass could rest overnight, found its services increasingly more in demand as Adventurers came to seek their fortunes in the ruin.   Traffic only increased since then, leading to the empty refinery being cleaned out and repurposed as a huge hostel, while the Drunken Dragon Inn expanded, building outward and upward to nearly abutt its neighbours. The Dragon is now a central fixture, its upper two storeys cramming several small but cozy rooms above the lively taproom on the ground floor. When it became apparent that the dungeon's novelty had staying power, armourers and arcanists began to set up more permanent shop, buying out residences near the town square or cramming them in wherever they would fit.   Today Gate Town is a populous town for its modest geographic size. The town square, with town hall and the Drunken Dragon remain the centre both literally and culturally. The installation of a jailhouse and rallying of a local guard force is recent, and almost certainly as much in response to the near-constant presence of adventurers as the overall population increase.

the Drunken Dragon is the largest and most popular inn in town. At only one coin per night, it is also the cheapest, making most of its income from the popular taproom which occupies the entire first floor. The Dragon offers private booths, group tables, and nightly music, but is mostly prized for its uncontested usefulness in gathering rumours, quests, and allies.   the Market Square borders on several popular services, including a general adventuring goods store and two smiths, one specializing in armour and the other in arms. Various other miscellaneous services surround the square, and on Sundays the square is packed with booths and carters buying and selling everything under the sun.

Many folk pass through Gate Town along the mountain pass rather than navigating around the west-reaching branch of the Dragonmounts, but those who come to Gate Town almost universally come to either delve the dungeon, or reap a profit from those who do.