Midzen Id

Midzen Id is a mining town in The Free, at the end of the Lightning Rail. The name means "the Stone Forest" in Common, which is also what the miners call the country they work. Elemental Elevation Industries runs a mine here, money and order belong to The Concorde Bancorp, and Scabard also ties the town to The Carbonhill Company. To return to Midzen Id from the Mines, knock shave-and-a-haircut between 10 and 11 in the morning on a Loredas or Tirdas. The party renamed the tunnel the Braithway.

The town

Six large sandstone mesas rise above a river that meets the sea. The town has two clear periods of building. The older, pre-Burzum work, around six hundred years old, is natural sandstone and adobe mud brick. The post-Burzum work stands out with wrought-iron additions and garish bronze domes.

• Lightning Rail station. In the train yards, staffed only by the bored orc Guthug.
• Burzum's Bridge. An 800-foot straight stone span on three pillars, newer-looking than the rest, carries traffic from the train yards over the streets to the central monolith. The only other bridge into town crosses a residential district to the north.
• The Slam Longs Arms. A two-storey pre-Burzum adobe restaurant and pub, a treat for middle-class families, with umbrella-shaded terraces facing south over the sea. A three-course set menu with wine from the central Free costs 3 gp.
• The Guard. A lax handful of town guards with a few cells for bar brawlers and market thieves, most let off with a warning. Street crime is low because white-collar crime keeps the town in fear and pays the guard. The Concorde Bancorp funds the guard through taxes and levies on businesses, and its customers get priority service.
• The Vast Arachnid. A bar set into the cliff, kept by the warforged Veraxius, with a giant "spider" leg behind the bar. Its patrons are mostly guards and House of Records staff.
• The House of Records. In effect a trading house, with a café serving a pungent coffee-like drink, where middle managers meet and local entrepreneurs gather by day: the goliath Upper Cus, the eavesdropping tiefling Blink and the orc curio buyer Glush.
• Southbound freight terminal. A dock in disrepair that would need serious investment to run again.
• EEI regional headquarters. A gaudy office building under a dome of anodised-looking purple and yellow metal. No work is done there; it is where bureaucrats are sent to stew.
• The Trog. A bustling market of food stalls and everyday goods, worked by a few urchin pickpockets.
• Concorde Bancorp offices. A few lockboxes and some coin, but mostly promissory notes for EEI wages. Only the watch is paid in gold.
• Tidemark. Residential terraces along the river, sheltered from wind and dust by the central monolith, home to most of the town's upper crust.
• The Veneration of Burzum. A small terraced pagoda in gardens screened by hedgerows, with steps from all four cardinal directions and a large statue of Burzum. It is kept by Forum staff, and the statue is a gate to The Empire of Soot.
• Rivermark Docks. A bridge across the river where the mining ships come in, mostly with ore, plus smaller vessels for gemstones and rarer metals. A cart lift and a covered bridge link it to the train yard and the central mesa.
• The Gubernatorial Manor. On the south face of the southernmost mesa, with a pool and more trees than anywhere else in town, and a private lift to the Forum Minor. The governor is the only grandee who doesn't live in Tidemark.
• The Forum Minor. The seat of town government, where once again only clerks are present.
• The Tenderloin. A slum of crowded, crumbling houses, walled off from the Forum Minor's view and reached only by a narrow path on the north side of its mesa. The market urchins live here.
• Temple of Waukeen. A well-kept temple with a columned portico, where many pay a small tithe. The inscription over the entrance praises trade as the best road to riches, and the reliquary beneath the dais holds The Golden Lion.
• The Shrine House. A cave below the cliffs, hollowed into alcoves for shrines to many gods and demigods, including, curiously, a small one to The King In Yellow (a Religion check identifies it).

In campaign 2

The party passed through Midzen Id in 1034 PC and set out from its mines on a ten-day trek through the Underdark toward The Red Wastes.