High Ash Station

An elevated garrison on the northern approach to the Ashen Spine, where the air thickens with particulate from the active vents. High Ash Station inspects all incoming caravans and levies a volcanic hazard tax that funds the Spine's road maintenance crews. Within the Ashen Spine, this site is part of the long chain of forge-towns, quarries, and iron-vein settlements that work the world's oldest forges from Ironmark down to Old Varr. The smoke is the climate. The Fray here is physical — cracks open in the rock, tunnels appear that were not there the day before — and the Cleaved is the regional consequence. Forge guilds keep their own records, and they keep them close.