The Ash Line

A long, low tavern built along the main road through Cinder Vale, named for the grey line that marks the high-water point of the last major ash fall. Travelers, miners, and soldiers share tables without rank here. The house specialty is a bitter spirit distilled from volcanic mineral water. 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.