Little Lockford was a fortified Gnome settlement carved into a vast cavern in Upperways, lit by rivers of flowing magma. The town sprawled across a series of rocky plateaus and islands linked by bridges that could raise or lower on command. Mechanical devices were common sights in daily life, from automated machinery in its foundry to the sophisticated Clockwork Constructs designed by the town's artificers.
At its center stood the "Overlook", a hollowed stalactite crowned with enormous illuminated clock faces that could be seen from every district. Even the bridges and streetlamps were tied into centralized control systems maintained through the power station and the security center within the Overlook. Fungi gardens surrounding the Overlook provided both food and a place of quiet recreation, with residents often wandering the terraces to enjoy the rare open vistas of the cavern. Scores of tamed Giant Lizards rested all around this isle, and were sometimes employed as mounts to navigate the Upperways.
Despite its industrious character, Little Lockford remained deeply communal. Families gathered in the Motherlode over fermented mushroom ales and Oofenklanger's Finest whiskey, miners cajoled in the guildhall before long shifts underground, and worshipers met at "Halfway Isle" to pray at the Deep Luhtari Abbey. The town prospered because of its proximity to rich mineral deposits deep beneath the Undermire. Ore and gemstones arrived constantly from the mines outside the "Cavemouth" district, filled with warehouses of machines and automatons defending against creatures coming from the Deepways.
These stones carried overhead in steel slagline buckets, called the "Slagline", to the foundries and workshops of "Smoldertown". There, Wizards, Artificers, gemcutters, smiths, and tinkers refined raw materials into tools, machines, jewelry, and trade goods that were sold throughout the Undermire. The "Turbine Heights" district housed many militia families and civic workers, as well as the town's jail and infirmary. Though the cavern glowed with volcanic heat, Turbine Heights thrummed with artificial light and mechanical industry powered by an ingenious arcane electrical station that distributed power to the other districts.
The town hall was located in the upper-class "Old Lockford", a district which preserved the settlement's oldest stone roads and traditional architecture. Streets of fitted gray stone wound between sturdy homes, workshops, taverns, shrines, and guild halls, all built with the practical precision for which the gnomes were known. Because the settlement occupied a strategic crossroads in the Upperways, however, its defenses were extensive. Reinforced gates sealed Old Lockford's main entrance, bridges could be raised to isolate entire districts, and Clockwork Defenders patrolled the streets alongside watchful Clockwork Observers.
Much of this security network was designed and maintained by the brilliant artificer Tixie Taffebeser Tockworth, whose workshop in Smoldertown became famous for producing increasingly advanced automatons. Combined with the town's militia and carefully controlled infrastructure, these defenses allowed Little Lockford to endure in an otherwise hostile and dangerous realm beneath the world above.
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