Population: 330 (≈60% Human / 33% Dwarf / 7% Gnome)
Primary Exports: Iron, platinum, cut stone, smelted ingots, worked metal tools
Overview
Ironridge clings to the sloping foothills of the Griff Mountains where veins of iron and platinum lace the dark stone like frozen lightning. Once a modest dwarven charter known as ‘Rautauruuki’, or Ironforge, the site began as a mining claim some 120 years ago and only swelled into a full town during the last two generations as human settlers and gnome engineers arrived.
The town now straddles two distinct halves:
Old Town / Ironforge: the original dwarven quarter of low-roofed stone halls and forge-chimneys that never cool.
New Ironridge: a human-built extension of timber-fronted houses and cobbled lanes laid downslope along the stream.
A constant haze of wood-smoke and ore-dust marks the skyline, while the steady clang of hammer and pick echoes day and night. Yet beneath the grit lies a proud sense of order and honest craft—Ironridge folk believe that a day’s labor should ring true like well-tempered steel.
Industry and Trade
Mining & Quarrying: Two major shafts tap iron and platinum seams, while a nearby open quarry supplies dressed granite for roads and fortifications throughout the Grimwold Marches. Dwarves manage the deeper veins; human crews haul surface ore.
Engineering & Masonry: About twenty gnomes serve as surveyors, stone-cutters, and gearwrights, maintaining mechanical derricks that hoist massive stone slabs.
Smelting & Smithing: The Great Forge, fed by a mountain stream redirected through a wheel-driven bellows system, produces high-quality iron and occasional platinum alloy. Tools and weapons from Ironridge bear a discreet hammer-mark shaped like a mountain peak over an ingot—proof of honest work by the charter.