City Image - Norhold

A Dwarven Holding contains a single clan lodge, holding 50 to 300 people of the same clan. Norhold qualifies as a Dwarven city, as it contains five clan lodges, and clan holdings (smaller places to stay) for the the nine other clans in the region.

Norhold is of a moderate altitude in the second mountain of the GreyStone Range.

There is an actual road that leads to the OutDoors of Norhold. It is packed earth with inlaid flag stones. It is frequently traveled by traders who truck in Dwarven Goods.

The Doors to the AboveLands are of moderate size as these things go, twice a dwarf height (two Imperial Strides/ 8 feet). Each door opens to the side and out from the smoothed stone rock face. The doors are Bronze (thick coating) over Dwarven Iron. The Doors have a gargoyle motif. The Doors have centered 'growling grotesque' faces and the hinges are protected by coverings shaped like gargoyles laying over them.

The main corridor is small and narrow, barely a dwarf height and a half wide. The stone is smooth and polished. There is no light to allow non-Dwarves to see. It opens into a much larger corridor (which you must pass down a set of stairs to reach... a defensive hold over). After ninety paces or so, one reaches the Main Hall.

The Central Hall is the hub of the city. Dwarven Glowlights suspended from the ceiling bath it in a dull red glow. The walls and ceiling are decorated in the gargoyle motif carried overfrom the doors. The floor is etched andinlaidd, having a massive N (for Norhold) encircled by gargoyles in deep relief.

The rest of the Halls, Lodges, and WorkHalls are under the Central Hall level. All the hallways off the Central Hall are either downward slanted or stairwells.

Dwarven home life centers around main halls. Meals and social times are taken here. As things calm down, people sleep near the central fires. The very old, the newly wed, or very young (and those who have them) haveaccommodationss off the main hall. The rest of the rooms off the hall are used for storage of goods and food.

Most of the living areas are face side (the side towards the mountain side). While the floor is even and smooth, the walls are rough - in the old style. The hallways leading to the Lodges and the Holdings have gargoyle styled archways every twenty pace or so. They are of a darker harder stone than the native grey granite. There are always two gargoyles near the top, holdingDwarvenn glowballs in their mouths. These places can be used to bracket a barrier, should fighting occur.

There are five forge areas in NorHold. They are heart side (towards the center of the mountain). One of the forges is more of a workshop, taking softer metals for intricate work (since their own supply of soft metals has dried up, the metals are imported.) The rest are good sized, supplied by the mines below them. There is a butchering area near the forges. As creatures are brought up from the mines, they are processed there. In addition farms are in the off tunnels of played out mine spurs.

There are two waterflows through Norhold. One is used for drinking water, the other is for air. (Dwarven technology moves all the air from a forge or Lodge through a stream of lighted water to remove impurities and oxygenate it).

This is one of the few Dwarven Holdings in these mountains not protected by a flock of Gargoyles. Their gargoyles died protecting the city door from invaders. The Gargoyle motif was installed after that night in their honor.