Krageton

Krageton is an ancient dwarven village located high in a rugged mountain pass. It has survived four major hardships, from disease and war, to political corruption and the assassination of its leadership. The most recent, and most transformative, event was a plague that swept through and devastated the resident population nearly twenty years ago. This was the final straw for the surviving dwarves; they abandoned the village, believing it to be cursed.

Ten years later, a tribe of nomadic orcs discovered the abandoned village as while hunting in the surrounding mountains. The tribe claimed the village as its own and began restoring the buildings. Currently, only fifteen percent of the village on the southern end is occupied and maintained by the tribe.

The heart of Krageton today is the gathering hall, a large open building near the southern entrance. Twice a week, tribe members bring the products of their labors to market. A bartering system has been established and is working well; hunters and trappers can trade or sell their meat and furs while procuring grain from the mill, or general goods from their mercantile kin. These rare, commercially-minded orcs have set up a tenuous trading system with a nearby settlement, selling on their tribes goods and wares while topping up their own supplies.

The village is ruled by a council of elders, who are slowly allowing orcs from other tribes to claim a residence in the village. They are openly hostile to any non-orc attempting to relocate there, but visitors are welcome to trade and pass through, albeit with a wary eye.

North of the gathering hall is largely unexplored, for fear is rife of the strange sounds and voices coming from the seemingly�empty buildings that populate the rest of the village. To the northeast, a mountain wall rises up over a hundred feet. Great iron bolts affix three enormous wooden doors onto the mountainside, rumored to be entrances to a vast underground cavern. Whether the doors are keeping something out or something else in is a subject the council are reluctant to discuss, though the idea of hiring adventurers to explore the unoccupied portion of the village has been put on the table