Overview
Fortune’s Grasp is the polar opposite of the Golem’s Gullet — a high-risk, high-reward frontier settlement where independent miners operate with minimal oversight and maximum ambition. Here, the promise of immense wealth draws the desperate, the daring, and the foolish.
Mining Practices
Regulation is virtually non-existent in Fortune’s Grasp. Miners use whatever methods they can to extract ore quickly, including unstable explosives and dangerously aggressive digging techniques. Cave-ins are common, and accidents are accepted as the cost of doing business.
- Unstable explosives used for rapid excavation
- Minimal safety equipment or procedures
- Claim-jumping and disputes settled with fists or blades
- Massive wealth possible from a single rich vein
The Settlement
Fortune’s Grasp is a dirty frontier colony. Buildings are cheap and shabby — thrown together from salvaged wood, scrap metal, and canvas. Nothing is built to last because nothing is expected to last.
- Ramshackle saloons, trading posts, and bunkhouses
- Fortifications against frequent monster breakouts from disturbed tunnels
- A constantly shifting population of prospectors, gamblers, and fortune-seekers
- Buildings routinely destroyed in monster waves and rebuilt the next week
Faction Presence
Several factions maintain a quiet presence in Fortune’s Grasp, buying up raw ore at cut rates and providing the weapons and supplies that keep the mining boom going.