The Glacial Forge

I had a few minutes listening to a conference call at work today, so I sketched out another quick map. It's a true 5-minute effort, so no bells and whistles. I call it the Glacial Forge.

The Glacial Forge

Drawn with a cheap "Gel Mini" pen from Staples - I picked up a box of a dozen for a buck - on the back of a meeting agenda. I scanned it in through the copy center at work and cropped it in Paint. Unlovely, but functional.

Description
The icy passage widens into a chamber with stone and wood barricades. Dwarven guards take cover behind each barricade, ready to pepper any invaders with crossbow bolts before engaging with axe, hammer, and mace. The fourth barricade blocks the entrance to the living chamber. Some tend the iron pot while others catch what sleep they can in bedrolls on the ice floor. If the outer chamber is breached, the defenders spill the contents of the pot for whatever splash damage they can and retreat to make a stand by the forge under cover of the billowing steam cloud from the sublimating floor.

Progressing further, a tall and sturdy barricade blocks the entrance to the forge chamber proper, manned at all times by a handful of dwarven guards. A stone chair has been set up facing the lava pit for the resident pyromancer to stare into the molten rock and keep tabs on the enemy. To the left a pile of ore lays haphazardly against the wall, ready for smelting and transformation.

Two smiths ply their trade here, using the lava's natural heat to soften steel for working and the natural chill of the cavern's walls for quick tempering. The smiths look overworked past the limits of their legendary dwarven constitution, as does the pyromancer who enchants what items he can when he's not magically speeding the creation of weapons and armor for the war effort. Cold forged and elemental weapons both come from rare glacial forges like this one, and both are in high demand at the front lines.

Finished armaments move into the storage room, but most are taken daily by messengers requesting more supplies in the name of their commander. If foes overrun the forge, the surviving dwarves retreat to the storage room and collapse the forge chamber on as many of the enemy as possible. An ice plug in the floor conceals an escape passage, which will let the survivors remove any completed weapons before abandoning the forge. The lava's heat will melt the ice and recreate the forge chamber in short order, so hopefully the survivors can quickly rally a detachment to retake the forge if it falls.

(Hm. The description could use some cutting and tightening, but it's a stream of consciousness thing for now.)

Thanks for reading!