Grauer Palast

The Grauer Palast is a squat keep to the north-east of Black Rock Castle. It was long used as the official residence of the Baron of Lady’s Vale, the heir to the county of Ubersreik. It contains a very large ballroom, and is where the Jungfreuds once conducted their social functions and weddings.

Brauninger House

Owned by the Brauninger merchant family, this building is modest for The Hill, it contains 16 rooms, a large servants’ quarters, and separate stables and coach house. The Brauningers built the house over two centuries ago. The merchant house has contracts with several noble families and mercenary outfits across eastern and southern Empire to supply arms: the family’s primary business. Many of the town’s forges are under the family’s control, and the Metalworking Guild is a close ally.

Ubersreik 3rd Barracks

This sizeable barracks once billeted Ubersreik 3rd Regiment of Foot, nicknamed: ‘the Fighting Stags’. The regiment retreated as the Army of Muden approached, so the building now lies empty. A large wall rings the muster ground where the soldiers once drilled. Against the wall are towers, workshops, barracks, kitchens, refectories, and chapels, most of which are locked and quiet.

Aware the barracks may become a rallying point for Jungfreud sympathies, General von Dabernick ordered the walls patrolled with Muden soldiers. At any one time, two squads of eight halberdiers, each led by a sergeant, march around the periphery, thoroughly bored, dreaming of a better detail. When off-duty or resting, the soldiers gather in the north tower to eat, drink, play cards or dice, and chew wierdroot.

Ernst Maler

Ernst Maler is the current Burgomeister of Ubersreik and leader of the Town Council. His role was, until the arrival of Muden’s troops, chiefly clerical. Given the potential for the town to become a Freiburg, things have changed — he is courted by Guildmasters, keen to exert their influence on the town’s future, and resented by the nobility and locals loyal to the Jungfreuds, who suspect skullduggery.

Town Hall

Ubersreik’s Town Hall is an imposing stone building, two storeys high with four towers, that looms over the northern side of Marktplatz. In addition to banks of offices belonging to the Burgomeister and his staff, it contains the stately Nobles’ Court, a grand hall in which the Jungfreud rulers historically made rulings that affected the whole county. 

The towers were reserved for the Jungfreuds and visiting nobles to use as a residence when attending court, but now lie unused. Since the removal of the Jungfreuds, the status and influence of the Town Council, which meets weekly in the Town Hall, has risen dramatically, although the formal bounds of its power is very much in flux.

Benedict Gurkenfeld (dead)

Cultist of Graz'zt

Benedict Gurkenfeld was an actor and playwright of some renown, once a fierce rival of the famous Detlef Sierck. He now runs the Theatre Varieté, booking performers and serving as Master of Ceremonies as required. During most days he can be found strolling around the Marktplatz observing the busking entertainers, scouting for talent. He has a number of stage-hands and ushers on staff to assist, and directs a company of local amateurs who perform on occasion.

Killed by Flynn

Theatre Varieté

Originally, this building was a merchant’s storehouse and shop, but it was converted a decade ago into a proscenium arch theatre, which plays host to actors, musicians, and entertainers of all sorts.

It is large, stone building, with an expansive, vaulted, wooden ceiling. A large chalkboard hangs beneath the painted sign, on which the owner writes the name of the next performance, as well as a number of images to keep the illiterate masses informed. Inside, there are fifty seats in the stalls, another fifty in the upper circle, and two boxes, which are reserved for the town’s nobility or its wealthiest citizens.

Frederich Gewinnguter (dead)

Cultist of Graz'zt

Frederich Gewinnguter runs Saint Bastian's Hospital. A charming middle-aged man, he lives on site, with his wife Hilde, who assists him in his duties. During the day, additional staff attend, including Wolfram Weissman and Molrella Tüsch, who teach a broad and varied curriculum to the children.

Killed by Ulrich

Saint Bastian’s Hospital

Ubersreik’s Merchants’ Guild maintain this orphanage and school as a philanthropic gesture. Initially a smaller endeavour, supporting only eight children, under Guildmaster Müller’s influence it has grown in size. The Hospital moved from the docks to a tall, narrow building in the Merchant Quarter (the better to demonstrate their generosity for all to see). The ground floor contains a reception area, office space, a refectory and kitchens. The first floor contains classrooms and bathrooms, and the top floor contains the children’s dormitory. Staff quarters are in the basement.

Martha Muller

Müller is a shrewd businesswoman with a jolly demeanour. Her family specialise in dairy products, as well as other foodstuffs. She has been the master of the guild for three years, but the position is contested annually, drawing from representatives of the town’s four main trading houses: Brauninger, Hertie, Karstadt, and Müller. Given the political upheaval, the impending election will be more fraught than usual.

Merchant's Guild

The Merchants’ Guild has become the political powerhouse of Ubersreik overnight. Following the Jungfreuds’ removal, it is now the most influential force in local politics. Guildmaster Marta Müller is keen to exploit this influential force for the benefit of the guild and the town’s merchants. She has undertaken a series of renovations, to ensure the guildhouse’s facade reflects both civic pride and opulent wealth; but, for now, it is a mass of wooden scaffolding, swarming with surly tradesmen. There’s a private club for local merchants, or visitors who are signed in by a member in the ground floor. Upstairs there is a suite of more formal meeting rooms.

Nordwander and Son’s Expeditionary Supplies

A large, low-ceilinged building, Nordwander and Son’s prides itself on selling everything its clientele will need to mount expeditions into the mountains. A one-stop-shop for mountaineering, rock-climbing, and camping outdoors, it carries pitons, ropes, mallets, crampons, picks, chisels, rations, tents, bedrolls, and anything else a party may need before venturing out into the mountainous terrain to Ubersreik’s south.

Gudrum Nordwander is good natured, for a Dwarf. He is delighted to be sharing his high-quality wares with a wider customer-base, though he is quick to identify those who do not know what they are talking about. Customers expressing ignorance on a basic aspect of mining or climbing will find themselves treated to a lecture lasting far longer than most can tolerate. Belorn, an energetic beardling and Gudrum’s son, assists in the shop.

Nargrimi the Quiet

Nargrimi the Quiet ensures Gazul’s teachings are remembered. The ancient Dwarf is Karugromthi , a living ancestor, and the Dwarfs above whisper she was alive when the funerary cavern was first excavated many centuries ago. However, this isn’t certain, for Nargrimi doesn’t speak, confirms nothing, and all of her descendants are long dead. She tends to the Dwarf dead in Ubersreik, and consoles the bereaved with her soft, leathery hands and heart-felt tears. There are none alive in Ubersreik who can remember when Nargrimi last left the cavern.

Lord Gazul’s Underearth

Deep beneath the Khazalgirt, at the end of a tunnel many hundreds of yards long, lies Lord Gazul’s Underearth. Entry is through a guarded fifty-foot high cave mouth carved with a yawning Dwarf face. Within is an enormous, earth-floored cavern with thousands of carved stone sarcophagi, each grouped by clan into octagonal patterns around the oldest graves. In the centre of the cavern stands a twenty-foot statue of Gazul, great guardian of the dead, and the Dwarf who established ancestor veneration after the loss of his mother. Gazul looks troubled, and leans heavily on a great runesword.

Khazalgirt

Beneath Dawihafen, a network of sturdy Dwarf-built tunnels forms its own subterranean street network. A large shrine to Moradin lies at the nexus of the passages — a natural meeting point for local Slayers to gather. The tunnels lead to most major Dwarf locations in Ubersreik, including The Axe and Hammer, Harataken Hold, and the houses of other prominent Dwarf families. 

The Dwarf tunnels are separate and discrete from both the Human sewers, and the Dwarfs’ own sewer system, which lies deeper underground. The tunnels are regular, well-constructed, and well-lit, not to mention well-patrolled. Should any non-Dwarfs find their way into the network, they will be politely, if forcibly, ejected. Repeat offenders will not be treated gently.

Queen Vilda Harataki (dead)

Cultist of Baphomet

Queen Vilda is the clan leader and has overseen the dwindling resources of her clan for over a century. Though her family have become increasingly desperate, and their relationship with honour more estranged, she is determined to regain both their Lost Hold, and their lost status amongst other Dwarfs. As such, she is alert to any insult or disrespect, and keeps her clan’s Book of Grudges close to hand.

Killed by Udo

Harataken Hold

This suite of rooms within a large, squat block is the home of the Harataki clan of Dwarfs. A once noble line, they lost control of Karak Branar, their ancestral Hold, almost a thousand years ago. Since then the clan have frittered their fortune away on a series of fruitless attempts to regain their land. 

Following Ubersreik’s destruction, artisans from the clan assisted in the town’s reconstruction, also building for themselves the large block they now inhabit. Over the years they have sold off rooms and sections of the building, funding ill-fated expeditions, leaving them with only a handful of rooms to their name.

Dordean Mournflair

Unknown to almost all, Dordean Mournflair is the secret behind The Worshipful Guild of Cutlers’s success. Dordean is an Elf who has called Ubersreik home for centuries. Until recently, he was grieving the passing of a lover who died over 200 years ago. As the decades of grieving passed, the Elf grew fond of the locals. Now the period of mourning at an end, it was time he returned to a previous calling: crafting metal into deadly works of art. However, Dordean was spurned by the Metalworkers’ Guild, whose Dwarf sympathies could not countenance an Elf smith. As a result, the Cutlers are benefitting from his calling.

The Worshipful Guild of Cutlers

In recent years, this guild has grown significantly in wealth and influence. In addition to forks and knives, they have begun selling weaponry. While the bylaws of Ubersreik specify that only members of the Metalworkers’ Guild may make swords, the cutlers have exploited a loophole regarding how the handle is attached to the tang, allowing them to class their blades as knives (albeit knives with blades several feet long).

The building comprises the old guildhouse, which has been expanded to include a large forge and workshop area, and a small showroom. Here shoppers can purchase blades, which are of high quality and surprisingly good value.

Borgun’s Brewery

Butted up against the Axe and Hammer lies Borgun’s Brewery, Ubersreik’s only Dwarf brewer and purveyor of strong, dark ales. The brewery consists of a number of discrete stone buildings, each housing a distinct stage of the brewing process. There is a mill, a mash-house, a boiler room, and a number of storage sheds — which Borgun calls halls — where barrels of ale are stored and matured. A covered passageway leads directly to The Axe and Hammer, Borgun’s biggest customer, while wagons containing ale for trade in other inns and taverns, or even to neighbouring Dwarf Holds, pass out regularly.