Sterck: City of Innovation
Although it legally refers to the entirety of the countryside surrounding it for many leagues, the name of Sterck immediately conjures a vision of the great and ancient City of Innovation, whose thick soot-choked forges ring with the rhythm of crafting hammers, while airships powered by alchemy and magic drift across a smog-streaked sky. Newly built jumpstone-powered contraptions hum with the promise of Industry. Towering spires and half-buried grottoes reveal the shifting boundaries between rugged tradition and brazen modernity. An old city, established in the time of the Dragons' Tyranny, but now made anew, fresh, gleaming, and glowing with the power of that newly discovered wonder mineral, Jumpstone.
In the bustling heart of the marketplace, where the clang of forges and hiss of alchemical devices fill the air, stands a large metal display known as the Foundry Board. Riveted brass and finely engraved dwarven script frame the board, layered with parchments pinned by ornate clockwork clamps. Notices vary in size and style—some scrawled in gnomish runes advertising technological trials for prototype gadgets, others stamped with official seals seeking bold volunteers to explore newly unearthed mining passages. A crisp sheet proclaims a call for escorts to deliver precious ore across the rugged Sterck Tors, and a weathered poster details rumors of ancient dwarven relics awaiting recovery. Whichever of these you decide to pursue, there is no doubt that opportunity abounds in the City of Innovation, the place for an ambitious adventurer to truly thrive!
