Miner's Exchange | Phandalin - Illustrated Scene (Patreon)

Illustration by Ha Art

Each month, I try and pass along the generosity you show me by employing other artists to create a variety of illustrations, portraits, magical items and other works of art that can be used in your games at home, whether they be homebrew or official modules.

This week, I wanted to highlight one of those pieces -- the Miner's Exchange from The Lost Mine of Phandelver with art by Ha Art.

The Miner's Exchange was designed to provide a bit more depth to the location and the operation, with a large business office up front and several chambers behind closed doors. The exchange contains a small guard barracks, general office, storage courtyard, store room and Halia Thornton's private office in back.

Halia Thornton is a Zhentarim agent and the guildmaster of the Miner's Exchange. Many PC's ignore her in the adventure, but she can be woven into the narrative as a major player in the town and, in some campaigns, the one REALLY pulling all of the strings.

Someone had recently posted this regarding Halia and the Miner's Exchange:

"This dusty, forgotten town did not thrive on hope, but on the cold, hard brilliance of ore transmuted into coin—a torrent that flowed exclusively through the veins of the Miner's Exchange, where Halia Thornton held the valve. That very coin, still warm from her ledgers, was the blood that paid the town officials, funded the pitiful militia, and bought the stones for every cobbled public work, making every authority figure a silent debtor to her will. The fortunes earned there fueled the entire ecosystem: it purchased every bed at the Stonehill Inn, every ration from Barthen's, every blade from the Lionshield Coster, the labor of Alger Frakk, and the desperate, brief solace found in the arms of the harlots at the Sleeping Giant. Halia was not merely a proprietor; she was the architect of Phandalin’s survival, the dark, economic sovereign who ruled its every breath, proving that true power resided not in a crown, but in the merciless clutch of a ledger book. And Sildar knows it."

The Miner's Exchange can be a great location for social encounters with Halia, potential scouting/spying location looking for evidence and/or clues to the goings-on in Phandalin, as well as combat encounters should the PC's force Halia's hand.

So, how I can use this location?

Social Scenes - the store front provides plenty of opportunity for repeat encounters, and the other chambers within the exchange provide plenty of context for storage, inventory, security and record keeping.

Spying & Burglary - sometimes the PC's don't always trust the NPC's and that means poking around their house in the dark of night hoping to find evidence of said wrong-doing. That could easily result in some combat with unexpected guards, fruitless searches or discovering just the evidence they needed to advance a plot.

Here's the original Miner's Exchange map (attachment at end of post):

In the module, this was a location where one could encounter or interface with the exchange's Guildmaster, Halia Thornton, for whom I commissioned a portrait from HIIDRA Studios:

I hope you enjoy the piece and seeing where some of your support goes!

If you're not yet a Patron, consider joining to help support other talented artists! =)

Best,

Jeff @ Morvold