Mines
Delving in the earth for minerals and gems is a dangerous task under even the best of conditions, but it is not uncommon for events to take place to force the abandonment of a mine. Cave-ins, floods, and enemy raids, as well as simpler reasons, like mineral veins playing out, are among the most common reasons a mine might be abandoned, though there are other, darker possibilities as well. The earth serves as the resting place for a great many things, and some of those should not be awakened.
Abandoned mines tend to remain abandoned, though as with ruins there will often be times when bandits or others may claim a mine as a base of operations. Though it’s rare for a mine to hold riches of its own for long, if an abandoned mine still possesses an unspent mineral vein, the mine can be reclaimed and made active again. All hazards must first be removed from its tunnels, however, before workers will agree to descend into its depths.
BACKGROUND
Mines as adventure sites can be either working or abandoned, and either can work depending on the story you want to tell.
ABANDONED MINES are great for basic exploration, terror in the dark type stories where the fables of a lost vein or the temptation of a last shipment never delivered might serve as bait for the ever-greedy adventurer. There could even be rumors of a lost artifact (possibly resulting in an underground Blight) or a fallen hero within worth investigating.
WORKING MINES are best for stories of greed and overreach, where either they “delved too deep” and encountered a terror from the dark, or a natural disaster occurred and there’s only a limited amount of time to save the miners trapped within. They can also be excellent sites to find and free slaves, host a worker/slave uprising, or simply claim their riches by removing the existing authority.
Mines exist from the Age of Kings onward.