Low, scrubby hills in western Kerwin, rich with copper ore. The hills provide Kerwin's modest mining industry and contain mysteries older than the halflings who work them.
Geography
The Copper Hills rise gently from the farmland surrounding Tarkha, their ruddy soil giving them their name. They're not dramatic—more rumpled than mountainous—but they extend for miles, dotted with mine shafts, quarries, and the occasional hardy farm.
The hills mark the transition between Kerwin's agricultural heartland and the wilder territories to the west. Beyond the Copper Hills, the land grows rougher and less settled.
Mining
The town of Chykum serves as the center of Kerwin's mining industry. Halflings and a smattering of dwarven advisors extract copper from the earth, producing enough to meet Kerwin's needs and trade surplus to Tarkhon merchants.
The mining is modest by Tarkhon standards—no great industrial operations, no slave labor, no environmental devastation. The halflings dig what they need, trade what they don't, and leave the rest in the ground for future generations.
The Old Workings
The Copper Hills are older than the halflings—older than Tarkhon, older than recorded history. Ancient mine shafts riddle the deeper hills, their origins unknown. These workings were here when the halflings arrived. Whoever dug them is long gone.
Halfling miners occasionally break through into these old tunnels. They find:
- Strange tools made of materials that resist identification
- Carvings in languages no one recognizes
- Chambers that should have collapsed centuries ago but haven't
- Sometimes, things that move in the darkness
A sensible miner seals such discoveries and moves on. The old workings are bad luck. Everyone knows this. No one asks why.
Chykum
The largest settlement in the Copper Hills, serving as both mining center and market town for the surrounding area. Chykum has a population of perhaps two thousand—large by Kerwin standards—and maintains the only real metalworking facilities in the kingdom.
Dwarven advisors from the First Brotherhood maintain a small presence here, ostensibly to help with technical mining questions. Whether they're also keeping an eye on Kerwin for the Brotherhood is a matter of speculation.