The Barrows

The Barrows is the working district of Odrun Fell. It holds most laborers, many retired delvers, and families who support tunnel work and trade. The air smells like broth, sweat, and crushed beetle shell. Homes use repurposed chitin and scavenged wood. Streets are narrow and uneven. Many people carry old injuries from hard work or delving. Despite this, the district shows strong mutual support. Neighbors share food and supplies, and people keep each other safe when they can.

The Barrows sits on the lower runs of the city where the Veinspring river passes into shadowed channels. Docks, rope ladders, and small skiffs serve local movement of goods. Giant crawdads and other river threats make work risky. Children learn basic water safety early, and adults travel in pairs at night. The river is useful and dangerous at once.

Guild influence is visible but uneven here. The Barleys supply feed, brood goods, and basic materials. The Ashcoats buy raw chitin and send repair crews for metalwork. The Promissory handles contracts and payments when a formal record is needed, but many trades happen without a clerk. The Cudgel recruits here and posts help notices after tunnel accidents. People in the Barrows judge the guilds by what they do, not what they say.

Chitin bells mark shift changes. Morning bells send crews to haul routes, processing yards, and repair lines. Midday bells mark food breaks at stew stalls or at home. Evening bells bring people to plazas or taverns. On rest days, the bells still ring, but people move slower and gather for repairs, healers, and community work.

The Reach

The Reach is the main plaza of the district. It is wide, crooked, and paved with scavenged stone and chitin plates. Stalls ring the edges. People trade boots, oil, rope, fungus brick, and simple tools. Prices are low and change based on supply. Cudgel recruiters stand beneath faded banners and tell clear facts about pay, risk, and gear. Many first contracts begin here with a handshake. The plaza is loud, but conflicts resolve quickly because everyone must return tomorrow.

The Slough

The Slough is the open-air cut floor where raw insect parts and tunnel salvage are bought and sold. Tables are wet from rain and ichor. Delvers carry sacks of legs, mandibles, glands, and husks to the butchers and traders. There are no inspectors here. People learn fast or they get cheated. A good day means clean cuts, fair weights, and no fights. A bad day draws blades. Most keep a knife within reach and eyes on their stock. The Slough moves product that will later feed the forges, apothecaries, and tailors.

The Dome

The Dome is the district’s free hospice. Its walls show patched stone and shell. A central hearth burns at all hours. Retired delvers and volunteers treat cuts, infections, broken bones, and exhaustion. Beds line the room in simple rows. People donate coin, broth, or materials when they can. No one is turned away. The Dome reduces deaths from slow injuries and lets injured workers return to lighter duty instead of losing all income. Names of major donors appear on a small plaque near the door, but the staff treats everyone the same.

Gnarlgut Hall

Gnarlgut Hall is the main butchery and processing hall. It smells of blood and steam. Floors are slick. Hooks, blocks, and drains cover the work area. Teams break down giant beetles, spiders, and wasps. They sort meat, shell, legs, and glands. Quality parts move to guild buyers. Common cuts feed street stalls and family tables. Workers wear cut sleeves and thick aprons. They check each other’s footing and watch the lifts. Accidents happen when lines jam or a thorax shifts. The Promissory often places agents nearby to purchase rare parts for private clients.

Skelk’s Hollow

Skelk’s Hollow is a small tavern with a back room for basic healing. Light is low. Drinks are strong. The owner sells stew, cheap spirits, and space to talk. On story nights, workers and delvers share reports from the tunnels. The talk is clear and direct: where walls collapsed, where swarms gathered, which routes stayed open. A shelf in the back holds bandages, ointments, and simple tools for sprains and cuts. People leave a few coins if they can. The room helps with stress as much as wounds.

Cradle of Hooks

The Cradle of Hooks is an orphan hall and training floor. It runs on stable routines. Children rise, drill, eat, study, and train with rope, pitons, and blunted blades. They learn city laws, river rules, and tunnel safety. A wall lists every child who enters and leaves. Names crossed in red mark those lost to the depths. Graduates often join the Cudgel, a delver crew, or a craft line. The hall builds practical skills and a clear path to work. It also gives the district a steady pool of trained hands for rescue calls.

Work and Daily Life

Most households mix incomes. One adult may haul at the Slough, another may stitch gear, and a third may take odd shifts at docks or forges. Teenagers often run deliveries or spot for carts on steep lanes. Children help wash chitin sheets at shallow steps on the Veinspring. People cook stews that stretch meat with roots and fungus. Soap and clean water are valued because infections spread fast in tight streets. Many homes keep a small tool rack by the door with rope, hook, knife, and lamp. Blackout shutters are common because swarms sometimes follow light.

District safety depends on habits. People mark weak steps with chalk. They hang rope guides on bad slopes. They nail extra boards over gaps. At night, they share watch on trouble corners. When a collapse or flare swarm hits, the word moves fast through runners and bell patterns. After a tunnel event, the first groups to move are Cudgel patrols, off-duty delvers, and Cradle graduates. They carry stretchers and pry bars. The Dome’s hearth crew readies cots and water.

Law and Order

The Cudgel patrols in small squads. They do not carry heavy arms here unless there is a known threat. They answer calls about theft, assault, and market disputes. They also handle tunnel alarms and river incidents. The Span prison stands outside the district but draws guards from the Barrows. Some patrol duty there is seen as promotion. Some is punishment. People in the Barrows understand this and judge guards by conduct, not assignment.

Trade Links

The Barrows ties directly into the Hilt’s outbound flow. Crews gather gear in the Hilt, descend, and return with stock that enters the Slough and Gnarlgut Hall. The Hookline Gantry in the Hilt moves raw chitin to Ashcoats shaping floors. Some of that material comes back to the Barrows as plates for home repair and simple armor. The Spindle draws food stalls and small traders from the Barrows every day. Many families split time between the Bentroot Exchange and Barrows corners. Those who develop reliable sources sometimes move their main stall to the Spindle, but most keep a foot in both places.

The Promissory runs formal contracts for large loads of high-value stock. For normal street trade, people rely on word and witnesses. Repeat cheating leads to loss of buyers fast, so reputation management is constant. Skelk’s Hollow and The Reach act as informal arbitration points. Two respected workers hear both sides, set a fair price or penalty, and the matter ends. This avoids wasted time and keeps tempers down.

Health and Risk

Common injuries include cuts, crushed fingers, burns from alchemical oils, and infections from river work. The Dome handles the worst cases. Everyday care happens at home with boiled water, clean cloth, and salves bought from Spindle apothecaries. The district teaches clear rules: tie hair, cover cuts, seal boots, keep lamps steady, and call for help early. People track swarm behavior and tunnel news. The Hall of Names in the Hilt lists the dead. Many in the Barrows check it after each major incident.

Culture and Memory

Public murals show the fall of the titan and key district scenes: first shelters, first delves, first bridge over the Veinspring. None of it is painted with fancy style. Each piece is clear and strong so children can learn from it. On return nights after a hard delve, families set small lamps on windowsills for those still below. If a name is carved in the Hilt, homes set lamps again the next night and then put tools in order for the ones left behind. This is not a formal rite. It is habit.

Music in the Barrows favors simple instruments that carry in tight streets. Drums, pipes, and low strings are common. Songs record routes, hazards, and rescue plans. Street cooks serve thorax meat, broth with roots, and candied legs when they can get sugar. Prices stay low enough that most can afford a hot bowl after shift. On rest days, kids race rope-knotted beetle shells down gutters. Adults fix gear, mend shoes, and patch walls with chitin plates.

Education and Skill

The Cradle of Hooks is the district’s formal training site, but most skills pass through families and crews. A child may learn knots from an aunt, cutting angles from a parent, and cart spotting from a neighbor. Simple ledgers teach counting and weights for market work. Some teenagers apprentice in the Hilt for mapping or forge support. The Threadspire Archive sometimes invites capable Barrows youths to watch the Living Loom and copy updated route notes. This builds trust and improves survival for new crews.

Outlook

The Barrows is not rich, but it is stable. It holds the city’s backbone labor and much of its experience with real risk. It keeps Odrun Fell supplied with food, raw stock, and trained hands. It raises children who can climb, tie, cut, haul, and think under pressure. It shelters retirees who know the old routes and remember the bad seasons. When the city faces a major threat, the Barrows acts first and asks for help only when needed. This is not pride. It is habit formed by daily contact with danger and need.