Torch

Torch is an unusual town in central Numeria that sits in a crescent around a bizarre, black hillock of shiny black stone known as Torch Hill. Atop the hill is the town's namesake, a brilliant purple bonfire that occasionally explodes into a devastating miles-high pillar of flame.

Economy
Torch is a center of smithing and metalworking thanks to the Torch Hill fire's unique properties. Anything that disrupts the flame also disrupts the town's economy.

Government
Torch pays a monthly tribute of gold to the Technic League in exchange for autonomy. The League's ever-changing demands have limited the town's growth and fomented increasing resentment, but the tribute remains low enough to avoid an uprising.

The town's leadership includes Khonnir Baine, a wizard who owns The Foundry tavern and has explored the caves beneath Torch Hill's central hillock.

Torch Hill
A massive mound of black scorched stone, Torch Hill takes up about a third of the town's area, and its edges are lined with buildings blackened by the Torch's intermittent surges.

The Torch
As the town's namesake, this permanent violet flame has continuously burned on top of Torch Hill since it spontaneously ignited in 4602 AR and blazed as a massive column of purple fire for nearly two years, scorching the top of the hill black before subsiding.

While it requires no fuel to maintain, the Torch&mdash;usually the size of an adult human&mdash;is hot enough to melt difficult metals like adamantine and other skymetals. The flame's properties are inconsistent, however, with some points hot enough to instantly incinerate what it touches and others unable to ignite a piece of paper.

A pillar of flame reaching several miles into the sky erupts from the Torch several times a year and melts anything on the hillock into steaming glass. These explosions are always preceded by flashes in the Torch that townsfolk learned to decipher as a warning, and its smiths and metalworkers have adapted by using mobile workshops instead of permanent structures.