The Dahlonega Gold Mines¶
The Dahlonega Gold Mines are tens of miles of interconnected gold workings and natural caves beneath Dahlonega, Georgia, where ape-men secretly dug gold for Jan's Conspiracy.
| Type | Location, mine network |
| Aliases | The mines; the tunnels; interconnected mines |
| Region | Beneath Dahlonega, Georgia |
| Operators | Jan's Conspiracy (secret workings); tourist mines such as the Consolidated Gold Mine |
| First appearance | Appalachia 03 |
Description¶
In the cold open of Appalachia 03 a tour guide explains that all of the town's mines connect to each other and to natural caves, and that sealed shafts are deadly. The sheriff later briefs the party on unreinforced tunnels, mine gas and "tens of miles" of connected workings (Appalachia 03).
Beneath the tourist routes lies a newer, electric-era network; see Hidden Modern Tunnel. By the finale the party had learned the layout of the secret workings below the Spud Hut plant: a mine elevator, a shift elevator, a gold room, a side tunnel containing a portal, narrowing winding passages, and a ladder shaft. The air smells like a zoo, strongest deeper in (Appalachia 09).
Notable places within¶
- The shift elevator and mine elevator. The elevators carry the ape-men down to work; the mine elevator was already at the bottom and empty when the party arrived.
- The gold room. A kitchen table stacked with hundreds of pounds of cast gold bars, about half already taken by Jan. See Gold Bars.
- The crack in the air. A hard-edged cut in space lit by rippling light like pool caustics, with a metal pipe passing through it and gas hissing out. See The Crack in the Air.
- The ladder shaft. An unguarded exit that comes out under a tarp in the woods outside the plant.
History of events there¶
Appalachia 03. The party searched for the missing boy Frederick and found the hidden modern tunnel, where a pale creature mauled Kurt (Appalachia 03). See Consolidated Gold Mine.
Appalachia 08. Kurt told the investigator outside Spud Hut that the dirt truck carried "not one potato" and that there had been recent activity in the tunnels; the investigator guessed gold mining (Appalachia 08). The team theorised that the ape-creatures might be mine labor.
Appalachia 09. Led by the handler Clive, the party crossed the workings. The ape-men worked as a "shift" in hi-vis vests, safety helmets and pickaxes, with blinking red tracking armbands, and were kept addicted to ketamine. The operation had run a year and a half. Kurt walked out among a group of drugged ape-men to cross, the party fled the huge ape-man Big Bob, and a ladder led out (Appalachia 09). Clive said the handlers lit only the routes they wanted, relying on the ape-men's fear of dark tunnels. Kurt feared someone would blow the mine up with hydrogen from the portal's pipe.
Unrecorded session
The finale, Appalachia 10, was never recorded. In the epilogue in Walkers 01, Kurt says the party survived the mines with ketamine and shotguns, and that the Spud Hut facility exploded shortly after Jan fled. His explanation to Jan is that an outside force filled the mines with explosive gas and ignited it.
Inhabitants¶
The ape-men and their handler Clive. About 25 ape-men worked the mines, according to Clive, plus the loose "rejects" from the break room.