Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes

(Nancy Kaufman) #1
CHAPTER
3:

DWARV ES
AND DUERGAR


0 IMPARTIAL OBSERVERS, THE TALE OF THE

ancient war between dwarves and duergar

is at its heart a tragedy, the story of a people

turned against
each other by bitterness and

resentment. Onc
e the dwarves were unified

in their worship
of Moradin, the deity who

crafted the first dwarves from metal
and

fire.
Today, the race is splintered into those
who still

embrace him as their father and creator-
and those who

have sworn to topple
him from his divine throne.

While the dwarves
loyal to Morad in take joy in the art

of crafting and form
strong family bonds, the duergar

are joyless, hateful creatures who c reate
their works out

of an urge to build and acquire. Th
ey come closest to

feeling true joy
when they raid dwarven strongholds to

satisfy their
lust for blood and treasure.

THE DEEP ROOTS
OF WAR

TAKE THIS MESSAGE T O YOUR
DODDERING FOOL OF A

god. His tum is coming, Laduguer
willing.

-Duergar assassin Vozala Spikefist,
before slaying

the
dwarf king Um brag Hamrnerthorn

The conflict began
in ages past, when the world was

new. Almost all the
dwarves were more than content to

make their hom
es inside the mountains and hills that

were filled with ore and other valuables,
not digging too

far beneath the surface. The dwarves
of clan Duergar,

however
, became obsessed with delving deep int
o the

Underdark.
The clan's miners continually insisted
that

a great trove of gold and iron
lay just beyond where the

clan had explored. The
next strike of a pick, they said,

could reveal wealth beyond
imagining.

This obsession took root and spread throughout
the

clan. Soon, all other activity in the community
ceased;

the forges grew cold, and the temples to
Moradin stood

empty. Every dwarf
old enough to hold a pick or shovel

worked the mines.

The dwarves relentlessly dug, hacked
, and tunne led.

The weakest among them fell dead
from exhaustion, the

rest pausing only long enough to
push the corpses aside

so they could continue the digging.

Only the
hardiest and most iron-willed individual
s

of the cla n s urvived
this brutal campaign. When
their

delving
finally broke through into a cavern, the
dwarves

found
the cause of their obsession. A great elder
brain

and
its mind flayers waited there, ready to take
the next

step in the subjugation
of clan Duergar. The monsters

had sent out a psychic lure that played on
the dwarves'

greed, and the never-ending
work schedule that was

the product of their
obsession weeded out all but the

best specimens for their slave pens. The
illithids had no

trouble overwhelming the remaining
dwarves with their

psionic power
and soon put them to work.

CHAPTER 3 J DWARVES
ANO OUF.RCAR

65
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