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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