Connects to: 03.04, 09.24, 16.01, 26.01, 27.04, 29.01, 29.14.01, 29.14.07, 29.14.12, 29.14.47, 29.24, 30.01, 31.27, 46.01, 49.03 and the City of Shuttered Windows.
Travelers wonder if the dwarves know how to work the metal that The Broken Spear (40.06) is composed of. The answer is no, at least in the case of the Dwarves of the Titan’s Skull. Their silver mines have made them rich and wealth has changed them, there are few now that would even be able to recognize the substance. These days, the dwarves do not swing their hammers in the mines; there are slaves, servants and prisoners enough for that and many of the dwarves have left their ancestral mines and settled in the lands of men, building great stone compounds that seems plain and blocky from the outside but are well enough adorned within to inflame the greed of any man. Within the homes of the dwarves and in their vaults, scamper tongueless goblins, that were bought in their youth by the dwarves, bound to silence and taught obedience.
Within these stone halls some dwarves grow fat enough to be unable to walk unaided, others shut themselves away to work for years on intricate objects of no certain use, while others attend to the trades that bring the dwarves wealth in these days. The gem trade is firmly in their grasp and their jewelry is exquisite, but their chief source of wealth is The Hoard. It is a network of banks that few dare to rob (rumors say that Drogo (29.01) has raided The Hoard’s Great Vault, but if that is true, then why is he still alive?), fewer dare to not repay and where a man can get his hand on ready gold with nothing but a dwarfish scrawl. The Hoard has a presence in may cities and holdings including the City of Shuttered Windows, and it is said that the dwarves beat their hammers into the rock beneath their banks’ vaults, telling tales of hidden silver and interest due that travel from vault to vault.
Few dwarves still remember much of the old ways, the Deep Dwarves who tunnel below the Titan’s Skull say that they (and they alone) still do, but they have grown lean, twisted and strange in their sunless caverns.
Although all dwarves appear much alike to outsiders, bitter conflict often break out within their halls. How could it not, with all of the silver of The Hoard at stake? These days, many young dwarves leave the halls of their parents, some to try to find some of what was lost when The Hoard was won, some to pile up silver of their own, others retreat from the world into lives of contemplation (03.04) and others to mingle with the outsiders that their parents shun.
Customs
- The beard mask is worn by these dwarves to obscure their gender.
- However decadent they may be, the dwarves of Titan’s Skull still hold these ten things true.
- To expose numinomancy, every dwarf child is required to talk to a particular coin each night.
Connections:
- A Deep Dwarf inspects the City’s walls (29.14.01) yearly.
- Some dwarves leave these halls to seek lives of contemplation at the dwarven monastery (03.04).
- A dwarven god fell nearby and his-her bones are the source of dwarven silver (33.01).
- It is rumored that the dwarves have an arrangements with the Whispering Sisters (29.14.07).
- The Order of the Broken Chain (27.04) seeks to free the slaves that work in the dwarven mines.
- Hoth Achaar (26.01) was once a dwarven stronghold, but it is now ruled by orcs.
- In the Burning Lands live the descendants of dwarves who were cut off from their northern homeland during the Gnawbone Wars and who are now quite culturally distinct (31.27). A small band of Deep Dwarves (29.24) can also be found in those lands.
- Before the end of the Goblin Wars, the dwarves were lead by dwarf lords. Many of the ancestors of deep dwarves were loyal servants of these lords who were driven into the deeps during the burghers’ rebellion (34.00).
- The Haunting Dark (16.01) has been threatening miners along the western edges of dwarven territory.
- Elharen the Silent (29.14.47) has come here to seek aid in her personal war against the gnolls of the Burning Lands.
Hooks:
- Who is especially deep in debt to the Hoard?
- Are the minds of the Deep Dwarves as twisted as their bones?
