Page 66 - Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes Deluxe

CHAPTER 3:

DWARVES AND DUERGAR

0 IMPARTIAL OBSERVERS, THE TALE OF THE were filled with ore and other valuables, not digging too
ancient war between dwarves and duergar far beneath the surface. The dwarves of clan Duergar,
is at its heart a tragedy, the story of a people however, became obsessed with delving deep into the
turned against each other by bitterness and Underdark. The clan's miners continually insisted that
resentment. Once the dwarves were unified a great trove of gold and iron lay just beyond where the
in their worship of Moradin, the deity who clan had explored. The next strike of a pick, they said,
crafted the first dwarves from metal and could reveal wealth beyond imagining.
fire. Today, the race is splintered into those who still This obsession took root and spread throughout the
embrace him as their father and creator- and those who clan. Soon, all other activity in the community ceased;
have sworn to topple him from his divine throne. the forges grew cold, and the temples to Moradin stood
While the dwarves loyal to Morad in take joy in the art empty. Every dwarf old enough to hold a pick or shovel
of crafting and form strong family bonds, the duergar worked the mines.
are joyless, hateful creatures who create their works out The dwarves relentlessly dug, hacked, and tunneled.
of an urge to build and acquire. They come closest to The weakest among them fell dead from exhaustion, the
feeling true joy when they raid dwarven strongholds to rest pausing only long enough to push the corpses aside
satisfy their lust for blood and treasure. so they could continue the digging.
Only the hardiest and most iron-willed individuals
THE D EEP ROOTS OF WAR of the clan survived this brutal campaign. When their
delving finally broke through into a cavern, the dwarves
TAKE THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR DODDERING FOOL OF A found the cause of their obsession. A great elder brain
god. His tum is coming, Laduguer willing. and its mind flayers waited there, ready to take the next
step in the subjugation of clan Duergar. The monsters
-Duergar assassin Vozala Spikefist, before slaying
had sent out a psychic lure that played on the dwarves'
the dwarf king Um brag Hamrnerthorn
greed, and the never-ending work schedule that was
the product of their obsession weeded out all but the
The conflict began in ages past, when the world was best specimens for their slave pens. The illithids had no
new. Almost all the dwarves were more than content to trouble overwhelming the remaining dwarves with their
make their homes inside the mountains and hills that psionic power and soon put them to work.

CHAPTER 3 J DWARVES ANO OUF.RCAR
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