The Dwarven Valley
The cleft of earth that stretches south from the foot of Kelvin’s Cairn is known to the people of Icewind Dale as the dwarven valley. For almost as long as people have been fishing the lakes, the dwarves of Clan Battlehammer have been living in the valley and mining its depths. Visitors who stand at the valley’s edge can see the dwarven tunnels running in rows along the walls, connected by narrow walkways, and hear the faint ringing of hammer strikes carried on the wind. Those who pick their way down the dizzying switchback at Daledrop are transported to a different realm entirely.
Gone is the howling glacial wind, replaced by the clangorous echoes of axes striking on steel, hammers pounding out iron, and picks chipping away at the mountain’s stone. The wide-open expanses of the lakes and tundra are replaced by the towering walls of the valley, blocking out any sight of the surrounding lands. Even the craggy profile of Kelvin’s Cairn is transformed by the view from the valley floor. What others think of as the mountain is, to the dwarves, simply its peak. The heart of Kelvin’s Cairn is what lies beneath, deep in its tunnels and mines.
Life in the Echoing Halls
Mining and smithing are the main work of the Kelvin’s Cairn dwarves. In contrast to the rich mithral veins of Mithral Hall, Icewind Dale offers only iron ore and the occasional find of gold, and many of those veins are already played out. But the artistry of the dwarf smiths has not diminished, and the mines produce enough iron to keep them in business for years to come.
The dwarves of Kelvin’s Cairn are part of Clan Battlehammer, but only a small part, distant from Bruenor’s line. Stokely isn’t a king—he uses the title “Dain,” appropriate to the head of a small clan, and that only rarely. The warriors who fight alongside him are “Stokely’s boys,” with no pretense of military organization or rank. The dwarves give respect to their elders and honor to the smiths and warriors who distinguish themselves in their fields but otherwise live as equal members of the clan.
The dwarves revere Dumathoin, the Keeper of Secrets under the Mountain, at makeshift shrines scattered among the mines. Dumathoin is the patron deity of miners and shield dwarves, and he is said to guide the dwarves in their search for new veins of ore. A large temple cut into the western side of the valley honors Dumathoin alongside other dwarven gods.
Dwarven crafts are stamped with a smith’s mark—in this case, the foaming mug that represents Clan Battlehammer. This sign stands for high quality in towns and cities across the North, which prompts some unscrupulous human smiths to imitate it on their own inferior work.
The dwarves have no formal representation on the council of speakers that governs Ten-Towns, but they have been known to send representatives to the council when situations arise that concern all the inhabitants of Icewind Dale.
History
Heirs of the once-mighty kingdom of Delzoun, the dwarves of the North are a scattered remnant of a great people. Delzoun, the Northkingdom, arose when the dwarves were a flourishing race and expanded outward from greater kingdoms in the southern lands. It was the most grand and glorious of several kingdoms founded across the North, and it thrived for almost four thousand years before its fall fifteen hundred years ago. At its height, Delzoun stretched four hundred miles from east to west, with great citadels aboveground (of which Adbar and Felbarr still survive) and vast tracts of Underdark caves, mines, and tunnels.
Delzoun slid into decline as the dwarves’ numbers were whittled away in endless wars against goblins, orcs, and other monsters. One by one, their holdings—including the fortresses of Ascore and Gauntlgrym, and the subterranean network of the Fardrimm—fell to invaders that came out of the mountains and threats that rose up from the Underdark. Though surface outposts such as Citadel Adbar and Citadel Felbarr remained in dwarven hands long after Delzoun’s fall, they were cut off from each other and continued to diminish slowly over the centuries.
Before the fall of Delzoun, a large clan of dwarves led by Gandalug Battlehammer established a mithral mine just west of the kingdom and named it Mithral Hall. The Battlehammer dwarves and their allies mined beneath the hall for centuries, growing wealthy as they traded with merchants from across the North. But they delved too deeply, inadvertently opening a portal to a shadowy plane and allowing the shadow dragon Shimmergloom to enter their halls.
Shimmergloom scattered the dwarves of Mithral Hall and made its lair among the deepest mines. The fleeing dwarves spread throughout the North, some taking refuge with their kin in Citadel Adbar. Most of Clan Battlehammer, though—including the prince of Mithral Hall, young Bruenor—fled the region entirely and came to Icewind Dale.
Thus, the dwarves of the dale are a remnant of a remnant. These members of Clan Battlehammer established their mines in the valley alongside Kelvin’s Cairn and lived in the dale for two centuries. When Bruenor Battlehammer found lost Mithral Hall, his clan joined him in reclaiming it and abandoned Icewind Dale entirely.
Over the next decades, perhaps two hundred dwarves returned to Icewind Dale, having grown accustomed to life in the wintry region (though they remained loyal to the kings of Mithral Hall). Now ruled by a cousin of the Battlehammer line, Stokely Silverstream, the dwarves of Kelvin’s Cairn continue their old ways, mining the scant veins of iron that run beneath the tundra and crafting the finest weapons, armor, and tools available in Icewind Dale.
The dwarves of the dale are in a situation less bleak than a century ago, not so obviously doomed to eventual oblivion. Young dwarves are more commonly seen in the mines and tunnels of the valley, and laughter more often echoes in the halls. Not that the dwarves are any less gruff, stern, or taciturn; they weather the hardships of life in Icewind Dale with their characteristic stoic silence. But now, visitors from Mithral Hall arrive with nearly every caravan, come to visit kin. And rather than lament lost Mithral Hall, they toast its kings in their feasts—King Connerad, who sits on the throne now, and King Bruenor, who liberated it a century ago.
The dwarves of Kelvin’s Cairn live in their mines, but some parts of the mines are more hospitable than others. As iron veins ran out, the dwarves converted the underground caverns into living spaces—homes, forges, shops, and the like. Roughhewn walls scarred by miners’ picks were smoothed and squared or carved into perfect circles. Hearths were lit in alcoves where iron had been dug out from the stone. Doors were fitted into stone archways and floors were leveled, creating all the comforts of dwarven homes.
The Dwarven Halls
At first glance, the valley at the foot of the mountain often seems desolate. No buildings or other signs of habitation are evident except for the stone stairs and walkways carved into the cliff side. It is behind those walls of stone, hidden from view, that the dwarves of Kelvin’s Cairn go about their daily lives. In these troubled times, sentries wander the valley and stand guard at various points in the tunnels.
Lining the tunnels that bore into the valley’s sides are the dwarven halls—winding rows of living quarters, meeting halls, dining halls, storerooms, forges, temples, kitchens, and armories. The map enlarges these halls and flattens them vertically. The complex is made of a large number of small chambers opening onto the main tunnels, stacked two or sometimes three high, with carved staircases leading to the higher doors.
Most of the living quarters are modest, consisting of a single room with a table, bed, and trunk, or occasionally a suite of rooms for a large family. The meeting and dining halls are much larger, since these are the areas where the dwarves most frequently congregate. They are set with great tables and benches and decorated with intricate stone carvings and metalwork.
The forge is the heart of any dwarven hall, and every time the dwarves dig a new tunnel, the first space they carve out is a new forge room. Dwarven forges are much more spacious than those found in human cities—the latter typically are the provenance of a single specialist with perhaps a few assistants, but the forge in a dwarven community is used by nearly everyone.
The dwarves who are loyal to Stokely Silverstream have gathered within this mile-long hall and named it Battlehammer Hold, after their clan. About eighty dwarves live in this part of the valley, and at any given time about twenty-five of them are on guard duty or patrolling the road. These dwarves live in twelve family homes cut into the walls; in most cases, two families live in each home so that the whole population can fit within this single, easily patrolled area.
The westernmost home on the south side of the hall belongs to Dain Stokely Silverstream, the leader of these dwarves and, before Baerick’s rise, of the whole valley.
The large hexagonal chamber on the north side of the hall is the community forge, where the dwarves continue to smelt what little iron they’re able to bring up from the mines and work it into the items that they trade with Ten-Towns. The forge chamber has become a sort of town hall, where the remaining loyal dwarves discuss the pressing issues that face the community.
Baerick Hammerstone now leads the dwarves of Kelvin’s Cairn from his seat in the Halls of Black Ice, on the eastern side of the dwarven valley. Like Stokely’s dwarves on the west side, Baerick’s followers have consolidated their homes into a single mile-long stretch of tunnel that is easily defensible—though the enemies that Baerick imagines are not the same ones that Stokely fears.
About sixty dwarves live in the Halls of Black Ice, sharing space in a dozen large family homes. The easternmost home on the south side of the hall belongs to Baerick, and on the other side of the hall is his forge, where he crafts black ice weapons and armor to outfit his comrades. At the moment, the forge room holds about five hundred pounds of unworked black ice.
An enormous round chamber in the eastern mines is the dwarves’ temple, honoring their four most important deities: Moradin, the head of the dwarf pantheon, called the Dwarffather and Soul Forger; Berronar Truesilver, the Revered Mother; Clanggedin Silverbeard, the Father of Battle; and Dumathoin, the Keeper of Secrets under the Mountain. Each deity has an altar on a dais against the circular wall, and a great forge stands in the center of the temple, used by dwarf smiths to create their finest works in honor of the deities. Before the recent troubles began, the forge was kept burning continuously, but its flames have gone out since it has been left untended.
The Mines
The first tunnels dug by the Battlehammer clan after its arrival in Icewind Dale traced the veins of iron ore the dwarves found riddling the valley walls. Over the ensuing decades, the most accessible veins were dug out, so the dwarves were forced to delve deeper to find more ore. The original mining tunnels were expanded and turned into living quarters as the miners pushed farther into the mountain’s roots. Now, after three centuries of activity, the mines extend into the bowels of Kelvin’s Cairn. Just reaching the active loads requires nearly half an hour’s walk from the valley floor, and anyone who wasn’t raised to navigate below ground will likely become lost in the twisting and looping tunnels.
As with the living quarters, the map simplifies the layout of the mines, showing only the largest tunnels. The mines are cramped and dark, and the air is stale. Anyone taller than a dwarf is forced to stoop when traveling through the passages. Even at their widest, the tunnels don’t have enough room for two people to move freely. Torches and lamps burn dimly in the poor air, and casting any kind of fire spell consumes so much of the available oxygen that creatures in the area are left laboring to breathe.
A junction in the western mines that served as a staging area for expeditions into the newer tunnels, the nexus is more than two miles from the shaft entrance in the valley. It is a large chamber that incorporates both a forge and a small shrine to Dumathoin, which is typical for new mines in the valley.
The Abandoned Tunnels
Over the years, many dwarven tunnels fell out of use. A tunnel might be abandoned because of exhaustion of a nearby mineral lode, the movement of clans out of the valley (or into other parts of it) to be near their kin, infestations of monsters or vermin, or cave-ins. Sometimes a tunnel is reclaimed years later when new ore veins are discovered, clan members return home, and vermin are driven out. Often, though, the dwarves excavate new passages better suited to their needs, resulting in an expanding network of tunnels that extend ever farther beyond the valley walls.
The greatest concentration of abandoned passages is at the southern end of the valley, where a hundred years ago the dwarves lured the army of Akar Kessell into the area before they collapsed many of the tunnels, burying the wizard’s forces beneath the fallen rock. Although many orcs and goblins died that day and the strategy saved the valley from further incursion by the wizard’s army, the dwarves lost much of their home in the bargain.
Following the war, the dwarves planned to excavate and reclaim the southern tunnels but were distracted by the reclamation of Mithral Hall. After many members of Clan Battlehammer left the valley to return to their ancestral hall, the remaining dwarves were too few to manage the task, and the existing tunnels were spacious enough to accommodate their reduced numbers.
Although the population of the dwarves in the valley has swelled since that time, they have cut new homes from the stone, so the southern tunnels remain abandoned. Many of them are still choked with debris or rigged to collapse at a moment’s notice.
Akar Kessell lurks in the deep mines, from where he sends plagues of zombies to harass the dwarves who are loyal to Stokely while encouraging Baerick Hammerstone in his depravity. The most significant zombie attack to date, which left no survivors, involved a mining party that had established a camp in the nexus.
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