Excerpts from the Tome of the Tunnelsmasher Clan

As translated by Adarl Tunnelsmasher

Our Beginnings

The sons of Urguan and the sons of Krug will always do battle; It was our duty since the fallen servant of the Brathmordakin, the accursed flame, Iblees, uttered his final vengeance upon this world as he was smote by the Gods and their servants. And fulfill our duty we did; in the fifty-ninth season since the beginning of the recording of time by the reckoning of the elves when we did enter into war with the uruk again. Here it is where our story begins. Deep in the earth at some outpost, long forgotten by the rest of dwarfdom. Here warriors and miners worked alongside to further the goals of a kingdom which had long since forgotten them. Little did we know that the uruk had found us; The tunnels filled with a stale air and a fell mood took all of us long before the snarling and war-horns could be heard. As the horde fell upon us our brothers and sisters fought valiantly against the uruk, but valor alone does not bring victory and one by one we fell, but I would not allow defeat. With what remained of my strength after endless hours in battle, I fought my way to the highest point in the cavern and swung my axe into the thick wooden beam that held the roof in place. Our kin saw what I did and they followed, no longer caring for survival or attacking the uruk, we attacked the very beams that prevented our untimely deaths. The uruk knew this too, but by this point there was nothing they could do. The tunnels came crushing down, the dust blinding and the sound deafening.

I slipped into darkness and begged for the Gods to take me. But that was note my fate. When I awoke, in a pool of my own dried blood our home was no more, what was once a mighty cavern was now rubble, stone upon stone, mighty roads reduced to naught more then rocky crawlspaces. I searched. The groaning of the dying all around, my brothers and my foes alike, but there was nothing I could do for them and even then, the groaning ended. My task was to find my death, but the Gods would not take me. Not yet. Pulled from the rock five of my allies and the bonds caused by bloodshed are as strong as those carried in the blood and from that moment forwards, we renounced our former ties and became one clan: Tunnelsmasher. All those who died in that forsaken place remain our kin in spirit.

Our Foundations [Clan Tome]; Bryth Tunnelsmasher-Irongut [Aegis Year 416]

Reformation of the Clan

Nearly a hundred and forty seasons on the original six Tunnelsmashers lay dead, their graves forgotten in Aegis and long ago desecrated by the taint of Iblees. The sons and daughters of this clan had long since spread thin and many uninitiated with their heritage. My father, Ralor, eldest son of Bryth, was the only of the children of the six who had the ability to restore the clan, he possessed the enchant book and he had himself wed a lass who was of full Tunnelsmasher blood, however, his dream never came to fruition, as he was slain by the uruk in the Great War of 1336. The book, along with any hope of restoring the clan passed onto me but I had no interesting in such things and I spent much of my youth in the human kingdoms engaging in 'unsavory' past-times. It was only in the past season that I realized that my father had gone to his grave expecting that when the clan was to reunite that I would be there with him; I finally dusted off the old book and placed my hand on the golden rune on the cover. The runic language that had previously filled the book became as clear as day and then I sent out summons for my son and cousin, knowing that the first step in restoring the clan was with them.

Our Return [Clan Tome]; Bael Tunnelsmasher [Asulon Year 43]