Vaahl Gorriksson

The Prologue

"Whether you're in a fight, or need a light - to blow the greenskins down! It's the brew that's good for you - inside and out! THUNDERBREW! What did I say? THUNDERBREW! Order a keg today and get three more for half the price, only for the next hour!!"

Gorrik Hrolfgarsson, the semi-famed brewer and mildly famous explorer had exhausted what life had to offer by the time he left this world, gripping the plans for his expanded brewery in a clenched fist and his beard in the other as he toppled with an 'Oof' from a scaffold atop a small peak in the humid jungles of Tallimar.

His solitary son Vaahl stoically pressed on with the initial building stage for the hold, but with all his father's contacts severed abruptly, Vaahl was forced to abandon the legacy of his father. The basic structure of the Holdfast had been completed and instead of housing giant barrels, Vaahl decreed that the ititerant labourers and their families would instead have a safer home - living as Dwarves should in the tunnels of what became known as Gorrikhold.

To this day, the crowd grows as distant uncles and cousins, aunties and nephews are attracted to the prosperity on offer for those willing to spend their sweat expanding deeper into the ground away from the muggy wet air above.

Chapter 1 -

"Lord Vaahl! Lord Vaahl!" the muffled shout from beyond a stout door was ensembled with the beat of a fist on wood. Sleep had him in a vice-hold but the urgency of the speaker shook it free. "What? Come in, what is it?" and so that day he learned that the letter to the Council of the Dwarven Lords had been received and in its place an invitation. "Lord?" the word dawned on him. He had been accepted and the honorific of sovreign legitimacy put upon him.

Gorrikhold was now a holdfast of the Dwarven Lords and with it the tone of work changed. No longer did they simply build out of neccessity - now they had purpose. "BUILD IT AND THEY WILL COME" his father had said, his envisioned mega-tavern now a quarry. But the message rang true and build they did. The proud labourers were given space to settle in return for their venturing out into the jungle. Some found their calling and the guilds began to take form, filling space dedicated in Gorrik's plans to feasting halls. Scouts, caravans, and more - jobs for all!

The wagons of support from the council rolled in night and day, enabling the fast growth of Gorrikhold until its people shared in Lord Vaahl's new found self-belief in all Dwarves united under one banner. There would be new holdfasts and the patronage of High King Thaden's Council inspired these downtrodden Dwarves to dream. Lord Vaahl had taken them in as workers and given them homes, and now some of them signed charters, preparing to head off into the jungles beyond and break new ground.