Summary
Stonefast was once a dwarven emissary stronghold. The stronghold was used as a neutral meeting place by dwarf clans, to either meet with each other or with other races. The Stonefast clan, a cadre of about a dozen dwarves, ran the diplomatic enclave. Their lineage could be traced back 7 generations , when the Goznin Mudhood killed an elder dragon. Legend says he used a catapult trap to decimate the dragon, then took his treasure, and took the name Stonefast as a reference to his great deed. Their most recent patriarch, Hemric Stonefast, cared little for politics, and enjoyed the life his family carved from the mountains. Repeated attempts to overtake the stronghold were rebuffed, but as time went on, aid was less, and in one especially brutal raid, Hemric and several of his kinsmen died. The few remaining survivors took what possessions they could carry, sealed the entrance, and left to find a new clan to join. That was 80 years ago.
The Chronicle of Stonefast
Recovered from the Journals of Clan Stonefast
Stonefast was never a great city of the dwarves, nor a hold carved to house thousands. It was something rarer.
It was a hall of judgment.
Deep within the Dragonspine Mountains stood Stonefast, an emissary stronghold where clans might meet in peace, where rival houses might settle grievances without bloodshed, and where emissaries of other races might sit across a table from dwarven lords and speak openly.
The keepers of this hall were Clan Stonefast, a modest lineage of dwarves whose strength was not measured in soldiers or mines, but in reputation. For generations their word was trusted as impartial, their halls respected as neutral ground.
When the ruins of Stonefast were rediscovered long after its fall, the adventuring company who explored its chambers recovered as many of its books and journals as they could carry. These records were taken not as spoils, but as preservationso that if any descendants yet lived, the story of their clan might be returned to them. Failing that, the volumes would be entrusted to scholars and museums, that the memory of Stonefast would not be lost.
From these texts, tapestries, and private records, the history of the hold may be reconstructed.
The Founding of Clan Stonefast
The earliest history of the clan begins with a dwarf who bore another name.
Goznin Mudhood was born into a disgraced lineage whose fortunes had long declined. Yet through cunning rather than brute strength he accomplished a deed that reshaped his lifeand the lives of many others.
A white dragon had long terrorized the region surrounding the mountains. Where armies failed, Goznin succeeded through ingenuity. One surviving tapestry depicts the moment of triumph: a dwarf loosing a stone from a great trebuchet toward the wyrm.
The tapestry bears an inscription that became the clans oath:
The Fast Stone shall be the cornerstone of the stronghold for peace.
From the dragons hoard, Goznin built a new stronghold and took a new name: Goznin Stonefast.
Rather than rule as a conqueror, he declared that his clan would serve as mediators between quarrelling houses.
Thus began Clan Stonefast.
The Age of Mediation
The halls of Stonefast were built for council rather than war.
Great conference tables could seat creatures of many sizes, and the benches were strong enough to bear even Ogres or Trolls. Booster seats lined the walls so that no envoy, however small, would be forced to stand while others sat.
The surviving tapestries of the dining halls record two of the clans most famous judgments.
The Tragedy of Bronzehammer and Nailbender
One tapestry recounts a tale often compared by later scholars to the tragedy of doomed lovers.
Two young dwarvesThondrin Bronzehammer and Bagan Nailbendermet at a Deep Ale Festival, where clans gathered to celebrate the first brewing of the summer casks.
Though their houses were rivals, the two youths fell deeply in love.
Their families forbade the union.
The lovers fled together. In pursuit came Bagans elder brother. In the confrontation that followed, Thondrin slew the mannever realizing who he had killed.
The feud between the houses erupted into open war. Both young lovers perished in the violence.
Their grieving families eventually brought the dispute before Stonefast.
There Aigror Stonefast, acting as mediator, heard both sides and guided the clans toward reconciliation. The tapestry records that the houses laid down their arms and that the feud ended there.
To this day the story is remembered as one of Stonefasts most difficult judgments.
The Judgment of the Mud Heap
Another tapestry tells a tale far stranger.
An orc tribe and a gnoll pack fought over a worthless mud heap two days west of the mountains. Unable to settle the dispute, they sought a neutral arbiter.
Both parties agreed that a dwarf would serve well.
As the story records:
Only a race that hated them both could be impartial.
Goznin Stonefast himself mediated the dispute and reached a settlement.
The Gnolls surrendered their claim to the mud heap in exchange for a grove in a nearby forest.
The tapestry ends with a grim humor common in dwarven storytelling: the grove belonged to a powerful druid, who soon afterward killed the Gnolls and Orcs for despoiling the land. Stonefast had rendered fair judgment. What followed afterward was not their responsibility.
The Final Generation of the Clan
The last household of Clan Stonefast is known in remarkable detail thanks to the clan chronicle discovered in the strongholds library.
At the time of Stonefasts fall, the patriarch was Hemric Stonefast.
His wife, Greata, had died ten years earlier.
Hemrics children were four sons:
- Baldal Stonefast, the eldest and heir to the stronghold
- Thorgrum Stonefast, a smith by trade
- Graliggs Stonefast, who worked in the kitchens and household stores
- Korrim Stonefast, a scribe who intended to leave the hold once his father passed
The family also included Greatas nephews:
- Emkom
- Horgurn
These two came to Stonefast to assist with maintaining the stronghold and remained after Greatas death, having grown close to their uncle and cousins.
The sons themselves had begun to build families of their own. - Baldal had taken Marlen as his wife.
- Thorgrum was wed to Umrik, herself a skilled smith.
The rooms of the stronghold reflect this household: modest bedrooms, shared quarters, bath chambers, kitchens, and hidden chests containing personal treasures.
Stonefast was not merely a diplomatic hall.
It was a home.
The Raid and the Fall of Stonefast
The final entry in the clan chronicle describes the event that ended Stonefast forever.
The most important lore in the ruin is not carved on a monument.
It lies open on a pedestal in the library, turned to the last entry in the clans own history.
It reads like a eulogy written with shaking hands:
A raid struck Stonefaststrong enough to kill the patriarch and break the clan outright.
- Hemric was slain.
- Baldal and Graliggs died trying to save him.
- Emkom and Horgurn died during the retreat.
- Thorgrum killed the troll that led the assault and escaped but died of his wounds after reaching home.
- Umrik mourned him.
- Only three remained alive:
- Marlen (Baldals widow)
- Umrik (Thorgrums widow)
- Karrom (last living son of Clan Stonefast)
The stronghold was declared fallen.
The survivors fled that night, sealing the doors with molten lead. With only food and water, attempting a three-week journey on foot to Korad-Tir, hoping Umriks extended clan there would shelter them.
The final lines are cut off in smeared ink, and the book ends with three signaturesthe last act of Clan Stonefast, signing their name out of history.
Stonefasts end wasnt glorious.
It was the end of a family.
Key Lineage and Relationships Summary
Goznin Mudhood ? Goznin Stonefast
Founder of Clan Stonefast after slaying a white dragon.
Aigror Stonefast
Mediator who ended the Bronzehammer / Nailbender feud after the death of Thondrin and Bagan.
Hemric Stonefast (Patriarch)
Wife: Greata (died 10 years before the fall)
Children:
- Baldal (1st son) wife Marlen
- Thorgrum (2nd son, smith) wife Umrik
- Graliggs (3rd born, kitchens)
- Korrim (4th son, scribe)
Greatas nephews (raised into the household): - Emkom
- Horgurn
Last survivors of the raid and fall: - Marlen
- Umrik
- Karrom (last living son of Clan Stonefast)