Silverstone

Silverstone.
 
It's only a name and it may mean nothing, but could it? Could it be a key to my past and origins? Could it be the beginning of my next path? If I survive the trial ahead this may be the starting point for what is next. Perhaps not everything was lost on that brutal day so long ago.
 
I'm not sure how exactly one makes peace with losing their wife and children, their whole village, and everything they know, but I seem to have done that. I've moved on. The cruelty visited upon me by the Prince of Frost could, and probably would, have broken me completely. It was designed specifically to tear asunder what I've worked so hard to rebuild.
 
But that was not my fate. Whether it is the will of the gods or just good fortune, and through the valiant acts of those who owed us nothing, I was rescued from that fate. Sort of. Demi-plane, prison, torture, it doesn't matter what it was, those years were real to me, that village, my wife, my son, all of it. This time though, I was able to say goodbye on my own terms. I made the choice, and that choice has made me stronger. Most of the time.
 
Upon returning from Avernus, I found myself with time to contemplate my situation, even if only briefly. Without a foe to face, without an evil to overcome, I was empty and alone. I knew the next fight was just around the corner, but in that brief moment of respite I realized that I hadn't really had or taken any time to process through what the Prince of Frost did to me. It's a dark hole to dwell in, and it could swallow me whole if I let it. But I will not let that be my fate.
 
My friends are the closest thing I have to family, but in the end they are just that: friends and fellows in arms. We have been through hell and back together, and I have no doubt they would be there if I called, as I would for them, but I have to recognize that they have their own paths in life that will one day take them on a different journey than my own. I cannot lean upon them for my sense of meaning and must have my own purpose, and it can't just be countering evil or I risk become that which I fight against. If that is all I seek, then I will be nothing but a shadowy reflection of the man I could have been and will remain forever at risk of a fall. How can I truly claim to stand up for and defend what is valuable and good if I don't hold it in that esteem myself? I cannot, and so I will not. I will move forward and reclaim everything I've lost and more, not because it was taken from me, but because it is what I want and value.
 
Despite his intent, the Prince did me a favor and showed me that I can live and love again. I must embrace that lesson and hold on to that growth. It is a return to the man I was so long ago, but a better version of him. One that stands up for what is right and will defend it, unlike the tribe I was born to.
 
Such a strange word: "tribe". I am a dwarf - and an honorable one I think - so it should be "clan". Clan, a thing valued above almost all else by most dwarves. But I have no clan, for they did not deserve the honor of that term, and it was rightfully taken away from them. Their dishonor is why my wife and children died. No, they didn't wield the blade, but they might as well have. It was orcs who murdered and butchered those most precious to me, but it was the pacifist ideals of the elders that opened the gates, tore down the walls, and left everyone vulnerable. It does not matter what we want it to be - this world is a hostile place that is simply incompatible with the pacifist ideals that infected these people. I have seen true and incomprehensible evil and I know it does not stop simply because you are not interested in fighting - if you believe in and value something, you must defend it to the best of your ability not cower and hide. They deserved to be cast out. Maybe that's harsh, and maybe its a bit to easy for me to say that with the power I wield with the blessings of Torm, Helm, and Silvanus, but it is what I hold to be true.
 
What if there is more though? Was it mere coincidence finding the ruins of my village? And what of Ranagrim, a sword of kings, lost and now reclaimed, and in my village no less? To learn that there was a kingdom of dwarves not so far away from my home makes me wonder about whether this is fate or merely circumstance. Ranagrim is not exactly forthcoming, but it did confirm that it was from The Sunset Mountains. Does the proximity tell me something of my line of descent? Is there something there to be found? Claimed? Recovered? Am I potentially the last dwarf standing of a once strong people? Or could there be more that yet remain? Did Ranagrim come to me by chance or is it a sign, an opportunity, a direction - restore that which was lost?
 
It was mere coincidence that the idea occurred to me to research this path while at Candlekeep, but it bore fruit. I wonder where that fruit might lead. Now may not be the time, but when my current task is done, perhaps. We shall see what the fates have in store for me. Until then, I have a lead....nay I have a name, and a name means everything to dwarf.
 
Silverstone.