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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.  

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. 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 westernmost home on the south side of the hall belongs to Thain 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.   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.   The forge is kept burning continuously.  

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.   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.  

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. There is a rumor that a Mithral vein was found following the troubles of the zombie plague but if there was, the dwarves are keeping tight lipped about it.   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 “Thain”, 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.
Type
Valley
Location under

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