Hold of Hul-az-Krakazol

**Hul-az-Krakazol** was a dwarf hold in the Tree of Stone known as the *Hall of the Brewmasters*, the home of master brewers, joyous carousers and furious berserkers. The Amethyst Dwarves were known for their cultivation of Serpentbloom and other plants to brew alcohol with, exporting much far and wide in Aul-Dwarov. Their brews served many other purposes too, from supplying front-line soldiers to raise morale to inducing a berserker rage from a special brew. Although their hold had fallen in year 88, most of the Amethyst Dwarves had escaped to the surface, making lives for themselves in Rahen and preserving their craft and culture.

## Culture and Customs

The Amethyst Dwarves were famous for their brewing. It is said that they were the people who originally discovered the fermenting process, and created the first beers. Backed by hundreds of years of improvements, Amethyst brews are renowned for their unique flavours, quality, and potency. The quality and quantity of ale produced in the hold was of such a high standard, that the Amethyst Gem was placed in the Dwarovkron of Aul-Dwarov to honour Hul-az-Krakazol’s craft, expanding their influence all across the Empire.

The Valkumol, or 'Welcome Ale', is an Amethyst tradition of swapping an ale or beer when having a friendly meeting, helping everyone keep a calm demeanour during negotiations. The finer the spirit, the greater the respect shown to the recipient, it being common to give the finest in all of Aul-Dwarov to the High King and many other influential visitors when visiting Hul-az-Krakazol. Failing to bring spirits to swap can be perceived as a slight, and ignoring such a tradition would often be used to begin a duel between the two parties - even if the one who forgot happened to be the High King himself.

Ostensibly founded after a boisterous party got out of hand, Hul-az-Krakazol was one of the first holds to set up a permanent hospital. Called the Heilzahul, the hospital became a place for many dwarves to learn how to heal. The practice carried into wars, with field hospitals and healers up near the front lines to help heal the inevitable casualties of war.

Amethyst armies were famous for their fearlessness in battle, showing no fear even against overwhelming odds. The secret to this unnatural bravery was a special brew that soldiers drank before heading into battle, which rendered them numb to pain and doubt and fear. The secret of this battle-brew would famously spread east when, according to the legends, a lost amethyst berserker was found by a dozen Xia martial artists. Fueled by the brew and thinking himself captured, he proceeded to fight and defeat all of the warriors before coming to his senses. Impressed by this feat, these martial artists traded the Amethyst dwarf refuge and safe passage for the secret of his spirits, and with this knowledge would go on to found a new branch of martial arts focused on utilising this new brew in Liuhexingzhe, where the Way of the Drunken Fist is practiced to this day.

### Issues on the Surface

#### First Ogre Incursion

As ogres began to migrate into the foothills near Hul-az-Krakazol, some of the human bands that lived there requested aid from the Amethyst Dwarves. Delighted to fight these formidable opponents, the dwarves agreed, and fought and defeated the ogres in several open battles. Clearly outmatched, the ogres abandoned their incursions, expanding elsewhere in Rahen.

#### The Second Ogre Incursion

With the ogres having become more established in central Rahen in around 3900 BA, they had begun a second incursion into northern Rahen, much bigger and better prepared than the first one. The Amethyst dwarves were mostly avoided, and repelled in what few open battles took place. Grôzumdihr, meanwhile, simply kept its gates closed, and fired at any ogre that came into reach of its trebuchets. The ogres maintained control over the region, subjugating the few humans that lived there, and established a number of magically protected strongholds.

#### Rooting out the Ogres

Following a petition by Hul-az-Krakazol and Grôzumdihr for an imperial action to deal with the ogres outside of their holds, arguing that if left alone the ogres could grow to become a threat to the empire, Emperor Borrun II sanctioned an expedition to root them out in 3497 BA. Using rune magic, the expeditionaries managed to break the glamours obscuring many of the strongholds, and immediately began besieging several of them.

After many decades of slowly losing strongholds to the dwarves, the ogre magi finally succeeded in improving their glamouring spells, protecting the surviving strongholds from the dwarven expeditions. At this point in 3353 BA, however, their control over the region had been mostly lost, and the ogres only kept contact with their direct tributaries in order to avoid detection. There were still occasional skirmishes with the dwarves, and those strongholds that are still found by chance were quickly besieged and destroyed.

### Fall of the Jade Empire

#### The Goblintide

Under the command of Grimka the Despoiler, a powerful goblin wizard, the goblins of the Tree of Stone united in 2497 BA, and began large-scale assaults on all transport between the holds. While none of the holds were attacked head-on, they were all de facto under siege, as they could barely reach any of the other holds. As it became apparent that the Tree of Stone holds were unable to regain control over the Dwarovrod by themselves, a massive army led by general Dourban Brightbrow was rallied in Grônstunad to regain control over the Tree of Stone in 2474 BA.

As the jade army entered the Tree of Stone, Grimka sent emissaries to the hobgoblin clans in the Jade Mines and on the surface, proposing a united front against the dwarves in 2472 BA. In return, they promised the Hobgoblins would receive Grônstunad, the grandest hold of the east, as their prize.

#### Relief of Hul-az-Krakazol

The jade army successfully destroyed several goblin encampments in the vicinity of Hul-az-Krakazol in 2471 BA, enabling the hold to be supplied through the Dwarovrod from the Jade Mines again. King Grongnir I of Hul-az-Krakazol offered troops and supplies to the army as they prepared to move further into the Tree of Stone. In turn, Grimka ordered a full siege of Ovdal-az-Ân in order to delay the dwarves as much as possible, and sent word to the hobgoblin and goblin tribes of the jade mines.

#### Chaos in the Jade Mines

As the jade army reached Ovdal-az-Ân and started to dismantle the fortifications of the besieging goblins, the hobgoblin armies from Rahen launched an assault on Grônstunad from the south in 2470 BA. The alarm was raised, and messages were sent to the other holds in the Jade mines and to the expeditionary force in the Tree of Stone.

With the attack from the south commencing, the goblins and hobgoblins of the Jade Mines also initiated their attacks, and shut off the access routes from the east and west towards Grônstunad in 2469 BA. The Jade Mines were in virtually the same situation as the Tree of Stone now, with all access between holds nearly impossible.

#### Relief of Ovdal-az-Ân

The jade army broke the siege of Ovdal-az-Ân, routing the goblin forces in 2468 BA, with the jade army requesting supplies and access past the hold in order to relieve Grôzumdihr as well, but king Snorri V refused. He was insulted by the Jade armies, as he had not requested them, and their presence implied they were unable to deal with a simple infestation of goblins around their hold. After nearly two months of attempting diplomacy with Snorri, the jade army returned to Hul-az-Krakazol. Unsure what to do next, they sent word back to Grônstunad asking for instructions.

#### Failed Relief of the Jade Mines

A messenger returned from Tuwad-Dhûmankon over the surface, informing the jade army of the dire situation in the Jade Mines. Dourban Brightbrow ordered his forces to prepare for a surface journey towards Grônstunad, however, when king Grongnir of Hul-az Krakazol heard this, he laughed in his face and called it the cowardly route. Wounded in his pride, Dourban ordered his troops to instead move through the Dwarovrod in 2466 BA. As they attempted to move through the tunnel towards the Jade Mines, they were ambushed by a large force of goblins and hobgoblins, in what eventually turned into a long siege as the jade army dug itself into a defensive position in the tunnel.

The jade army made one final attempt to push through the tunnel towards the Jade Mines in 2463 BA, but were slain to the last. Hearing of this, Grimka believed this to be the moment to strike, and ordered all the clans to go on the offensive again, launching direct attacks on the holds of the Tree of Stone yet again.

#### The Goblintide Shattered

While leading a direct assault on Grôzumdihr, Grimka the Despoiler was killed as he attempted to break a powerful runic warding spell defending an outer gate in 2460 BA. The energy released as the spell was broken disintegrated Grimka as well as any goblin within his vicinity. Almost immediately, the clans taking part in the siege started to fight amongst themselves over leadership of the goblintide. As news spread, the goblintide disintegrated as the many clans fell back into their old rivalries. The hobgoblins, however, remained united in their attacks against the Jade Empire.

#### Granite Independence and Betrayal

With the Tunad towards the Jade Mines thoroughly under the control of the hobgoblins, the holds of the Tree of Stone focused mostly on reclaiming control over the Dwarovrod apart from the area around Ovdal Kanzad. King Snorri V of Ovdal-az-Ân decreed that the Jade Empire no longer held sway over the Tree of Stone, and declared itself independent in 2449 BA.

Grôzumdihr and Hul-az-Krakazol however started organising a large expedition over the surface to relieve Grônstunad in 2445 BA. They intended to attack the surface settlements of the Hobgoblins, in order to cut off supplies from the besieging forces. As they were sent out, however, Snorri accused them of plotting to put them back under the heel of the Jade Empire. As the Amethyst-Peridot expedition was fighting the hobgoblins in northeastern Rahen, Snorri arrived at the gates of Hul-az-Krakazol with an army, and began a siege. Enraged by the betrayal, the Amethyst-Peridot expedition returned to Hul-az-Krakazol, and attacked the besieging forces. In a bloody battle in 2443 BA, the Granite Dwarves were defeated, and Snorri V was killed. His body, on the orders of the furious queen Ogdis I of Hul-az-Krakazol, was thrown into a pit, and an extension of the Hul-az-Krakazol sewers would eventually be built to direct the waste of the Amethyst Dwarves into what would become known as Snorri’s Dung Pit.

#### The Fall of Grônstunad

Having recovered from the battle of Hul-az-Krakazol, a second Amethyst-Peridot expedition was organised in 2438 BA and sent overland to attack the hobgoblins. As the hobgoblins were prepared this time, they were less successful, and while they made progress, it was slow. With Grônstunad besieged by the Hobgoblins, the defenders launched an attack to their south which was successful, finally meeting up with the army of the Amethyst-Peridot expedition and the Nephrite Expedition led by queen Ogdis I of Hul-az-Krakazol.

At the same time, however, the western and eastern gates were breached, and the hobgoblins and goblins entered Grônstunad from both sides. The defenders and the expeditionary forces quickly entered the hold to try and repel them, resulting in a chaotic battle that stretched over every level and section of the hold. The battle took several months, as the dwarves desperately attempted to hold on to their capital. Emperor Moilin IV of the Jade Empire and most of his direct family were killed in this battle, as was queen Ogdis I of Hul-az-Krakazol. In the end, Grônstunad was lost, and the Dwarven survivors escaped to either Vûrdriz-Ândriz or the surface. The survivors that escaped to the surface mostly settled in the holds where the expeditions came from.

#### The Last Expedition

The Dwarves knew that a lot of survivors were still stuck in Vûrdriz-Ândriz and that, with Grônstunad fallen, it was only a matter of time before its defences failed. Under the command of king Nori II of Grôzumdihr, a coalition was again formed between Verkal Ozovar, Hul-az-Krakazol, and Grôzumdihr in 2396 BA. He also reached out to Ovdal Kanzad and Ovdal-az-Ân, arguing that the Jade Empire is gone with the death of the Emperor and the fall of Grônstunad, and that this was only about saving Dwarvenkind from further doom. Ovdal Kanzad agreed, and sent a small expeditionary force with cannons to aid in Grônstunad’s reclamation. Ovdal-az-Ân, however, had sealed their gates shut, and the envoys were only met with crossbow bolts.

The army of the four holds quickly dispatched the much weakened hobgoblins on the surface, and soon laid siege to Grônstunad in 2394 BA. With aid of the cannons from Ovdal Kanzad, the siege was quite successful despite not cutting off the access routes from inside the mountains, and the hobgoblins regularly having to repel attacks and throw up temporary defences as their walls were broken by cannonfire.

With the Dwarven attackers mostly situated in the tunnel access towards Grônstunad, the hobgoblins sent reinforcements to their kin on the surface, managing to put together an army to lock the dwarven army inside the tunnel. By 2390 BA, with their supplies cut off, the dwarves abandoned the siege. They broke through the army on the surface, and returned home with their goal unfulfilled. With no support or supplies from the outside, Vûrdriz-Ândriz fell to the goblin and hobgoblin attackers. By all records, there were no survivors in 2368 BA.

#### Reconnection with Tuwad-Dhûmankon

With the hobgoblins and goblins disunited with infighting in the Jade Mines, the dwarves of Grôzumdihr and Hul-az-Krakazol organised an expedition to try and push through the tunnel towards the Jade Mines in 2143 BA, to find out whether Tuwad-Dhûmankon had survived the fall of the Jade Empire. They reclaimed the Dwarovrod with relative ease, and were elated to find Tuwad-Dhûmankon surviving and thriving. The expected assault from the hobgoblins had never come, and the great food gardens had easily sustained their population.

### The Drizdahvad

#### The Proclamation

Grôzumdihr, Hul-az-Krakazol and Tuwad-Dhûmankon agreed to the three shields proclamation, or Drizdahvad in 2135 BA, promising that they will all cooperate in coming to the others’ defence in case of an attack and keeping the supply routes between their holds over the Dwarovrod safe from raiders. In order to safeguard the supply line between Tuwad-Dhûmankon and Hul-az-Krakazol, both ends of the tunad were fortified in 2100 BA, to ensure that no goblins or hobgoblins could move between the Jade Mines and the Tree of stone. The Drizdahvad ensured a long lasting survival of the holds for over a millennia, allowing them to make use of the now fairly reliable surface trade networks that the humans of Rahen and Bulwar had established, with Grôzumdihr and Hul-az-Krakazol re-establishing contact with the holds of the west by 1102 BA.

#### The Siege of Tuwad-Dhûmankon

In the 920s BA, the warring hobgoblin clans united behind the great Mage-Queen Shakuin the Iron Spider and began to war with the dwarves of Tuwad-Dhûmankon. The hobgoblins fought craftily and slowly encircled the hold, cutting off communications with the rest of the Drizdahvad and getting into position to launch targeted attacks that crippled the ability of the dwarves to venture out.

By the time that the Amethyst Dwarves realised something was wrong and rallied an army to relieve Tuwad-Dhûmankon, the hold was already dangerously close to falling to the magically-aided tunnelling efforts and tenacity of the hobgoblins. Expecting their foes to flee before them like goblins often did, the dwarven relief army was slowed by the stubborn defence of the hobgoblins, and though the Emerald Dwarves thrice attempted to break out and connect with their allies, they were repulsed each time. Only a few escaped the fall of the hold by 908 BA, which the amethyst and peridot could see go dark in the distance but do nothing to save.

#### The Siege of Grôzumdihr

After many centuries of disunity, the goblins of the Tree of Stone were once again united in 550 BA, this time under clanboss Praaq Bloodscrawl. The Dwarovrod between Hul-az-Krakazol and Grôzumdihr was again cut off, forcing the holds to move their supply routes to the surface.

Clan Bloodscrawl laid siege to Grôzumdihr in 531 BA. The hold was well defended and fortified, and had access to an open supply line due to their good relations with the Ghankheden humans beyond their surface gate. Still, the siege took a toll on the defenders, as the goblins kept making use of tunnelling to attempt to gain access to the unguarded sections of the hold.

#### The Last Battle of the Drizdahvad

With Grôzumdihr invoking the Drizdahvad and asking for help from Hul-az-Krakazol, king Otik II organised a large relief force in 501 BA. However, he viewed the Grôzumdihr request to send troops via the surface as an insult to his competence, and led his dwarves over the Dwarovrod instead. This ended in disaster, as this route had not been kept safe since the start of the second goblintide, and when the dwarves finally got near Grôzumdihr they had already suffered many losses and lost much of their supplies. Otik II personally led an attack on the besieging goblins, but the exhausted dwarves were quickly cornered. Seeing the battle, the Grôzumdihr garrison sortied from the main gate in an attempt to save the Amethyst dwarves, but they were too late. Only five dwarves of the relief force were rescued and brought inside the hold. The rest, including king Otik II, were killed.

#### The Siege of Hul-az-Krakazol

With the siege of Ovdal Kanzad making no progress for many generations of goblins, King Kloq Bloodscrawl finally abandoned the siege and put his sights on Hul-az-Krakazol instead in year 33. At first, there was intense fighting, as the Amethysts attempted to put an end to the siege before it was properly established with several sorties, but these amounted to very little. After several weeks of fighting, the sorties stopped, and a drawn-out siege began.

#### The Fall of Hul-az-Krakazol

With no other dwarven holds to rely on for aid and a relationship with the humans outside their gates that could only be described as ‘tumultuous’, it seemed clear that the dwarves could not hold out much longer. In anticipation of this, king Otik IV of Hul-az-Krakazol attempted to do the same thing the Peridot Dwarves did, and began to organise the evacuation in year 88. This was met, however, with a lot of grumbling, and accusations of cowardice. In order to suppress this, he ordered that only he himself was to remain inside the hold when the gates broke, so that he may die a true Amethyst’s death while knowing that his people would survive. In the chaos of the evacuation, and the drunken stupor of one of the overseers, the keys to the outer gates were lost, and the Amethyst dwarves had little choice but to create new lives for themselves in Rahen.