Legend of the Stone Paladin

The Legend of the Stone Paladin
The Legend is an old one hailing from over 600 year ago now. It was during the reign of the Thane Jark Silverlode before the Mastermace line. A lord of dwarves called Ammanan Tefras rose to prominence due it is said to his devout worship of the Avatar of Justice (though at the time he was not worshiped as such).
Tefras brought great honour to his clan by routing the Rolling Rocks goblin clan and the Black Horn Orc allies in major greenskin incursions in the early 11th century. The Thane was very pleased and made him an Iron Captain in the Rivan Axe. Later his momentum continued when he took full religious orders as a paladin and saved the Thane?s life during the Redboots rebellion. Defeating the blood drinker dwarves is really what set him into mythos and the Thane made him one of his Hammerer bodyguard and he was called the Heir of the Mountains.

So when the commet landed in the southern peaks it was natural that something so mystical and potentially valuable be assigned to Ammanan. Now Lord Tefras, Heir to the Mountain, Ammanan took his clan?s whole elite first Iron Rank the Stoneguard. Among these were of course his two sons: Roigon and Garret.

The comet was a mass of ice, fire and metal. When the expedition arrived they found it still hot in its core though the edge had cooled. It was larger than a mountain and had destroyed the whole city that had stood where it fell. As you know all things of the heavens teem with magic. It is from the stars that wizards draw their arcane might and the Star Ore is more valuable it is said than mithril itself. But like all treasure it did not rest unguarded. A demon watched over the crater and killed a hundred dwarves with a huge blade. Ammanan himself it dealt an awful blow, crippling him despite his powerful iron-forged armour and great strength. The demon could not be mortally harmed it was said by any weapon the dwarves possessed. Yet we are not men to be turned aside so easily.

There is nothing more enraging to a dwarf than something that thinks itself immune, that it cannot be moulded and bent to his will. So the dwarves dug in and after much blood shed they forced the demon to face them at the very core of the star where the ore was still molten. Artifice and cunning had brought the dwarves to this pass, but in the end someone still needed to strike a great blow. Ammanan tried raising his great hammer and axe he slammed them into the beast, but the steel, dwarvern forged though it was, could not bite deep, nor crack the demons abyss-hardened skin. With a laugh of horror and malice it shattered his hammer and slew him with a fiery blade, ridged and evil.

Yet at this moment of great alarm when all of Ammanan?s bodyguard had been thrown back Roigon his eldest son took the shaft of his father?s hammer, blessed by the gods and the power of Justice and demanded the demon face him in the name of the ancient Avatar of Justice himself and with the Light as his true witness. Then he plunged the shaft into the centre of the fallen star. He drew it out with a lump of the star metal?s ore clung all-round the top. With a roar to match the demon’s own he struck and the two met in single combat. It is said his armour had once been the finest dwarvern steel, but was now rent from the combat. Yet as he fought stone forged around him and he was encased in a priceless stoneforged suit of armour that could turn even the demon?s malign blade. When he struck with his makeshift mace the lump of ore, uncrafted as it was, blazed with a fiery blue flame that caused the demon distress that no other blow from weapons covered in powerful enchantments had managed. Justice walked with Roigon that day, it is said as he fought a miracle took place and the lump of star metal forged itself during the battle into a hammer head: The demon as the anvil and the heart of the star as the forge with Justice himself as the smith. So Roigon, unable to retreat and unwilling to fall, avenged his father and threw down that evil into the heart of the molten star. Thus was born the Stone Paladin, thus he proved he was the Heir to the Stars even as his father had been to the mountains.

The Stone Paladin did many great things after this. The Star Metal was mined though only a little could be taken before it cooled and hardened beyond mining. This metal was taken to Barkarin and in its forges Masterworks were made. First among them was Roigon?s own reward the shield Eternal Vigilence. The magical properties of these items the hammer Indominable and the shield, its brother, are legendary. Able to destroy and protect from evil to turn aside death, to imprison darkness itself, to show the enemy?s true face despite deceit, to break any bond and to forge a chain mighty enough to hold a god. Their forger?s name is still remembered the rune-master-smith Cobalt Irontone a great ally to the Tefras before and after the rise of Roigon.

He did many things: freed the Westermen from the Lashtip slavers, he defended Barkarin with his people from the Ranat invasion called the ‘Night of the Swarm’ and so on. But what he is best known for is for confronting Colossal Fury.

The halflings of the Midfield had become enslaved to a god-dragon called Colossal Fury. The creature and its familiar, Syral, forced the halflings to worship it and to sever all ties with the rest of Saracan. It weakened the alliance terribly and threatened the very existence of Saracan as a untied country. The Dusken monarchy in particular was put in peril as it needed to bring the halflings back but could not see how to do so without war. When it tried military action it failed horribly and the only records are the stories we call the Fields of Fury. They turned to the dwarves, elves and Helm?s Gate for help but the alliance had never been meant to force cooperation but rather to help trade and defend from external threats. The elves and dwarves in particular were determined not to help the humans force their rule on another race. A revolution called the New Crowning took place and the old human dynasty fell and a new family rose up to take the throne of Dusken needless to say they did attempt a military incursion against Colossal Fury.

Despite his religious standing the Stone Paladin was a voice of dissent. He claimed the halflings themselves were being oppressed and needed freeing. So he organised his followers by now known as the Hammer of Justice or the Hammer of the Light. Most of whom were his own close family and clansmen, the heirs, if you will, of the original thousand who went with his father. They were later called the Star Rank. Then he planned and prepared to go down and face the dragon and free the halflings from their own deity by force.

He went to face the beast armed with hammer, shield and Justice. Armoured in his famous god-given Stoneforge armour and faith in the Light he attacked. The event is called the Hammerfall. The dwarves fought and killed and so did the halflings. Hundreds were slain on both sides but that was merely a side show to the truly epic clash between two titans. Roigon knew only his weapons would be enough to hurt the creature Colossal Fury and so he with his personal bodyguards arranged a plan to get through to the dragon.

A ploy to draw the dragon to the Dusken Everpit failed, the pseudo-deity refusing to be drawn in to a location where he could be trapped. Yet the dragon in his arrogance and greed fell for the next trap as it was based on a risky chance and excellent bait.

Anxious to steal the mithril orb forged by Cobalt Irontone and wanting to take possession of the Deepening Delve Gate, Colossal Fury launched an all-out attack on the dwarvern lines wreaking havoc. Then the Paladin struck in the heart of the star and once again blessed by the Avatars his star-made weapons pierced the defences of the creature when other weapons were turned aside. In the end over fifty dwarves died in the final strike when the trap was sprung. The deadly dragon trapped within the hollow of the Deepening Delve could not use his wings to fly and his size restricted his movement. Brought low he saw his own fall coming but scoffed at the petty mortals claiming he could not truly be killed for he was a god not merely a drake! As he fell his spirit could not be killed and he struck out again in the fury of his immortal soul!

But the Star Metal had a binding power the dragon did not expect and within the ore the immortal heart of Colossal Fury was buried and sealed in. The dragon-god died and the halflings were freed from his oppression. The Stone Paladin then covenanted that his people, the Hammer of Light, would preserve their freedom for evermore.