Rune master of Dağ Altı

The rune master of Dağ Altı is an aged dwarf smith of runes in the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign. He told Kemp Corvus, Sarah and Ephorus that he had seen in a dream the things he would make for them, that he was 342 years old, and that he was one of six rune masters who all know one another.¹

Balgur's promise

The way to him was opened by a promise of Thane Balgur Demirkapı. He offered to bring the three before the ancient smiths and rune masters of the dwarves, explaining that these masters give the holy objects they see in their dreams to those who deserve them. The materials the companions had taken from a young green dragon were left with the Demirkapı family, to be sent ahead while the group travelled beneath the mountain.²

In the same talk Ephorus asked to be introduced to a good engineer. He was told that the dwarf engineers of the region had been called away to an imperial operation and the rest were deep under the mountain, but that a gnome very skilled with moving parts could be found. Ephorus also asked for a small piece of mithril to be set in the centre of the sun tattoo on his arm, a sign of dwarven friendship that no one could steal; Balgur promised it would be done if Ephorus came through the business alive, and that he would be buried with the mithril if not.³⁴

Later, in Gromkar, Karak handed the companions a document signed in Balgur Demirkapı's name and bearing all three of their names, granting them entry to Dağ Altı and acceptance as friends of the dwarves. In Gazad they learned that the cargo of dragon materials had reached the depot but missed the next shipment, and an officer promised to send it on to Dağ Altı with the first convoy.⁵⁶

The meeting

In Dağ Altı the companions were directed to the rune master for the craftwork they had been promised. A young woman attending him led them up to his workshop in a guarded building worked with metal.⁷

The work had not yet begun. He asked for further materials: a costly ruby, the eye of a creature with many eyes, and the holy symbols of three different evil gods that had been used in their temples, as well as something connected with a unicorn or a similar being. Once all of them arrived together, he said, the work would take about a week.⁸⁹

Gathering the materials

Recalled later, the eye was to come from a creature of some size with more than eight eyes. After a battle the companions searched for evil gods' symbols and for such an eye, but no suitable spider had been seen in the fighting.¹⁰¹¹

The missing materials were asked after again, and the companions were told that an evil god's symbol they had obtained could be collected against a written document. In fulfilment of Balgur's promise of mithril, Ephorus was offered a glove to cover his lost hand; the wound was worked on with magical stones, and a plated black leather glove followed.¹²¹³

Back on the surface, a contact who sold magical ingredients under the counter said that a dragon's heart had passed through his hands and that he could look for a feather, but that the eye would be hard to find. The companions spoke of setting aside a few weeks to wait for the materials before returning to the dwarven lands.¹⁴¹⁵

By then the devil coal and one evil god's symbol had been secured, and the list now also called for the feather of a being that had seen the Feywild. Before buying such a feather, the companions went to the house of a wizard they trusted, to have him judge whether it was genuine.¹⁶

To obtain the feather they agreed to have it checked by the wizard and to guard its seller against attack; with their faces changed by magic and their weapons ready, they rode with the seller in his carriage. Whether the feather ever reached the rune master is not told.¹⁷

The day after, a box of new things was brought to the companions: a weapon or rod that felt cold to the touch, a pauldron of very hard leather and a throwing knife. Who sent it is not said, and whether it was the rune master's work remains uncertain.¹⁸