Demiryürek

Demiryürek is the name borne by a band of dwarven sellswords in the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign. Its members are bound not by blood but by brotherhood in arms. Three of them, Bardvin, who seems to lead, the old Brundar and the younger, red-haired Bogdan, met Kemp Corvus and Sarah at an inn on the coast, where a note signed by Bardvin offering their swords hung on the notice board.^{1 2}

The three had worked with a fairly large company of mercenaries, and in the past had also robbed travellers on the roads. The champion Karak Dağdöven had not known them in person but knew of the Demiryürek, and told them they had brought honour to the name.^{3 4}

The road north

They had come south hoping to earn money putting down a rebellion, only to find it over. For a month they had travelled the roads and for four nights had roamed the district, spending a whole night in the forest, without seeing any sign of the elven raids and ambushes people spoke of. Turned away from the ships, where humans were given priority, they thought it shameful to ask a fee for a road they believed safe, and agreed instead to travel with Kemp and Sarah in return for sharing the care of the goats and the work of the camp. They ride costly war goats, large and saddled, their horns reinforced and adorned with metal.^{5 6 7}

A young wood elf had taken refuge at the inn and the dwarves had hidden him, but he died of blood loss; they agreed to hand his body to the authorities rather than bury it or throw it into the sea. They pitied elves who defended their own land, they said, yet would fight them too if paid. The governor tried to draw them into military work, but they set out north with Kemp and Sarah instead.^{8 9 10}

Gromkar

Outside Gromkar they brought chicken and bread to the meeting with Ephorus, weary of salt fish and dry rations. They explained the gate's checks on trade, troublemakers and visiting dwarven clans, pointed the company to the Tahta Bacak inn for work and news, and their known faces helped the company through the gate. To them, keeping watch and sleeping in each other's care was a sacred companionship, and they would not press the company for its secrets but would help when it was ready. Theft is frowned upon among them, though beer, being for sharing, is another matter. Sarah made a new song about three brave dwarves seeking adventure on the surface and sang it at the inn.^{11 12 13 14 15}

When the company showed them Ephorus's true drow face, Bardvin asked whether he had been born on the surface or fled from below, Brundar told of a drow he had once worked with and befriended, and the dwarves said that homeless dwarves of the surface are scorned as well, so such divisions meant little to them; young Bogdan was taken aback, but they agreed to go on together.^{16 17 18 19}

To join the search for Karak they gave up two days' work guarding a man who was to pay a ransom for a kidnapped kinsman. Leaving a job meant lost income, they said, but they would come for their friends; a fee was agreed and paid, and they planned to send their former client another group of four. Beneath the city they fought hook horrors with crossbow, shield, axe and sword.^{20 21 22 23}

Dwarven culture holds keeping one's word and respect at its heart; a dwarf should never break a promise.²⁴

Spoiler: The drow campGösterAçık ettiği: Sürgün Günlükleri #31 · Ne okuduğunuzu söyleyin

In the attack on a drow camp Brundar was killed and beheaded, and Bogdan avenged him on his killer. The fight was won with five drow warriors, a mage and a drider dead, and Brundar was the company's only loss. The dwarves buried him among the rocks below ground, and Bardvin said Brundar had no family but them; Bardvin would take his belongings to the guild they belonged to and report his death, asking no further pay.^{25 26 27 28 29}

Afterwards Bardvin kept on with paid patrols in the city, while Bogdan went out of the city for other work.³⁰