Durun Altınsakal

Durun Altınsakal is the High King of the dwarves in the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign. The dwarven army is not raised by levy but drawn from warrior hearths, among them the Karındeşen and the Demirkıran, which serve the lords of fortresses and cities and the High King through commanders of their own.¹

The king's house

The goods and mines of House Demirkapı that held no mithril were to pass to its nearest kin and bannermen, the Demirsakal, who had in fact worked them for seventy or eighty years while the income went to the Demirkapı; the mithril mine, however, was to pass to the Altınsakal, the High King's house. Karak had orders from both the fortress commander and the High King to wear the enemy down before it reached the homeland, softening the danger, and to fall back with his forces intact.²³

The audience

At night soldiers took Kemp Corvus, Sarah and Ephorus from their inn in Dağ Altı to a great building to meet the High King; as friends of the dwarves they were not disarmed. They were advised to bow forward and not to kneel, for kneeling meant surrender.⁴⁵

In a hall hung with dark banners bearing the Altınsakal mark, before nobles and commanders, the High King sat on a stone throne: an old, large dwarf with an orange beard bound up, chain mail beneath his robes, a ring with a great stone and a metal-looking staff at his side.⁶

He knew the companions through Balgur's letter of passage and Karak's surety, and asked of them a secret and dangerous task that they were free to refuse. He said that a necklace, taken from a matron's neck in an old underground campaign fought together with the Empire, might be one of the chief targets of the attack. The priests held that the Spider Queen, in disguise, had briefly worn it in a past war, and recovering it would bring great prestige to a drow house.⁷⁸

A friendly drow had brought the necklace for safekeeping; it was hidden outside the capital, only drow could carry it, even in a box, and attempts to cleanse it had failed. The king asked Ephorus to bring it to a safer place further inside, under cover of an ordinary errand for the general, keeping the true task secret because of spies. The companions accepted, and the king said that the necklace would be taken from him only over his dead body.⁹¹⁰¹¹

Diamonds were provided for the task. When the king asked whether Karak was a coward, the companions answered that everyone had been attacked at once, and that Karak had gone to the aid of the Demirkapı at the first chance, though he had failed.¹²¹³

The war

When the companions came back with the necklace and told the king and his close men that a deadly gas had come out when its glass case was opened, he asked that it stay near Ephorus until it had been studied. Kemp was offered command of a small unit, and the value of a single warrior in battle, and of healing near the king, was discussed.¹⁴¹⁵

A strong band had attacked a few hours before; soldiers had been lost, but no one of a family who could not be replaced. The plan was to encircle the enemy from behind with forces from the northern fortresses, and to draw the enemy in by showing the High King as within reach.¹⁶¹⁷

An old official of the Inquisition, having learned that the dwarves had fought without pause in the lower corridors since Victory Day and how great were the forces they had kept hidden, said the Empire must be told. He argued that the High King had only one son left, and that the Empire should take the king under its protection or take the prince to its side.¹⁸¹⁹

During the battle the High King waited for news in a stone command post, guarded by some twenty guards with great hammers, priests and reserves. When one of the companions came within his sight to tell him that the necklace wanted the dwarves to kill Ephorus, he looked to his guards but gave no open order.²⁰²¹

The dwarves won the battle. After Sarah took on Karak's shame before witnesses, the High King told Karak to come to the council after the battle as a commander. The three travellers were given a writing of dwarven friendship: the use of trade and services, doors always open to them, and the right to a dwarven funeral if no one else claimed them.²²²³²⁴