Gazad

Gazad, also called Gazat, is a fortress of the dwarves that guards the way into their kingdom, together with the military town behind it. In the Sürgün Günlükleri ("Exile Chronicles") campaign, Kemp Corvus, Sarah and Ephorus passed through it on their way to Dağ Altı. In the Mürekkep ve Çelik ("Ink and Steel") campaign, Castor recognised from drawings the huge stone gate of Gazat opening into the mountain, seen through a portal during the battle of the Dwarf Gate.¹²

Imperial accounts describe the old dwarf fortresses on the mountain peaks as the tops of tunnel systems that spread underground like the roots of trees, reaching much further below the ground than above it.³

The gate

The way into the kingdom leads through a small door beneath the giant gate that closes the mountain pass. After the companions had been watched for two minutes, six soldiers in full armour with great shields came out; the worked armour of their officer and his helm, made to guard his beard, caught the eye, and Sarah knew them for Demirkıran warriors.⁴

The officer, Darvin Fırtınayumruk, greeted them. Sarah introduced herself, her cousin Kemp and their drow companion, and showed the document signed by Balgur Demirkapı. The officer checked the document and gave it back, warning that they would have to show it often inside.⁵

The fortress

Beyond the gate stand towers of defence, and in a bowl-shaped valley lies the fortress with its entrances underground. Half of it is above ground and half below, built to hold off enemies coming from outside and from the tunnels beneath. Inside, its upper and lower floors rise and descend in symmetry, like a mirror. An account in the Yeni Dünya ("New World") campaign tells that beneath the part above ground lie fourteen floors of fortress and prison.¹⁶

The fortress's records were incomplete, owing to a change of command and the damage of the battle of the Dwarf Gate, and much of the kingdom had been abandoned for want of people. The new commander of Gazad was of House Demirsakal, the son of the commander before him.⁷⁸

Runes and barriers against magic, common throughout the dwarven lands, block sending messages, scrying, teleportation and telepathy, and the companions were told not to rely on such magic in the fortress; the barriers were explained as a defence against the telepathy of enemies from below.⁹

Warriors

The dwarves do not raise soldiers by levy but draw them from warrior hearths, among them the Karındeşen and the Demirkıran, each with commanders of its own serving the lords of fortresses and cities and the High King. Besides the regular army there are trusted wanderers such as Hermes, who fight for the dwarves but do not go to whoever pays. The mercenaries and wandering warriors of the fortress were said to campaign constantly against ratmen, greenskins, drow and other dangers from below.¹⁰¹¹¹²

Around the town large dogs are bred for defence and travel, some of them fitted with teeth like a boar's tusks.¹³

The town

Behind the fortress lies a noisy town that lives by serving the soldiers: clothing, upkeep, letters, entertainment and drink. Its buildings fold above and below ground in the same symmetry, but the town is not joined to the general network of tunnels. Wood is scarce; well-cut stone and stone furniture prevail, and everything is kept in good order. Its customs are described in Law and custom in Gazad.¹⁴¹⁵

The companions in Gazad

The materials the companions had taken from a young green dragon, a sound scale, a sound eye and the drakus, the burning, green-glowing organ that gives a dragon its breath, had been sent ahead of them. In Gazad they learned that the cargo had reached the depot but missed the next shipment, and an officer promised to send it on to Dağ Altı with the first convoy.¹⁶¹⁷

They stayed in a room underground across the street from a tavern, where the old veteran Deligöz came to them, and met Hermes there. With Hermes they left the military town behind the fortress, passing the official posts on the road before going down into the tangled tunnels. On the first day they reached a resting place Hermes had used before, where he opened an air shaft sealed with stone. He told them of the machines of the duergar, which drew on the mental power and feelings of those inside them, who were less pilots than captive fuel.¹⁸¹⁹²⁰

On their way back from Dağ Altı the companions met Karak again near Gazad. News of the war was that both sides were gathering, with no fighting for some days, and that the witch hunters and their soldiers had entered the dwarven lands blindfolded so as not to see the dwarven gates.²¹²²

The Inquisition had set up its grounds around a stone building, where a hunter captain with a scarred face and a goatee told his company that their chief aim was to bring down the drow mages and the creatures they summoned, accepting the loss of one hunter for each mage if need be. After the battle against the drow, the necklace the companions had carried for the High King was shut in nested chests and taken beneath the fortress.²³²⁴²⁵