Created by: Eric S. Raymond (esr)
Takes place in: 550 YW
After the foundation of the Northern Alliance, the Dwarves of Knalga have worked hard to rebuild their domain, fighting off rebellious orcs and establishing connections with the older, far-away bases all around the mountains. One day Aiglondur, guardian of the eastern gate, has to defend his post against a small army of orcs equipped with dwarvish weapons and coinage and is soon introduced to Movru, a mysterious masked dwarf from the long lost colony of Kal Kartha. According to him, their leader Karrag unearthed the legendary Hammer of Thursagan, the same one used by the legendary runesmith to forge the Scepter of Fire, and plans to revive the Runesmith Order. Alongside a Witness and scholar of runes, Aiglondur sets off to Kal Kartha, to see if they can really recover the lost art of runes. However, the long lost colony has a dark secret and not everything is at it seems...
This Campaign contains examples of:
- Adapted Out: In earlier version, the final level had a section where you could recover the real Hammer of Thursagan from a cave infested with several giant spiders. In later versions, that area has been scrapped. The level where you first fight the masked dwarves is also altered so that you have to find out orcs hiding in the villages.
- "Be Quiet!" Nudge: Morvru does this several times across the story to both the peasants and Dulcatous when they speak too much. This doesn't go unnoticed by the heroes.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Karrag and the masked dwarves believes that they're doing what's best of Kal Kartha and all dwarfkind... by violently suppressing and/or killing anyone who's not a Dwarf.
- Dramatic Unmask: When the party confronts Karrag, the Witness forces him to remove his mask in public, revealing that he's a Lich.
- Fantastic Racism: The masked dwarves refers to anyone who's not a Dwarf as "Dustdigger". They also treat the humans toiling in their domains as slaves.
- Taking You with Me: Prior to the mage storyline being removed in version 1.15, you can recruit mages and equip one of them with a staff fo that will one-shot all the hostile units around him when he dies.
- Token Good Teammate: Dulcatous is the guardian of Kal Kartha, but he's a sane and reasonable person, showing that not everyone in there shares the extremist views of the followers of Karrag.
