The Battle of Dunhall

Aftermath
Like the humiliation and bewitching of the Crown Prince Daine Thaine and the first Calamity of Dunhall, the expedition the Branded have led into Dunhall soon formed a third great woe to strike the Dwarven folk.

When the Branded's cursed and drained bodies were removed from Dunhall, the ancient mountainhold second only to Everpeak soon crumbled on its root foundations. Dwarves from both Durdur and Everpeak and other towns and mountains gathered around their second native mountain to weep for the fallen and their ancestors' lost time of glory and harmony.

Powerful and contested figures were also lost in the combat, from which we count two Dwarven royals. Prince Krayn Dayn was long known as the Mad for his roguish endeavors, lunacy and fanaticism but where they called him mad and suicidal they now glorify him and drink to his memory. Ignoring any of the Branded's presence and contribution to the battle, he is hailed a hero and the eternal Champion of Grimnir that will feast besides Lain and all of his folk in the Falbala, the Hall of the Gods.

Besides Krayn lays slain another figure of many legends; Aiden Jernberg the Black, a hero of old and a prominent belligerent and commander in the War of the Eggs where he slayed many an Elf to avenge his fallen crown prince and best friend. Aiden was childless in his near 200 years of existence and took a vow of celibacy during the War where he was hailed a Champion of Grimnir by none other than the mourned High King of Alba. He remains now hailed as another hero of Lain's folk and an eternal Champion of Grimnir, with whom he shall brawl himself in Falbala. For many, Aiden was the last remnant of of a generation that lived through the Dwarven folk's prime and time of woes. He will be remembered for his martial prowess as vigorous as in his prime.

The four adventurers, having greatly contributed to the expedition, remain phantom warriors unknown to all except a few. None shall remember them and none knows what truly ensued in the ancient mountainhold. One could almost say the death in battle sought by the Warrior Cultists of Grimnir is times more tranquil than what fate reserved for the adventurers. Following their encounter with the Priest-King Meriodach Sin'muballit of Numed and their deadly duel against the latter, the adventurers were cursed by an ancient spell simply known as the Branding, hence their nickname the Branded, and which is, to any being, a fate far worse than death.

Their defeat at the hand of the powerful sorcerer and the retrieval of a black gem by the latter allowed him to take the Ashen Crown from the ancient mountainhold. The Ashen Crown is presumably an Elven artifact taken from the brow of the Keeper himself by Throgar Bloodbrow. The Keeper, on the other hand, is said to be the highest of Elven druids, a coordinate with the Noldorin Woods and its spirit itself and, according to other sources, the vial of a hundred thousand druids.

Although the Branded managed to get back on their feet, the priest mage Theodorus wasn't as lucky. The powerful fire mage had overcharged his mana and fire storm against Meriodach. Although that burned the Priest King to a crisp and forced him to his bestial form as a Manticore, the overcharged spell took its toll on Theodorus' body who couldn't survive through the Branding curse and was declared deceased, so claims the Inquisitorial Knight and Chief Inspector Johann von Malshem.

In the Dwarven capital hold of Everpeak, the news of a second calamity in Dunhall that ended in both the martyrdom of heroes, the fall of its curse and its near destruction, ravaged the Longbeards and Great Clans. With the current Emberbeard King of Everpeak Morgim One Eye bedridden and fatally ill, the death of Krayn Dayn, another male member of the Emberbeard Clan, further deepens the power gap to ensue should the King die.

Down in the Gnomes' Republic of Pardalisca, the Grand Technician and Senator Seldraz, the initial contact of the Branded to set them on the false quest of retrieving a black gem akin to the one he possessed, was found his slit throat besides over a dozen of his sons. His assassination is an urgent matter shrouded in mystery amongst the People's Senate but one would be foolish to deny the Branded's presence and contact with the killed Senator is of no mystery to any witness.