Historical - Dwarf versus Suel - The Death of Haladin Man-Slayer

The Death of Haladin Man-Slayer

Haladin Man-Slayer is carried through the halls of the great mountain fortress of Daradim to be laid to rest in the tomb of his ancestors deep beneath the earth.

In ancient times of the Flanaess' history nothing has proven as grim and costly as the wars between man and dwarf. Perhaps it was the expansion of the Suel into the mountains and valleys of the north-east or maybe it was the dwarven lust for gold and the slaughter of the human miners at Ten-River Gorge, the depredations and atrocities were many, but however it began seven years of grueling and merciless combat soon came to an end with the death of Haladin Man-Slayer, greatest of dwarven heroes in this by-gone age of the world.

Haladin was a mighty warrior even though he was a little over a century old. Unlike many of his brethren he'd left the mountains and visited his cousins in the lowland kingdoms of the Flanaess and there he had earned his sobriquet. His contact with human-kind had not gone well to say the least. Hostile Flan tribesmen, arrogant Suel merchants and slavers, brigands of no fixed lineage. Haladin's first reaction was the axe and though these men were tall to a stout mountain dwarf they were cut down to size in these encounters and Haladin's dislike of humans grew.

Many of the great dwarven mountain kingdoms had been lost and destroyed over the centuries to giants, dragons, even terrors from beneath the oerth and it seemed that the once powerful dwarves were on the wane while the quick breeding human and goblin-kind were appearing everywhere like mold on an old bread-loaf. Eventually the expanding Suel Republic looked toward the northern mountains for more ore for their weapons and devices and treasure for their decorations and coffers. First came their engineers and scouts, then the miners and with them small towns and warriors to guard them. Haladin, now a war-leader had had enough when the reports came in of the mine, outpst and small mine-town opened in Ten-River Gorge only a scant few leagues from Daradim the ancient fortress-town under his care.

The dwarves came in a great number, warriors and weapon-priests, the humans were mostly miners and a great many slaves and merchants who set-up a small town to buy and sell from the miners. The Suel military outpost was small. Ten-River Gorge was a great victory for the dwarves and a massacre according to the Suel. Not even the slaves were spared though the dwarves kept the mine working and sent the ore back to Daradim.

When the ore stopped coming and supply caravans never returned the Suel sent out scouts and then a small army and the first real battle between Haladin and the Suel Republic began.

A battle in the mountains against a dwarves with their fortress-city nearby had only one conclusion but some Suel warriors managed to escape and returned with a larger army that included battle-mages and warrior-priests of their own. Haladin was driven back and lost the mine at Ten-River Gorge. Monsters of great power were brought against him, elemental fought elemental and collapsed the mine, choked the Ten-Rivers, tossed man and dwarf from the mountains passes in great gusts of wind, burnt the stone, burnt flesh and bone as the elemental planes were unopened and their denizens called forth.

It was the Suel and the great skill at magic that pushed Haladin back into Daradim, The great gateways were collapsed to stop the invaders, Suel warriors and allied monstrosities died in droves, but Daradim was besieged and the land beyond the fortress was now held by the Suel. Still the fortress seemed impregnable till the power of the greatest of the Suel mages was brought against it. An army of monsters from the UnderOerth assailed them, hundreds of Umber Hulks drawn to a gem created by the Suel Grand Wizard brought them beneath the fortress and a charm deep within the gem's facets mesmerized them. The Umber Hulks cut there way into the bowels of the fortress city and their in a great unlighted cavern Haladin and his warriors met them. With death all about him the dwarven champion cut his way toward the gem and destroyed it and the Suel arch-mage at the cost of his own life. 

The Suel were broken but the Daradim was riddled with tunnels from below infested first with Umber Hulks then other creatures of the UnderOerth.  Within a century Daradim was abandoned and later forgotten except in the legends of the dwarves and old records of the Suel Imperium that somehow escaped the Empires destruction.