Role

Chapter 3

Mushrooms and bone is how it all began. Keviatalon Rockreaver was of course
of the Rockreaver Clan. Like most duergar, their home was far down deep in
the dark reaches of the underdark. The clan might be said to be more
pragmatic than most, but like other duergar clans, Keviatalon was taught the
basics of survival and how to avoid the underdark dangers close to his clans
home territory.

It should not surprise others then to learn that even though he had
just barely come of age, Keviatalon found himself outside his clans caves
gathering mushrooms, a favorite treat, and bones. Why bones you ask?
Keviatalon loved to carve bone. He could carve a variety of things, from
jewelry and ornaments to useful items such as cases and bone instruments.
Scavenging was an important part of this art, as the materials were needed
from which to carve. Like most duergars, Keviatalon had little societal
reservation whether this came from creatures or humanoids.

It was on a day such as this, a day like any other day of mushroom and
bone scavenging that Keviatalon came across a threat that was much too
advanced and formidable for his young training and prowess: Dark-Elves. Now
in heroic tales, a bard would have some grand story of how a young duergar
with only the beginning of training in physical combat fought off an advanced
patrol of drow warriors whom they themselves had hundreds of years of
fighting experience. But this is the real world and in the real world of
Thera, Keviatalon was much too young, his fighting training a mere shadow of
what he would achieve later in life.

What does such a young duergar do in such a case? What any pragmatic
young duergar of a pragmatic young clan would be expected to do: live. And
so Keviatalon Rockreaver found himself far from his clans home, a prisoner
of the Dark Elves, spirited away to their Drow City. Historically, there
have been many occasions where Duergar and Dark-Elves have worked together.
This expectation should be stricken though when given the need for specimens
for mage experiments. With this in mind, Keviatalon found himself prisoner
in a cell amidst the School of Magic in Teth Azeleth.

Duergars like their surface cousins are highly resistant to magic.
It is for this reason that they are coveted subjects for experiments and
further advancements in the art. This allows them to be used as test
subjects over and over again without dying as fast as many of the other
races, much to the fortune and misfortune of Keviatalon.

(Continue to Part II)