The Melairkyn

Raine Wands did not spend a lot of time in the City of the Dead.  The ignorant believed that daylight would protect them against some of the many dangers there.  Raine knew better.  Events however demanded his visiting the city park and grave yard.  The first report only indicated that the Wands crypt had been damaged.  His assistant Clarice was dispatched to determine the damage and arrange for repairs.  Since the death of the Agundar captain who had watched over the graveyard, minor items such as damage to graves, shrines, and crypts were no longer handled and dealt with.  These minor worries carried heavy emotional baggage for many noble families and the Wands in this regard were no different.  When Clarice reported that the magical wards that protected the crypt had been not only pierced but destroyed, Raine knew he must investigate.

Raine, though practiced at hiding his emotions, could not help but stand dumbstruck at the what he saw.  The crypt wasn’t damaged, it was destroyed.  The ground in 10 yards all around the crypt was broken and ripped apart.  Clarice interrupted Raine’s thoughts arriving with two grave diggers who claimed to have seen what happened.

“Well met sir, well met, it was yesterday morning sir, myself and weasel here, sorry sir that’s our nickname for him, Wesley is his name, we were working hard at digging two graves over there sir near your crypt.” The nervous workman continued, “There was the worst sound, something clapped, and then it was as if there was an earthquake but only in the area you see here sir.”  The gravedigger paused looking over at Wesley who was nodding in the affirmative.  “This sphere appeared, big and red sir, as tall as the crypt’s two stories, with half of it burning and churning at the ground.”  “It was HOT!” Wesley interjected which set the other grave digger to nodding.

“Continue please” smiled Raine, despite his anger at Clarice for making him listen to the uneducated rabble. Clarice knew his master’s moods and started directing the two workers statements so that they would get to the point.

“Well sir, nervous I am sorry, sir it was the darndest thing, I thought for sure that giant red glow would grow and kill us all but after the initial heat died down, well people stepped out of the glow sir.”

“They was DWARVES!” exclaimed Wesley the weasel, “Thousands of them! And they weren’t hurt by the fire!  They were covered in silvery items and they just started going down sir, into the earth beneath your old crypt.  It was like the ground wasn’t even there for them or it burned away around them.”

The two grave diggers continued their explanations but Raine stopped listening once the silvery items were described.  His mind cast back to his early education on Waterdeep and its history.  The original dwarves of Undermountain, The Melairkyn, mined the mountain for mithral. Those locals that knew their history believed the Melairkyn to have been defeated and destroyed by Drow between 34DR and 211DR.  Raine had always doubted that belief and several years before had studied the dwarves hoping to discover a lost vein of mithral or treasures of the clan.  What he discovered however was that King Melair IV had sent a legion of his best men away in 32DR to battle a Red Dragon of enormous power.  For three years Raine had searched for the answer of where the last King sent the lost legion.  Although he never discovered where the King sent them, he did learn the name of the dragon they were sent to fight, Edomira, “The Red Watcher”. 

Raine was only just realizing his mistake when he learned the dragon’s name.  Raine had believed the Legion to be dead,  the dragon they spoke of was a mythic great wyrm said to be the leader of all Chromatic dragons whose lair was on the elemental plane of fire.   Raine left his assistant and the grave diggers behind to return home and ponder the return of Melairkyn Lost Legion.