Mostgirder was the grandest of the mountain halls in its prime. It was said that every dwarf had a room with a golden statue and a bed encrusted with jewels. Due to the location, a narrow isthmus between the two continents, Mostgirder was the crown jewel of the dwarven civilizations. It was a beacon of trade and culture unmatched by anywhere else. This made the Tongs of Grasp quite rich and prosperous. They even called Mostgirder The Iron Jewel, after the rich veins found below the earth. Nowadays, the dwarves knew the former mountainhall by a different epithet: The Cursed Fortress. The dwarves of the Tongs of Grasp had delved deeply and greedily, awakening a power they could not contain in the year 57.
This had triggered the longest war in the history of the world, and the dark host was ultimately defeated by a combined force of both the Nets of Blunting and the Tongs of Grasp nearly 170 bloody years later. Dwarves had been born and died of old age while the war raged on. Finally, the army of the Nets of Blunting cleared a path for the Tongs of grasp in 226, and in early autumn, the siege of spears was fought against the dark host and their goblin attendants. Mostgirder had been a powerful fortress indeed, and the Tongs of Grasp lost a dozen stout dwarven soldiers for each of the twisted horrors slain. Half the fort was untrained and unarmed goblin servants, but the other half was said to consist of nightmarish rodents bigger than bears; living, shifting, fire; and all led by a number of monstrous monkeys, who could project delusions into the minds of other beings.
By the time the siege ended, all the defenders lay dead, as well as most of the army of the Tongs of Grasp. The ranks were bolstered with conscripts, and this victory came at the cost of over a third of their entire population. An entire generation of dwarves was cut in half during that one battle. Many of those that lived succumbed to madness in the following years, having seen the horrors that lurk in the deep.
Only the very young and the old survived, leading to a period of significant economic decline. Further, they had struck a hydra. By removing the unnatural head, the goblin tribes fell back to squabbling and banditry in the surrounding countryside. Unlike the goblin tribes from the age before the war, they now had training. Many also had equipment left over from the armies of the dark host. While those that remained after the battle held them off for a few years, there were not enough dwarves of fighting age left. The population of the Tongs of Grasp was rapidly decimated over the next two decades, reduced to survivors and refugees.
The dwarves of Vigorrack had no need to fear such terrors, for the lava pipe meant they did not need to dig deep. The blood of the mountain could sustain magma works much closer to the surface. They simply needed to overcome the issue of supplying it safely to the fortress, and Meng and Mebzuth were assigned to this task. They set to work, with input from the miners.
By the time spring arrived on the calendar, the magma channels were almost complete. The dwarves cleared the last of the stone out while the detailers smoothed the walls under the watchful eye of Meng and Mebzuth. Perhaps not strictly necessary, as the magma channels would be sealed once flooded. This did however give Sibrek, Tosid, and Logem time to double check every part of the plans. They did not know of a single dwarf having ever tapped into such a volcano, and they did not need any unfortunate accidents. Mebzuth had a bit of a perfectionist streak, and happily supervised. This room would house the primary forges for the forseeable future, and Mebzuth absolutely wanted to ensure that the job was done right.
Along with spring 251 came an elven caravan, followed by three more migrants. Two animal handlers and a fisherdwarf. Since the animals consisted of a few pigs and there was nowhere to fish, the new migrants were told to start smoothing the rough stone that made up the outpost. And so, Ber Eturmosus, Fath Eraldakon, and Udil Onulthukkan joined the ranks of the stoneworkers.
While Nish the broker briefly considered kicking the elves out, Sibrek and Muthkat overruled him. Not only that, but they gave the elves an excellent deal, trading a fairly large number of mugs and trinkets for a strange wooden instrument consisting of a number of pipes. The elven merchants, clearly quite happy with their luck, loosened up their tongues and started telling stories about the surrounding area. There were a number of goblin fortresses in the vicinity, two-week’s travel at most. There were also a few dozen smaller pits dotted around the landscape. The elves were natural scouts, travelling quickly and lightly through the woods. Even unarmed and unguarded elven merchants, like these visitors, had few qualms quickly sneaking through enemy controlled territory. Elves never seemed to anger even the most aggressive of wildlife, and their natural grace and agility meant that few other than elves could hope to catch a fleeing elf. As a result, they had fairly accurate intelligence to share about some of the local goblin pits. Nish quickly realized this and made it his business to ensure the elven merchant's cups never ran dry, while Muthkat and Sibrek listened carefully.
Shortly after the elven merchants left, Mebzuth finally declared the magma channels complete. Tosid the miner volunteered to breach the lava pipe, likely entirely on impulse, as Tosid tended to act first and ask questions later. He disappeared down the stairs and came running back up shortly after, as the floor slowly warmed in the cross pattern of the channels they had dug. The wall was bricked up behind him, to prevent anyone from accidentally falling down the stairs into the magma flow below. The forges could finally be assembled. Steel plates had been poured, and kaolin had been gathered to create insulated conductors fed by the heat of the mountain below. Eventually, they would run ducts to feed a furnace, but for now, they would use the heat directly. It would simply take longer. This was a more than adequate solution, given the dwarves had found more hematite as they dug out their fortress. This meant that they could begin creating steel in some capacity. Additionally, a number of tetrahedrite veins were dug out, including the cavernous remains of the one that now housed the magma forges. Most of the stone had been sifted out and carried away by the masons with their wheelbarrows, leaving piles with the distinct cubic crystals sparkling in the warm glow of the magma below. Simply put, there was plenty of work for the smiths, and they finally had the facilities to carry it out. They were seen outside those facilities much less commonly now. Once their personal bedrooms next to the forges were dug out, they were seen less commonly still.
The militia squad had taken to calling itself the "Ultimate Furnaces", after the new magma channels. It soon got its first taste of combat, in a sense. It was a fight to the death, sure, but not one worthy of song. Somehow, a honey badger had gotten down the whole tunnel, deep underground, and wandered into the barracks. The honey badger was obviously not very bright, for it chose to attack the axedwarves, and was promptly hacked to bits.