*Porki Thule sits down at the large table in Barak-Tor with a quill, some vellum and begins to write in neat dwarven runes*

It's almost a year since I first stumbled into this open sewer laughingly called a city by it's hapless & thoroughly inept inhabitents. I marvel at how long it's managed to survive here so long, 151 years I'm told, what with it's constant infighting, bickering and backstabbing amongst it's "citizens". I've suspected for some time that the Drow, Eyeballs and Squid-Faces let this enclave of rejects from slavery endure as some sort of huge joke that only they get. The Duergar continue to live nearby here because they're smart enough to know a pack of easy marks & mugs and can milk these twits for all the easy gold they can get. I bet those greys must piss themselves laughing every night when they count the gold that they reel in from selling off all their 2nd rate gear to the suckers who buy it because there is nothing else available at first glance.

I've survived the perils of the Underdark, although that's not to hard for one who is born of the rock and stone. I've seen friends come and go, having to sadly bury quite a few of them along the way as well as quite a few enemies. I've left to work with the gnomes, got lost down disused mine shafts for months on end, roamed the silent caverns where none have trod in an age. Only to wander back here time and again.

I shall begin though my tale by telling of another, my first true friend here, Kalin first Thane of Clan Stoutheart.

*the writing style becomes more formal now*

Kalin sat smoking a pipe when some one near him ask what is a Stoutheart. He puffed on his pipe and gazed steadily at the young lad before answering...

"Stoutheart be the kin of the SoulForge.....

Stoutheart be the source of the roughest toughest Kin this side of the Underdark.....

Stoutheart be those that never leave Kin behind.....

Stoutheart be my family and all i be needing to bring light to this Underdark...

Stoutheart be my heart and the heart of my Kin and when the hearts involved Lad nothing can stand in it's way..... "

He gave the lad a warning look to not say anything to lose his life over and went back to smoking his pipe.

A few days later...

Kalin took his time to etch Runes into the Wall right across from the door.

Foli grined at him while she went about making a shrine in a corner and Porki' was right there helping her with a big grin on his face.

Wulgar sat ever watchful of the mine shaft for any sneaks about and smirked when he eyed all the Kin working hard and being of high spirits.

Dorin and Gimball moved to one side of the Shaft working hard on comparing ideas of how to craft armour and changing suits to fit theirs needs.

Helios sat and gazed at the walls and smiled softly as he wondered what type of nice glowing fungus he could grow and what kind of Barley he could cultivate to help us make some fine ale.

Kalin continued to smile and watched all the Kin who all wear beaming with joy and making mirth all around him.

He took up a cold chisel and wrote in Dwarven Runes on the wall.

Tornbeard Hall Home of the Stoutheart Dwarven Clan. Named after Murinar Tornbeard a friend of the clan who will always be welcomed here as Kin.

*Porki stops writing and stares off into the darkness for a long while, remembering the ghosts of lost friends before rolling up the vellum with a heavy sigh*

*Porki unrolls the vellum and starts to write once more*

Now I shall recount, using Kailn's own words, of how we came to own Tornbeard Hall all those many moons ago because his story is also my story...

*Porki writes furiously, trying to recall the details of so long ago*

"Kalin stood filling his mug from the freshly filled Keg of Ale which sat just below the Dwarven runes he just craved into the wall not so long ago. He finished filling his mug and gazed at the runes as if remembering a time that now seemed a long time ago but was only a matter of days ago.

He took a long draught from his mug and the noise of the clan started to flood his ears with merriment. He smirked as Gimball started to play his bell and dance drunkenly. The clan began banging there mugs on the table helping Gim with a beat to his dance finally he finished his dance to an uproar of cheers.

Foli glanced around and demanded a story. She yelled, “Oi Kin let us have a story, a story of the clan one of our stories!!”

Those gathered in the hall uproared in approval for a story.

I grinned and stood quietly as everyone looked Kalins way, waiting for him to tell the story of our Clan.

Foli turned her gaze on Kalin, “Oi Laird tell us a story of our Clan!”

Kalin replied, “Oi stop calling me that, I nae laird of anyone I’m just Kalin, or Kalin the thick headed”.

Kalin grinned as he drains his Ale and all the clan howled with approving laughter. He filled his mug and eyed the runes and smiled. He turned and looked over at all the Stouthearts and said, “Oi kin if it’s a story of the clan you wish then I’ll tell the story of “Old Tornbeard and 9 Toes the Giant”.

The clan erupted in approval and all were early waiting for Kalin to begin.

“You see Kin we just started to gather our strength for the clan Stoutheart we nae have any place to call our own and our gold be running dry. And with nae a mine we cannae try to get a decent living crafting. Then a lad by the name of Murinar Tornbeard be calling for kin calling for dwarves.

Old Tornbeard be a mighty good miner but he have a big problem. You see he wanted to leave this part of underdark for better claims but he nae could do that until he got his revenge. You see just off in the dark lake be a island and on that island be his greatest enemy. There lay the Lair of the evil Giant 9 Toes!! A Giant so evil that his Poetry alone can sour the best ale and make your ears bleed from his bloody awful words.

Old Tornbeard along time ago got captured and made a slave by old 9 Toes for along time old Tornbeard had to endure all the whips and even worse all them poems. One day he escaped and before he left that Crazy old Brave coot was able to cut off that Sodders big toe and enhance give that bloody giant his name 9 toes!

So old Tornbeard stood before me Foli, Porki, Dorin, Gimball, Helios and Wulgar, he said he be asking kin true of the SoulForge to aid him in his Task to give him a bit of Peace. Now we as Kin would never turn our back on another Dwarf but he offered us a reward. He offered us a mine shaft he dug himself and gave us full rights and ownership to it. So we dunnae even have to think about it we took the task without a second word.

We Stouthearts left Tornbeard at the Blue Mushroom and made our way to the docks to hire passage to Old 9 Toes Island. The gnome seemed a bit scared when we told him our destination. He accepted our gold and took us through the shadows of the Dark Lake, we made the beach in a several hours. We moved in silence Me Gim and Dorin took up positions to defend against an attack which didn’t come. Wulgar made held up a hand and we all followed the command as he disappeared into the shadows. We waited for a few minutes and then he came back just as smoothly as he disappeared. Wulgar said, “ We got a large body of Trogs to the North guarding the main entrance. To the east there is a side entrances looks like they move supplies through it”.

I nodded and said in a ghost of a whisper, “Alright kin, we take the east passage into the tower if we see any Trogs we take them out quick and quiet”.

Everyone nodded as we moved east skirting the east shore of the island an hoping that bloody gnome didn’t lose his nerve and abandon us on this god forsaken rock. We saw a patrol of 6 Trogs we all took up positions surrounding them and cutting off there escape. Wulgar lead our Attack with a well place arrow in the Trog leaders eye and we rushed them it was over before it even began. We held our positions until we knew no one had heard us. I nodded to my kin and grabbed a few kobolds bodies and dragged them to edge of the water and slowly sipped them into the water letting there Armour weigh them down and out of sight. Wulgar set out to scout and Helios being a dwarf of the earth went about covering the sighs of a fight. We all know that it be better for them trogs that walked by here to not see there lizard kin dead.

We moved like this for 5 more encounters with patrolling Trogs and we handle just as smoothly as the first and we hid all the bodies in the water weighed down by there own armour. We finally got to the back door of the tower and we sneaked in as easy as a halfling in a cookie jar. We ran into a few kobolds enjoying a meal or something that smelled awful Gim cut down a Trog in 1 blow then his axe moved so fast I didn’t even see it as if cut through 1 then the other 4 that had rushed him Gim’s eyes were gleaming with Dwarf pride of his strikes. We all grinned our approval we cleared the lower level of the tower with easy. Every kin doing there jobs flawlessly like a true Clan should when banded together for 1 goal. We found a rope leading to the upper reaches of the tower Foli , Porki and Helios Called to us and we all stood before them and with there eyes filled with pride and knowing of the great deeds we were about to do for our Clan They three began to give us Prays of the All-Father, Revered Mother and The Lord of the Jungle Deeps. All the Stouthearts were so Moved by there blessing and words I could see in all of our eye we nae be falling this day for we were Family!! We Were Clan!! We Were Stouthearts!"

We headed up and found tons of Trogs at least 100 we fought with all of them, but they nae were about to stand against our strength Dorin being more Driven by his faith plunged into the battle like a mad man falling every foe in front of him never giving up his ground always fighting. Foli’s Blessing of the Revered Mother would nae let him fall Foli would not allow it she was glowing with the Pure faith of the Revered Mother and it exploded from her body to all of us we were nae going to fall. We screamed War Cry’s of Pure Victory.

Then Porki, full of the All-Fathers power, struck a tremendous blow falling one of the largest Trogs I ever seen. He screamed his devotion to the All-Father. Helios called to Lord of the Jungle Deeps and turned all of us half tree like things. We were swinging our arms which seemed to be like tree branches with weapons attached to them. Protected by his faith in us and the Lord of the Jungle Deeps, Helios threw himself into the battle without a second thought. We felled all our foes for 2 floors of that tower. We fought the floor was covered in both trog and dwarf blood but nae one of our Kin fell only them bloody Trogs!

We finally reached the top of the tower and we all had the foul stench of giant in our nostrils. We knew that old 9 Toes be very close so we headed up side by side Me, Foli, Dorin, Porki, Gimball, Helios and Wulgar all Stouthearts all of the same heart all of the same Clan. We entered the highest chamber and the last room of the tower all about the room were huge pieces of paper with nothing but bloody giant writing on them. Then we all Saw the Giant he was alone holding a huge quill in one had and a piece of in his other. And then we saw 9 Toes which marked him as the bloody giant we wanted. Old 9 Toes grinned and said “, Oh good more dwarfs to enslave and enjoy my lovely poems”. Foli said definately, “ Like Hell that be happening!" And with that I screamed “Stouthearts Attack!!”

"We all threw ourselves into the fight we surrounded him and started to swing. Then he took out the biggest Bloody Flail I ever did see and started to swing at us trying to sweep us all from around his feet.

Old 9 Toes laughed and said, "What a good time for a poem for my victory to come!!” He began to spout words I can only say were like some one grinding stone against a bloody anvil. Foli screamed in pain as did we all Dorin and Porki fell over clutching his ears from the awful sound. Helios ground his teeth, it was so loud sounded like a tree tipping over.

Wulgar screamed, “Cut it’s throat!! Stop it’s bloody mouth!!” as he shot arrows at 9 Toes. Gim Yelled, ”His throats too high we can’t reach it!!” I yelled, ”Start at the Shins!! Hack the bone Hack the Bone!!”

Old 9 Toes then swung his flail it flew over me and Gim’s heads but caught Helios, Por, Foli and Wulgar. They started calling on their blessing to restore themselves and me while Gim keep old 9 Toes busy. Then with fresh blessing we all were in the fray again. Wulgar caught 9 Toes with a arrow in his eye, Dorin slashed a huge gash into 9 Toes back left calf. Porki nailed 9 toes in the groin with his Flail after he jumped up as high as he could and took a swing and Foli took her Mace and began smacking every last one of his 9 toes. Gim swung a mighty blow with his axe right into Old 9 Toes knee all but crumpling it 9 toes dropped to one knee and we all started swinging harder then I saw it my opening his throat was so close I d'nae need another invitation and jumped up screaming "Stouthearts!!" and let my axe hit true. I caught his neck and almost completely removed old 9 toes bloody head!

And there we stood all of us battered and bloody standing over Old 9 toes body Foli, Dorin, Porki, Gimball, Wulgar, Helios and Me. We all Raised our weapons to the sky an Screamed our victory cry, “StoutHearts!! StoutHearts!!”

We gathered all the treasure that old 9 toes had and burned all of them bloody poems and then returned to see old Tornbeard. We found him drunk like a good kin waiting for us we gave him the rest of old 9 Toes, Toes and his head. Tornbeard was so grateful we almost thought we saw a tear in his eye. He then gathered us all and took us to our new Home to this mine shaft."

Kalin gestured his arms about at their home and all the dwarves gathered cheered in response.

"This is how we gained our home and why we now call this place Tornbeard hall and why we honor old Tornbeard for his gift to the Stoutheart Clan."

Kalin pointed to the runes and the words they said and all the Clan smiled heartily as Kalin raised his Mug and made a toast.

"To Old Tornbeard and Old 9 Toes and to all the brave heroes of our clan that made all of this possible....Cheers!"

Kalin and all the Clan drained their mugs and cheered all the heroes and everyone gaves pats on the back and grins to Dorin, Porki, Foli, Gimball, Wulgar, Helios and even Kalin. Kalin thought to himself, "This be one of many of our stories to come, our Clan stories, the stories of the Stoutheart clan and it’s heroes that will never be forgotten."

Kalin smiled quietly to himself as he filled his mug once again and tipped it up to toast the runes on the wall....

*Porki puts down his quill and relaxes for a long moment in his chair*

*Porki blows off the dust from this journal*

Why people can't separate business from politics is beyond me?

Mining is mining...period. Well since I've been ratted out by some ratfecker who knows feck all about what I'm upto, my plans seem to be in a bit of a heap.

Bugger them all! Fecking morons.

I will still go ahead anyway without the seekers. In fact I hope & pray to Moradin to succeed just to spite that bunch of skulking idiots. If anything, this episode has taught me a couple of things: 1: don't place your hopes in any one person &, 2: Start to campaign to get onto council here.

Speaking of the council, that pack of overpaid dick-pullers have done nothing about my proposal. Even that blowhard Reev is more concerned about saving his arse than actually doing something for this city. They are all shyte. I intend to get elected and actually do something. The age of dwarf rule is long over due.

All those councilors honey words are meaningless. None of them have a fecking clue how to run a city underground. All the factions here are too busy fighting amongst themselves to see that if they stopped fighting over the scraps that lay about them, and look about at the potential wealth and REAL power they could amass for themselves if they bothered to unite and strike out at those bastards the duergar who ripped this city off blind. We could also be building a trade network with the gnomes who are still out there in the dark, maybe invite them back here.

I'm convinced that there is real mineral wealth here. The gnomes are idiots I know, building that infernal machine certainly proved that. However they would have located the city with the mind that mines will be needed to be close by, as evidenced by the now depleted iron mine, and that there would be other ore bodies that could be mined near by. Transporting raw ore to the city is the difficulty, a forge will need to be built on site to convert the ore into metal.

I will start to build on my master plan, but it will never be written down in case this dairy is found and read so those who are reading it and have hopes of learning what I truly plan....sod you!

I was a bit disheartened when I saw that no one appeared to be interested in going prospecting. However, I spoke to councilor Sachrissa, a lass with some intelligence and vision, and she has backed my proposal.

I made a sending the next day and called for people to assist. Unfortunately, as well as some decent folks showing up, some heightist scumbag trouble maker decided to have a go at the gnome named Fin, teasing him about his speech impediment and accusing him of being an Illithid thrall. My temper was already short and Linus had told this git to sod off and I pitched in as he was being about as welcome as a turd at a dinner party. I told him on 3 occasions to piss off before I said to Sachrissa that I was going to break the law. Which I did, and beat the living shyte out of him with my fists. Maybe he’ll think twice before insulting those of lesser stature? Sometimes extreme lessons need to be taught to such imbeciles. Anyway, I handed myself in for arrest immediately afterwards and served a minor jail term but there was more to follow. After getting out from jail, I went with Barius, Sachrissa, an elf named Navae out looking for iron sign starting in the old mines. A good way to find new ore bodies is to go over old workings as although a deposist may be worked out, a new ore body may be near by. We found a broken elevator on the lower level and I believe if this this elevator is repaired, perhaps we can desecend to a lower level and inspect the rocks down there. Also there is an excellent chance that at low tide, the dark lake may have placer deposist of iron as an underground stream flows not far from the mine into the lake and shows signs of heay mineralisation. Placer deposist often contain almost pure mineral however they are quickly exhausted as a resource. We then went into the dark canal and I firmly believe that there is potential to sink a test shaft there, heading back towards the mines. It’ll take a lot of digging to see if there is a good sign of iron but I believe its there. I just sense it, almost smell it. We pressed further down the dark canal, encountering some rather dangerous creatures and had a couple of tough battles. Next time a much larger group wll be required for safety purposes.

We returned to the city where I seemed to have been charged with attempted murderfor the beating I handed out to the fool. Sgt.Blackbeard was pissed at me, and threw me back in jail again. After checking through all the records though, and corroberating witness statements, I was told to pay a heavy fine and to watch my behaviour. I will comply as I am a law abiding dwarf and will not let my temper get the better of me in the future.