Torgin Ironbraid's Arc

Chapter 1 of 2

Torgin Ironbraid slammed his axe on the tavern table and swore he would take back the hold his clan lost three generations ago. Six warriors laughed at him. He had walked six days through the mountains to find the ruin himself, and now he stood in Warrington asking men to trust a lone dwarf with a bald head and a double-braided beard. None of them had seen the hold. They had only his word. "Show us proof," said the biggest of them. "You claim a fortress waits in the peaks. I claim you dreamed it in your cups." The others nodded. Torgin's face burned. He had climbed the broken gate himself. He had touched the old clan mark carved above it. But a story was not a wall, and no man crossed six days of stone on a story. Then the tavern door burst open. A shriek cut the room. Five small green shapes scrambled between the tables. Goblins, ragged and quick, with sly grins and grabbing hands. One snatched a coin purse. Another yanked a knife from a warrior's belt. They shoved and tumbled over each other, stuffing their arms with stolen loot. The warriors stood too slow. Torgin did not. His axe left his hand before he thought. It pinned the lead goblin's tunic to the doorframe. The creature squealed and dropped its haul. Coins, keys, and one heavy iron pendant spilled across the floor. Torgin crossed the room and set his boot on the goblin's chest. He did not pull the pendant free yet. He had seen its shape before, above a broken gate in the peaks. He held it up so all six warriors could see the mark stamped in the iron. It matched the clan mark on his own axe haft. "These pests came down from somewhere," Torgin said. "They came down from my hold. This pendant is dwarven work. Ancestral work. They robbed the place I mean to take back." He tightened his grip on the pinned goblin. "Ask it where it stole this." The biggest warrior picked up the pendant and turned it in the firelight. His laugh was gone. He looked at Torgin, then at the squirming goblin, then at the four others cornered against the wall. "If goblins nest in your ruin," he said slowly, "then the ruin is real. And a nest that carries dwarven gold has more inside." He drew his sword and set the point under the goblin's chin. "Talk, and we let you run." By the time the tavern quieted, three warriors had agreed to follow Torgin into the peaks. It was not the army he needed. It was a start. But the goblins had told them one thing before they fled into the night. The hold was not empty. Something far larger than goblins had driven them out of it.