Clan Ironeater

Clan Ironeater was a dwarven clan who spent centuries guarding some of the otherwise empty holds of Illefarn from intruders.

History
With the demise of Phalorm in 615 DR the demihuman defenders of that realm were no more. Casualties had been too high to possibly sustain the realm but the clan of dwarves known as the Ironeaters held on stubbornly to the area underneath Mount Illefarn for many centuries. Circa 1257 DR, Derval Ironeater, the head of the clan at the time, decided that their numbers were no longer sufficient to survive in those tunnels and ordered his clan to the surface where they integrated themselves into the population of Daggerford.

In 1354 DR, Derval's brother, Korin Ironaxe, who always disagreed with Derval's decision to leave their home, took a force of 32 dwarves and gnomes to resume their anscestral duty. When they arrived though, they discovered part of the tunnel complex had been occupied by orcs.

For 3 years, Korin and his troop fought the orcs, losing nearly a dozen of their number. Then in 1357 DR an earthquake in the vicinity of Mount Illefarn caused all of the water in the River Delimbiyr downriver of the Laughing Hollow to turn green and become poisonous.

Adventurous militiamen from Daggerford helped Korin retake the tunnels from the orcs as well as a band of bandit necromancers. They also stemmed the flow of polluted water coming out of the Laughing Hollow.

However, no more reinforcements from the clan went to aid Korin. Derval refused to speak of the incident and of his clan's history in front of anyone not of the clan.

Activities
Derval became a councilman in Daggerford and a well-respected member of the community. His clan built many of the stone buildings in town and ran Derval's Bright Blade, the larger of the two local smithies. While the rest of clan worked on construction projects and basic iron work, Derval claimed to make the best steel weapons from Waterdeep to Baldur's Gate.