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Lord Harldain Ironbar was the city engineer of Myth Drannor[1] and the leader of the dwarves of Onaglym, the House of Gems.[2]

I be tied to this place, ya see, its stone be my bone, its pump my heart. What goes inside the House, I be aware of - I feel it, aye, just as I one felt air in my lungs and blood in my veins.
— Harldain Ironbar[2]

Description[]

At the time of his death, Harldain Ironbar was a middle-aged dwarf. He wore an expensive lavish thick fur coat. His fingers were adorned with precious metal rings and thick dwarfish jewelry chains hung on his neck.[1][3]

Personality[]

Harldain was a dedicated man who loved his work and all of his creations.[2]

Possessions[]

Over the centuries being stuck in a form of a ghost, Lord Ironbar collected many dwarven items lost in the Weeping War, enchanted items lost by dead adventurers, and many other things of value scattered across the ruined city. He offered a fair trade to the allies of Myth Drannor, making his grim collection available to others.[2]

Harldain gifted an enchanted and extremely comfortable set of +3 leather armor that felt like a light silk tunic to Kestrel, the de facto leader of the Veiled Ones.[4]

History[]

In life, Harldain Ironbar oversaw the ingenious dwarven magical engineering done in the City of Song during its renaissance. Under Harldain's guidance, the dwarves of Myth Drannor converted an old keep into the center of the dwarven community, the House of Gems; carved the deep home for his kin and anyone who wanted to live away from the surface, the Dwarven Dungeons; built complex system of water pumps that supplied the pools and fountains of Myth Drannor as well as Dwarven Dungeons with both mundane and magically enchanted waters, the Lifespring Wells; tunneled through rock to create Channels of the Earthborn Wind; and created the "liquid fire," used for illumination of the Dwarven Dungeons and Elven Catacombs under Castle Cormanthor.[5][1]

Another major accomplishment of Harldain's was creating the perfect sapphite, which was used by Myth Drannor's most powerful wizards to cast the Incantation of the Weave, creating the gem of the weave. The gem was a type of magical anchor that was used to commune and tune the City of Song's mythal.[2]

When the city fell in the cataclysmic Weeping War, in 714 DR, Harldain Ironbar perished, defending the stronghold of his people. Sometime later, his spirit found a way back to the ruined city, where he haunted the House of Gems. It was unclear if he was bound to the undead existence by the wild magics of the Weeping War and the mythal reacting unpredictably, or his will was simply too strong to leave his accomplishments unattended. During his unlife, he searched the ruins, recovering and securing enchanted masterwork weapons and armor to protect them from falling into the hands of evil creatures that roamed the area.[2]

By 1369 DR, many of the surviving magical machinery became broken, inactive, or infested by various creatures, making Harldain's ghost appear weak and losing some of his connection to the Prime Material plane. During that year, the City of Song was overtaken by the forces of the Cult of the Dragon led by Kya Mordrayn. The Cult successfully took over Castle Cormanthor and tapped into recently appeared pool of radiance underneath the city. Via its arcane connection to the weave, Kya corrupted Myth Drannor's mythal, severed damage its integrity. This was when an unlikely group of heroes, later known as the Veiled Ones, arrived at the ruins of the ancient elven city and found themselves in opposition to the Cult of the Dragon.[2]

Subsequently, the heroes reached the House of Gems, being led there by a piece of cryptic advice from Caalenfaire, and the prophetic Song of Faerûn. The heroes restored the dwarf ghost's connection to the House of Gems by reactivating one of his ancient pumping mechanisms. The apparition offered heroes help reach the corrupted pool of radiance as well as helping the Veiled Ones restore the broken mythal back to power. Harldain Ironbar produced a copy of the flawless gem of the weave, the only one in existence, locked deep in the hidden vaults of the House of Gems, allowing Anorrweyn Evensong, another whisper of a long-dead inhabitant of Myth Drannor, join with the mythal as its guardian.[2]

Appendix[]

Appearances[]

References[]

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