The Giant & the Maiden: The story of Rhageth Stellhorn

This tale may not be one of truth, but it is one I have been told and believe to be true. Since I was a lad I never saw my pa' when I asked about him my ma' just said he wasn't around no more. She said he had stuff to do and that I should get back to my studies. But when I was old enough to get some learning on smithing my ma' came to me and told me that my father had a friend.

She said his name was Oori Lightninghammer and that he was going to teach me to smith like a Dwarf. Oori lived down in Gael's Shore, makin' the jump from Hillgate to Gael's Shore was no fun at all. I rode down there with a farmer who came up to sell his grain. I think I can smell that wagon all the way from here.

Well anyways, I got to Gael's Shore and that's when I finally got some answers. I found a Dwarf and asked if he knew Oori, he said he'd tell me if I bought him an ale. So I bought him that ale and he told me that he was Oori and asked who might be lookin' for him and told me I was too tall to be one o' his. When I told him my name was Rhageth Stellhorn he spit up his ale, that's the first time I've seen a Dwarf waste ale and probably the last too.

He laughed and asked if I was the son of Haruk Stellhorn, I told him I hadn't a clue and asked who Haruk was. Oori said he'd tell me after I told him why I bothered to find him. I told him that my ma' sent me down to learn smithing. He asked why he should teach me and I threw him the coin purse my ma' sent with me. He said that'd do and we'd start on the morrow.

That morn' I found him in the tavern drunk as a Dwarf can get. He said you forge better when you've got a few ales in you, I thought that was just a Dwarve's excuse. Oori was a good blacksmith, he actually began teachin' that night. That's the night I learned how to work the forge, though it wasn't really teachin' I was just watchin' him forge and seeing how he did it.
I continued to watch him for a few more months. Then he had me do some forgin' I wasn't half bad, I learned quite a bit from him. After awhile he started doin' less forgin' and more drinkin' but that wasn't too bad 'cause I got to forge some more.

But one night, after he'd had one too many ales, he started talkin' 'bout Haruk. He said that Haruk taught him to smith diamond, but that he was no smith himself. Most of it was drunken gibberish, but I got him talking about how they met. Oori said that Haruk was livin' way up north, out by the ruins o' New Frostholm. So I figured he was a Frost Dwarf with his learnin' o' diamonds and livin' up in the cold. Then Oori started talking about fightin' he said Haruk forged him an axe made o' pure diamond.

We walked to his house and he took the axe down from his mantle. I was surprised he could lift it, he said that Haruk forged it with a rock. I didn't believe him for a second, no one could be strong enough to forge an axe with a rock, not an iron axe and much less a diamond one. I asked what Haruk looked like and Oori actually told me, he said that I had his piercing blue eyes and his rough brown hair. He said that Haruk was about two feet taller than me though, I asked him what race he was. Oori laughed and said he had to have been a giant, he made even the tallest of men look like Dwarves.

I asked him where Haruk was, Oori sighed and said that he hadn't seen him for at least twenty years. I had to have answers, why did he leave ma'? Where was he? Was he even alive? But how could I get up to New Frostholm? That farmer had already left for the year, besides he only went up to Hillgate. I couldn't find a way to get back up to Hillgate or anywhere really.

So I waited for the farmer to get back and begged him to let me go on his next trip. We made a deal, I would move anything that he needed moved for the whole year, then he would let me come with him. In the end he worked me more than all my time with Oori! I was always hauling his grain around, stacking it, roping the pigs, I even had to carry a few pigs around! But at the end of the year he did as he'd promised and took me with him. So here I am, stuck at Hillgate once more with no way to get up to New Frostholm. But I'll get there, I'll get there if I have to run there!