Kaervas Death's Head was the lord of an empire deep within the earth, and he sat upon his lava-red throne of rock and lava, his skin so thick with calluses and black enchantments that no mortal weapon could pierce or cut it. Ehld traveled many leagues beneath the surface of Faerun and demanded an audience with the black rock king. Kaervas, amused by the old human's challenge, agreed to fight him, but found Ehld's strength and holy avenger an equal match for his strength and skill. Finding it almost impossible to strike a mortal blow against Kaervas with even his holy avenger, Ehld parried one of Kaervas' strikes and turned the momentum of Kaervas' own axe back on its owner, causing the blunt end of his mighty axe to sink into the dwarf's skull, splintering the bone beneath the skin into fragments. The Duergar allowed the human who had slain their king to leave unmolested, and they sealed Kaervas' body in the throne room where he died.
Thanks for tha exciting lore you quoted, @Artemius_I! Did you guys know that Kaervas Death's Head appears on page 24 of the original manual of Icewind Dale where the inventory screen is explained?
Here is an (unfortunately rather low-quality) image taken from a .pdf:
When I read the title of this thread I was prepared to go off on a tangent about Cannery Row or one of my favourite short story anthologies. But in terms of the BG library, The History of the Dead Three has always been a page-turner. In fact, in evil runs (particularly with a blackguard), Firebead's possession of it - and the knowledge of charname it implies - serves as the perfect motive for killing him (and collecting that sweet early-game experience).
As someone who gets annoyed by people interrupting him in the library, I can relate to this passage: "The monk Gorion troubles me. He seems to have taken an interest in my readings. I must be careful to be more clandestine in my research. I wish I could simply kill him, but I doubt I could safely murder him within this damnable library." My diary might look similar, lol.
I think the real world equivalent would be people who go to the university library and do group work in the individual study areas.
History of the Dead Three is, unsurprisingly, popular. The story is quite ridiculous (as with most all things D&D), but it crescendos with an important lesson for charname from his/her father:
Bhaal, who finished third, demurred, "I choose death, and it is by my hand that all that you rule Lord Bane will eventually pass to Lord Myrkul. Both of you must pay honor to me and obey my wishes, since I can destroy your kingdom, Bane, by murdering your subjects, and I can starve your kingdom, Myrkul, by staying my hand."
I keep a copy of it in charname's inventory throughout the entire series almost every playthrough.
Kaervas Death's Head was the lord of an empire deep within the earth, and he sat upon his lava-red throne of rock and lava, his skin so thick with calluses and black enchantments that no mortal weapon could pierce or cut it. Ehld traveled many leagues beneath the surface of Faerun and demanded an audience with the black rock king. Kaervas, amused by the old human's challenge, agreed to fight him, but found Ehld's strength and holy avenger an equal match for his strength and skill. Finding it almost impossible to strike a mortal blow against Kaervas with even his holy avenger, Ehld parried one of Kaervas' strikes and turned the momentum of Kaervas' own axe back on its owner, causing the blunt end of his mighty axe to sink into the dwarf's skull, splintering the bone beneath the skin into fragments. The Duergar allowed the human who had slain their king to leave unmolested, and they sealed Kaervas' body in the throne room where he died.
Thanks for tha exciting lore you quoted, @Artemius_I! Did you guys know that Kaervas Death's Head appears on page 24 of the original manual of Icewind Dale where the inventory screen is explained?
Here is an (unfortunately rather low-quality) image taken from a .pdf:
He also appears in IWD2. One of the pregen parties is led by a dwarf who is a descendent. This dwarf is trying to make up for the misdeeds of his ancestor
As someone who gets annoyed by people interrupting him in the library, I can relate to this passage: "The monk Gorion troubles me. He seems to have taken an interest in my readings. I must be careful to be more clandestine in my research. I wish I could simply kill him, but I doubt I could safely murder him within this damnable library." My diary might look similar, lol.
I think the real world equivalent would be people who go to the university library and do group work in the individual study areas.
Or people in the group work areas that are so noisy that they disturb everyone in the quiet areas.
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Here is an (unfortunately rather low-quality) image taken from a .pdf:
I keep a copy of it in charname's inventory throughout the entire series almost every playthrough.