Steven Christopher

The Finding of the Hoardwand Steven Christopher

In an elder Age, the Fathers of the Dwarves were the craftsmen of the Ancient Gods, and forged for them wondrous treasures of imperishable metals. But they soon came to lust after the treasures they had fashioned, which in turn blighted them with the greed of their desires. Before, however, they were accursed by the Gods, the Dwarves fled with the treasures and divided them into Nine Great Hoards, placing over each Hoard a golden Wand solely by which one could claim, master, and wield the Hoard to which that Wand corresponded. But after the Gods expelled the Dwarves, they hid the Nine Hoards away in secret along with their Wands. And until the Seventh Age -- the Age of Peril, as it was called -- so most of the Hoards (and their Wands) remained -- lost, hidden. But now, Arvalad Elvintall, one of the Greycloaks (as they are called), a Man of the Pilgrim Companies of the Grey Wanderers, has found the Wand that corresponds to the Ninth Hoard. Also known as the Hoard Perilous, or the Weaponhoard, this was the greatest of the Nine Hoards of the Dwarves, for it was composed entirely of unshatterable weapons of vast power. And so it falls solely upon Arvalad to safeguard the Hoardwand and endure its sorceries while he awaits -- in the green, quiet countryside of the Dyneddon, the Little Folk, to which he and his people have been banished -- the counsel of the wizard Rimdrod Oakenstave whom the Elvinwise have sent for and now so desperately seek.