Aurora Magazine 2019

The next few years led the group all over, defeating many evils and in each new place, Torgga found herself searching for news or the familiar faces of her lost clan. It wasn’t until she found Gimel, who had turned from the path of a warrior to seek out knowledge and lost magic to find the clan, that they did, in fact, find out what happened. A new evil had risen to try and take the throne of the old murder god, Tiamat, and this evil, Baal, had captured their clan. Spurred on by her anger, she and the rest of her companions searched endlessly for god-tier items to help bring down Baal. It was during this time that their citadel was attacked dealing heavy losses to the group. Around the same time, some of their more powerful friends rescued Torgga’s clan, but at a cost. Torgga’s father, the chieftain of the Battleforger clan, had died. Torgga, normally so calm and collected despite her fury in battle, did not take the news well. She’d already lost her home, her forge, the citadel, and many wonderful friends, only to discover that she’d lost her father too. Dwarven tradition calls for the family of the fallen to put together a pyre for the dead and mourn for three days. During this time, especially if the dead was a chieftain, a pyre must be built before the funeral could take place, and then a celebration of life would be held afterwards. Since her father was a chieftain, immediately after the mourning period was up, a new one was supposed to be chosen. Dwarves came from all over to either make their claim or honor the dead. What Torgga didn’t expect was for everyone who held a claim, including her brothers, to turn it down and elect her as the new chief. Unwilling, she be - came chief of another clan (the other being orcs, because she bested their leader in combat to save a friend) and overwhelmed from the pressure of her comrades who didn’t understand dwar - ven mourning obligations and the great losses she’d faced, she went deep into the wilderness away from all life and grieved in the only way she knew how to. An overwhelming and unrelent - ing rage consumed her and she swung her blade at tree after tree, 48