Klaazag Keyhulk

The Sirothi Dwarves have long abandoned anything resembling morals or principles. Depraved and maniacal, their every action is dedicated to personal ambition or to overthrow Siroth’s enemies. Darkly innovative, with minds for the mechanical as well as shadow rune magic, they are the masterminds behind many a heinous device, machine, and experiment. Few besides Vulkanos Fumor can exceed the degeneracy of their imaginations. Living beings are subjects to the Painsmiths — as the Sirothi Dwarves are also known — as much as any artefact or machine. So are immortals such as Demonspawn and Lightbringers, and even the Undead. All can reveal secrets of the gods, even clues as to the very nature of creation itself. Every mote of information is power. Geargrinders are perhaps the most visible result of this work. Tattooed with Painsmith symbols, their heads encased in armor of black iron and their forearms replaced with stone-grinding weaponry, they are Ogryn made into living weapon-slaves. But they are far from the only beings who are broken and bent to the Painsmiths’ will. The creature known as Klaazag Keyhulk is a unique specimen. Klaazag is a near-lobotomized construct with virtually no mind of his own. Loyalty to his masters is all he knows – he was born to an Ogryn slave-clan owned by them, and has no memory of his childhood or youth. Ogryn are of particular interest to Klaazag’s Painsmith controllers, a clan known as the Lightning Stone operating in the Dawnmounts. They take their name from a strange material found in considerable quantity just outside their subterranean home, a kind of rock run through with capillaries of enchanting crystal that glow a pale green and hum different tunes or songs to whoever hears them. After much study, the Lightning Stone has learned that this material possesses a mind-control power that can be manipulated and wielded with the correct shadow magic. The reason Ogryn are so important to the Painsmiths is a unique biological feature — their ability to rapidly adapt to an environment. Their bodies adopt the very features of the landscape around them, whether frozen, volcanic, or anything in between. Klaazag was the first Ogryn the Lightning Stone used to successfully take on properties of the mind-control crystal. The material was so powerful that Dwarves and other Ogryn could not approach without being seduced by the rock’s song and rendered mad. Klaazag’s mind was so empty, so devoid of individual thought, that he was as close to immune to the stone’s harmonies as a mortal being could be. Now – to an extent – one with the mind-control crystal, Klaazag mines it for his masters. With much effort they have constructed for him an almighty tool-weapon to do this that resembles a key and tuning fork, inlaid with runes made from the very crystal he extracts. This device not only allows him to better break apart the rock, it serves as a distant remote-controlling device for his masters to direct his movements from a safe distance. Furthermore it has the power to isolate the crystal’s mysterious song and absorb it for later, separate analysis in Lightning Stone laboratories. The uses of Klaazag’s tool do not end there. Among the dark runes running along the side of the key’s black head are some capable of sonic manipulation, which turn the device into a powerful dissonance weapon. Enemy eardrums explode after being struck by waves of directed, high-pitched screeches. Warriors topple over, armor and weapons clattering, as throbs and vibrations upset the sense of balance afforded them by their vestibular systems. The weapon’s connection to Klaazag’s physiology through the mind-control crystal embedded in both even allows the Ogryn to roar and shout at a volume far in excess of his species’ natural physical limits. Many a foe has been driven from the Lightning Stone’s underground territory in terror inspired by this alone. Finally, the key Klaazag carries fulfils another purpose: it is a red herring. Shaped as it is, many intruders and foes believe it provides access to some treasure trove filled with gold, antiquities, weapons, ancient lore tomes, anything they might be able to sell. Thus they devote their attention to Klaazag rather than the Lightning Stone Painsmiths, keeping the Dwarves safe. Even if a raider was to claim Klaazag’s key for themselves, it would open nothing, for there is nothing for it to open.