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Three centuries after the Shaping Wars, an elf by the name of Tanstalis Alverian discovered a travelling spellbook of The One buried in the ruins of Kilshamar. Tanstalis quickly utilized the secrets within the spellbook to become a powerful necromancer, and began a deadly conquest of the humans that had moved into his lands two centuries before. Though few in numbers, his elven clan joined him in necromancy, and soon the land crawled with undead minions, terrorizing the populace, and killing humans wherever they were found.
The dwarven clan chief Murogden Goldsmith took advantage of the situation to forge an alliance with the humans, in the hopes of defeating his rival elves once and for all. After the humans had worn themselves out against the elves, Chief Goldsmith secretly hoped to crush the humans, as well. The dwarven crusader Alberich Axebreaker took up his clan chief's call, and led the humans in assault after assault, all in Galgiran's name. Over the next several years, Axebreaker would do much to spread the faith of Galgiran to the humans, as smithies of both races began to manufacture weapons for use against Tanstalis' clan and his undead hordes. Axebreaker's weapon of choice was a massive hammer-maul that shattered the bones of the undead as easily as it shattered stone. During a battle with one of Tanstalis' cousins, a skeletal knight took Alberich Axebreaker's fighting hand off at the wrist. Angered and frightened, Axebreaker called upon Galgiran's might to protect him from the undead. The God of Smithing heard his crusader's call, and answered. As the skeletal knight drew back to take off Axebreaker's head, the dwarf brought to bear the only weapon he had -- his full-body shield in the shape of his family crest. The skeletal knight struck the shield, and was rebounded by a powerful field. Axebreaker took advantage of the situation to shield rush the undead warrior, and the blow from the shield striking bone resounded through the entire battle. The elven necromancers and their minions withdrew, as the humans and the dwarves rallied around the crusader and Galgiran's miracle. Over the next five months, Alberich would lead the allied armies to victory after victory against the undead, though he never picked up a weapon again -- save his shield. 'Bonecrusher', as he named the shield, even knocked aside the death knight Tsarsis Khaln, Tanstalis Alverian's personal body guard. With the undead Khaln out of the way, the armies of the living were able to slay the elven necromancer, and bring his race down. As the final battle wound down, Khaln spoke to the crusader, taunting him with an irony that only he knew -- Chief Goldsmith would next go to war with the humans. Horrified by the possibility, Axebreaker confronted his chief with both human and dwarven backers. A small battle ensued between the chief's personal guard and the crusader's friends and companions. In the end, Axebreaker lay dead, poisoned by one of the chief's guard. With the death knight Khaln's aid, Chief Goldsmith escaped, though Axebreaker's dying words had cursed him: "Thot pile o bones kin have yuir body, Murogden -- but yuir soul is at Galgiran's mercy..." Just what he meant by the curse was not understood, until Chief Goldsmith and the death knight were found together near the heart of their mountain stronghold. The heat of magma from deep within the earth itself had liquified a hidden vein of silver, and it caught the two unawares, washing them in the molten metal. The horrific statues were left as warnings in the solidifying lake of silver, and the entire vein was closed off to dwarven memory forever. Alberich Axebreaker was buried in a dwarven-constructed tomb with all the honors of a clan chieftan and a priest. In the moment of his death, he lost hand had returned to him, with his hammer still in its grasp. The dwarven priests sanctified the tomb and the very mountain itself, heating it with their prayers, and constructing it with defiance of time and thieves in mind. No one, they claimed, would ever steal from the tomb of Alberich Axebreaker, and live. As tribute to his memory, the humans left thousands of gold and silver cubits, as well as gems and copper, sealed inside the tomb of a crusader of Galgiran. Bonecrusher is a kite shield +3 under ordinary circumstances. Gilded in platinum, the shield is made of dwarven steel, and looks vaguely like a sprite of flame, bearing the family crest of the Axebreakers. In the hands of a crusader or a paladin of any faith, the family crest will blank itself, slowly replacing itself with the emblem of its new owner. For crusaders and paladins, Bonecrusher has additional properties, which can be discovered in time. When used offensively against the undead, the shield delivers a thunderous clap of sound that shatters bone, dealing 1d8 points of damage to them for every level of the wielder. When used defensively against the undead, Bonecrusher acts as a kite shield +5, and its protections extend in a globe that covers nearly twenty feet in diameter. Both abilities are inherent and automatic, a result of Galgiran's blessings, and can be used simultaneously. The globe of protection automatically grants an armor bonus of +5 to every living thing within its area of effect.
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