"01 - The Covenant of the Forge - Dan Parkinson 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragonlance - Dwarven Nations (2))

To Randy and Jenny Scott

DRAGONLANCE(r) Saga Dwarven Nations

Volume One

The Covenant of the Forge

(c) 1993 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of TSR, Inc.

Random House and its affiliate companies have worldwide distribution rights in the book trade for English language products of TSR, Inc.

Distributed to the book and hobby trade in the United Kingdom by TSR, Lid. Distributed lo the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. Cover art by Tim Hildebrandt. Interior art by Valerie Valusek.

DRAGONLANCE and GEN CON are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. The TSR logo is a trademark owned by TSR, Inc.

First Printing: February 1993

Printed in the United Stales of America.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 92-61078

987654321 ISBN: 1-56076-558-5

With special thanks to Pat McGilligan for his patience, to Harold Johnson for sharing his knowledge of the dwarves of Krynn, and to Sue Weinlein for a touch of sunshine.

TSR, Inc. P.O. Box 756 Lake Geneva, WI 53147 U.S.A.

TSR, Ltd.

120 Church End, Cherry Hinton

Cambridge CB1 3LB

United Kingdom

Prologue

A Glmpse of Prophecy

Except for the dragons, who sprang from the ground itself, the first people of Krynn were the elves. This was a conclusion reached by Mistral Thrax early in his search for certainties among the complexities of an uncertain world.

Few would recall his early pronouncements regarding the sequence of origins, because in those days Mistral Thrax was considered to be full of strong ale and vagaries, and because few among the people of the high mountains really cared about such things as who came first and why. Such thoughts were for the very old, who had nothing better to do than think them. Even then, when he began his studies of lore after being maimed in a rockfall, Mistral Thrax was more than two hundred years of age.

Thus little note was made of his reckonings. But the logic of his conclusions satisfied Mistral Thrax and led him onward in his studies.