The Northeron Highlands bordered Loch Modan and the Wetlands to the west and had always been a strategically contested region. Mountains filled the west, with one road and one road only leading from Grim Batol to the Wetlands, while the sea surrounded the other three sides. The narrow mountain road was easy to defend and difficult to attack. With proper preparations, the Northeron Highlands could be made virtually impregnable, while also threatening the Wetlands.
During the War of the Three Hammers, the Bronzebeard clan had won a complete victory, while the defeated Wildhammer Dwarves had been driven out. The former prince, Khardros Wildhammer, and his Wildhammer warriors had begun their migration, passing through the Gates of Dun Algaz and building their own kingdom in the Grim Batol mountains. The Wildhammer clan had flourished there and rebuilt their home, naming their new home Grim Batol.
But the good times had not lasted. When the Dark Iron queen Modgud attacked Grim Batol, the Dark Iron Dwarves, whose strength lay primarily in dark magic, proved formidable. Modgud broke straight through Grim Batol's gates and began attacking its interior. The Wildhammer warriors stood united, and Khardros personally took to the battlefield, slaying the mage queen amid the massed armies.
It was Modgud's death that brought an eternal curse upon Grim Batol. Those powerful dark powers left a blemish filled with evil upon the hill fortress. The endless curse forever ate away at every life there, until the Wildhammer Dwarves discovered that the home they had worked so hard to build was no longer habitable.
Now, another group of uninvited guests had arrived. What they intended to do was even more vile than what Modgud had done, and the Northeron Highlands were only the beginning.
They performed dark rites in the Northeron Highlands, something that