Foreword

At the end of the main chamber burns a series of fitful oil torches that circle a giant three-leveled iron dais. A staircase spans the space between each concentric level, crossing hot glowing vents that issue curtains of noxious vapor. Those who reach the second ring can take a dry and burning breath. Climbing the final steps of the great dais one is confronted by a tome of giant proportions, opened to an astonishing frontispiece, painted upon a parchment with edges blackened and curled from the great heat. Upon the opened page, beneath a frightening depiction of the apprentice Ðurkan forging armored men at the great anvil Berl, is scribed:

“Here within lie the words of the God of Tyrn-Orð, written by the hand of his first priest Kârn, copied by Dyrya the Vullin, translated by his servant Solðerh the Ancient, scribed in the Hand of Tor by his holiness Kyrindor I, inscribed here by Inyis the Blind for the High Queen Elhàrona I’s dedication of Kyrm Oryroð on this fifteenth day of Ældrūan in the 745th year of the High King”

Here then is the most important tome of the entire Iron Library, the oldest Book of Roð. Slowly and with great trepidation, your eyes rise from the ancient parchment to meet the inhuman hellish gaze of a sentinel standing behind the great book. Its fiery eye-slots quickly burn away all conscious thought from your mortal brain, leaving you with an all-consuming fear and the sense that you are fleeing the great dais for dark and unknown places, far from the sentinel’s view. Once your sanity is regained you continue your search for a volume that includes all entries from Qu through Qw.

Pronunciation Key: KW (soft qu = quell, quiet)

Definitions

• Quiet Inn, The; Trade. Inn near Temple Square where Dammon Shroudson stayed with Mot and Drug.
• quilling; 1. Trade. The act of killing by the Craw; 2. Usually refers to the practice of sinking a quill into the throat of the victim, marking that it was killed by a Craw.
• Qworulum, Alba; Fey. ( -652 DR) The General. Sprite winter Feyri leader summoned by Kaithah Argentale while playing Ōbèryl’s musical scroll, the Winter Song. Alba and his fellow Feyri were ruthlessly executed by a crossbow unit of the Lord’s Men in Oránold Dra, Kryr Shùrulm.