The Low King's Throne

In millennia past, a King was cast.

You might think of your ruler as seated up on high.

This Dwarven leader had a golden twinkle in his eye.

Said I will become the lowest of them all!

And so he set out to facilitate his fall.

Bravery and a little foresight

gave him the skills to gather his knights.

They dug in deep to lower their race,

to the here-to-fore dreamt-of place

he knew they were meant to tunnel out for clan

and clinch their future ruling place.

In that way earning his title and name The Low King.

So he addressed his populace

from the entrance to his new royal digs.

He bragged the new level two,

would be transformed.

Grandeur, quality, bribery, and reform.

A new noble's district

in the place of his rival's throne.

~~~

So even as the bold new king immediately set forth on his goals.

The most ambitious, exorbitant, labor-intensive project

the clan had yet beheld.

They stumbled upon a fortuitous discovery

something history-defining.

A huge deposit of Star metal,

a mystical levitating variety.

Uncommon to begin with,

but to find this deep, was rare indeed.

A resource this precious was used both

in the amazing works of The Low King

and used to finance his schemes.

He didn't just want to dig a deeper hole

than any of his predecessors,

he wanted to leave a mark on the face of history,

create something worthy of his future Dwarven brothers.

~~~

He initiated two new tasks.

He called his best and bravest crafts Dwarves,

The best he set to creating a powerful floating sovereignty

with the mystical gravity-defying mineral

harvested from their new locality.

Anchored with Adamantine chains of Nobility.

Truly master work commissioned

by a one-day infamous creator of Dwarven unity.

The bravest he sent to the topworld

with as much gold surplus capable of bearing,

their instructions, trade for lead, your rate, one to one.

Return with lead of greatest purity.

~~~

The deepest compartment, the new number one,

would get what he was deeming the Royal Treatment!

The courageous Dwarves with wagons loaded,

overflowing with veiled gold

and scales meant for simple merchants, roll out.

None had ever seen the light of the sun,

yet topside was their destination.

They passed the transfer stations,

middle points where commodities

winched down on elevators and pulleys,

seeing the strange entities that usually handle

their foreign goods like wood

in the dim light, unseen.

They made their way,

the gold, the merchants, and their guards

up, up, up, to the surface over days.

A place they say no sane dwarf had ever been.

It took ages and looked like a history lesson

of Dwarven architecture as they ascended.

~~~

Finally, runes glow, a boulder split,

opening a great fissure in the primordial peak,

and for the first time in their ancient lives,

the sun touched sandpaper skin.

Dazzling the group, as they affixed

their foggy glass goggles to mitigate its effects.

Everything sounded hollow

and smelled so faint and wiffly,

even the strongest closest smells,

faded unbelievably quickly.

It was an innovation

for a dwarf to bask in the sun.

What were the Dwarves known for

if not advanced technicians?

Pressing on,

erecting their cloaked operation

in the shadow of the great human nation

within a stone's throw of the mountain exit

they just made their way from.

Written on a slate, LEAD to GOLD 1:1,

drew the curtain and began their poll

in broken common

using exactly the call they were told.

~~~

As the first few customers strolled on by,

they were somewhat trepidatious,

but gave a gleam in their eyes,

since no one had ever offered gold in exchange for lead.

Many passed by,

but when the first man returned

with a hunk he handed it over,

looking them over,

not knowing if he was being jerked about.

The dwarf shut the curtain,

tested to make sure of its purity,

weighed it,

and when they handed the man

its equal weight in gold

he was more than incredulous,

he was right screaming.

Running back to town,

the word spread quickly,

which was in fact on the itinerary.

Of course in the blink of an eye,

it was every Tom Dick, and Harry

with any grey thing

they could find and carry.

The testing process became laborious,

consuming vast amounts of time,

but this only added to the story,

that the lead was transforming into gold,

it was not just being paid as a fee.

When the Dwarves moved from city to city,

their fame grew and grew,

while men lined up around their cities.

Bringing them their dull grey quarry.

Till one day, they traded their last coin,

the last golden scrap

passed through grasping hands,

and just like that

they were gone as quick as they came.

~~~

The wagon train packed,

and all drove away.

Behind them, though the legends stay

even on down to this day,

that Dwarves are a greedy sort,

they hoard gold and have cut stone hearts.

The mysterious call Lead for Gold 1:1

ringing in the topsider's ears.

Causing jealousy and fear.

~~~

They traveled through

the invisible gate

in the mountain wall,

like a mirage the gold train disappeared,

full of lead, mission complete.

Not long after Alliances were struck,

now Clans come together,

and topsiders gather to give a salute,

so Dwarven prosperity continues to grow.

The Dwarven King who brought all low

will be remembered forever more!

K.B. Silver