In the last storyline, Kyri got a turn in the spotlight with “Death and the Dragon’s Eye.” This time, it’s Onyx’s turn as the lead. Once again, the rest of our intrepid adventurers get cameos or nothing in terms of appearances. I think this was a result of the creative team wanting to do some character-building for what they thought was going to be a longer-running title. However, it could also be a bit of meta-commentary on D&D as a game, since almost everyone has experienced a game night where most of the players couldn’t make it and the DM had to cobble together a hasty side quest.

Somewhere Beneath Waterdeep

Dwarves will mine just about anywhere, and that includes the sewers of Waterdeep. Our story kicks off with a group of them taking a pickaxe to a sewer wall in search of, presumably, treasure.

In a tale as old as, well…at least Tolkien, the dwarves dig too greedily and too deep, awakening something best left alone. Luckily, it’s not a balrog in this case but rather an air elemental. It’s still nasty enough to scatter the dwarves and give their leader a nasty bump on the noggin.

The elemental whips through the sewers and punches a hole in the newly-repaired Selûne’s Smile, right underneath Onyx’s bed.

It brings the dwarven leader’s helmet with it, and that sparks some recognition from Onyx.

I think it’s notable that Onyx can identify his father’s helmet by its smell. Dwarves aren’t known for their keen olfactory senses, so I have to assume that the old man uses skunk musk as a conditioner or something.

In Search of Pappy

Come that morning, Luna is mopping up from a rowdy night at the tavern and Kyri is hanging out with Rellamyn from the last story. Onyx storms right past them, and sadly that’s the last we’ll see of our non-dwarven regular cast this time around.

Onyx grumbles that only his pappy could get into trouble “before the gods are even awake yet,” which would be a turn of phrase were it not for the fact that Selûne’s Smile is owned by the actual Selûne. He marches right into the tower of Khelben Arunsun and wakes the wizard up in his bedchambers. It seems that someone with as many enemies as Khelben should probably have better security…

Khelben tells Onyx that there are at least eleven ways he could kill the dwarf. Onyx doesn’t buy the bluff, which is really the only weapon Blackstaff has in his arsenal right now. As such, the wizard joins the quest on the condition that all debts are cleared. (Khelben owes Onyx for helping him rid Waterdeep of lawyers not too long ago.)

Khelben teleports over to Piergeiron Paladinson, who is just washing his face. Piergeiron prvides a map of Waterdeep’s sewers which is magically updated…and now includes a new tunnel Onyx’s pappy was digging.

The tunnel is too small for humans to fit into, which means it’s time for Onyx to take matters into his own hands and go back to Waterdeep’s sewers (hopefully with fewer troubles than last time).

Meanwhile, Down Below

Onyx’s father, for his part, is as stubborn as his son. After regaining consciousness, he continues digging until he reaches a room. Unfortunately, he’s not alone.

He doesn’t fight off the swarm alone, because Onyx catches up to him soon enough.

Seeing Onyx dramatically hurl an axe reminds me that it’s been a long time since he used a blowgun as his primary weapon. I miss that, since it set him apart from traditional dwarves. But I guess he got sick of dealing 1d2 points of damage per hit.

The two dwarves deal with the rats, but the family reunion goes poorly from there.

Despite Onyx’s misgivings, he reluctantly joins his father in searching for the Pillar of Gold. After all, if pappy’s map is accurate, they’re practically there anyway.

Unfortunately, it seems that the Pillar of Gold isn’t a what but rather a who.

Onyx’s family tree is really something, I have to admit.

A Discussion of Dwarven Theology

It’s worth noting that legends are never as straightforward as they seem. Onyx and his father came looking for a pillar of gold, but they found a person…because the pillar itself is a metaphor.

At this point in the history of the Forgotten Realms, dwarves are dying out due to their slow birthrate. Dumathoin, the protector of underground dwarves, sealed six chosen dwarves underground to keep them safe and ensure the race would never die out.

Look, he’s the god of mining and exploration, not the god of coherent plans and an understanding of lifespans.

Regardless of whether Dumathoin’s plan makes sense, Onyx’s pappy wrecked up the wards protecting this “pillar of gold,” leaving him vulnerable.

An umber hulk breaks through the wall and attacks. Personally, my biggest gripe with this story is that the umber hulk is not umber in color. The word is right there in its name!

The umber hulk takes Onyx’s grandpappy and tunnels away. I guess the lesson here is that if you’re going to hide away dwarves where nobody will ever find them, make sure not to create a grand legend involving untold riches if you find them. Nobody would have gone looking if he were called a Pillar of Mud.

An Unsubtle Trail

Umber hulks are built for power, not stealth. This one leaves a huge tunnel wherever it goes. While there are many different tunnels beneath Waterdeep, it’s only a matter of time before the two dwarves track it down. So why send an umber hulk to kidnap ol’ grandpappy in the first place?

I would crack wise about how it’s not wise to bring your foe to you before you kill him when you’ve got an incredibly powerful murder machine at your beck and call, but this mysterious figure does explain why that’s not an option.

The villain here is Grysygonth the Destroyer. He believes that the reason the dwarves are dying out while the elves and humans thrive is because they wield magic. (This is AD&D era, where dwarves could be clerics, fighters, thieves, or some multiclass combination of those, but never wizards.)

Grysygonth believes in an old legend that says that the last dwarf will regain the magic lost by his ancestors. Apparently, he interprets that to mean that the dwarves will be able to cast spells once the Pillars of Gold are gone. With a crack of his whip, he turns Onyx’s grandpappy to gold just as the other two dwarves arrive.

The plan has more than a few holes in it, but I don’t think we’re supposed to take the villain as a credible threat. At the very least, Onyx doesn’t.

Onyx overpowers Grysyngoth, so the villainous dwarf tries to rely on bribery to save his skin.

Onyx has everything neatly wrapped up, until…

Pappy is much more easily bought than Onyx. Rather than try to restore his father, he’d prefer to melt the six Golden Pillars down and take his cut. Moreover, he’s willing to take his own son down to do it. But maybe he can be talked down?

So family ties do run strong in the old man after all. But how do they get Grysyngoth to undo his enchantment?

Care for Some Divine Intervention?

While Onyx and pappy are struggling with Grysyngoth, the god Dumathoin himself appears.

Pappy reads the rune and revives the Pillars of Gold. Grysyngoth does not take it well.

Grysyngoth dies in the tunnel collapse, while Onyx, pappy, and the Pillars of Gold get to safety. And we end on a “laugh and freeze frame” moment.

So how did Onyx’s solo outing go? In my opinion, it wasn’t all that bad up until the end. We got to see that Onyx learned his lesson from “Players,” and now values friendship and family over gold. While there was some comedy, the story didn’t fall into the usual territory of playing dwarves as pure comic relief characters.

The entire story spans two issues, for a total of 48 pages. I’m completely there for it for 45 pages. To have a god show up, give the heroes a magical solution, and kill the villain in the last three is pretty bad, though. There was no chance for Onyx to get through to Grysyngoth or even call upon Khelben for help; instead we get something that would literally be a deus ex machina if there were a machine involved.

On the bright side, we get the whole gang back together next time. In fact, this is the last solo outing for these characters. The bad news is that the campaign will soon come to an end, and we’ve got only a couple more stories with this gang left.

_{Images: DC Comics}