This is the first story featured in Inferno! Volume 2.
In The Merchant’s Story, the second instalment of Guy Haley’s five-part Age of Sigmar serial At the Sign of the Brazen Claw, it’s the turn of duardin Idenkor Stonbrak to regale his impromptu companions with a story from his past. Stonbrak hails from Ulgu, the Realm of Shadows, and his is a tale of duardin business and aelven trickery, of miraculous craft and debts not paid on time. It is a sad story of misty Barak Gorn where once a duardin craftsman was commissioned by a grey aelf to craft a necklace fit for a princess, with tragic consequences.
It’s framed in the same fashion as the first part, although without the need to set the scene quite so much there’s room for more of the story within the story this time around. Stonbrak’s tale paints an intriguing picture of a Realm we haven’t seen much of before, even acknowledging that Ulgu is a strange place to find duardin, and it provides an atmospheric backdrop to a fairly bleak account. There’s an appropriately duardin-esque tone and outlook on display, albeit with a clever questioning of the tale’s morality through another character’s eyes, and while once again it’s light on action it’s another smart and beautifully observed story.
