Dragonlance DL 1 — recasting Gully Dwarves as resistance fighters

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
As I’m running Dragons of Despair soon I was thinking about how to deal with the gully dwarves. Originally I was just going to cut them out. But then I thought that they could be recast as resistance fighters against the occupying draconian forces in Xak Tsaroth. Their role in the adventure doesn’t depend on their original portrayal in any way.
 

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Steel_Wind

Legend
I've been toying with the idea of portraying the Gully Dwarves of Xak Tsaroth as a people who took to this area as a refuge... and the ruins have been destroying them and reducing their mental capacity through environmental contamination ever since. It's not just a mental deteriotation - physical, too. There are no old "Aghar".

And there are records in Dwarven which explain how they first came to Xak Tsaroth in the wake of the cataclysm, seeking shelter. Very few of the existing Aghar are able to read them now -- but the PCs could. Not only will these records lead them to the existence of the secret passage into Khisanth's lair, but it should clue the PCs in to the cause of their misery.

The ruins provide the key to unravelling their "curse". They are victims of lead poisoning as well as perhaps some other biological contaminant. The pipes the PCs can navigate are all lined with lead. It's everwhere. So is the mould. Or perhpas, the mushrooms the Aghar eat are an environmental concentrator of this lead contaminant.

It is affecting not just the Aghar, but other animal life in the ruins that eat those fungi.

And that is something that the PCs can discover and then at least act to prevent - and ultimately, cure. Even the destruction of Xak Tsaroth itself will provide the children of the Aghar born in the wake of that event longterm hope - as those will escape the cycle.

tl;dr: Gully Dwarves as victims who can be saved and redeemed is a worthwhile quest objective. Actually curing the Aghar of their poisoning and restoring their dignity could be revisited later as the key to securing the aid of Thorbardin -- and the step towards re-uniting the many Dwarven clans. The clerical powers of the new human priests should be just high enough to begin that process of curing disease and neutralizing the poison by the time DL3 & DL4 play out. The fate of the Aghar is therefore ultimately tied to the fate of the refugees rescued from Pax Tharkas - and there were many Aghar in Pax Tharkasmoved to work its mines by the Dragon Army.

Point is: there should be 100-200 Aghar with the refugees outside of Thorbardin. Compassion for the Aghar will beget compassion from the Mountain Dwarves. In this way, you can have your cake and eat it, too, when it comes to the Gully Dwarves; the re-write is modest. It's how they are presented and how their fate is ultimately treated which is the key to updating and meeting the moral charge of "cruel ableism".
 
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Tonguez

A suffusion of yellow
I've been toying with the idea of portraying the Gully Dwarves of Xak Tsaroth as a people who took to this area as a refuge... and the ruins have been destroying them and reducing their mental capacity through environmental contamination ever since. It's not just a mental deteriotation - physical, too. There are no old "Aghar".

And there are records in Dwarven which explain how they first came to Xak Tsaroth in the wake of the cataclysm, seeking shelter. Very few of the existing Aghar are able to read them now -- but the PCs could. Not only will these records lead them to the existence of the secret passage into Khisanth's lair, but it should clue the PCs in to the cause of their misery.

The ruins provide the key to unravelling their "curse". They are victims of lead poisoning as well as perhaps some other biological contaminant. The pipes the PCs can navigate are all lined with lead. It's everwhere. So is the mould. Or perhpas, the mushrooms the Aghar eat are an environmental concentrator of this lead contaminant.

It is affecting not just the Aghar, but other animal life in the ruins that eat those fungi.

And that is something that the PCs can discover and then at least act to prevent - and ultimately, cure. Even the destruction of Xak Tsaroth itself will provide the children of the Aghar born in the wake of that event longterm hope - as those will escape the cycle.

tl;dr: Gully Dwarves as victims who can be saved and redeemed is a worthwhile quest objective. Actually curing the Aghar of their poisoning and restoring their dignity could be revisited later as the key to securing the aid of Thorbardin -- and the step towards re-uniting the many Dwarven clans. The clerical powers of the new human priests should be just high enough to begin that process of curing disease and neutralizing the poison by the time DL3 & DL4 play out. The fate of the Aghar is therefore ultimately tied to the fate of the refugees rescued from Pax Tharkas - and there were many Aghar in Pax Tharkasmoved to work its mines by the Dragon Army.

Point is: there should be 100-200 Aghar with the refugees outside of Thorbardin. Compassion for the Aghar will beget compassion from the Mountain Dwarves. In this way, you can have your cake and eat it, too, when it comes to the Gully Dwarves; the re-write is modest. It's how they are presented and how their fate is ultimately treated which is the key to updating and meeting the moral charge of "cruel ableism".
Both tragic and hopeful and a built in hook for a newly minted cleric - brilliant idea
 

As I’m running Dragons of Despair soon I was thinking about how to deal with the gully dwarves. Originally I was just going to cut them out. But then I thought that they could be recast as resistance fighters against the occupying draconian forces in Xak Tsaroth. Their role in the adventure doesn’t depend on their original portrayal in any way.
Changing them into poor outcasts is cool, but so is your idea of resistance fighters. Depending on your group my only advice would be don't run them as written...

What I would do is make them a group of dwarves that are 'alien' to dwarven society in one way shape or form (maybe they are more or less pacifistic, or maybe they are not as physicals resilient as other dwarves, or maybe they are all tea totlers... Basicly I would just make it so that they stand out and go against dwarven stereo types without making them ablest.
 

That could absolutely work. I'd think it'd be very easy to have had them just be standard dwarves that took shelter their after the Cataclysm. They didn't have the numbers to face Khisanth and the draconians when they came, and have had to resort to guerilla warfare.

One thing I noticed on re-reading DL1 is that the gully dwarves in it speak in complete sentences. It's night and day from their depiction in Dragons of Autumn Twilight.

As I’m running Dragons of Despair soon I was thinking about how to deal with the gully dwarves. Originally I was just going to cut them out. But then I thought that they could be recast as resistance fighters against the occupying draconian forces in Xak Tsaroth. Their role in the adventure doesn’t depend on their original portrayal in any way.
 

DarkCrisis

Spreading holiday cheer.
Just make them outcasts. Dwarves who didn't want to be involved with other Dwarves and their issues. Keeps with the themes of DL. Kind of like the Wild Elves as they related to the other Elves in the setting.
 

toucanbuzz

No rule is inviolate
We're running the same adventures by sheer coincidence and are going to hit Xak Tsaroth next session. Definitely the gully dwarves aren't going to be run as originally designed.

My take is that the gully dwarf way is survive and outlast. They endure and don't draw attention. The occupiers will eventually get tired of living in an inhospitable environment, and if (without drawing any attention at all) some food stores crash to the ground or a barracks gets flooded...well, that's just another reason to pack it up and leave. But, I'm also having the gully dwarves play to their cunning. The PCs aren't their friends. They're an angle. Either (1) they can be manipulated, then blamed, for sabotaging the draconians or if they're not going to help (2) they can be turned into the dragon to curry favor.

Of course, one part of the story that gets left out is when the city collapses into the sea. The PCs presumably find a way to get out. You can bet the gully dwarves do too. They're survivors. I wonder if PCs will take any responsibility for their well-being...
 

Ancalagon

Dusty Dragon
I really like the idea of gully dwarves as refugees/resistance fighters. (I also note that I haven't read the adventure so this is a "in general" support).

That being said... the root is so ableist that part of me wonders if they are worth salvaging. I would certainly re-name them if I were to use them.
 

I support the idea their mental handicap is not a congenital defect but due to environmental circumstances. I would give it the trait adventage for save against infectious diseases and oral poisons. If it was necessary the prequisite would be they have to drink a "Grandma's remedy" to recover the health, but a limited number of daily uses.

Other idea is the gullys have been victims of creatures from the Feywild, and these used "fairy dust" with secondary effects to hide their actions.
 

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