Colin Stonetooth, one of the dwarven chieftains of old, leads a group of Hylar dwarves from their old delvings across Ansalon to the Kharolis Mountains - to Kal Thax, where they meet the other dwarven clans. Together they will build the mountain fortress of Thorbardin, but not before a civil war erupts between them, threatening to destroy the new nation.

A new generation of dwarves, a hundreds of years later faces challenges as yet unknown to Krynn: the Ergoth Empire is encroaching on their borders, while Thorbardin is attacked by a strange wizard, thousands of mercenaries and a strange beast from within the mountain itself...

Yet more turmoil in Thorbardin. Years after the "Wizard's War," chaos reigns. The old thanes of the tribes have all died or passed their thrones on to younger dwarves. A new king, Lawgiver, emerges from the chains of the mines near Pax Tharkas, and commands an army of dwarves which attacks Thorbardin itself...