The Cradle of the First Forge

The Cradle of the First Forge is a unique vessel in Landorya. Its known origin is According to oral tradition preserved by Runic Bards, the Cradle was shaped by the first Stone-Keeper to reach the rank of Keeper, a figure known only as the Grandmother of Iron, who poured her own blood into the iron as it cooled to bind the earth-spirits permanently into its walls. No maker's mark exists, for she held that the Cradle belonged to all clans equally.. Its most cited abilities include Iron worked in the Cradle during a First Forge rite carries a permanent minor enchantment of durability, Stone-Keepers can read the accumulated spiritual impressions of all who have forged within it, communing with ancestral memory, and Flames lit within it cannot be extinguished by wind, rain, or enemy magic, only by the deliberate act of a War-Chief. Accounts also warn of a drawback: Any Orc who attempts to use the Cradle for personal gain, forging a weapon intended for use against another Orcish clan, finds their work cursed: the iron sets…

The Cradle has presided over every generation of Orcish adulthood rites since before the founding of Kragthar Hold, traveling with the tribes across the Territory of the Roaring Stone before being permanently housed in the Hold's central forge-temple. During the Plague of Iron-Rot, a catastrophic disruption to Orcish mining and economy, Stone-Keepers used the Cradle in a desperate week-long ritual that is said to have cleansed three major ore-veins of the corruption. Dwarven emissaries who have glimpsed it reportedly identify the runes on its rim as predating any known Dwarven inscription tradition.