Rise & Fall of the Obsidian Grotto - Christopher D. Schmitz

A devious elder monster allies with the lava elves of the Obsidian Grotto. She promises to provide an elven general with arcane weapons to throw down their dwarven enemies, and also the support of a black magic wielding cult hidden within the Nhur-Gale Forest. General Shedakor assumes that any bargain with such a dark creature would extract a high cost... but can he afford to pay it?

Meanwhile, on the far side of Esfah. An elven hero from the northern coasts embarks on a mission to protect his home from the goblins of Brackishomme swamp. But Davian Whisperwynd is prone to rash vows and the gods will not release the adventurer from a promise to lay down his sword: an oath that complicates things when he promises a beautiful enchanter that he will retrieve an item from the lair of the Death god himself.

Neither knows it, but the gods of fate have interlinked their destinies.

In the mid 1990s there was one fantasy RPG that ruled them all: D'D, of which Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, and many other books and gaming worlds were a part of. It's publisher, TSR, created another gaming world that won Game of the Year in 1995. That world was Esfah.

In eons past, when time was young and creation malleable, the four powers of Nature - earth, air, fire, and water - the children of Nature, gods in their own rights, brought forth two races of beings to care for their fledgling world of Esfah, created by the all-father, Tarvenehl. One race, the Selumari or coral elves, was created to husband the fluid forces of air and water. The other race, the Vagha, a dwarvish race, embodied the stability of earth and the tempering power of fire. Together, these two peoples worked to nurture their infant world into something glorious and beautiful... but then another god revealed himself: Death...