Smithing has a long tradition amongst dwarves. The stocky, beardy men have mined gold, jewelry and other riches in amounts that made dragons envious, have built vast underground cities and fought in many battles, wearing metal armor and swinging forged weapons of various kinds. And yet, there is one item, tool or weapon depending on how it is used, that stands behind everything, that created everything dwarves are proud of and that destroyed their foes: the hammer. The Father of the Forge is an ancient artifact of great power, legends say that it was used by none other than Moradin to create the first dwarf.

The Father of the Forge is a heavy blacksmith's hammer crafted from adamantium with inlaid gems forming Moradin's holy symbol on the sides of its head and dwarven runes engraved along its handle, symbols for both creation and destruction, symbols of the craft of the smith.

Dormant. The hammer grants you the following properties while in its dormant state:

• The hammer has the thrown property with a short range of 20 feet and a long range of 60 feet.
• You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls made with this magic weapon.
• When you hit with an attack with the Father of the Forge, the attack deals an additional 1d8 fire damage. If you hit a giant with this hammer, the extra fire damage increases to 2d8.
• Legends and Myths of the Craft: You gain proficieny with smith's tools, jeweler's tools and with the History skill. You can add twice your proficiency bonus to any ability check you make that uses smith's tools or jeweler's tools and to any History check you make that is related to weaponry, war and smithing in general.

Awakened. The hammer grants you the following properties while in its awakened state:

• You gain a +2 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
• The additonal fire damage increases to 2d8 or 4d8 against giants.
• You gain resistance to fire damage.
• Choose between the Path of Creation and the Path of Destruction to determine which one of the following abilities you get:
  • Path of Destruction: Mighty Blows. You know how to use the hammer as a tool of destruction like no other. Whenever you use the hammer to make an attack against an object, the attack is a critical hit, and when you make an attack against a creature, your attack scores a critical hit on a roll of 19 or 20 on the d20. Furthermore, whenever you score a critical hit against a creature with this weapon, the creature is knocked prone.
  • Path of Creation: Master Smith. You gain advantage on saving throws against being exhausted, no longer need to sleep and cannot be put to sleep against your will as you are marked for endless work at the forge. Whenever you hit a willing construct with the hammer, you can decide to not deal damage to it and instead restore hit points equal to the damage your attack would have dealt. Furthermore, in place of one of your attacks, you can touch a creature's damaged armor, shield or weapon with the hammer to repair it instantly.

Exalted. The hammer grants you the following properties while in its exalted state:

• You gain a +3 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
• The additional fire damage increases to 3d8 or 6d8 against giants.
• You gain immunity to fire damage, and as a bonus action on your turn, while holding the hammer, you can step into any open flame that occupies at least a 5-foot square and reappear within a different flame within  60 feet of the original one.
• You gain one of the following abilities depending on the path you have chosen.
  
  • Path of Destruction: Magic of War. While you are holding the hammer, you can cast one of the following spells (save DC 21) either as an action or, when you take the attack action on your turn, in place of one of your attacks: blade barrier, earthquake, fire storm, Tenser's transformation, wall of fire. Once a spell has been cast using the hammer, that spell can't be cast from the hammer again until the next dawn.
  • Path of Creation:  Magic of Art.  While you are holding the hammer, you can cast one of the following spells (save DC 21) either as an action or, when you take the attack action on your turn, in place of one of your attacks: animate objects, fabricate, Fizban's platinum shield, forcecage (the cage is made of unbreakable metal), heat metal. Once a spell has been cast using the hammer, that spell can't be cast from the hammer again until the next dawn.

Other Properties.

The Father of the Forge has two other properties that require specific deeds to be done to be unlocked:

• Champions of the Ages. This hammer has crafted armor and weapons for countless of legendary dwarven war heroes. As an action on your turn, you can summon the spirits of these warriors to fight alongside you. 2d4+2 spectral dwarven champions appear within 60 feet of you. They are immune to the frightened and charmed conditions, wield greataxes or battleaxes and shields instead of greatswords and their weapon attacks count as magical. They have advantage on attack rolls against giants. The champions obey your commands and disappear after 1 hour. Once you have used this ability, you cannot use it again until 7 days have passed.
• Journeyman of the Dwarven Forge: You can use an action to strike an anvil with the hammer and teleport yourself and up to eight willing creatures (and any champions summoned by the hammer) to a different anvil on the same plane of existence that you have seen before, regardless of the distance between these two anvils. Once you have used this ability, you cannot use it agian until 7 days have passed.

Random Properties. The Father of the Forge in its dormant state has one minor beneficial property and one minor detrimental property. When the hammer attains an awakened state, it gains an additional minor beneficial property and an additional minor detrimental property. When the hammer reaches its exalted state, it gains a major beneficial property.

Destroying the Hammer. Only after the last dwarf passed to the afterlife, the Father of the Forge can be melted down in the very forge it was born from. As long as at least one dwarf is still alive, the hammer resists every attempt to destroy it.

Proficiency with a Warhammer allows you to add your proficiency bonus to the attack roll for any attack you make with it.

Notes: Bonus: Magic, Damage: Additional, Damage: Additional, dwarf, Damage, Combat, Versatile, Push