Halls of the Mountain King was the second 4th Edition Open Design project from Kobold Press. I ran the adventure in 2010 as part of the same Parsantium campaign as Wrath of the River King.
Here’s the write up from the 15th session in which the party’s nemesis, the rakshasa assassin Heinsoo, poisoned one of the PCs, allowing me to write my friend Lucy out of the campaign while she went travelling. Heinsoo is named after the brilliant designer of 4th Edition and 13th Age who was very nice about being cast as a villain in my game and even wrote the introduction to Icons of Parsantium for me!
I can’t remember where I got the stats for the swarms of flying books from but it was very funny how much damage the PCs took from paper cuts!
Begin here with Session 1 – Alarm in the Dead of Night.
21st Quintilis
Leaving Bolval in the upper halls to help Sharden care for the refugees, Brave Ella, Khuma, Krivinn, and Saethus head down the Endless Stairs, following the map to the Library of Thorvir Runeshadow they were given by Caradlather.
Their route is difficult and treacherous, taking them across deep crevasses, past the lair of a large troll warband, and through caverns flowing with boiling lava. After struggling to climb a steep cliff to rejoin the stairs, the characters run into a stairwell troll leading a trio of javelin-hurling troglodyte impalers. These monsters are no match for our heroes and are soon dealt with – Ella makes the killing shot on the troll with her last fireburst arrow after Krivinn has softened it up with his greatsword.
After eight hours of travel deep into Mount Rygar, the characters at last come to their destination: an oak door marked with the symbol of a book indicates they have found the library. The party step inside the dusty chamber which is lit by glowing magical globes and contains stone bookcases holding hundreds of books and scrolls.
As the party start to look around, they are attacked by the books themselves (which form into deadly swarms, by the stone statues of dwarven scholars (possessed by earth spirits) and by a ghostly librarian. The battle is long and deadly – Krivinn uses his knightly intercession to protect Khuma and uses his divine challenge and divine sanction to get as many enemies to attack him as possible.
Meanwhile, Ella has been cornered in an alcove with a book storm inflicting deadly paper cuts on her which won’t stop bleeding. Saethus is also in trouble as a book storm attacks him over and over again, and eventually the wizard falls unconscious and fails his first death save. Khuma has already been forced out of the room by the librarian’s angry hush so Krivinn flings the dying eladrin through the door too so the shaman can heal him! Ella beats a hasty retreat, followed by Krivinn; the characters breathe a sigh of relief having got out of the room alive.
When the adventurers withdraw, the books return to the shelves, the statues become statues again, and another ghostly librarian appears, more ancient-looking than the first. This is the ghost of Thorvir Runeshadow himself. Krivinn apologises for the damage they’ve have done to the library; in response, the ghost challenges them with a riddle:
“What is it which, if you name it, you destroy it?”
None of the characters are able to answer correctly, confirming Thorvir’s opinion that they are dunderheads and dullards. Before throwing them out of his library he reveals that not long ago a dwarf burst into the library, stole a book and left a note behind. Brave Ella takes the note, which is from Heinsoo (clearly a master of disguise!) and immediately succumbs to the deadly contact poison on it, falling to the ground, foaming at the mouth!
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Richard Green | Game Designer 