Halls of the Mountain King Session 16 – Deeper Darkness

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.

This session features one of my favourite Kobold Press monsters, the very disturbing derro fetal savant.

Begin here with Session 1 – Alarm in the Dead of Night.

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22nd Quintilis

The characters are back in the Great Hall. They’ve brought the comatose body of Brave Ella up from the Library of Thorvir Runeshadow and entrusted it to the care of Father Jappe, priest of Morwyn.

Suddenly, the whole hall starts to vibrate as a tremendous earthquake shakes the mountain! The tremors catch the characters, trapping them under falling rubble as a group of mephits appear. Saethus and Khuma manage to take cover next to one of the big pillars where they are attacked by the earth mephits, but Krivinn and Bolval remain stuck in the epicentre of the quake and are blasted over and over by the dust mephits.

Then, things get even worse when the ceiling starts to drop. The paladin subjects the elemental creatures to his divine sanction to get them all to attack him while the bloodied but fearless Bolval charges into melee and Saethus and Khuma attack from range. After a few rounds in which the dwarf cleric uses all his healing magic to keep himself and the other characters still standing, the mephits are finally slain and the ceiling seems to have stopped dropping.

The Great Hall is now in darkness and the screams of the injured and dying refugees ring out from beneath the collapsed ceiling and piles of rubble. The party crawl around, rescuing their trapped comrades Sharden and Ella, and also Captain Clovis, Sawbones and Boso from the Manticore, Father Jappe and Jorgen Stravbard. Halston, the greedy merchant who bought the airship’s cargo isn’t so lucky – Khuma finds the fat human trapped under debris and “accidentally” drops a large stone on his head while supposedly trying to rescue him.

The characters and the other survivors manage to crawl to safety but there’s a new danger – explosive gas is seeping up through the floor and the Shank which powers the ventilation system for the citadel appears to have stopped working. Varden Redfel, First of the Stair Guard, asks the party to head downstairs to repair the Shank; Brother Sigil of the Illuminated Brotherhood will accompany them as a guide.

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The party head down the Great Stair once again, emerging into Undermountain Square at the entrance to the Royal Residences. As they follow Brother Sigil’s directions to the Ash Chapel of Korak, they pass two massive pillars, carved to represent well-muscled dwarves forearms holding aloft the world. To their left, the party spot a strange sight – a cage hanging from a building holds a deformed Forsaken child.

Krivinn shoots at the creature with his crossbow but only succeeds in causing it to wail hideously. The racket attracts a patrol of Forsaken of the Red Eye, a fearsome dogmole juggernaut at their head. Fortunately, Krivinn still has the tanglefoot bag he picked up ages ago and manages to immobilise the beast long enough for Saethus to take out half the derro with his spells. The other characters concentrate on attacking the bombardier whose shot causes Brother Sigil to stab Bolval in a brief homicidal rage!

Once the Forsaken have been dealt with the party are able to slay the dogmole, although not without Khuma slipping into unconsciousness after fighting on for a while on 1 hp or so. Finally, a single attack silences the hideous screaming creature in the cage for good!

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