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. I worked on the 4e conversion of the adventure and converted the weird and disturbing otyugh-derro crossbreeds that appear in this session!
The god Korak is from Green Ronin’s excellent Book of the Righteous from which I pulled some of the original Bathuran gods. He replaces Volund from the Midgard pantheon here. Later, when I was writing Parsantium: City at the Crossroads, I created a new Bathuran pantheon, and Korak was replaced by Voltan, the Smith.
Begin here with Session 1 – Alarm in the Dead of Night.
22nd Quintilis (contd.)
Brother Sigil leads the characters towards the Ash Chapel of Korak through the darkness of the Royal Residences with only Saethus’ light spell to show them the way. As they near the temple, the eagle-eyed eladrin spots another caged derro savant hanging from the walls. The wizard sneaks up close and fires off a magic missile, killing the creature just before it can scream out to alert any Forsaken patrols.
Their route clear, the party approach the stone doors of the Ash Chapel which are inscribed with the words “Fear not flame” and “Fear not ash”. Krivinn unblocks the doors and opens them. Inside, disgusting dwarf-things stand before the party on the ash-covered temple floor. These foul beings have stumps where their arms once were and otyugh hides complete with tentacles stitched over their heads; they move in to attack the characters, moaning, wailing and giggling.
Saethus uses fey step to get into the room and stay ahead of the “dwotyugh” chasing him, casting burning hands and lightning bolt at the monsters. The others stay behind Krivinn near the entrance although this makes them all vulnerable to the sewage breath of the stinkers which poisons and weakens them. Khuma goes berserk and charges the dwarf-things, taking plenty of opportunity attacks as he does so. Eventually, the characters, covered in sewage and ash, are victorious and their opponents lie dead.
The characters search the chapel, looking for secret doors and treasure but don’t find anything. The most interesting feature is the magma flowing down behind the large altar-forge. Krivinn throws a couple of dwotyugh corpses into the fiery curtain, allowing him to spot the dragon’s mouth-shaped furnace door behind in the wall. Saethus searches the altar, finding a deadly spike trap but can’t work out how it’s triggered.
Realising that they need to open the forge door Bolval casts the endure elements ritual but unfortunately this demonstrates the very fear of flames the chapel door inscription warned against. Sharp tines shoot from the altar as the cleric goes to put his hand into the magma, and Bolval and Krivinn’s armour turn against them as spikes penetrate their flesh. Krivinn is able to dismiss his armour but Bolval is wounded over and over again before he can remove his.
Saethus tries to open the furnace door next but cannot withstand the pain long enough. Neither can Krivinn (despite holding a dwotyugh corpse over his head for protection), but Khuma consults his trial spirits for guidance and manages to pull the handle inside the white-hot furnace to open a hidden spiral staircase down into the Royal Crypts. Brother Sigil insists on staying in the chapel so the others head downstairs without him.
The stairs lead into an antechamber holding a giant statue of Korak and a pair of statues of dwarves – one a warrior, the other a miner. Beyond lies a large hall of tombs with numerous holes in the walls giving off grey-black smoke. Krivinn strides into the room as nearly a dozen thoqqua shoot out of the holes to attack. Saethus’ brand new paragon spell, storm cage, doesn’t seem to do much at first, but the wall left behind kills three gravelgrinder minions. The others move in to engage the fiery elemental worms, and the characters are able to defeat them without too much difficulty, although the party are starting to run low on healing surges. Nevertheless, they decide to press on for now, knowing that the earthquake victims above are relying on them.
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Richard Green | Game Designer 