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 24th session.
Begin here with Session 1 – Alarm in the Dead of Night.
The party attempt to make sense of the clawed tracks in the Lower Hall which appear to orginate from and return to the water rise. Before heading down the elevator, the characters explore the mist-shrouded areas (protected by a guards and wards ritual) leading out of the great chamber, but only come across rusted machinery, jammed gates, and dead ends.
Descending the platform to Heartsblood Forge, Khuma spots a grating in the wall at the bottom. He tries to pry it loose with his spear to no avail. Krivinn bashes it open with his flail, revealing a tunnel.
The rotund Bolval is sent into the narrow passage first; the dwarf makes his way safely down to a cavern below and the others follow. The characters are now beneath the forge – grates stationed at various intervals allow them to hear the sounds of machinery and the voices of the inhabitants above.
As they explore the lava tubes, the adventurers are ambushed by the Widow of the Caves (a choker matriarch) and her chittering goldveined children. Krivinn is dominated and grabbed by the Widow as the other chokers surround Bolval and Khuma. It doesn’t take long for the characters to slay most of the simian beasts but the Widow herself escapes into the darkness.
The adventurers continue to explore, listening to the voices of a giant and two dwarves of Trollheim in what sounds like a kitchen above their heads. They approach a lava pool cautiously – Krivinn uses winter’s arrival and his bag of holding to transport himself and Khuma over to where they have spotted treasure and a mysterious coffin of dark wood. Opening the coffin, there is only dirt inside. Suspecting vampires, the pair throw it into the lava, grab the loot, and return the way they came.
On the shores of a second, bigger lava pool, the PCs are attacked by two large pyroclastic xorns and beat a hasty retreat when the creatures advance, flinging lava at the party. They decide to return to the forge above, heading past the cloudspore mushrooms to the gates beyond.
Here, the way forward is guarded by a two-headed boar-devil and two redcloaked kobolds on murreymount dogmoles. The characters move up to attack, the devil blows his horn and battle is joined!
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Richard Green | Game Designer 