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 penultimate session.
Begin here with Session 1 – Alarm in the Dead of Night.
As the fight in the cultists’ kitchens continues, the second dwarf is killed by Khuma while Krivinn battles on against the stone giant washer-upper and his imp master.
Then, reinforcements arrive to bolster the forces of Mammon – a human captain in golden plate armour leads a platoon of goldveined dwarves. Saethus’ well-timed fireball gets rid of most of the minions as they charge forward.
Meanwhile the captain and Bolval go into melee (after Masterstroke berates the cleric for hanging back), and the imp vanishes after being bloodied by Khuma with his longspear. The disappearance of the little gremlin causes the giant to go into the fetal position and start muttering apologies and pathetic appeals for mercy. These fall on deaf ears initially as the berserk Khuma thrusts his spear into the giant, but Krivinn persuades his comrade to stop attacking. The captain also tries to surrender but the characters refuse to accept it and press the attack, killing him.
The fight over, Krivinn tries to persuade Anak the giant to join the party; instead he decides to leave the forge for good. The paladin isn’t too upset, however – he has a brand new execution axe which he names “Bahamut’s Jaw”.
Heading north into the Hall of Apprentices, Krivinn tests out his new axe on three Rabscuttle-shaped constructs after Khuma has examined them with his new goggles.
Next, the characters go south and east where they come to a defiled statue of Grajava opposite a pair of imposing doors with six locks. Khuma examines the doors, declaring them trapped. The party spend an hour or so removing the trappings of Mammon from the shrine, then Bolval puts Masterstroke into the hands of the statue.
Grajava’s statue comes to life and swings the hammer at the doors, smashing them open before collapsing in a pile of rubble. Bolval grabs Masterstroke from the wreckage.
Inside the Prime Forge a giant golden statue of a grinning infernal dwarf towers over the room, flanked by two tiefling preachers. In the centre are four dwarves and the gilded devil, Mr Purse. Mammon speaks, his voice coming from the mouth of the statue and trying to tempt the characters into joining the forces of Hell. Our heroes are made of strong moral fibre though, and refuse to give the devil his due.
Saethus casts storm cage, wiping out the dwarves and then blur to make himself invisible. Krivinn, taking care not to lose his new axe after Mammon’s threat about the first weapon to strike him, fires his trusty Forsaken crossbow at the statue. On the second attempt he hits and his crossbow explodes into smithereens!
Khuma and Krivinn kill Mr Purse and Saethus finishes off the tieflings. Mammon moves forward to attack Bolval with plutokinesis but Krivinn uses knightly intercession to pull the devil towards him and take the damage himself. Mammon turns the power back on the paladin, inflicting 87 hp damage on the dragonborn and sliding him towards the hole in the floor leading down to the lava (and xorn!) beneath. Fortunately Krivinn is able to catch himself before the drop.
The Mountain King strikes at Krivinn again and again with his mighty fists, precious stones flying everywhere as he does so, but his blows bounce off the paladin’s armour and Bolval’s shield of faith. Meanwhile, the characters are having more luck in hitting the statue.
When their attacks sunder the construct, the statue transforms into a twisted elemental creature (the Corrupted Shard), and a humanoid body built of coins, gems and jewels (Mammon’s Will)….
If you’d like to keep up to date with my Halls of the Mountain King campaign and other posts, please do join my mailing list – there’s a sign up form on the home page and subscribers receive a free Parsantium supplement.
Discover more from Richard Green | Game Designer
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Richard Green | Game Designer 
I don’t remember the mechanical details, especially since it was 4e, but it feels like Khuma suddenly became much more dangerous a few sessions back. I had some sort of Shaman/Barbarian multiclass going on, perhaps it all started to synergise at some point. ISTR having one very potent combination of abilities which took rather careful setting up in combat so I only managed to use it fully once or twice. A bit like getting the button mashing right in a combat video game which, let’s face it, is partly how 4e was meant to work….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, I think you’re right!
LikeLike