Adventure 4 – The Manse of the Mountain King
(illustration by John Blanche)
Emerging from the dense forest, Krud and Ildore find
themselves at the foot of a long range of mountains. Directly in front of them
is the entrance to a steep pass leading serendipitously to their goal, a ruined
castle known as the Manse of the Mountain King.
“Damned good shortcut, eh?” enthuses Krud.
“Fantastic” replies the Hedge Wizard, pulling twigs and
leaves from his beard. “Shall we get on with it?”
“Indeed, by the Gods! Onward to riches and glory!” the young
warrior cries.
“Onward to Goblins, more like…” mutters Ildore.
Having climbed the precipitous trail, the
adventurers peer through a ruined gateway into the shell of a squarish castle
with a tower in the North-East corner.
What was once, presumably, a courtyard and internal
buildings is now an expanse of crumbling walls and rubble. They cautiously
enter…
1.
The inevitable band of Goblins are sitting by a
fire eating what may (or may not) prove to be a roast Halfling. Krud attacks at
once; Ildore grips his dagger and takes a defensive stance behind a large pile
of rubble. Two Goblins fall to Krud’s sword immediately; three of the others
put the fire between them and the warrior. The last makes a run for it,
straight into Ildore’s dagger. Krud leaps the fire and wipes out the remaining
Goblins. A set of stairs leads down into the Castle’s Dungeons (?) but Krud
wants to continue searching above ground first…
2.
“Great”
quips the Hedge Wizard, “A large stagnant pool. Bound to be stuffed with treasure...”
“Hmmff” his companion grunts, “Let’s see what’s down those stairs…”
As our heroes pass the pool two quite large
Vampire Frogs leap out croaking hungrily. A fight ensues. The amphibians lose. Krud
swirls the cloudy water with his sword but can see nothing. Neither fancy
taking a dip. “To the dungeons!” cries the over-eager Warrior and they descend...
3.
At the bottom of the stairs a passageway runs
left or right. Turning left they move along another passageway that ends in a
door…
4.
Krud listens at the door but hears nothing. He
enters and finds a small apparently empty room. “Let’s search, there’s bound to
be a hidden doorway to treasure” says Krud. Ildore stands back, suspecting there’ll
just be a trap. Amazingly (2 lucky dice rolls later) there is a secret doorway to…
5.
A similar room that contains a mouldering chest.
“Ah-ha!” cries the Warrior. The chest falls apart as Krud touches it but in the
remains is a roll of vellum that contains an Escape spell. Ildore is impressed;
Krud is not. They retrace their steps to…
6.
Find themselves at a cross-passage. Turning left
they approach another door. Krud listens; a spectral figure floats through both
the door and our heroes. Ildore is obviously affected but Krud ignores the
ghost and opens the door and enters...
7.
A room in which 4 Hobgoblins are lounging around
waiting for unsuspecting adventurers. There is a fight. Despite Ildore’s
ineptitude the Hobgoblins are slain. Krud relieves one of the fallen of a gemstone.
Exiting via another door they move South to…
8.
A room containing two trolls; they are aware of
the approaching twain due to the noise of the fight with the Hobgoblins. (Note:
these are trolls in the mould of those encountered in Tolkien’s “The Hobbit”.
They are called Bert and Ernie). Ildore sensibly
uses a Fireball spell and blows Bert to pieces. Ernie is upset about this and
swings his club at the adventurers. Krud parries the blow and attacks the
troll. After a short scrap, he defeats Ernie and chops him up just to make
sure. 6 Gold coins are found in Bert’s purse. Ildore investigates the purse but
it oddly it doesn’t talk. Returning to the cross-passage the explorers move
West…
9.
They enter a room with two other exits and 9
vampire bats hanging from the ceiling. The bats depart shunning the light from
Ildore’s lantern. Taking the South door, they enter…
10.
A room full of a strange yellow mist. Ildore
holds his breath and runs for the opposite door; Krud gets a lungful and
chokes. His companion drags him out before the poisonous gas can do too much
damage.
11.
In the corridor, they collide with a party of
orcs. Eventually the Orcs are overcome. Ildore suffers an injury but is patched
up and they move on…
12.
Through another empty room. As they head across
it the jaws of an enormous “bear-trap” fly up through the floor. Krud’s quick
reactions save them. The Eastern doorway leads to…
13.
A short passageway. More vampire bats fly out. Krud
listens at the door at the end of the passage. All is quiet. They enter…
14.
The tomb of the Mountain King. A stone
sarcophagus lies on a large slab in the centre of the room. Broken urns and
crates line the walls – it appears that the tomb has been defiled in the past.
There are also bones and corroded weapons lying about the floor. As they enter
there is a rustling noise and a mummified corpse creakingly rises up from its
resting place. “Fireball!” yells Krud raising his weapons. Ildore’s final
Fireball spell does some damage to the Mummy; he then keeps guard behind the
door whilst Krud does what Warriors do best. Soon there is nothing but
smouldering bandages and broken old bones. A few coins are found among the
wreckage of the King’s burial offerings. In the sarcophagus is a strange wooden
staff; Ildore senses magic and keeps hold of it. Disappointed by the lack of
more treasure, Krud leads the way out of The Manse of the Mountain King.
Ildore the Hedge Wizard
(illustration from Asgard Miniatures catalogue 1979)
