Hall of the Mountain King
| Hall of the Mountain King | |
|---|---|
| Date | 7/17/26 |
| Storyteller | Tire |
| Tier | Legendary |
| Player Characters | Zeal, Serene Leyvald, Melfyra, Gwenevere |
| Rewards | 400 xp, a lot of platinum coins, indestructible shield, keep stone amulet, ancestral echoing rune |
| Result | Success |
| Author | Zeal (Slayzo) |
| Downtime | 10 |
Associates topple yet another underground king.
Log
To say we were a necessary evil in this job is an understatement. You will understand what I mean in time, but for now, let us start from the beginning. A troll's severed head in a box, demands to return what was "stolen" from him. This King Below demands we give him back the people he kidnapped, his slaves. His intentions are clear, and thus, the four of us were sent for negotiations. He would cease his conquests and free his slaves, or he would be toppled like all tyrants before him. That was our goal in this mission, to "deal with the Hryngar king". We knew from the details of previous investigations we were dealing with someone with no qualms with making deals with underworldly powers. The champion of their forces, some sort of undying warlord, was likely in contract with a fiend of some sort. Their budding army was constructing monstrosities others had taken to calling the "wardens" of the tunnels. Their leadership was too far gone, and needed to be stopped before this went any further.
And so, we descended. After a few days we arrived at the edge of the Hryngar-dominated region of the caves, and the undying warlord came to collect us. He looked fairly strong, but nothing I couldn't handle. He didn't want us talking to the populace as we walked through the township to approach their castle, but Serene was perfectly fine defying that order. It seemed the people of this land knew little of us, and only saw us through the lens of whatever propaganda their king had been feeding them. We were the aggressors, and mere stepping stones in their prophecy-led king's path to conquering everything. A cute thing prophecy and fate are, given the absence of their chief god. An excuse for deceivers and the insane to do as they please, nothing more. With this information in our minds, we headed into the king's court to meet him directly.
A bald man with a rather powerful looking warhammer, I will confess their king had a presence about him. In different circumstances, someone like this could have been a powerful ally to unite the underground. Alas, it seems we'll have to be content with that Bugbear's efforts going forward. As the king spoke with us, it became clear how deep his insanity would run, if not for the bevvy of coincidences that justified his delusions. He told us of how he owned all above and below, Nar-voth and beyond, because of his possession of the "three fallen stars" that designate one as the monarch of prophecy.
One was a cataclysm that befell the lands, bringing forth an enormous supply of a powerful metal. In this case, it was adamantium. An incredibly sturdy metal, and one of the necessary materials to make the lost-metal that constructs my own Keep-Stone armor. Given they used the adamantium as-is, I suspect they too have yet to uncover the techniques of the ancient dwarven smiths in that regard, but still, this made their armies exceptionally powerful. This would no doubt seem like a boon from the gods to a man who didn't know any better. I would have thought the same about Desperate Hope's silver mines, if I was as delusional as he.
The second of these was a teardrop that landed upon him, extending his life and granting him incredible power. Given his abilities within the fight to come, Serene's discovery, and Melfyra's exceptional knowledge in this particular regard, we suspect we know what this power was. It correlated to this "mythical" power rare few have been coming into possession of around shards of divinity in recent time. It is something we still know little about, and as someone who once handled a shard of Groetus without gaining these powers, I suspect it is much more complicated than merely being touched by a teardrop, as this king believed.
The Third and final was the power to blot out the sun. By ritual or by sheer divine will, he believed he would possess the power to stop the sun from shining once his forces finished conquering the underground, so they could take to the surface as well. Ignoring the consequences of such an action, and us having already dealt with someone who blotted out the sun, this is where his delusions were most deeply rooted. I saw no evidence he possessed such power, and he never explained how he would go about it. He merely believed he could, a man that estimated his abilities in terms of what prophecies and litanies said he could do. There was no true negotiation to be had, as he sought total surrender from us, and our demands were anathema to the faultless, immovable monarch he believed himself to be. Bloodshed was the only way to determine who was right, verifying if this king was truly sheltered by the Gods or not.
The four of us stood at the center of the room. The king stood ahead of us, and his warlord and chief mage to either side of him in pockets. I would take the king and his warlord head-on before the throne, with Serene removing their mage and aiding me when she was finished. Melfyra supported us with her exceptional magical talents, and Gwenevere was positioned to aid us until the reinforcements came. Her chief job was to hold off the wardens we knew would inevitably come to their king's aid. Knowing the Warlord to be "unkillable", we focused on the monarch first. His defenses were solid, and he could block a blade with his bare hands. He and the warlord could not break through my defenses however, not before Serene's flurry of blades tore into them like many enemies in prior journeys. Melfyra reported ghostly hands coming from the king's body and lashing out at us, but they failed to strike home for the most-part. The worst one did was get a grab on Gwenevere and pull her closer, but the king fell soon after, and so did his Warlord. The warlord failed to get up, oddly enough, and the king receded into a cocoon of adamantium. Archer, Gwenevere's ghostly pet, attempted to peer inside and was seemingly rejected. Something big was happening, and this would decide where the king truly stood between Gods and men.
The wardens, as expected, came shambling through the doors soon after. Gwenevere's undead hordes were quick in clogging up the doorway, making the two that made it through incapable of reaching us for the time-being. The rest of us prepared for the worst, and soon after a massive Adamantium Archdragon emerged from the shell. It came out in a flurry of aggression, grabbing me and attempting to consume me. I thankfully held it back long enough for Serene to tear into its side, and with Melfyra's crippling magics it was soon left vulnerable enough for me to strike it down with a crushing blow to the skull. In the battle of Gods and men over prophecy, the king had become a beast and was put down like one. It was not even I who did the majority of the work, so I cannot claim The Five simply overrode his absent God's absurdities and granted us the victories. No, it was Serene's overwhelming force that devastated the King's new form with little chance for retaliation. And as I went to aid in slaying the wardens, that is when Serene's personality led her to a fitting discovery.
Inside the dragon's corpse shone a crystal. A shard of a god, of Garhaazh, the Primal King. One of the Dragon Gods and one that, in my experience with the Living Valkyrie, suit her personality well. That is likely why it immediately bonded to her, impressed by her ability to prove the king wrong by simply being stronger than him. Melfyra, witness to this, made note of it and is the core reason why we can glean this valuable information. What this will actually amount to, we are yet to know. But based on recent discoveries, I suspect this means Serene is now capable of harming the Horsemen. Or at least, one in particular. This bodes well for us.
What did not bode well, however, was what came after the fight. The wardens fell swiftly after we came down on them with our combined might, already weakened by Gwenevere's undead prior to that point. The throne room itself was a mess to investigate thanks to the transformed king dredging spikes from the earth across the room in an attempt to impale us, but we were able to collect some things of note. His treasure room was on the upper floor, untouched by the combat, and was there for the taking if we chose to. The King's warhammer also remained, and at Gwenevere's request we would leave it by his throne for the people of the city to determine their next king. As we headed outside though, we found why no more people came to stop us. There were no more people. Scorch marks upon the ground, a scent of brimstone I was all-too-familiar with. Examining the body of the warlord, I found diabolic runes carved into his body, burned not by our hands. Bound to a devil, indeed. Or worse, bound to their king. With his fall, I suspect the people of this city were all used as sacrifices. And as such, they were all condemned to Hell. There were no people left to occupy this city, not a soul we could find. Even the adamantine mine, which we found on our way out, was abandoned. We should send someone to occupy this mine and make use of its bounty, so something good comes about from this venture.
And ultimately, this is why I say our expedition was a necessary evil. How many more would be enslaved? Bound to this wretched king and his delusions of grandeur, doomed to a vile fate by a man who thought his own was wrapped in gold. We had to stop him. If we didn't, it would only get worse, and more lives would be lost. Still, I feel repentance is owed, as it was my blow that ended it all. Felled a kingdom and slew its people, perhaps. Or maybe that happened when he first went into the shell. Regardless, I will place that burden upon myself, and let no one else think themselves the monster of necessity. See that something good comes from the loss of so many innocent lives, it is all we can do for them now.