Session 10 — A Name Beneath the Mountain¶
A town burning its furniture for warmth. A god being edited out of his own prayers. And a warden who brought a contract to a greatclub fight.
Emberdale is freezing¶
The portal brought the party to Emberdale, a town at the foot of a volcano. The mountain was still there. Its heat was becoming considerably less reliable.
Snow was closing in on the houses. Inside some of them, people were burning furniture to stay warm.
A woman shoveling snow explained that the god within the volcano had always provided the town's heat. Something had changed within the past year. She sent the newcomers to the Shrine of Flame.
The corrected hymn¶
Inside, worshippers were chanting from hymn sheets. The party received one and noticed something the congregation apparently could not.
The old words had been crossed out. See the corrected hymn sheets.
A different kind of worship
Vashember had become a designated thermal asset.
The villagers had become authorized occupants.
Keeper Ledgard did not understand the question when the party asked about the changes. He could not seem to recognize that anything had changed at all.
There was another problem. Pilgrims took prayers and gold up the mountain each year. The group sent a few weeks earlier had not returned.
Coalwife remembers¶
The Hearth-Hall held what remained of the town's dependable warmth, and the townspeople had gathered there to share it.
Elder Coalwife drew the party aside. A vision had left her with a memory she did not want to announce in front of frightened residents: the old god's name was Vashember.
She believed its three syllables were hidden within the mountain.
Vash. Em. Ber.
She asked them to find the missing pilgrims and investigate. Whatever treasure they found inside could be theirs.
Fenro also asked the mayor for a sash upon success. Bellhollow and Mirewick had apparently established a precedent.
The expedition fund
The party paid 1,000 gp for a support team to follow them up the mountain with supplies for a rest.
The payment also supported townspeople praying at the shrine on their behalf, granting a reroll of a chosen roll during the expedition.
Before the Ascent — the expedition options given to the party
Footsteps without feet¶
Halfway up the mountain, they found someone dressed like one of the missing pilgrims. His stare was vacant. He murmured about being corrected.
They had seen that look in Phandalin.
Behind him, fresh footprints appeared in the snow. Nobody was making them.
An invisible stalker struck Niko, and the party found themselves fighting something they could not see.
Krunk supplied a practical solution: throw a glass of fiery oil at its last known position.
The oil hit. The outline became visible. The party finally had something to aim at, and brought the stalker down.
The way inside¶
The volcano's main entrance was blocked. A search around the mountainside revealed a smaller hatch radiating heat, with stairs descending beneath it.
They went in.
The sphinx on duty¶
At the bottom of the spiral stairs stood a circular hall, a central shaft with a mine cart, and a large sphinx.
Its employer required it to count entrants and ask riddles. Each correct answer opened one door on this floor of the volcano.
The party answered the riddles and began working through the doors.
Nine orbs, one key¶
The western room contained nine identical orbs, an instruction book, and a locked chest. One orb held the real key. The chest held a syllable.
They started breaking orbs.
Some released treasure. Others released monsters. The worst was a tar ooze, which the party decided to set on fire.
It became a burning tar ooze. This was an improvement only from the ooze's perspective.
After a difficult fight and further orb-breaking, they found the true iron key and opened the chest.
The first syllable
Vash. Two more to find. See the syllable cards.
The room also yielded a ring of feather falling, a wand of hold person, and a much more talkative gold ring.
An offer too good to be true¶
The gold ring promised flight, protection from blades and spells, invisibility, and a single wish of unlimited scope. There was a condition: only one person could claim it, and the choice would be permanent.
The party spent considerable time deciding who should receive this extraordinary windfall.
The ring was lying. It wanted to be taken out of the room.
What it wants next remains unclear.
Spores and sluices¶
A southeastern chamber was covered in blue fungus. The party collected flammable spores for later, having apparently decided that the tar ooze was not a general argument against setting things on fire.
The northern room held a lava-control valve, with a brass instruction plate describing its settings. They could direct heat toward the freezing town or divert the flow away from the volcano's depths to weaken whatever waited below.
They chose to divert it away from the depths.
Whether that makes the next fight easier is still to be seen.
The odd one out¶
The eastern room presented five golems beneath five numbers:
| 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 13 |
The riddle presented to the party demanded that they identify the one that did not belong. Choose correctly, and it would serve them. Choose incorrectly, and the service would involve the forge.
The party needed very little of its allotted minute.
Nine was not prime.
A flesh golem stepped forward and pledged its loyalty. The expedition had gained a very substantial new member.
Korr¶
In the adjoining work area, Korr, a construct made of lava, was hammering tools for the volcano.
Like the sphinx, it worked for an employer. The party was beginning to understand that this meant Diamabel.
Neither worker seemed particularly interested in fighting to defend the employer's assets. They had jobs to do.
Down to the river¶
The mine cart carried the party to Level 2 and a central chamber crossed by a river of floating prayer candles.
Hundreds of flames drifted southeast into the mountain. Were these the townspeople's offerings, being processed somewhere below?
Arthas tried to see farther along the channel but could not make out what lay beyond. The party found boats that could navigate it, then chose to explore on foot instead.
The scriptorium¶
The eastern door opened onto an office: orderly desks, purple lamps, and hymns having the old god's name systematically removed.
The scriptorium was doing to the prayers what the party had already seen on the shrine's hymn sheet.
And there was something the redaction had missed.
The second syllable
Arthas found “em” scratched into one of the desks.
The party now had Vash + Em. Only Ber remained. View the recovered syllable cards.
Snarla and Burket¶
Snarla and Burket wanted the work to continue. The party made it clear that they intended to stop it.
Snarla used misty step to reposition around the room and fired arcane blasts. Burket stayed back with a crossbow, shooting at Krunk.
Gerald answered with firebow arrows. Niko brought toll the dead. The attendants fell.
The purple lamps went dark.
A hungry keeper of prayers¶
North of the central chamber stood a candle gallery with row after row of flames. Two rows were bone-white and unlit.
The party brought fire from the floating prayers and tried to relight them.
Then Brother Ctenmiir appeared from a side door. He had tried that already. Hundreds of times.
The new employer's energy kept extinguishing them.
Ctenmiir was a vampire who fed on the energy within the pilgrims' prayers. Fading prayers meant a steadily hungrier vampire.
The blue bargain¶
He explained the route down: four seals, marked by purple, blue, green, and gold, had to be cleared to open the way to Level 3.
He controlled the blue seal. He would grant it in exchange for blood.
Fenro reluctantly volunteered. The payment reduced his maximum HP, and the party cleared the blue seal.
Purple and blue were accounted for. Green and gold remained.
The menagerie¶
West of the central chamber, a four-tier menagerie held giant scorpions, manticores, a magma octopus, and a fire-lobster creature.
At the far end stood a safe. Fenro opened it remotely with mage hand. Inside: 2,000 gp, resting on a weight-sensitive plate.
Taking it looked likely to make the room much more interesting.
Ask the octopus¶
Gerald drank a potion of animal speaking and spoke with the magma octopus.
It explained that the creatures were the lungs of the volcano, filtering harmful energy from its operation and growing weaker in the process.
It also knew about the money. Trigger the trap and every enclosure would open, releasing the hostile creatures. A hidden lever could disable it.
In exchange for the information, the party freed the octopus into the central river. It swam away.
The green lights flickered. Three seals cleared. Only gold remained.
Someone else uses the central room¶
Returning to the river chamber, the party found it occupied.
Ser Bluto, warden of the volcano, was waiting with eight henchmen. He had heard them moving around the floor and had an offer to make.
He could open the way to the lower level himself.
The terms
In exchange, the party would agree to leave the planar anchor undamaged.
The Agreement of the Fourfold Seal had a space for each of their signatures.
They had already cleared three of the four seals. They were also here to destroy the anchor. Bluto's negotiating position had problems.
Fenro, Arthas, and Gerald examined the document.
Krunk threw it back in Bluto's face.
The warden's last stand¶
Bluto opened with three heavy crossbow shots. The flesh golem lost roughly half its health, and Krunk took significant damage as well.
The warden's eight guards were no easy opposition. A straightforward exchange of blows was looking very bad for the party.
Change the floor¶
Krunk brought out the Thunderous Greatclub, ran into the center of the fight, and smashed it into the ground.
A shockwave spread through a 50-foot circle, knocking Bluto's troops off their feet.
A fissure opened beneath the warden. He fell into a 30-foot pit.
That bought time. It also made Krunk the obvious target for every guard still standing.
Hold the line¶
Sword strikes and crossbow bolts battered Krunk. His life was hanging in the balance when Niko's fireball hit several guards and Gerald's fiery arrows brought others down.
The numbers began to turn.
Bluto climbed out of the fissure and tried to finish Krunk. Arthas provided cover, and the attack missed.
Krunk charged and kicked Bluto back into the pit.
Then the party threw explosive thunder roots down after him.
The fissure became the warden's tomb.
The party was exhausted. They were also still alive, with one seal between them and whatever waited below.
What changed¶
- Emberdale's crisis investigated: its heat is failing, its pilgrims are missing, and its god is being erased from the hymns.
- 1,000 gp paid for expedition support and prayers on the party's behalf.
- The invisible stalker defeated, after Krunk outlined it with fiery oil.
- Vash and Em recovered. Ber is still missing.
- Lava diverted away from the depths, with the intended effect of weakening the threat below.
- A flesh golem joined the party and survived Bluto's opening volley badly hurt.
- Snarla and Burket defeated; the purple seal cleared.
- Fenro paid blood to Ctenmiir; the blue seal cleared, at a cost to his maximum HP.
- The magma octopus freed; the green seal cleared.
- Ser Bluto and his guards defeated. His contract was rejected.
- Loot recovered: ring of feather falling, wand of hold person, the lying gold ring, and flammable fungal spores.
Loose ends¶
- The gold seal remains. The route to Level 3 is not yet open.
- Ber is still hidden somewhere in the volcano. What happens when the complete name is restored?
- The pilgrims are still unaccounted for. One corrected pilgrim was seen on the mountain; the rest have not been found.
- The anchor is intact, and the false god has not been confronted.
- The gold ring wanted out of its room. It got what it wanted. Its next objective is unknown.
- Fenro's maximum HP is reduced. The notes do not establish a recovery yet.
- The remaining menagerie creatures are still confined, filtering harmful energy.
- The safe held 2,000 gp on a trap plate. The trap's bypass was revealed; collection of the money has not been confirmed.
- Emberdale still needs heat. The valve was used to weaken the depths.
- Fenro still wants a third mayoral sash. That request depends on success.
See all Emberdale player handouts