The Mountain King

by Paul Warmerdam

Version 1.0 (first published)

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Introduction
The Mountain King is intended as an introductory
adventure for Dungeons & Dragons for a handful of 1st
level characters. For the ease of new Dungeon Masters, the
story flows linearly, with succinct descriptions of scenes
and some flexibility to skip some of them entirely in the
middle of the adventure. This way it can be played in a
single evening with minimal preparation.
The encounters can easily be scaled to accommodate
higher-level characters. The location of the adventure can
be adapted to anywhere near a mountain range. In this
mountain range, there once stood a kingdom that is now
long-forgotten...
Story
Magister’s Bounty
As ambitious adventurers, the characters are sure to
heed a call for aid from a nearby town. A bounty has been
posted on kobolds, the little mountain devils that have
been harassing shepherds and their flocks. The local
magister can be found in the market at noon each day,
where he counts the ears presented as proof and offers a
silver piece for each one.
The magister is diligent but far from friendly. His hands
tend to be stained with ink and his robes are threadbare. A
few days ago, he was forced to call on guards when
someone tried to pass off the ears of a few pets that had
gone missing. His opinion of adventurers has not
recovered since. To him, the characters are a necessary
evil. Still, whenever they return to him with kobold ears,
he pays them as promised. If they take the time to speak
with the magister beforehand, they may learn that the
kobolds have been seen all over the nearby peaks and
valleys and some have even come down the old pass, a
disused road into the mountains.
The Old Pass
The road into the mountains is neglected and
overgrown. It has markers of stacked stone at regular
intervals, though its markings have faded. After the first
climb, there are more signs of the people who once used
the old pass. Crumbling walls and broken towers dot the
mountain range.
As the characters move along the trail, they have many
opportunities for encounters. Which ones to use is left up
to the Dungeon Master, depending on play style and time
constraints. Along the way, the characters should come to
realize that:
• The kobolds carry an inexplicable wealth around with
them.
2 The Mountain King
• This wealth originates in a ruin higher in the
mountains.
• This is where the old pass ends at the foot of what was
once a great kingdom.
Kobold
The Dungeon master is encouraged to customize the
kobolds per tribe and encounter. Here is a starting point:
Armor Class 12, Hit Points 7 (2d6 - 2), Speed 30 ft.
Spear +4 to hit, 1d6+2 piercing damage
Dagger +4 to hit, 1d4+2 piercing damage
Sling +4 to hit, 1d4+2 bludgeoning damage
Ambushed
The road leads the characters to a narrow passage
carved through the rock. A DC 15 Wisdom (Perception)
check can make the characters pause and see the trap that
awaits them. A band of kobolds awaits them at the top with
slings and piles of rocks of all sizes. Should the characters
pass underneath unawares, a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw
allows them to dive away from the boulders pushed off the
edge above them. Anyone caught below the rubble is dealt
1d4 damage. It is a 30 ft. climb through difficult terrain to
get to either ledge. Two kobolds occupy each ledge.
These raiders each wear a necklace of chipped and faded
coins. Each is stamped with the face of a bearded king
none of the characters recognize. It’s an unusual wealth for
such creatures. They may be worth more than the bounty
on their ears.
Hunting Party
A group of kobolds is making raucous noise not far from
the characters, down in a thick wood growing along the
mountain's slope. The pack is giving chase to a boar, trying
to surround it. This time the characters have a chance to
surprise the kobolds. These are armed with spears that
were once too large for them. Each haft is broken in half to
suit their height. All of this clan’s wealth is worn by their
leader. His many bracelets and necklaces rattle at every
movement. The characters can’t help but wonder where
they stole them from.
If the characters wait long enough, the kobolds may have
the boar surrounded, then skewered. If they take care in
their approach, the boar may have a role to play in
overcoming the kobolds.
Competition
The characters are not the only adventurers hunting in
the mountains. They may come across a ranger in the act
of claiming her prize. The dead kobolds at her feet each
wore a headdress of black feathers. As soon as she sees the
characters, the ranger takes a defensive stance. If the
characters are friendly, she may share what she has
learned of the kobolds and their origin. On the other hand,
the characters may have the wicked notion of claiming the
ranger's prize for their own. A nearby sack contains a
dozen more ears and the jeweled daggers the kobolds
wielded. She won't part with them without a fight, but
neither will she give her life over them.
Supplicants
Word spreads among the kobolds of the adventurers in
the mountains. When the characters next spy a clan of
them, they turn around and drop their weapons. They are
wounded from fighting their own kind. Their share of the
stolen treasure in the area was taken from them. They
approach the characters and gesture strangely. At first, the
kobolds try to bargain for their lives by betraying the
location of the treasure hoard, their former home. By
drawing on the ground, they try show the road into the
castle ruins and the caves below the mountain.
If they cannot convey this information, or if the
characters still intend to attack them, the kobolds make
one more desperate plea. It may take the characters a
while to realize they are offering to cut off their own ears
and give them to the characters, so long as they let them
live.
Ruins of a Mountain Keep
Following either the ranger’s advice or the kobolds’
directions the character can follow a trickling stream to
the ruins of a great castle in the mountains. It has
crumbled nearly to its foundations. Some of its walls still
hint at the tall towers and vast halls that once stood here,
but very little remains to recognize the long-gone
mountain kingdom. The area has seen activity recently,
however, with the great migration of kobolds seemingly
originating here. A DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check
reveals evidence that the keep once suffered a
conflagration that melted the very stone. In the center of
the keep, where it meets the mountanside, there is an
opening into an enormous cellar.
Flooded Cellars
The cellar shows signs of masonry, but also of an older
natural cave below it. It has flooded sometime since the
mountain kingdom fell, and now holds a deep
underground lake that the characters must cross. There is
a foul, sharp odor that gets stronger the deeper the
characters go into the cave.
The waters are poisoned by a corrosive, flammable film
that covers it. Any character who touches it must make a
DC 15 Constitution saving throw or take 1d4 acid damage.
There are rafts scattered on this side of the lake with taut
lines of rope to tow them to the other side. The characters
may see the bones of more than one kobold drift by, the
flesh melted away, still clutching various riches.
The chemical stench of the lake gets stronger as the
characters near the far shore, where the foul liquid trickles
down from a ledge into a deeper cavern. No skill in
tracking is required to conclude that this is where the
kobolds and their treasure came from.
Dragon’s Will
A few shafts of light from natural chimneys in the far
shore’s cavern walls illuminate a terrible sight before the
characters. The trickling acid rivers originate from the
mouth of an enormous dying dragon. The side of its jaw is
burned away from leaking glands near its throat. Its chest
still moves, but every breath carries the stench of death.
One enormous wing occasionally twitches uncontrollably,
showing a few scattered coins and jewels that are all that
remains of its hoard.
Before long, the dragon will rouse, flaring its nostrils
and opening its blind eyes. It makes no attempt to rise
from its awkward curled position. Instead, it seems eager
to speak with the characters.
The ancient red dragon’s name is Eltrexis. It asks the
characters what has become of its servants, the kobolds
who made away with his treasures. It asks if the villages at
the foot of the mountain even remember its dreaded
presence here, or the mountain kingdom that it melted
down at its arrival. It has been nearly a century since
Eltrexis last set foot outside the cavern, relying entirely on
the kobolds to do its bidding. It knows that it’s dying and
really only wants one thing: its final audience. It may
explain the tradition to the characters, emphasizing its
Roleplaying Eltrexis
The characters should find the dragon Eltrexis to be
surprisingly repentant. After all, its kind is known for cruelty
and wrath, not guilt. When did a red dragon ever offer mercy,
and why should this one expect to receive it?
At the crux of the adventure, the Dungeon Master should
be able to have some fun with Eltrexis. This story starts and
ends with the decisions the dragon has made. Maybe Eltrexis
is simply manipulating the characters to satisfy its vanity for
one last time. Perhaps a wild rage comes over the dragon as
often as its pleas do, and it all stems from nothing short of
madness. It isn’t impossible for the dragon to truly rue what it
did while it was strong, now that it feels what it means to be
weak. Here, the Dungeon Master may decide the beast’s true
nature.
The Mountain King 3
importance among its species. Normally an affair of
worship by peers and servants alike, this dragon will settle
for these adventurers listening to what it has to say. In
exchange, Eltrexis offers the characters the single most
treasured relic it managed to keep from the kobolds’
hands. With great pain, it retrieves it from where it lay
protected beneath its weight: an ornate crown of steel and
rubies that once belonged to the dynasty of the mountain
kings.
If the characters agree, Eltrexis will recount the deeds of
its life. Most of it consists of vicious crimes against
humanity, for which it hardly apologizes. The tale winds
down to Eltrexis being spurned by its mate, leaving it with
no offspring in this world.
While Eltrexis has become humble enough not to expect
the characters to venerate it or its deeds, it will not stand
by should the characters truly offer insult. It can still ignite
a spark that will set fire to the seeping rivers all the way
down to the underground lake. The dragon may decide to
remind the characters of this before it does so.
If the characters hear Eltrexis out to its satisfaction, it
will thank them and grant them the crown of the mountain
kings. Eltrexis asks the characters to leave it to its rest,
though by the time they leave the cavern, it will have
stopped breathing.
smaller packs with it, and to wage war on the men in the
valley.
If the characters defeat the king of the kobolds, the
remaining tribes will scatter. The magister back in town
will double the characters’ pay, but eyes their treasures
greedily before he turns his gaze to the mountain pass.
The more intelligent dragons will usually not let
themselves suffer the indignities of aging, preferring to “go
out in style.” […] While creatures like reds frequently stage
one last kamikaze attack against an old enemy […] This
tradition—the “final audience,” as dragons term it—is a
highly dignified ritual, filled with respect […] One of the
things that makes proscription such a harsh penalty for
these dragons is the knowledge that no one will attend the
final audience of a proscribed dragon.
Draconomicon,
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition,
1990
Your very first D&D adventure should contain both a
dungeon and a dragon.
Yours truly

The Mountain King

As the characters descend back down the mountain
from the castle ruins, a DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check
will reveal that they are being watched. Several small
bands of kobolds dare not come near but chatter among
themselves as they stare at the characters. Eventually, their
path is blocked by a lone figure who challenges them. The
kobold stands far taller than any the characters have seen,
taller even than most men. It has clearly had the choicest
selection of their master’s hoard when they left, bearing a
great gleaming sword and armor studded with a familiar
pattern of rubies. It barks and snarls, speaking a few words
the characters can understand. It says the crown of the
mountain king does not belong to them. The king of the
kobolds lays claim to it instead, promising to unite all the

King of the Kobolds

The kobold warrior is wearing the raiment of the ancient
mountain king, the equivalent of half plate, and wields the
accompanying greatsword.
Armor Class 15 (Armor of the Mountain King)
Hit Points 14, Speed 30 ft.
Sword of the Mountain King +5 to hit, 2d6+3 slashing
damage

4 The Mountain King