Mile High Dragons · Recording Now
The Dark Fortress
Durgeddin the Black made the finest blades in these mountains. Then Khundrukar fell. A baron is paying us to bring a few of them back.
Strong language, adult humor, and one party member named Doom Sloot. Recorded in Denver, Colorado.
Blasingdell · The Commission
It Sounded Fine When We Took It
Go up the Stone Tooth. Find the old dwarven hold. Come back with a few of Durgeddin's blades so a mining baron has something impressive to hang on a wall. Straightforward work for people who already own swords.
The fortress had opinions about being described as abandoned.
There are orc war bands in the upper halls, and they are not squatting up there by accident. There's a curse on the place that people in Blasingdell will only discuss outdoors, in daylight, after you've bought the round. And a century after the last dwarf died in there, something in Khundrukar is still keeping the lights on.
Old rivalries, older gods, and something down there considerably worse than orcs.
Khundrukar runs five levels deep. The Mountain Door is the doorstep. Nobody in town mentioned that part up front, which in hindsight tracks.
We're through the door now and into the Glitterhame, the level everybody promised would be beautiful. It is. It's beautiful the way a thing with teeth can be beautiful.
Below us sit three levels we have not seen, a pile of rumors that contradict each other, and a growing suspicion that not one person who sold us on this job told us all of it.
Khundrukar · Five Levels
How Far Down
Five levels. We've walked two of them. From here on, this page knows exactly as much as you do.
The Mountain Door
A carved gate set into the mountainside at the end of a long stone path, and the broken halls waiting behind it. Everyone in Blasingdell agreed the place had been empty for a hundred years. The orcs holding the entry hall disagreed, at length, with axes.
Behind usThe Glitterhame
Caverns the size of cathedrals, lit from the walls by fungus and by mineral veins that grab hold of every torch you bring in. Wet, cold, and unmistakably lived in. This is the level where "abandoned fortress" stopped being an accurate phrase and became a thing we said to feel better.
We are hereLevels III, IV & V
Three Doors We Haven't Opened
We're not going to sit here and pretend we know what's on the other side of these. Everything we've got is below, and most of it is a smell or a noise.
Level Three
Sealed
There's a hand's width of gap under it. Cold air comes up through the gap. Nobody has volunteered to look.
Level Four
Sealed
Somebody scratched a tally into the frame. Forty-one marks. The last one runs off the edge of the stone.
Level Five
Sealed
It isn't locked. It's just very heavy, and it's warm to the touch, and we have all agreed to discuss that later.
These open when we open them. Watch along and find out the same week we do.
The Crew
Who's Down There
Five of them went up the mountain. One of them is a rat. That isn't a figure of speech.
Doom Sloot
Tiefling
Horns, a staff of burnt wood, and a handful of purple fire he has never once explained. The armor has been patched more times than it was originally built.
Has yet to be the reassuring presence in any room.
Kaan
Blades & Bow
Inked scalp to knuckle in a pattern nobody in Blasingdell recognizes. Two curved blades, a bow, and very little to say about where any of it came from.
Speaks about twice an episode. Both times it matters.
Kayaq
Leopard-Folk
Spotted, low to the rock, and usually moving before anyone has finished the sentence. Carries a stone maul roughly the size of the arguments it settles.
Has never once waited for the plan.
Pasm & Rumble
Scout & Construct
A rat with a monocle, a hand crossbow, a lit cigarette and an idea. Behind him, eight feet of rusted brass in a torn green cloak that does what he says. Broadly.
Rumble has never spoken. Rumble has never had to.
Toe Maas
Tortle
A painted shell, a belt of pouches and charms, and a crooked staff with a blue crystal on the end of it. Slowest walker in the party by a comfortable margin.
Also the only one who listens to the mountain before answering it.
Markus Maximus
Dungeon Master
Runs the fortress. Sits behind the screen, the microphone, and a stack of books that gets taller every session.
Knows what's behind all three doors. Won't say. We've asked.
Watch In Order
Watch It Happen
Three episodes so far. Start at the top. It isn't a long climb yet.
Into the Shadows of Khundrukar
The baron, the commission, and the road out of Blasingdell. We get hired, we get warned, and then we go anyway, because that is the shape of this hobby.
The Mountain Door · Part 1 of 2
We reach the gate. The gate turns out not to be the hard part. What's holding the hall on the other side of it is the hard part.
The Mountain Door · Part 2 of 2
The rest of the first level, and our first honest look at how far down this thing actually goes.
Blasingdell · The Long Table
Ask Around
Everyone in this town has a theory about Khundrukar. Most of them are wrong, and all of them are free with a drink in front of them. Roll and see who you got.
Twenty people in here are willing to talk. Buy one of them a drink.
You've heard 0 of 20.
Twenty rumors doing the rounds in Blasingdell. This is what the town says, not what we've found, and the town has been wrong before. Come back and buy another round.
Follow The Descent
Three Doors To Go
We record this as we go. Nobody at the table has seen level three either. Subscribe and be exactly as surprised as we are.