Beneath Stonehelm: The Dragon's Crystal

The entrance to Stonehelm looms like a jagged wound in the mountainside. You stand before the iron-bound doors, shivering in the biting gale while your company huddles against the freezing rock. The air is thick with the sulfurous tang of a beast that has not left its lair for centuries, and deep within the cavern, a rhythmic, rumbling vibration echoes against your boots. One of your scouts, a grim veteran named Kael, holds his lantern steady, though his knuckles are white with strain. Your party is already exhausted. The trek through the spiked pass has bled your resources, and the wounded knight, Elara, is shivering violently from an infection creeping up her arm. Every heartbeat wasted on this threshold is a heartbeat the dragon spends readying its ambush. You have the heavy iron battering ram you dragged from the ruins, but the noise required to smash through the oak and iron will trigger a collapse of the rotten ceiling above. To the left of the main door, a ventilation shaft large enough to squeeze through gapes wide. It would allow for a silent entry, but your gear and heavy armor would have to be shed to fit, leaving you vulnerable if the wyrm senses your intrusion immedia…