The Lost Hall of Karak-Dun

Centuries ago, Karak-Dun was a wonder: halls of gold, anvils that sang day and night, the finest smithcraft beneath the mountains. Then the city fell silent, from one day to the next, and no one who went there returned. You follow an old route-map and a rumor of immeasurable wealth through a collapsed gate down into the deep.

The curse struck the whole population at once, but did not fully kill them. The dwarves fell, and rose again, and went on working: hammering, delving, watching over their gold with empty eyes and rusted axes. The great forge still burns, but is no longer fed with coal, and in the deepest reach of the city the source of the curse sits waiting: King Thargrim the Cursed, a betrayed sovereign on a golden throne.

You creep through halls where the dead still walk their old rounds, decipher the rune inscriptions that tell what happened here, and search for the crown or relic that can break the curse, all while trying not to draw the attention of the eternally toiling dead, who see everything outside their city as intruders.

The turn: the curse came from within, King Thargrim in his despair forged a forbidden artifact that bound his people to the gold instead of saving them. In the throne room, by the light of the ghost-fires in the forge, you must quench the curse-forge and bring the dead king to rest, or become forever part of his silent work crew.