Side quest Mount Ghakis Level 10

The Warm Snow

Sergeant Valcu's log has forty years of smoke on the north shoulder of Mount Ghakis, snow that melts in midwinter, and the count's cart going up every new moon with a cage on the back.

Walkthrough

Getting the quest

There are two ways to start this one, both in The Tsolenka Guard Tower:

  • Sergeant Dorin Valcu of the dead watch. Ask him "Heard anything interesting?" once to start The Frozen Pilgrims, then ask again (or "Anything to report, sergeant?" once you've passed the watch). He reads the next entry in his log: forty years of smoke on the north shoulder of Mount Ghakis, where nobody lives; snow that melts there in midwinter; and a black cart going up the goat path every new moon with a cage on the back, coming down empty. There were faces in the cage three nights ago.
  • The watch log on the desk in the captain's room, east of the guardroom. An entry that comes round every month for forty years tells you the same news: the smoke, the melting snow, and the count's cart going up with a cage and down with it empty. It works whether or not the watch is still at its posts, so it's the way in if you released or fought them before asking the sergeant twice.

Either way the quest starts at Rumored and puts The North Shoulder of Ghakis on your travel map, 2 hours from the Tsolenka Pass by the goat path round the gorge. It's pitched at about level 10, and the dragon at the bottom is a hard fight unless you use the keepers' tricks.

Step by step

  1. The keepers at the gate. Climb the goat path to the steaming shelf of black rock. Waiting in plain view by the black cart in front of an iron gate in the mountain are two Keepers (Wight) and a Chain-Warden (Helmed Horror), about 2500 XP. They fight as soon as you step into the yard before the gate.
    • The wights drain life (Constitution DC 13).
    • The helmed horror resists weapon damage, is immune to force, necrotic and poison, and has advantage against spells, so gang up on the wights first.

    loc ghakis shoulder overview

  2. Around the shoulder.
    • The gate: look at the count's crest on it ("WHAT I KEEP, I KEEP") to move the quest to Found.
    • The drivers' box on the cart: 35 gp and a Potion of Resistance (Fire).
    • The meltwater: Nature DC 14 to follow it reveals something in the slush (search DC 14: another fire resistance potion).
    • The scorched rock: Arcana DC 15 tells you it's dragon's breath.
    • The prisoners: two charcoal-burners, Doina and Petrache, are chained to the cart's wheel. Before the keepers are dead they only shake their heads at you. Afterwards, "What did the keepers say on the way up?" gets you two tips: open the sluice before you go down, and the grey salt "keeps her slow". "(Break their chains.)" frees them (Godrick +2, Liriel +2, Thistle +1, Wren +1). They head down past the tower, and the sergeant logs it.
  3. Under the mountain. Go in through the gate to Under Mount Ghakis. You can't rest down here. The tunnel runs north from the gate. Off its south end to the west is the keepers' post. At its north end is the anchor room with the great drum, the larder is to the east of that, and the vent gallery is to the west, through the hot door. The dragon's cavern lies north of the vent gallery, which is the only way in.

    loc ghakis lair overview

  4. The keepers' post.
    • The keepers' log: reading it moves the quest to Chained. The first page, in Strahd's hand, names her: Sarkhaza, a red dragon who came for a dead silver dragon's gold. "(Read the keepers' notes.)" spells out the three tricks they used to go down to her safely.
    • The keepers' strongbox (lock DC 16): 300 gp and 2 more fire resistance potions.
    • The captain's rack: a Dragon Slayer. Take it.
  5. The keepers' three tricks. Each one makes the last fight easier, and you can use all three.
    • Salt her meat. In the larder, Sleight of Hand DC 14 to work grave-salt into a carcass and drag it along (one try). On a miss you over-salt it, and she'll smell it and refuse it.
    • Haul her chain in. In the anchor room, Athletics DC 17 on the capstan (one try). On a miss she rips the chain back out and laughs at you.
    • Open the sluice. In the vent gallery, heave the sluice gate up (no roll, ten minutes). Snowmelt floods the cracks, so her cavern can't take lair actions against you. But the gallery is guarded: stepping into it brings out the Vent-Fire (Fire Elemental at 150 hit points) and three Burnt Keepers (Flameskull), the keepers who forgot the sluice. The elemental sets you burning just by being near you, and the flameskulls are immune to fire and shrug off spells, so use the potions of fire resistance you've been collecting. You have to cross this gallery to reach the dragon anyway.
  6. Sarkhaza. In the cavern beyond the vent gallery, a red dragon the size of a barn lies on a slope of gold, chained by the neck with her wings riveted shut. She speaks as you come near.

    sq sarkhaza

    • "What are you doing down here?" She tells her story and offers a deal: pull the pin from her collar and she'll go and burn the count out of his castle.
    • Insight DC 16 (one try, after her story): the rivets have grown into the bone of her wings, so she can't fly. When she says "castle", her eye slides toward the tunnel and the villages below. She wants the nearest thing that screams.
    • "(Throw her the carcass from the larder.)" A well-salted carcass slows her. A badly salted one she laughs at and burns.
    • The hoard. Investigation DC 15 on the coins at the edge of the heap (one try) shows they're gilt lead. Then "Your gold is lead." makes her bite a coin, see it, and decide there's nothing left worth lying down for: the fight starts at once.
    • "(Pull the pin from her collar.)" She thanks you, and comes for you with nothing holding her back (Godrick -3, Liriel -3, Thistle -2, Wren -2, Ratatouille -1).
    • "(Draw your weapons.)"
  7. The fight. Sarkhaza is CR 13 (10,000 XP), AC 18, immune to fire, and can only crawl (speed 20, no flying). She has two burning rends with reach, Fire Breath (a 60-foot cone, Dexterity DC 17, 11d6 fire), and Legendary Resistance three times a day. How hard she is depends on your tricks:
    • Chained, with nothing done: 200 hit points.
    • Fed the salted carcass: 155.
    • Chain hauled in: 170, and she starts the fight surprised, choking on her collar.
    • Salted and hauled: 125, and surprised.
    • Unchained: 215, or 170 if you'd fed her the salted carcass first.
    • With the sluice open she gets no lair actions, whatever else you've done.

    Spread out against the breath, drink the fire resistance potions, and hit her with the Dragon Slayer. Winning moves the quest to Slain.

  8. The hoard. Look at the heap again. It's gilt lead by the cartload, but forty years of the count's tithes left 900 gp of real coin in the ash. And under where her belly lay, pressed into the rock, is the dead silver dragon's own scale coat: Dragon Scale Mail (Silver). The quest ends at Done (Godrick, Liriel, Thistle, Wren and Ratatouille +2 each).

Choices and endings

  • Done (success) is the only ending: 900 gp, the Dragon Scale Mail, plus the Dragon Slayer, 300 gp and four fire resistance potions found on the way.
  • Freeing Doina and Petrache is optional but earns approval. Snow settles on the north shoulder again, and the sergeant logs that too.
  • Pulling the pin is the one choice that costs you: a stronger dragon and a lot of disapproval.

If you're stuck

  • The sergeant is gone. If you released the dead watch or fought it before asking him twice, read the watch log in the captain's room instead: it starts the quest just the same.
  • The travel map has no north shoulder? It appears only once the quest has started, from the sergeant or the watch log.
  • The larder, the capstan, the hoard and Sarkhaza's Insight each give you one try. Only the sluice is certain.
  • You can't reach the dragon without going through the vent gallery, so you'll fight the Vent-Fire either way. Open the sluice while you're there.

Rewards

What your companions think

  • Godrick Pendlebrook: +2 you freed the count's tithe from the cart on Ghakis; +2 you killed the dragon under Mount Ghakis; -3 you took the dragon's chain off
  • Liriel Dawnsong: +2 you freed the count's tithe from the cart on Ghakis; +2 you killed the dragon under Mount Ghakis; -3 you took the dragon's chain off
  • Thistle: +1 you freed the count's tithe from the cart on Ghakis; +2 you killed the dragon under Mount Ghakis; -2 you took the dragon's chain off
  • Wren Featherfoot: +1 you freed the count's tithe from the cart on Ghakis; +2 you killed the dragon under Mount Ghakis; +1 you told the dragon her hoard was lead; -2 you took the dragon's chain off
  • Ratatouille: +2 you killed the dragon under Mount Ghakis; +1 you told the dragon her hoard was lead; -1 you took the dragon's chain off

Fights

  • The collar falls off onto the gold. Sarkhaza rises, all of her, and the cavern is too small for her, and she…, in Under Mount Ghakis: Sarkhaza. Scales with your level.
By party level (the first line your party fits is the fight you get)

Journal

Every journal entry and hint

Rumored: The ghost sergeant at the Tsolenka tower has logged smoke on the north shoulder of Mount Ghakis for forty years, and snow that melts there in midwinter. Every new moon a black cart goes up with a cage on the back and comes down with it empty. There are faces in the cage this month.
Hint: The goat path leaves the Tsolenka Pass, on the road to the Amber Temple; climb it to the north shoulder of Mount Ghakis.

Found: On the north shoulder of Ghakis there's an iron gate in the mountain with the count's crest on it, and warm air breathing out round it. Whatever the count keeps in there, he feeds it people.
Hint: Go in through the gate in the mountain and read the keepers' log at their post.

Chained: The keepers' log says it plainly: a red dragon, chained by the neck under Ghakis for forty years on the gold she came through the mists to take, wings riveted shut, starved on grave-salt. Her name is Sarkhaza. The keepers had their ways of going down to her safely.
Hint: Under Mount Ghakis, use the keepers' tricks if you like (the larder, the great drum, the vent sluice), then face what they kept.

Slain: Sarkhaza is dead on her heap of gold, forty years after she lay down on it.
Hint: Search the hoard under Mount Ghakis; look hard at the coins.

Done (the end: success): The hoard was the count's joke: gilt lead by the cartload. Under it, where she lay, was a coat of silver dragon scales, the dead silver's own, put there so she'd lie on her enemy forever and never know. Some jokes are worth spoiling.

Every skill check in its conversations
  • Sleight of Hand DC 14: (Work grave-salt deep into a carcass, the way the keepers' log says, and take it with…
  • Athletics DC 17: (Throw your weight on the capstan bars and haul her in.)
  • Investigation DC 15: (Look hard at the coins at the edge of the heap.)
  • Insight DC 16: (Watch her while she talks about the castle.)
Cutscenes

The Warm Snow: A red dragon, starved and chained by the neck, lifts her head off a slope of gold.
sq sarkhaza

The Collar Opens: The Collar Opens: a later beat of a long conversation picture (mount_ghakis/the_warm_snow, ~ unchained), Ashwin's ask 2026-10-12.
sarkhaza freed