The Cinder Serpent Of Ash Mountain

Summary

It is said, that if you go all the way through the Kese Dihan Forest, past the "Forest Of Sorrows", to the border of The Broken Lands, there exists a large, singular mountain made of ash. Here, deep within its caves and caverns lies thousands of undreamed of glittering gems. Dwarven parties from all over came here to mine the gems, but they found very little at the surface, and so they decided to dig deeper. The deeper they dug the more gems they found, but the more they found, the greater their jealousy and greed became. Soon a race was on to dig deeper and longer and gather more gems, before others could get ahead of them.
Permanent encampments and mine sites covered the mountain side and the ringing of hammers and picks could be heard throughout the land. As they dug deeper and competed for the same areas, arguments broke out and even several skirmishes, yet still they dug deeper. Eventually they burst into a giant cavern filled with huge, sparkling gems and glowing lava pools. Their jealousy and greed magnified and soon the dwarves were fighting each other, making such noise that something awoke from one of the lava pools. An enormous serpent, covered in lava and flames slithered through the dwarven miners, burning and eating them whole. The more that it ate, the larger that it grew, and the more that it wanted.
The fiery serpent followed the screaming dwarves through their tunnels, tracking them down one by one. As it followed them out of the mines and into their encampments, its very body caught the lands on fire, burning everything to ash. There it circled, round and round the mountain, until everything was burnt and every fleeing dwarf was eaten. Suddenly the rains came, cooling the serpent and turning its body into glowing cinders, this forced it back into the mountain where it slept and digested its meal. They say that it's still there, all of these years later, and if you listen carefully, you can hear its rumbling snores.
Tales are still told of the many brave or greedy dwarves and humans, who go back to look in the ash for the burned crates of gems that were left behind, and are never heard from again. Could the Cinder Serpent still be there waiting for more tasty prey? Maybe their greed and jealousy got the better of them and caused them to kill each other, or perhaps something even worse.

Historical Basis

If one travels through the forest to the top of the foothills and scans the northern horizon, there is indeed a mountain there.  That mountain is steep and tall and appears to be covered in grey and black ashes and soot.  Now whether or not the entire mountain is composed of ash or just the surface of it is covered in ash, is still unknown.

Spread

This tale is very well known to the towns and villages located inside of the Kese Dihan Forest. Those living in the areas immediately surrounding the forest have also heard of the stories. Farther out from the forest the tale is not really known.

Variations & Mutation

Other variants include a belief that a great red dragon sleeps in a cave at the mountain base, and when it snores, occasional flames come out and scorch the land.  A few say that Vulca, Goddess Of Flames, is trying to turn the mountain into a volcano to punish those that trespass and mine the riches of the area.

In Literature

In the Book Of Rustmore, there is a chapter that tells the tale of the Cinder Serpent and how it came out of the mountain and slaughtered the dwarven miners there.  This was supposedly written by a survivor, but it is in dispute as the two timelines don't match up very well.