White Plume Mountain - Day 4 

This one was too long for a Tweet!

I treat dungeons like organic, breathing things. They exist and operate with both objects and living creatures in symbiosis. Modules don’t really give you a ton of guidance on what to do based on what the PCs do. Instead they explain the set up and you have to improvise. So last session the PCs tore a hole in the bubble that kept out the water from a superheated volcanic lake. Now the area beyond the safety doors (at 14), where the giant crab and the trident Wave are located, is flooded. They have to retrieve Wave from this boiling lake behind a steel door sealed by the pressure of the lake water.

I decided to roll to see if Keraptis was “in lair” when this happened. He’s a powerful wizard, he will have things to do, he won’t always be there. I rolled that he was out of house. So I said to myself, if Keraptis built this dungeon as a test, would he have a course of action if the bubble collapsed? I mulled it over, and decided that if the bubble collapsed then the local agents in the dungeon would immediately ensure that the safety doors were not breached, as a breech would completely flood the dungeon. From weakest to strongest these agents they would go to check on the doors and ensure that the dungeon didn’t flood

I decided that when the bubble collapses the magic that created it slowly self-repairs the bubble, then magically leeches the water out of the space, but over a 3 day period. Still, if the party destroyed the bubble they might be able to destroy the safety doors, so they would be checked on I looked at the wandering monster table, and assumed that the wandering monsters periodically come up from the “indoctrination center” mentioned in the module. When a breach happens, Keraptis’ agents in the module are given monsters from the center to investigate. 

First up was the warrior Burket and wizard Snarla, four wights from the indoctrination center were sent to them and they headed out to the doors to see what had happened. While they were heading over, the party was trying to decide what to do. 

The party illusionist said he could use wraithform to get past the doors, but he couldn’t grab the trident on the other side. So they stewed on it for a while longer, and the party magic user mentioned that he had a ring of fire resistance, and the party thief had a ring of swimming.

This is one of my favorite aspects of game play, when players put their heads together to see if they can use their abilities and magical items/spells to solve a problem. There is a real creative element to this game that emerges from play in unpredictable ways. In this case they punctured the side of the bubble from a distance rather than by accident in melee, so they got to leave before being scalded. In the module they don’t say what happens after the bubble is breached, as they sort of assume you will die. So both ref and players had to improvise.

The paladin pointed out that even if the illusionist (who was a lizard man) managed to get past the door, then change back to human form with the two rings on, he would be visible to the giant crab who could quite easily slay him (he only has 18 HP). They were disappointed when they realized that.

Meanwhile, Burket, Snarla and 4 wights were making their way to the PC’s location. I knew how long it would take them to get there, and I kept track of the party deliberations in real time. Then the party thief/magic-user had a eureka moment. They would give the illusionist the two rings, she would cast invisibility on him, he would cast wraithform on himself, and he could enter, the bubble, transform back into lizard man form, still invisible, and then get to the trident. He couldn’t cast wraithform twice, so he would be stuck there, but they were hoping the trident might have a power that allowed him to get back. 

This is the essence of old school play, use your resources to solve a problem, but you don’t control every variable, there is still chance, still and unknown, and then to go ahead anyway. That’s the stuff. My players have it.

The optimism of youth, it's awesome.

Now I had to decide if you could cast invisibility, then wraithform, then when you transform back if you would still be invisible. There is no rule for it per se, but based on the fact that you stay invisible until you attack, it made sense to me this would work. So they agreed to that plan, and spells were cast, the illusionist became insubstantial and entered the bubble, now completely filled with superhot water. He then transformed back to human form and swam over to the back of the bubble, where the trident and a chest were visible

Now, in AD&D high HD creatures have a chance of detecting invisibility, the crab was 15HD, but there was no intelligence listed, and you need an intelligence to use the table. I decided after consulting my monster books (where there was no giant crab) that it was animal intelligence. That gave it a 10% chance per round of noticing the illusionist. He swam by, the creature did not see him, he got to the trident and grabbed it but didn’t move it, so it wouldn’t look odd. IMC when an invisible person picks up an object the object does not become invisible. The trident immediately conveyed its powers by telepathy

Now the illusionist had to decide how to get out of the room safely. The doors were held shut with the force of an underground lake pressing against them, so he would not be able to pull them open. Nor could he transform to wraithform again. The trident had a few powers: fish command, water breathing, free action, cube of force, telepathy and dehydration. However, he had to convert to the worship of Poseidon to use these abilities, so he thought about it, then made the conversion on the spot! 

Adventurers, they are a fickle lot.

They spent the next little while trying to decide what they could do to get the illusionist out. At that point however, Snarla and Burket had arrived in the room just to the south of them with their wights, as they were taking a long time figuring this out.

I rolled for surprise, as the party was engrossed in discussion, but there was no surprise. So I told them that they heard some noise from the south of their position. For some reason they decided that they would ignore it and focus on how to get the illusionist back. I found this odd, but I think they were so engrossed in the process of trying to figure out how to get him back and get Wave, that they figured whatever was there could be dealt with when it showed up.

Alright then. 

So Snarla cast stinking cloud on the party. There were 11 of them in the space on the map below, the square with the 14 and the two below it. A perfect spot for an ambush. They all had to roll saving throws, those who failed would be stuck in the cloud, those who passed could exit the cloud but would be incapacitated for one round after they left. So they all rolled saves, and of the 11 party members on this side of the door (6 from the PC party, 5 from the NPC party) ALL BUT ONE OF THEM FAILED. BWHA HA HA HA HA. 

As an aside, stinking cloud is a perfect example of how unbalanced AD&D spells are, it is a VERY powerful spell, it took out a group of 10 mid level adventurers easily.  This is the essence of AD&D, the party was rocking a ton of spells and lots of items between their 12 members, but they all could be taken out in one round by a 2nd level spell. 

Now, the paladin made his save, and he asked if he could leave the cloud. I said yes. He asked if he could drag someone out with him. I made him roll for that, considering how debilitating the cloud would be. He rolled successfully and dragged out the party magic user with him. If you look at the map there are stairs to the south of the hallway, but he figured that they would be waiting for him there. There is, however, a door at the end of the hallway going to the east (they went in that door earlier and found a spinning tunnel that was ignited by Burket). So he dragged the magic user off to that corridor and closed the door behind him. 

Inside the bubble the illusionist swam to the door.

I rolled to see if the crab cared that the trident was slowly drifting around the bubble. With animal intelligence I gave it a 3 in 6 chance of noticing and trying to retrieve the trident. I rolled that it didn’t, so the illusionist got the trident to the door. But the party was engaged. So now Burket throws a net on the party, still in the cloud and helpless, so he can collect them when the cloud disperses. In the hallway, the magic-user takes out his wand of conjuration, expends three charges, and casts a monster summoning spell. IMC, monster summoning draws from the local monster population. So I roll on the wandering monster tables to see what monsters are drawn to the spell, and a d4 to see how many rounds it takes them to appear. I rolled a 6 and a 1. So wights would appear in 1 round. 

That meant that THE SPELL SNARED THE WIGHTS WITH SNARLA AND BURKET!  So the magic-user and warrior see their wights shuffle forward into the stinking cloud, and they disappear from sight. Inside they go through the door to the paladin and magic-user, who have recovered from the cloud. They wait, and when the stench of the cloud disappears, the magic user and paladin jump out of the door, the wights ahead of them, so the magic user can sight the warrior and his partner and direct the wights to attack them. 

Now, I had to decide how Snarla would interpret what just happened.

I assumed she would know that monster summoning spells summon from the local monster population, and that wights, who were under their command due to Keraptis’ magic, would not normally wander off. So that meant she knew there was likely a magic-user nearby. So when the stinking cloud ended she was ready, and she cast a web spell on the hallway to trap the paladin, magic-user and wights! We rolled initiative, she won, and the entire three square area was chock full of webs, tangling up the whole party. 

BWHA HA HA HA HA.

Again, 2nd level spell took everyone out, sorry folks.

So they all tried to get out, and while they were struggling, Burket set the webs on fire and they fled! Everyone in the webs took 2d8 damage, which collectively dropped everyone’s HP down to somewhere around half. That got their attention! We rolled saves for equipment, scrolls, etc.

Another reminder that it can turn on a dime, no matter how powerful you are.

Then the magic user was ticked. The wights were too slow to capture the departing pair, so he pulled out his single scroll copy of invisible stalker. He knew he would never get the spell in his spell book (I’m running the regular group through this module, so that’s a real cost). He cast it, there was a 20% of failure, and if it failed a 15% chance of harm. He rolled a 24. It was successful, and he sent the stalker to slay them. That was good fun. They saw it tear off through the air, a wispy, insubstantial figure made of wind that looked almost like a person

It screamed as it chased them, and the party followed. They found it in a room with flesh golems that had numbers on their chests. Snarla had deactivated them to get by them and was going to activate them again, when the stalker appeared and slayed the wizard. The party caught up when it was holding Burket in the air about to snap the warrior’s neck. The magic user told it to stop, and told Burket they would kill him for what he had done to them. He replied, “Keraptis is my master, he will slay you all for your insolence, I fear nothing”. 

That got their attention. They were PISSED about the web though, so they had the stalker slay him. Then they remembered the illusionist. They headed back to the door (I checked for wandering monsters), and went up to the door. The illusionist heard them and used Wave to speak with them, he communicated to the trident telepathically and it communicated with party members on the other side of the door. The aerial stalker was still around, so the magic user tried to use it to solve their problem, they asked if it could push back the water with wind (I said no), if it could get past the doors (I said yes), and they talked it out for a while, the MU put the stalker on guard to protect them while they deliberated.

Clever bunch.

Eventually they had part of a plan, the illusionist would stand near the door that was currently held shut by the lake water. He would use Wave’s cube of force ability to make a block between the door and the water. He would therefore take the water pressure off the door, someone on the other side could then open the door for him to go through. The only problem was that when he dropped the walls of the cube he would be flooded through. He didn’t know what to do!

So they all reviewed their sheets, and the party magic-user had two scroll spells, invisible stalker (cast and soon gone), and wall of ice. Bing bing bing, we had a winnah. He could cast the wall of ice just beyond the cube of force, it would seal the passage. It wasn’t thick enough to last long, but it only had to last long enough for him to open the door a foot in front of him, run through and slam it shut. To his credit the magic user casting wall of ice did so with the second door closed behind him, so if he screwed up all his fellow party members wouldn’t die. Teamwork!

The gambit worked, and they retrieved Wave! Unfortunately, it was the magic item the NPC party was there to retrieve, so they reluctantly gave it up to honor their part of the bargain. The NPC party is mostly good aligned, so they vowed to stay until the party found their item. The stalker dispersed, then they decided to go back to where the flesh golems stood, heads hanging down, deactivated by Snarla, they rifled the bodies for loot (nothing there!) and went on to the turnstiles, and decided to keep going to the next area. Then they arrived at the mud geysers

This is the best room in the module. There are two geysers, and nine discs connected to chains that cross a lake of hot mud. The discs are not stable, and are covered with scum and mud, and are very slippery. They see another platform at the far side of the chamber. The first geyser goes off, it sprays several platforms, and gives off a wave of heat. They talk some more, then the second geyser goes off! They decide to put a watch down the hall behind them, and watch the geysers in front of them to see if they have timing. 

They are TERRIFIED, falling damage, burning damage, DEATH, DEATH, DEATH.

They watch a few cycles, I roll for wandering monsters, none come up. There is another group of agents from the dungeon on their way (led by Sir Bluto Sans Pete), but they are taking their time knowing that the party is heading towards Ctenmiir, the vampire. Let the vampire soften them up...

So the party magic user walks over to the wall and casts levitation on himself, moves to the top of the chamber, then pulls himself along the wall to get to the other side. It takes him 20 minutes, but he is far enough away from the geysers and Sir Bluto and his bully boys are waiting further back, so no wandering monsters appear.

Then the NPC party Thief/MU casts Jump on himself. He effortlessly makes the jumps because of this, but sticking the landings requires a roll. I make it a 4 in 6 base chance to land the jump because of the spell and add a 1 in 6 for his high dex, so he has a 5 in 6 chance to land and stick it. He waits for the first geyser to go off, and he jumps, he sticks the landing but discovers that the discs tip when landed on, and when jumped off. That gets their attention. He jumps again, and again… then he fails his roll, plummets off, and falls into the boiling mud, dying. 

Now they are really freaking out. Then the party illusionist casts alter self on himself and grows wings, and the party Thief/MU casts reduce on herself so he can carry her, and they fly across hewing to the walls.

That works. Next up, the NPC fighter who is carrying Wave. When they sent in their crew, they included one member who worships Poseidon, so he could use the trident. He makes the first jump, he had a 4 in 6 chance (the jump is 4’ to a tippy disc), and I added a 1 in 6 because of his strength (so he could hold on when he landed). He waited for the first geyser, then made four jumps in a row before falling off. As he plummeted he turned on the cube of force, and bobbed along in the boiling mud. Next, the NPC party priest cast resist fire on herself and started jumping, she fell off on disc 5, and plummeted to the boiling mud. She swam towards shore but the mud was heavy and hard to swim through, so she sank to her death, drowned in boiling mud before reaching the other side. 

And who says D&D doesn’t do horror! They were THOROUGHLY HORRIFIED by this, and the dice rolls created real anticipation and excitement. So right now the party Thief/MU, MU and illusionist are on the far platform in front of a door that leads to a vampire’s lair. I have decided that the NPC party monk, if she were to try this, would get a 5 in 6 chance to stick the landing, and if that fails an additional petrification save to hang on. So I will roll to see if she tries to cross or not knowing she has better odds of making the jumps and landings. The NPC party ranger isn’t going to do it. The NPC party fighter bobbing in the hot mud has to figure out how to get up when he drops the cube of force.

The PC party ranger, paladin, thief and fighter are stranded on the first ledge, they aren’t likely to try jumping as making 9 consecutive 4 to 5 in 6 rolls is hard to do, and falling off means death. So they may be stranded for this encounter. That leaves a thief, thief/MU, MU and maybe a monk to take on a vampire. 

Easy peasy. These kids are rock stars, they are figuring out tough situations and combining spells, items and abilities to do the next-to-impossible. And they are risking death to do it. 

This is also a great example of why even with magic items and spells death is just a few rolls away, and sometimes you will have what you need, sometimes you will cobble together what you need by being smart, and other times you will be stuck, spells or no.

This was peak 1e AD&D goodness, terrifying, challenging and fun. They were on fire today and they knew it. Tomorrow we wrap it all up. We’ll see if they make it, and what they take with them. This is shaping up to be one of my favorite module runs. 

Badass.