White Plume Mountain Day 5

So we started today with the party fighter/illusionist, magic user and thief/magic-user on the second ledge in the hanging chains room. The rest of the party and the NPC party were stranded back on the first ledge. They had seen two people fall to their doom in the boiling mud and had decided that they were not interested.

The fighter from the NPC party (Hoan Brannor - the “White Lion”) had been given possession of Wave, the NPC party was sent to retrieve the artifact, and since the party helped them get it, they were now helping the party to get Blackrazor. Hoan was sent along as a worshipper of Poseidon so he would be able to use the trident. Last session he attempted the crossing but fell off one of the discs, on his way down he activated the cube of force ability of Wave and was bobbing up and down in the boiling mud like a cork.

They now had to cook up a plan. They were on the platform, 50’ up from the boiling mud. The party magic user (Mahl Unoss the Puissant) had used his levitation spell for the day. The party fighter/illusionist (Omallan the Carn), had used his Alter Self spell. The thief/magic-user (Hinn Virkoss, the “Brass Spider”) had a spider climb spell, so she could climb down the side of the rock and try to help Hoan up, but the minute he dropped his cube of force he would plunge into the boiling mud. It will last for a max of 18 turns.

So they talked about this. While this happened, I rolled for wandering monsters, one result on the table was Sir Bluto Sans Pite and his warriors, they were sent out after Snarla and Burket did not report back that the doors to the underground lake were secure. But the roll didn’t hit.

So they come up with a plan, there are three of them there, between them they have 150’ of rope. They fashion it into a huge loop, one big enough to fit around a 10’x10’X10’ cube.

They have fashioned a 50’ loop and tied 100’ of rope to it, and the two other PCs have it at the top. Hinn casts strength on Mahl, then positions herself and waits for the cube to bob close enough to loop it with the rope.  So, I rolled to see how long it would take for Hoan to bob back by. He fell off a later disc so he landed close, but there was no way to know where he was. So I just rolled for it, 1-6 turns until he would be close enough. I rolled a 2.

So two more wandering monster checks, both fail, and the cube of force with Hoan bobs into range. Then Hinn takes out a live spider from her belt pouch, eats it, and climbs down the cliff with the rope. She lines up the shot, and I told her she would get three chances, then the fighter would bob out of range and I would have to reroll. I also reminded her that her spider climb spell would last 6 minutes, and then she would have to make a climb walls roll to stay on, or grab the rope to avoid falling. She took a round to climb down and get into position.

I also told her that hitting this thing and snagging it would require a 20 to hit. She was allowed her RAA bonus (+1) from dex. So 19 or 20. She took her first shot and rolled a 19, snagged the cube, and pulled it in. That took 2 rounds. The other two PCs pulled too, and once the cube was hauled up a bit Hinn positioned herself underneath it, that took 2 rounds.

Hoan drops the cube, he falls and is caught by Hinn, who is still under the effect of the spider climb and right beneath him, she then gives him the rope to hang on to and makes a climb walls roll. She makes that as the spell ends, and then Hoan climbs up the rope as the other two party members hold it above. They both had to make open doors rolls to make that happen, with Mahl boosted by the strength spell and Omallan with a 15 strength they make the roll, and Hoan climbs up. Hinn then climbs over to the rope with a successful climb walls roll, and climbs up with the rope.

I was frankly shocked they pulled it off.

So they moved on to the door.

It was checked for traps by Hinn, after reviewing the door for sigils or signs that might indicate harmful glyphs, she ran a thin metal shiv around the edges to look for tripwires, she tapped the door with a hammer to check for hidden mechanisms, and then checked the floor and walls around it. This took them to a turn of time, and another wandering monster check. This came up with Sir Bluto, but I decided he would hold off, let  the foolish party face Ctenmiir and then clean up what emerged.

The thief announced the door was safe, and they opened it.

Now, when I prepped this module I noted which creatures were charmed and which were pressed into service or bound here. The charmed creatures could not be bargained with, the bound creatures could. It added a fun wrinkle to the game, and made it less predictable. So the vampire in this module won’t necessarily kill the party, as he wants Keraptis to suffer, and perhaps for him to be freed. So the party goes down the thin, dark corridor, and they find a door with holes in it.

They all look at each other. They approach the door, which is not fully closed, and look in to a room with nothing else other than a box, 7ft by 3ft by 3ft in size.

They enter, and check the box, and see it’s cover is slightly askew. They open it and see a cushion lining. I make them roll for surprise. They are not surprised, so I tell Hinn that she hears a noise behind her, just barely, like a sigh, and they turn to see a man with a black cloak standing before them.

He speaks in a voice cracked like death.

“Leave this place”

Hinn looks at the man and says, “Sure, I’m out” and turns to leave, the man, in her way, turns to smoke and reforms behind her, in front of the other party members.

“ITS A VAMPIRE” they all scream.

“Leave this place” he says again. And the other two look at each other and say, “OUT!” and start to run to leave, he once again turns to smoke, and goes back in to his room.

They run out like the Scooby gang.

They wanted NOTHING to do with the vampire. They knew it was guarding Whelm from the clue, so they only wanted it to help get Blackrazor. At this point they were just OUT on the vampire. I rolled to see if Ctenmiir would accept this hoping the adventurers would wreak havoc on Keraptis, or if he would feed on them for amusement. I rolled that he would sleep again, and he did.

So now I know what terrifies my players, not giants, not dragons, not ghouls, not gargoyles, not umber hulks, not squealers, but vampires.

Who knew?

So now they were stuck. They had to get back, and didn’t want to use the discs. I have house ruled monster summoning in my game so that it draws from the local monster population. The magic user had a wand of conjuration that could be used to summon monsters. The wand had been used already, and each use costs 3 charges. He used it again and I rolled on the wandering monster tables to see what it drew in, and it grabbed 5 gargoyles. That did the trick, they each grabbed a party member with a spare and flew them back over.

Now, Sir Bluto, when he realized they were coming back, withdrew to a more secure location, he gambled they would be going up the left branch of the dungeon, directly to a perfect ambush location, the hallway with the metal plates. So he calls his men back and they get into place.

The party follows suit and heads to the left branch of the dungeon, the one that they hope contains Blackrazor. They get to the hallway with the metal plates. They quickly discover it’s ability to heat up metal, and they try to figure out what to do. Since the module has started they have used up a lot of spells and abilities, and they haven’t had time to recover.

So eventually the party paladin takes off all his armor and weapons, joins the NPC party monk, the party illusionist sans weapons, and the magic user walking down the hallway. They get to the other side and come to a room with stairs on the other side. When they go to the stairs Sir Bluto and his men come out of a secret door and attack!

The party paladin and the monk block the stairs while the illusionist and magic user go up, the stairs narrow the number of opponents that can fight them. The NPC monk is attacked by three soldiers that try to overbear her, but she trounces them, breaking their grapple and sending them flying. The illusionist casts fog cloud and now all the warriors are effectively blind. The magic-user uses his wand of conjuration again (the charges are getting low) and waits to see what comes. The paladin and monk hold the line against the soldiers for another two rounds, the monk manages to stun one, the paladin manages to get a weapon from one and use it against him (recall that the paladin gets 5 attacks per round against these soldiers).

Then the conjured monsters arrive, three shadows. Shadows are one of my all time favorite D&D monsters, they are creepy, being two dimensional and moving across surfaces but becoming three dimensional to attack. They are fast, deadly and scary as hell. They wade into the fog cloud and start picking off soldiers.

What the magic user didn’t know was this: when the shadow hit a soldier and killed him, the soldier became a shadow! Since the soldiers didn’t have magic weapons, and they were blinded by the fog cloud, the shadows commenced a slaughter. And in several rounds there were 9 shadows in the room, only 3 under the command of the magic-user. This left Sir Bluto Sans Pite as the last man standing.

Mahl Unoss the Puissant was panicking, what to do about the shadows he didn’t control? Attack them with the shadows he did? He made an on the spot decision, that he would send away the shadows he did control and see if the others would follow. Since the shadows he did control spawned the others, I decided it was a possibility. I rolled and they followed the shadows out and away from them. I described them as screaming, boiling shadows flying down the corridors in search of souls…

So they now had to deal with Sir Bluto, who was pretty ticked. He charged the monk and she one-shot stunned him and when he went down slit his throat.

That was some unexpected badassery. And she saved the illusionist, who was the target of the warrior’s attack. The player who was running the illusionist didn’t like that much. He had two characters, a lizard man fighter and a fighter/Illusionist.

So they searched Sir Bluto’s body and found a key, searched the hidden room he came from and found a mechanism that fit the key. He turned it and the plates stopped working. The party re-kitted and continued. I checked the clock to see how we were doing, just under an hour left.

So they moved on to the next room, the frictionless room. This was a challenge for them. They quickly figured out the frictionless part and that there were two pits. Then they stewed on the problem for a bit, they had used a few spells that would have been helpful, and were stuck.

Then something crazy happened, the fighter illusionist PC decided to push the NPC party Monk (Sister Jalaka) in to the room, to see what happens when you slide into a pit. I have no idea why he did this, I know he was irritated that she had saved his can, but it was a wild reaction. Unfortunately I made him roll for surprise to try and push her without her noticing, he was surprised however, she was not. So she moved to the side and he fell into the room!

He slid into the first pit before anyone could react, and fell on to the spikes! Fortunately he rolled his save, but he still took a lot of damage. The party argued briefly with the NPCs before agreeing to bring him back. The threw him a rope and he pulled himself back over. There was quite a bit of conversation and encounter reaction rolls to see if the NPC party stayed with them after this, but the dice kept them there.

So they were stuck, and the magic-user suggested using his wand again, I reminded him that it had limited charges (9 to be specific), but they were out of options (or so they thought) and they were hoping for a flying monster.

They got two black puddings! They slithered up the hallway and the magic user ordered them into the room, the first one slid an oozed into the first pit and it’s caustic body ate away at the spikes on the bottom of the pit. The second one oozed over the first and slid to the second pit, where it did the same.

So now they had two pits with puddings in them, and they were no better off than before!

So this spawned more conversation, and a wandering monster roll (that came up blank). And then the party fighter asks Hoan Brannor - the “White Lion” if the cube of force could hold them all, and at 10’x10’ it can. So the decide to get into close formation, turn on the cube, and see if they can slide through the room.

Clever bunch.

They do so, slide over the first pit (as it is too narrow to fit the cube, and there is a black pudding there!) and over the second, coast through the illusory wall, bounce off the far wall and coast back, when they are in front of the exit door Hoan drops the cube and sinks his trident into the door, they all grab each other and one of them grabs the trident. Hoan then hauls himself up opens the door (to hit to stab the door, open doors to heave it open). They then leave the room one by one.

Not elegant, but effective.

Sister Jalaka kept a close eye on Omallan as they moved forward, she didn’t trust him. They moved down the hallway to a branch and chose south heading to a door. The party thief checked it for traps, came up with nothing, and they opened the door to see the inverted ziggurat.

Side note, none of my players knew what a ziggurat was before this game, let alone an inverted one, now they know!
At this point we had about a 45 min left. They saw all the different monsters in the room and decided that their best bet was to use the magic-user’s wand of conjuration to try and take control of the monsters in the room. The wand had 12 charges left, so they decided to try and break the glass barrier for the monsters at the top (the crayfish), then use the wand to try and control them or the scorpions in the next level. The caster can’t determine what they control with the wand, so it was a bit of a crapshoot.

Mahl Unoss the Puissant cast lightning bolt on the glass barrier and shattered it, sending a wave of water and the giant crayfish to the next level. He then used 6 charges from his wand and I rolled and he got the crayfish as his summoned monsters. He then proceeded to have them attack the giant scorpions. The scorpions were at a disadvantage in the water, so I wasn’t sure how that would go. I had the players roll the attacks for the summoned monsters, so they don’t just sit around watching me do stuff. The fight was short and furious, and when the smoke cleared there was a single giant scorpion left.

The party paladin waited until the scorpion was on the other side of the room and leapt down into its level, waded through the water and started smashing the glass with his mace, 4 solid blows later and the glass shattered, and the water flooded down to the sea lion level and washed over to the bottom level. The scorpion was washed over with it. The sea lions took care of the wounded, waterlogged scorpion in short order.

Then the moment of truth. Mahl had 6 charges left in the wand. If he wanted to control the sea lions, he would have to use them all. When you use up all the charges in a wand in AD&D the wand crumbles to dust. If you leave at least a few charges in you can conceivably recharge the wand. These characters will be continuing in our regular campaign play, so the player thought long and hard about this. He decided to “take one for the team” and use his last charges.

I rolled and the wand took control of the sea lions, the paladin and the fighter waded into the sea lion’s level and shattered the last glass barrier, flooding the pit entirely. Now the magic user had the sea lions fight the manticores. We shared the rolling duties and after a brief but fierce fight there was one manticore left, flailing in the water. They finished it off with missile fire, closed the door to the room and spiked it closed, and tried to figure out how to get down to the door at the bottom. Someone noticed that the water was draining, so they waited while the water drained out of the room completely.

When they went to the bottom the door was slightly ajar, inviting them in.

As I mentioned above there were a agents of Keraptis who were charmed, and others who were bound to service. Quesnef the ogre magi was bound to service, so he was looking for a way out, and adventurers were one possibility.

So I had planned that he would make an offer to the two parties, whichever party could offer up someone to take his place would be given the sword, as that would fulfill the conditions of the magic that bound him. I expected that the two parties would likely fight each other over this, and then Quesnef would either fight the winners or honor the bargain, depending on a reaction roll.

Instead, one of the players from the PC party suggested that they should put up the party illusionist Omallan the Carn as the sacrifice to take Quesnef’s place, as he had tried to kill the NPC party monk.

That was a bit of a shock, but it fit so well with the RP that had happened that I was delighted. Sometimes I have to remind myself that you should just roll with what happens at the table, I was worried that we might not finish in time, that things wouldn’t work out, but here the players gave me the solution on a silver platter.

What I wasn’t sure of was whether the player of the illusionist would be upset about this. I had given each player two PCs to run, something I usually do in my games due to attrition, so it wasn’t his only PC. So I asked him, what do you think of the idea? The other players suggested that they could threaten to kill the illusionist if he didn’t accept the offer, and use that as a lever to get him to agree to the exchange. They decided against that.

So the player of the illusionist thought about it and said, “Quesnef lives in luxury here, food, drink, luxurious surroundings, wanting for nothing. Sure, I’ll swap with him.”

And that was that.

Quesnef took out the sword, and asked the illusionist, “Do you freely accept this bond, to remain here until Keraptis sees fit to release you?”

He agreed, and Quesnef took off the amulet and gave it to him, binding him to this room until Keraptis let him out or someone else willingly took the amulet.

The PCs grabbed Blackrazor, and headed for the exit as fast as their feet could carry them. At this point we had about 5 minutes left so we stopped.

As anyone who has run a tournament module will know, timing is everything. You don’t HAVE to finish a tournament module, but it’s awfully nice when you do. I run an open sandbox game, so I normally don’t care about this sort of thing. But for a 1 week long summer camp, you want to try and complete something. Actually, your PLAYERS want to finish their task in the week, to them, it’s an accomplishment.

I’m super happy with how this turned out, the players were challenged, they had to use their noggins constantly to outwit this dungeon, and through some relatively minor additions I changed the flavor of the module to fit my campaign. And of course there can be long term repercussions to this as they still have to return the weapons to the warlocks who hired them, which could lead to all sorts of hijinks.

This was a big success, the players LOVED the module, there was just enough death that they felt it was challenging (two actual deaths and four very close calls), and they achieved their goals without me making it happen for them, so it felt like an achievement. They were saying to each other that they were going to brag about this to their friends, they had beaten an old school module with brains and a bit of the old ultra-violence, and they really enjoyed the “funhouse” aspect of the adventure. It ends up players LIKE to be challenged *as players*, not just as characters, they LIKE the threat of death, they LIKE the excitement that comes from taking real risks.

And they don’t like vampires.

I have a brief break then I will be running another summer camp in the first week of August. Depending on how many players are interested (at the moment I have 4) I may split up the camps into two groups, one playing in the AM and the other in the afternoon, we’ll see. I have to pick a module for that as well.

Here’s to first edition Advanced Dungeons and Dragons and the hours of pure adventuring joy that it brings. They will be talking about this adventure for a long time, I’m proud of them for outwitting much of this adventure, and for completing their task. This is the first time I’ve had a group finish all three branches of this adventure. They rocked it.