This session had two fights. Last (opening) session saw only tricks and traps.
This is a D&D session recap. There will be spoilers. Obviously.
Previously: WHITE PLUME MOUNTAIN: Session 1 – Entering the Lair of the Mad Wizard Keraptis
The Unboiled Crab
After a fair bit of party hand-wringing over whether the metal valve doors might shut of their own accord, Orgrush tied himself on a rope line, and jammed spikes into each door. He then opened the third valve door.
The party mistrusted the protective membrane immediately, and feared damaging it with errant weapon attacks.
The crab and the party regarded each other for a time. Then Sir Valler remembered Keraptis’ note saying the party would have to make duel with the crab to secure the trident Wave. With a shrug, they set to battle.
The spellcasters Emlyn and Quarion were choosing every spell carefully. Magic Missile, Chill Touch, etc. were preferred. No Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, or anything else that could miss and perforate the chamber’s membrane.
The crab gave the paladin Valler a solid crunch with its claw and seized the man.
But the party steadily hacked the crab down. My own DM rolls were poor, and it was soon crab cake. [I reckon this crab could have benefited from 5e’s Lair Action mechanic.]
In the unlocked chest beyond, it was quite a haul.
- 1,000 gp in small sacks, twenty gems (two big ones worth 1,000 gp each, one big one worth 5,000 gp, and seventeen others worth a total of 3,935 gp)
- unidentified magic goggles
- unidentified magic stone
- Wave (the sentient trident they’d been told about)
There was quite a bit of surprise around the “table” at the quantity of gold and gems! I told them old school modules tended to shower characters in coin. Fortunately this is a one-off module, not part of our regular campaign. The three weapons in S3 S2 White Plume Mountain are notoriously over-powered.
Despite the obvious draw of Wave the magic trident, the party was leery of the sentient weapon. Emlyn rolled a nat 20 for her Arcana check. I said that Wave was known to hold allegiance to Xerbo (the Suel god of the Sea, Sailing, Money, and Business). Wave would demand that his bearer also worship Xerbo as well. I told them Xerbo would accept them in a moment, should any swear an oath.
They said NAH!!
Orgrush stuffed the trident into a large bag.
Snarla and Burket
The party returned to study the spinning cylinder.
The stone corridor changes abruptly to a spinning cylinder, apparently made of some light-colored metal. The inner surface rotates rapidly. It is painted in a dizzying black-and-white spiral pattern, and it glistens as if coated with some substance.
Emlyn sent her imp familiar to fly through the cylinder, and report what lay beyond. I ruled that a flying creature could become disorientated as well, had the imp roll a Wisdom check. Failed. The imp touched one of the sides, fell to the surface, slid out the far end, and was dumped in the small stub of hallway beyond.
The imp reported that it was in a 10×10 section of hallway with a closed door.
Orgrush jumped in, lost his balance, and was dumped out the far side. He was followed by Sir Valler.
As Sir Valler was sliding his way through, a flaming arrow flew past Orgrush, landed in the cylinder, whose oily surface caught fire. Sir Valler got a little cooked.
The dwarf cleric Gimlet protested. “I used Find Traps on this!”
“Maybe it’s not a trap,” I answered.
The party was soon all crammed into that 10×10 space. They saw there was an arrow slit, and a party member pushed a shield against it.
Orgrish tried forcing the door (they’re all DC 15 STR checks), failed. Sir Valler tried, failed. Gimlet the dwarf got a nat 20 and shoved it wide open.
Beyond they could see a small room with 4 werewolf hybrids.
ROLL INITIATIVE!
Snarla, the werewolf, won initiative, and cast a Fear spell. Only the dwarf Gimlet failed his save, and went bounding into the corridor, running away at full speed.
The fight commenced, and the party quickly realized it was one werewolf warded by a Mirror Image spell. I had terrible luck rolling 5e D&D’s peculiar MI mechanic, and so all of the hits were scoring on the real Snarla. But it did mean the false images remained up for a while.
Burket stepped in and defended his mate Snarla. He attacked Quarion, the abjuration wizard.
Finally one of the images went down.
Next:
Resources
I hope y’all enjoyed this session recap / walkthrough. Here’s what I used for this adventure.
White Plume Mountain (S2). The original 1979 AD&D adventure by Lawrence Schick, long out of print but available in the used market or PDF / Paperback reprint at DriveThruRPG (currently $6.50 at this writing). Great art by old school RPG artists.
Tales From the Yawning Portal (2017). The White Plume Mountain adventure is included in this D&D 5e hardcover – unabridged and essentially unchanged from the original. One of several classic modules converted to 5e tabletop play. New art, which is also quite good. The map looks great for VTT play.
I like reading this. It’s been decades since my high school group ran through this.
One typo: You list this as S3 after the crab treasure – it is S2.
Thanks! and corrected the oops.
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