The knights were going down, one-by-one, but they were battering the party. Orgrush would have died right there, save for a quick protective ward cast by Quarion the Abjurer. Gimlet dropped a Potion of Supreme Healing in Orgrush’s bag.
Sir Bluto was the last foe standing. He was defiant, spitting blood when Orgrush attempted another conversion to Xerbo. Bluto backed up to the floating stream so he couldn’t be attacked from behind. But the party cut him down soon enough.
The fight over, the party was left standing among corpses and kayaks.
Rest
The party located the secret door the knights had used to leave their quarters. They found the quarters to be quite spartan, just bedrolls, water barrels, chamberpots, and crates of iron rations. Still, the party correctly surmised, this would be an excellent resting room away from wandering monsters.
They ended up being correct in this, though I did roll on the wandering monsterstable to see if a creature might find them anyway. It turned out to be Ogres, not quite D&D’s best sleuths. I decided the ogres were attracted to the numerous corpses in the kayak room.
However, the party hadn’t had enough time since their last rest to rest yet again. So they had to remain there for hours before resting. They know this means more competition can arrive in the dungeon: NPC adventuring parties also searching for the legendary weapons.
The party emerged from resting, and heard the ogres gorging on the bodies. Sir Valler saw one bestial ogre chewing on a human leg like a drumstick.
The ogres were far too occupied in their gluttony to notice the party in the distance. They continued south to the terraced room.
A Warning
The beasts in terraced room stirred to activity when the party reappeared. Giant crayfish made their way to their presumed feeding. Wing-clipped Manticores at the bottom shifted to get an angle, and fired their tail spikes.
Orgrush was preoccupied however. Wave the sentient trident spoke telepathically to him, urging the half-orc to leave the dungeon immediately to proselytize for the Suel sea deity Xerbo. When Orgrush revealed that they were seeking the other two legendary weapons, Wave warned him: “I Forbid It!” Orgrush assented, but he knew he was only putting off a conflict.
Dungeons & Vandalism
A few of the manticore spikes were hitting the party. Quarion had an answer, however.
He cast Shatter on the lower glass wall. Water began pouring into the manticores’ section.
Emlyn cast a fireball on a grouping to the west. The manticores were far too busy clumsily paddling for their lives to attack.
Quarion cast another Shatter at the upper glass water wall. It too was breached. The Sea Lions began savagely attacking the Manticores, who were vulnerable in the turbulent water.
Lawrence Schick, the writer of White Plume Mountain, knew shattered walls were a possibility.
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.
Another great outing – thanks for posting! The creativity and storytelling in this run is far better than I remember my group exhibiting nearly 40 years ago!
Hi Chris. I’m so glad you’re enjoying the WPM session recaps. I’m the backup DM in our group, so the WPM campaign will continue to be irregular. Can’t tell you when the next session will be, but it will continue.
I’d suggest subscribing to my blog. I don’t post frequently, so it’s not like I’ll fill up your email inbox.
Reblogged this on DDOCentral.
Another great outing – thanks for posting! The creativity and storytelling in this run is far better than I remember my group exhibiting nearly 40 years ago!
Thanks a lot Chris! I felt sad for my critters in the terraced room, but it was a lot of fun seeing the group demolish the room.
Hey this is great! Really enjoying the read during the run up to DMing this one myself.
Thanks! Happy Gaming. -W
Any update on when you might post the next chapter? Thanks again for sharing these great adventures!
Hi Chris. I’m so glad you’re enjoying the WPM session recaps. I’m the backup DM in our group, so the WPM campaign will continue to be irregular. Can’t tell you when the next session will be, but it will continue.
I’d suggest subscribing to my blog. I don’t post frequently, so it’s not like I’ll fill up your email inbox.
Good idea Wayne – done!
Need me to reach out to your group tonget Session 7 organized? 🙂 This dungeon dive is too good not to see it through to the end!
All the best,
Chris