AD&D Review - White Plume Mountain

Review and Dungeon Master suggestions for the classic D&D adventure White Plume Mountain. Originally released in 1979, it's been given a new life in 5th Edition's, Tales From The Yawning Portal.
You can purchase the First Edition module here: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1...
My own fiction can be found here: amzn.to/2zLTxAb

[@richardleatherman5075]

"Curse your sudden, but inevitable betrayal!" Nice touch

[@Hayden-vf1ss]

"It should take one, maybe two sessions. Depends on how your players play." Ah, so it would take four sessions. Gotcha.

[@charlesgraff2655]

Hayden Beissel, try 7 or 8 sessions my guy

[@nokomarie1963]

50 sessions, easily.

[@TheBayzent]

5 Sessions in my case, because I'm a pussy and pretty much told them what to roll after seeing them stuck for almost two hours. 2 If they had listened to the wizard.

[@andrewdavis200]

Same here. Have ran it for 2 groups and it took 4 4 hour sessions to complete both times.

[@waltrz]

About a year, got it.

[@christophersunner5246]

Seth, I used to play AD&D back when I was in middle school and high school back in the early 80s. Although I am too busy with work and graduate school to play again, I love watching your videos for the nostalgia of simpler and more pleasurable times. Thank you!

[@alejandrogarcia6187]

@Christopher Sunner May I say sir, that I came back to D&D after a 20 year "spell" and I am enjoying the come back immensely and it's giving me loads of positive energy to keep up with other aspects of life.

[@michaelvargha7302]

6:38 Seth identifies the biggest problem with the premise of this module. I successfully completed White Plum Mountain as a player decades ago, and all the players were disappointed when our DM would not let us keep the weapons.

[@blockmasterscott]

I let my players keep them. I often changed things in the modules.

[@cjanquart]

We had a group that had a penchant for eating animal-type monsters, as long as they're weren't diseased, evil or mutated. That giant crab would've kept our party with crab cakes for DAYS! Part of our campaign was that our character had a trade or skill before they became adventurers. My halfling thief was a cook.

[@99thJediWarrior]

Now that sounds like some hardcore survival type role-playing. I like it.

[@OneEyedJack1970]

One thing I really liked about HackMaster was the Hacklopedia of Beasts would often tell you what the monsters tasted like, and which parts were edible.

[@wizzlewazzle9202]

Dumb af

[@krell.1415]

Dungeon Meshi sounds like the best piece of media for that group

[@maximthemagnificent]

I played this as my first adventure when I was a child in the 80s. My older brother was DM, and he adapted it (admittedly not very well) for his first level party friends and they let me tag along, which was mighty cool of them. I died in the first round of combat (I, uh, got better...) but greatly enjoyed myself and played AD&D for many years afterwards with my own friends. Pretty sure I still have this module in my boxes of Dragon magazines.

[@reneshible5290]

Can't get enough of these old school D&D adventure reviews! Especially interesting to those of us new to the hobby!!

[@grognardtheorc]

God I remember this when it first came out. Now I feel old 😥

[@SSkorkowsky]

Young at heart. At least that's what I keep telling myself to get me through it.

[@billhenry7213]

Nope. You're old.

[@johanneskaiser8188]

Age is just a number, important is what you make of it. Easy for me to say, probably, but I know some good examples of this (like my grandfather, who was still bicycling alone from Konstanz to Amsterdam around the age of 82, just because he was in the mood for a tour).

[@scratchpapergames9351]

Your videos are proving invaluable to my game research. Thank you for all the effort!

[@styxxrivers7576]

Seth, I love your reviews and advice. Being 51 years old and I started gaming in Grade 5 with an Othello chip as our die replacement. White we hit Black we miss. I wanted to say I laughed when you said with the exception of art. Back in the early 1980's the art in this module was the snizzel, the be all, the WOW have you seen. It was so fantastic. Jeff D and others WOW. It defined some of the monsters and locations for us. Helped kick our young imaginations off into these wonderful places. Today we have pintress and Google for amazing art as well as movies and comics and .. well you get what I am saying. I had to walk to a store uphill both ways in my bare feet and HOPE it had a Good Dragon magazine that month with good art in it. Or go to the record store (LP records FYI) and pick up a Heavy Metal Magazine if the clerk let us as I think HM was age restricted. I think that is what is most over looked today when we look back on these modules. Us young(Very Old now) players didn't have art, and movies and video games that blew us away. Today we are almost over loaded with it. Great Review. I just wanted to say that back then this ART was fantastic. The Halfling Ogre OH MY!!!!!

[@wraithalcon]

I don't normally comment, but I want to say that I really enjoy your reviews and have found your videos to be extremely enlightening and entertaining. As a long time DM, I'm always afraid that my stories and style will get stale and you've given some excellent insight that has already helped me. Outside of the old Living Greyhawk, I don't run many pre-made mods, but I did get the Tales from the Yawning Portal and plan to run my players through Sunless Citadel next session. I wasn't sure about White Plume, but you've help swing me towards offering that as an option in the near future as well. Thanks for some awesome videos, and I look forward to your next release!

[@SSkorkowsky]

Thanks. Glad you find them helpful. Have fun with Sunless Citadel.

[@johnnysizemore5797]

Notes from a NG human Fighter: I did something similar to your plan Seth,but it kinda backfired on me.Quisnet joined the party all right, but he wound-up falling in "love" with the party Cleric(female Halfling) and couldn't bring himself to hurt her.He died at the end taking out Karibdis. May the pantheon ever favor you Baron Trevelyan of Restenford

[@ardon68]

i actually kept blackrazor for one of my characters i played it was very similar to michael Moorcock elric of Melniboné stormbringer way back in the late 80's when i first started reading michael Moorcock books first was elric of Melniboné series books.

[@leemarohn7496]

We had a blast with this module back in the mid-'80s. My character (Half-Elven Thief-Acrobat) managed to get Wave, the trident. Before we even left the dungeon, I failed a save and it took control of my character briefly, causing me to attack a fellow party member. Good times.

[@KCSutherland]

Definitely some really great tips for making the bits and pieces of this module feel more alive. I think the ideas in this video made this my top module to run from Yawning Portal

[@MaxWriter]

LOL. Great review as always. I ran White Plume Mountain for my brother when I started playing AD&D in middle school. I think it went on the back shelf after that. Fun module.I wrote a sequel to this around the time Return to White Plume Mountain came out. Ex Keraptis Cum Amore appeared in Dungeon Adventures #77 at the end of 1999 for 2nd Edition and marked my last article in that publication.

[@jfridy]

This was my first real D&D adventure. I was brought in to a campaign by a friend who was the GM and given an 8th level Fighter. I was in 3rd Grade. It was awesome. The fact the I was the one who figured out how to get past the Flesh Golems blew the minds of everyone there, including the GM.

[@briancline7349]

In line with what Jack said, I just wanted to say how nice it is for me to be able to benefit from the experience of a so much older and also wiser game master! 😉😛

[@hendrikvanleeuwen9110]

Man, these classic module videos are giving me flashbacks!

[@DesperoVitae]

I just played this module with a group online. It went about 6 weeks, but we wound up with a TPK against the vampire. My character, a lizardfolk druid, got drained to death in the second round of combat, and our Tiefling War Paladin, wielding Blackrazor, and our wizard, at that moment polymorphed into a giant ape, unable to keep up with the vampire's regeneration. I had such a good time :) I would love to know how people handled the tiered menagerie area.

[@chrismcgavin7949]

I love your reviews and tips on how to run these adventures.

[@Aaron-mj9ie]

I think when I ran this back in the day, instead of having them recover the weapons, I had them recover *pieces* of the weapons, and then made the next session about finding the other pieces to repair them.

[@annabellethepitty]

I ran this with some home brew mods in like 2004. It was a blast. Know your players, adjust any module accordingly, and you will have a good time.

[@Snoil]

100%!

[@ericjohnson2471]

Awesome review! I just gave this module to my daughter who has started playing DnD. Totally my favorite!

[@OutsideGalaxy]

Great video! I'm really new at this, and I really appreciate your reviews and tips about modules.

[@rangehotcom]

Best video you have done so far. Excellent work. I am digging the old school DM's screen.

[@tomkerruish2982]

Ok, you've done S1 and S2. How about S3, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks?

[@matthewbennett1972]

Tom Kerruish The whole S series is genius. Barrier peaks needs a 5th edition update like today. So does gates of firestorm peak

[@styxxrivers7576]

I would love to see Seth's review of this or comments on it. Being a person that played it when it was released and played the weekend of said release we had a really hard time with the module. Consuming the space theme, the equipment and monsters was so out of the norm we didn't do well with it. We had done A1 and 2 at the time and S1 and S2 and yes we kept the weapons. But S3. Wow. We played it by rote (I GM'd it) and then we never played our characters again that went into it. A neat idea. Fantastic Art, Again Jeff D I believe was the main artists for a lot of it. Mindflayer with a laser pistol is what I am picturing. But over all it is just so out of our Circle of Eight, GreyHawk, Iuz, Rary, Tiger Nomads, Rovers of the Barrens that sort of thing . I would say. Not for Campaign Consumption but more of a one off game What about the rest of you?

[@waltrz]

Matthew Bennett Don’t know if it was out at the time of your comment, but Goodman Games has released a 5th edition conversion/expansion to Barrier Peaks under their “Original Adventures Reincarnated” line of books. It also includes copies of the first and last printings of the original modules, some short essays by some of the writers, as well as expanded art hand-outs and some exploration around the wilderness outside the dungeon itself. It’s some really good stuff.

[@popecerebus]

Death by food poisoning.

[@andrewdavis200]

Really good points on adding more context to the rewards. I also like the idea of competing groups. Whenever I ran this module I kept running into issues with PCs long resting whenever they felt like it even when I walled them in with a wall of force. I didn't want to just throw random encounters at them to bog down table time but competing parties would be great for RP.

[@Snoil]

I ran it this way too, somewhat by accident. From level 1, there's been a competing group with my player's group. PC's got Wave and Whelm, 2 to 1 was big win for them

[@a7699aaa]

In your videos the part in white and black is always sooo funny! ahahah

[@ericpeterson8732]

Those are some good ideas. Thanks for reviewing these. I'm adapting these for my new players and any help is great.

[@southron_d1349]

I was a player in the 1st-edition version of White Plume Mountain. Unfortunately, it was so long ago, I've forgotten most of it. Much later, I ran it for a 2nd-edition game. The hook was the Side Trek in Dungeon magazine "Green Lady's Sorrow". It was also a bit of a mash-up of "Return to White Plume Mountain" and the original. Thus there were a few extra monsters to deal with including Mephits. For a short 5e Greyhawk campaign, the PCs visited "The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan" in order to retrieve Whelm. Blackrazor may be a Stormbringer knock-off, but Stormbringer was inspired by Kullervo's sword in the Kalevala, the Finnish epic.

[@redfeildre349]

I legit solved the riddle while playing the game at scout camp! No roles necessary. Fun times.

[@HowtoRPG]

I have always wanted to play or run this adventure.

[@cryptozoomauler5505]

I have the 1st edition expanded art version. I prefer 3.5 edition though. I might have to look into getting the official converted 3.5 version but could also run it with unofficial conversion like I did for DragonLance modules. Where do you play online at?

[@Graham-ce2yk]

Not one I've actually played, but I loved the novel Paul Kidd wrote based on it.

[@Dyspareunic]

Graham 1973 Hell yeah, The Justicar, Cinders, and Escalla are awesome.

[@caerdwyn7467]

Graham 1973 All of Paul’s writing is great. He’s also quite a character himself (knew him back in the day). If you ever meet him at a convention or something, ask him for the story of how the Australian government tried to forcefully assign him ownership of Ghost in the Shell against his and Shirow’s will.

[@grayscribe1342]

@@caerdwyn7467 If you had said that Ghost in the Shell thing about anyone else, I wouldn't have believed it. But it sounds like something that could happen to him.

[@matthewbennett1972]

Graham 1973 it was good wasn’t it

[@aiwaloki]

Love your videos. Awesome job.

[@michaelstricklett7130]

My favorite module of all time. Good memories. Playing all nighrvwith friends then cartoons Saturday morning cartoons. Thanks for bringing back those memories. Im 51 and when did it get so hard to have friends?

[@user-di1nk2mi6d]

I'm running this module in 5e for my players and they went to the mud geyser side first. I didn't change the geysers from minutes to rounds since even with it being 4 rounds, that's more than enough time to get across the room with dash actions. Instead, I made it 4 REAL LIFE minutes so as the players stumbled through planning and decisions, I stopped them and resolved the geysers. And then they hurried through their actions to beat the next set of geysers, spending spells and resources in a panic to scramble across and shield themselves from the next hot water blast. No one died or fell but it was definitely a rush of an encounter.

[@thuumhammer682]

Great review with some fun ideas

[@markpurdue9411]

This was my favorite module as a kid in the Eighties. I’d love to try converting it to PF2

[@B.-T.]

White Plume Mountain is next as part of my campaign, likely the last of three actual modules I integrate in it (after starting out as a DM with Keep on the Borderlands and Rahasia)... Even before this video I was definitely going to establish some of the creatures as being forced into servitude... The gynosphinx at the start is definitely going to deliver her riddle in more of a bored manner than anything epic, which'll probably set the tone that things aren't what they seem. Heck, even Qesnef will be more about how he's obligated to defend Blackrazor than any type of proper evil behavior (the module does say he's guarding it because he lost a bet).

[@Semiotichazey]

A lot of great advice on how to run this.

[@Kereea]

Another fun option could be to change the weapons into ones that wouldn't work well for the party--maybe exotic weapons and no one has proficiency, or the weapon of a Good character you know won't steal it. Maybe the weapon stolen from the temple only works at full power for the adherents of their god, who would also no be happy the weapon was stolen, so if the players want to use it it's not as powerful and deity is mad at them. And so on.

[@Cyberpuppy63]

You're supposed to be able to use the weapons, during the adventure - but not keep them.

[@kaneyoung7439]

Played through the Hackmaster 4th version of this. Was a fun and crazy ride

[@vxicepickxv]

I haven't played Hackmaster since 2001.

[@AGrumpyPanda]

A random thing: Jack says that Seth can't call White Plume Mountain an old module cos Seth is older than it. I'm older than the reprint of Cyberpunk2020 second edition, so that means it's a new system right?

[@vxicepickxv]

Ah yes, have you heard of the new game system Shadowrun, released in 1989.

[@jwraper1498]

One of my favorite adventures!

[@archonfett]

the 3.5 versions of the weapons were legacy weapons. meaning they were at base just a +1 weapon but gained power as the character leveled and devoted some resource (for example one, that I do not remember the name of, required a spell caster to give up a 1st level slot for as long as they owned the weapon) to it as well as learning more of it's history at certain points in their growth it kept them from being as OP as their original forms so they were only hired by one of the collectors. the other two had hired their own bands.

[@EvilHomer1973]

Yup, thats how I lost my 2nd editon Deities and Demigods, AAAAND my Menzoberanzan boxed set, and by MY Menzoberanzan I mean the one I "borrowed" from another friend.......:)

[@beatlessteve1010]

We loved this module but I no longer know anyone near me that plays..I played this module back in 1980...my favorite all time dungeon is Tomb of Horrors...but I also liked the first Keep on the Borderlands. I cannot believe I remember the names ..I have changed so much since I was a kid

[@BKPrice]

Best part of the review: the Firefly quote he sneaked in there.

[@charleswild1359]

When I played, our DM let us keep the weapons. My Dwarf still has Whelm. And this was in th '80's

[@shadowandson3550]

To quote the late great Roger Zelazny "Only your friends steal your books"

[@batangbatugan]

When I played this for the first time our DM turned White Plume Mountain into a spa and Keraptis as the manager who hired us to get rid of all the unsavory guests in exchange for any legendary item in his gift shop. When I ran this several times in Adventurers League I changed things up every time to keep it fresh and fun. In one run I turned Nine as a female flesh golem who was sick and tired of their routine she quit and joined the party. On another run I had Keraptis transform the three legendary weapons into powerful humanoid contructs that the party had to either fight or convince to leave with them.

[@user-qb1sm3rk9r]

I loaned out the 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide once. I got it back eventually but someone had drawn a huge phallus on the efreet on the cover.

[@rigamorti99]

This is my FAVORITE module.

[@TheEldritchGoth]

I thought this would be a quick one and done session, but my players took three. Love this one

[@jesterssketchbook]

this was hilarious - especially the stuff about Number Nine lololol

[@thomashuff7976]

That change from minutes to rounds is a really good idea. Not to mention, makes it easier on the DM.

[@charlesgraff2655]

I had a dm that had this module be the centerpiece of our campaign, where an ancient shadow dragon was revived and we had to get these weapons that were scattered around the world to seal him away. In order to find these weapons, we had to complete the dungeon, where at the end of each section we found a race taking the weapon for themselves. We were able to get whelm just fine but after that the weapons were being taken, blackrazor by ogres (we had to run the entirety of against the giants to get that back), and wave which was being taken by drow elves (my dm changed wave to an elven artifact that did the same thing but was a bow b/c we had a lot of elves and he thought it would be cooler). This allowed us to keep the weapons and made for a very entertaining campaign which gave out party a lot of memorable experiences as we tracked down the weapons and a few other special items in order to take this dragon down for good.

[@vxicepickxv]

Oops. I just realized we're in a modified version of this module after you mentioned the mud room. Well, it's different enough.

[@rusto3618]

I'll be asking my DM to check this out. Thanks for your help.

[@haveswordwilltravel]

What self-respecting PC's wouldn't try to keep the weapons?

[@russellharrell2747]

Sven Helgrim sorry elric, the kids these days won’t ever get any references to you or your sword

[@TacDyne]

@@russellharrell2747 Back in 1990 while at the pre ren fair briefing for employees, the guy lecturing at the moment said, "Choose a last name that's meaningful to your persona. Your last name says a lot about you."... and immediately the hot, psychotic little ginger chick who convinced me to work the fair that year leaned over and whispered, "Moorcock." in my ear...

[@Cyberpuppy63]

The weapons in White Plume Mountain don't belong to the player characters; and the standard rule of finders' / keepers doesn't apply. If a stubborn player decides to "keep" a given weapon; they find that their character has been killed in their sleep, with no explanation.

[@Cyberpuppy63]

Incidentally, my group of players survived White Plume; in fact, we did so well, we were practically full-strength, at the conclusion. We were thinking of confronting Keraptis - in order to destroy him or his imposter. Unfortunately, Dave was a jack-ass DM at the time. Some excuse was made to kill the party. We were not co-operating with 2-4 Efreet goons. We intended to lynch them, after "showing us" Keraptis' Lair [ which wasn't even on the DM's map ].

[@ourkeving]

@@Cyberpuppy63 mine kept them, and the character used Blackrazor to wipe out the nearest town to regain the two lost levels he incurred fighting the vampire.

[@--enyo--]

Two ideas to convince players for not to keep the weapons: 1) They are imbued with souls of living people (maybe a wife or child and while being imprisoned in the weapon they are suffering) who can be freed by the temples or whoever wants the weapons (making it a moral dilemma). 2) Bonesaw

[@mikesands4681]

My second adventure. Happy thoughts

[@johngibson2884]

The 2 Efreeti at the end ...Nix and Nox ...are a thumping rude surprise to a weakened party . Strange module with some difficult encounters

[@AaronQ64]

I definitely agree there has to be strings attached to the weapons if the PCs keep them. One of my favorites is with Black Razor making it a high priority object to a demon lord...not such a lovely weapon when Demons keep gating in to come after it along your travels.

[@Colouroutofspace4]

I liked Return to White Plume mountain a bit better. Had the interesting element of the K-Scrolls, plus the ending was amazing

[@bluelionsage99]

I have Tales from the Yawning Portal for Fantasy Grounds (I run my campaign on line for players spread out across multiple states). I am now motivated to upgrade the encounters of White Plume Mountain and make any changes I need to run it for my 12th-13th level group.

[@sebbychou]

Holy shit it's Fight King and GIANT ENEMY CRAB?

[@charlieb308]

I have a closet filled with all the old adventures, wish I had guys to play them with

[@thesonofdormammu5475]

You forgot that it was also reprinted in S1-4 Realms of Horror which was a reprint of White Plume Mountain, Tomb of Horrors, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.That's the copy I used to have.

[@PossumMedic]

Great vid thanks! :D

[@Catlord98765]

I ran the 5e version from Tales from the yawning portal. The players popped the big bubble keeping away the hot volcano water, after they destroyed the doors that act as a fail-safe because they were too hard to open... Flooded over half the damage with scotching volcano water and killing most of the party before some of them were able to be saved by Wave. 10/10 would run again.

[@Aarongorn]

Seth (and others!), where would you recommend placing White Plume Mountain in Greyhawk? I'm thinking of placing it near the Rift Canyon, but I'm definitely open to suggestions. FYI, for the most part, my party is in and around Keoland. Thanks!

[@JonGreene-dg1dl]

The novel, first part of a trilogy, was great.... The Justicar and Escalla the Faerie princess...... Those novels have got to be the funniest in D&D history.....

[@kiteisthebomb]

I always suggest this module as a good beginner's Keeper's playground to help build skill . Though last time I played the 5e version I pissed my Keeper off with different thinking in the tunnel with the mage and the archer.

[@266xp]

There is something about this adventure. The first two times I played it, once as a player and next as a DM, the party split into two groups and one side turned and ambushed the other. The only constant between these two events was myself and I was part of the group that got ambushed when I was a player. Imagine my surprise when it happened a second time with a completely new group of players when I was the DM. I was just curious if anyone else has had similar experiences.

[@TacDyne]

While I normally love all the art progression for remakes over the years, WPM is the one place I don't like it. The new Blackrazor looks too science fiction. It looks like something that would be uncovered in District 9 and not in WPM. There never were art pieces for the original Wave and Whelm... no descriptions at all, so those can be debated, but Blackrazor was distinctive. A few of us have kept that original Blackrazor art concept alive over the decades for various video games, and it's fun to see them in image searches. :)

[@LuciMorgonstjaerna]

My friends and I play basic edition - we use the red books and the blue books. Would you recommend it still?

[@SSkorkowsky]

The adventure, yes. However, the GM might need to work some on converting the creatures to Basic D&D. I doubt it would be too difficult, but it's been many years since I read basic, and I can't say for certain.

[@LuciMorgonstjaerna]

Thank you for your reply. I'll get the PDF's and see if it can be done. We don't have such high-level characters, but we'll get there one day. :)

[@raphaelargus2984]

I loaned my copy out in 1985 and never got it back.

[@wendigo1619]

your setup is exactly what my dm did when we played this (other parties, powerful quest givers from temples and royalty) and i stole the hammer leading to said hunting of our party (even though i left a bag of gems equaling 1000,000 gold on the resting place of that wicked weapon)

[@hjalmarthehelmetman]

My friend has a cool system, he take a picture of you and the book when he loans it to you, Its a quick way to remind yourself where your books went, especially because of smartphones.

[@Nephanor]

So you've done S1 & S2. How about S3 & S4? Also, you failed to mention (on both) they were reprinted in 1st Edition a THIRD time in the "Realms of Horror" which was S1-4 and had I believe all the expanded artwork from ALL the modules in it's own booklet. I used to have that before my mother sold it. And it had a sweet Larry Elmore cover on it.

[@itmademesignup9508]

So, anyone know if the Blackrazor and Wave weapons found in the "Balder's Gate" game series are nods to this scenario? Pretty cool, if so.

[@LittleNemoGaming]

BG videogame used 2nd edition D&D rules, so I'm gonna say, yes. I haven't gotten that far in BG though, it's a tough game starting out as a mage.

[@Rajaat99]

One to two sessions? My players took seven, four hour, sessions to complete it. In addition, they got number 9 and then tried to get him to jump on the platforms over the boiling mud. He immediately fell in and disappeared from the campaign forever.

[@robertenyart9883]

My magicuser/thief still tends to kill Gnomes on sight. And the curse!!! My decision to wander Oerth to rain destruction on the evil places led to a rift between myself and the DM.

[@40KWill]

I gather that every adventure you run has a competing group of adventures.

[@jfridy]

I take it you've been able to get a copy of the art expanded copy now. If not, I have a scan from my old GM.

[@--enyo--]

I am also addicted to handouts for my games. 🤣

[@mikesands4681]

My second adventure in1983.

[@kennetth1389]

I have ran this adventure 4 times for various groups. I have never used the written intro. Depending upon party type, 1 of the weapons is needed to fulfill a storyline climax. All three must be recovered to escape the mountain at the end. Once I wrote up keraptis itself, damn near a TPK, not a good idea.

[@kevinthorpe8561]

My first ever DND experience

[@cowpercoles1194]

I recently ran this for 5th edition from the Tales of the Yawning Portal book. I also used the "temple" patron option. The temples sponsored the expedition (the PCs were famous adventurers hired by the temples), and they sent agents and guards to set up shop in the disreputable town (well, trading post) nearest the temple. The Agents were available as replacement PCs. They also brought magic cases for each of the weapons. The expectation was that the PCs would return the weapon to the agent, who would put it in a case, where it would instantly be teleported back to the owners. The agents had access to a gate to summon help, in case the PCs betrayed them. In my game, the PCs set up their own camp in Dead Gnoll's Eyesocket and were able to use the retrieved weapons during the adventure, before having to return them. NOTE: Whelm's cube of force ability makes getting past a bunch of obstacles a whole lot easier, especially the hallway with the heater walls. The way I handled Quesnef: the patron of Blackrazor asked one of the PCs to rescue his halfling henchman, who went missing with the weapon. When the PCs encountered him, the Ogre Mage had charmed the halfling, made himself look identical, them had the halfling tie him up behind a divan. When the PCs entered the room, they discovered the ogre, untied him, and had to figure out which halfling was the real one. They ended up killing the innocent halfling, and at which point, the ogre mage went invisible. By having the halfling killed, the ogre mage figured out a way to break his conditioning, and invisibly followed the PCs out of the dungeon. He did thank them though, before flying away, laughing!

[@Kreln1221]

*I dig Seth's Petrafied T-shirt...*

[@mAcChaosCh]

I'm going to run this as a one shot soon! I am wondering though -- do you think it loses some of its magic if it isn't in a campaign? Since a lot of choices have less weight if there's no continuity after.

[@sliemm1]

I'll see your I-lent-White-Plume-Mountain-out-and-never-got-it-back story and raise you the same, but with Ravenloft. Yep. I lent Ravenloft to a mate and he never returned it. I lost contact with him years ago. He knows who he is.

[@civ-fanboy2137]

Is this a Petra Shirt? I salute you!

[@franketwas6917]

What were the powers/abilities of the three weapons?

[@OmegaEnvych]

In my campaign party got this quest from Dagult Neverember as he asked them to help him in stopping possible war between Waterdeep and Neverwinter because Keraptis made it look like there was a break-in and Wave was stolen from Nevewinter, Blackrazor was stolen from Waterdeep and Whelm was taken from Gauntlgrym. I believe it was reasonably good hook because it was connected with another quest that party got before with thiefs that broke into Neverwinter's treasury and stole significant amount of gold.

[@fhuber7507]

I still have the original.

[@MemphiStig]

I always loved this module. It's a classic of theme and design and ultra-cool. One of the best of the "old school." The art alone is worth the price, and it's been seared into my mind since the 80s. Wyloch's Armory has a crazy build of this dungeon in six parts, or the all-in-one supercut, linked below. kzbin.info/www/bejne/fIXcepdjbLKVitk