White Plume Mountain is a module written for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition. It was published in 1979. The module was written by Lawrence Schick. White Plume Mountain is another very short adventure. It is sixteen pages long from cover to cover. There is but one dungeon level.
Three magical weapons have been stolen recently. Clues in the form of a poem lead those in power to believe the weapons have been brought to a volcano which was once the hideout of a powerful wizard named Keraptis. These are no mere magical weapons. They are more like minor artifacts. They have powers beyond just hitting and missing.
White Plume Mountain is written for use with adventurers of 5th to 10th levels of experience.
What I like about White Plume Mountain
This adventure is full of interesting encounters and situations. There are puzzles of a sort. There are magical oddities that will confuse and confound the adventurers. Little is as it appears.
Each encounter is carefully crafted. There are situations where if the adventurers just try to use fireballs or lightning bolts to clear the room they will pay a horrible price for it.
The heat induction hallway killed a paladin in my group who was just unwilling to part with his armor for a time. The bubble inside of the boiling lake killed a couple of my adventurers who made poor decisions in combat against the giant crab. The inverted glass pyramid filled with monsters nearly wiped out my entire party. Altogether there are several clever situations in this adventure that may lead to deaths of characters. My players love challenges like this. These are what the game is about.
It is a short, tightly written, adventure. Little space is wasted. The set up and background are about a page. There are a few handouts in the back of the module for the players to learn background information. There are three different paths the adventurers can take in the dungeon and each leads to one of the artifacts. Once the artifacts are recovered there is a final obstacle which might prevent the adventurers escape.
What I do not like about White Plume Mountain
Unfortunately…it is too short. Another level or another ten pages would be nice. But it is well written and constructed. Even as short as it is it will play well for a night or two.
Would I recommend this adventure to others?
Absolutely. This is a classic adventure that everyone should play at least once. I love the puzzles. I love the encounters. It is definitely a good module to run for a couple of nights.
Would I run White Plume Mountain with my own group?
This one is easy. I already have. I ran this adventure with my existing group about a year and a half ago. They loved it. I loved it. It was a classic Dungeons and Dragons experience. I would run it again if I had a group of different players than the current group.
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