Desert of Desolation XX

Sir Blanque - swordsman and handsome, dashing noble half mer-person

Marion - stabby stabby dagger specialist; Nihrain who currently carries the Runestaff

Destiny - Menastrai sorceress covertly raised on Melnibone

Bomilcar - Weeping Waste nomad from a chieftain's family

Unpronounceable - Draconian from another plane of existence, probably related to the Melniboneans

White Plume Mountain!

I've been planning this one for a while now. As well as the individual campaign elements, many of which were published as standalone  like this one, but which I have loosely linked together, I have a grand overarching campaign arc. Some of that now comes together:

https://external-preview.redd.it/i9_wO7qVPpubsGA4wPjgm4GFhZgUQrB19N3vztXfV10.jpg?auto=webp&s=e3c7f6ebab8e8de0a8bda2dda77af131461c528d

White Plume Mountain is a very famous early 'fun-house' dungeon; above is the link and image to someone's run-through, with really nice details. It's basically composed of three sections, each of which contains a major magic item the characters are supposed to retrieve. One of them, infamously, is a black sword called Blackrazor, which was obviously based on Moorcock's Stormbringer. This gave me an idea for a sort of inversion that would fit the overall cosmology behind my campaign; after all, there has to be a reason for Marion the Nihrain carrying that Runestaff thingie around the place. It's all part of my cunning plan, honest.

After going through the sixth and final teleport, the adventurers find themselves on a jungle trail, half-way up a mountain. It's probably a volcano, in fact - the vapour at the top is a bit of a give-away. There is also a vent about three-quarters of the way up the trail, with regular exhalations of steam, almost like rhythmic breathing. Destiny reasons that a way out for the steam might also mean a way in for the characters.

She's right. She uses her minor elementals to keep the group safe as they delve into the mountain. The cleft through which the steam is escaping leads to a fissure, at the end of which is an enormous iron spiral staircase set into the stone, leading downwards. It really is not safe at all - lots of steam and rust requires multiple uses of the elementals, which Destiny reckons is worth it. They can't regenerate because this is not the plane to which they were summoned, but something feels really important about this particular side-quest. Besides, it's the final one of the six.

I don't use the encounter with the sphinx that guards the three-way split into the various paths through the mountain - it seems a bit cheesy, and not really in keeping with the campaign, so the characters just choose which way to go.

They take the path that leads to their right, and if you follow the story the path on the image above, you'll see the various encounters. Here's how it goes with our lot, using the isometric map above:

Point 3: The floor of the corridor seems deeply suspicious, since it's pretty much ankle-deep in accumulated scum and slime from the volcano. Who knows what might be in that? So the players use earth elementals to scrape a safe passage - parting the waves, if you like.

Point 4: They find various things suspended in weird bubble balloon things. Some they avoid because they look too nasty.

Point 5: They solve the numbers conundrum quite easily, which means they aren't attacked by five flesh golem constructs.

Point 6: They use more of their precious elementals to cross this room (they have to do the same on the way back). Their new draconian friend just goes for a leisurely swim in the nice hot boiling mud and climbs up to meet them at the far end. He seems to be enjoying himself tremendously. "So relaxing" is his only comment.

Point 7: Destiny is given a rather lovely carriage clock, the sort that looks good on a mantlepiece, by an exquisitely polite vampire. "I know you are supposed to fight me, but I'd rather continue my existence." Destiny responds, "There must be more to this than meets the eye." "Yes, that's right, but I can't use it because I'm dead."

Point 10: Easily dealt with by more use of elementals. One of the Water Elementals winks out of existence.

Point 11: various corporeal undead are slaughtered.

Point 12: More elementals see them through this one - surprise, surprise. Earth elementals are surpassingly useful.

Point 14: The party finds the dodgy-looking flume. "It's Alton Towers!" says their mysterious new dragon person friend. Nobody has any idea what he's talking about. They also detect an incredibly well-hidden secret passageway, thanks to Bomilcar. [Edit: I don't believe in passageways that can't be found just because the scenario says so. Never been a fan of dictatorial DM fiat.] I'm thinking of making up a theme tune for him - "Bomilcar! Bomilcar! He either fumbles or he crits too far!" Well, something like that. Anyway, this means they ambush the ambushers at Point 15 and then go for a ride in the kayaks.

Point 16: The party smashes everything and Destiny uses her orb artefact from Org to charm some giant scorpions. The group sits and watches as the various creatures beat the crap out of one another. Eventually, one of the maimed Manticores is the only one left standing, and it proceeds to eat everything else. It lets out a huge burp! and the adventurers just walk past it - the thing is too bloated to bother with them.

Point 17: A suspiciously inoffensive little man hands Sir Blanque a beautiful longsword that, when unsheathed, glows with a rosy ambience. "That is called the Sword of the Dawn". Marion starts at this - the Fates (yes, they met them on a previous occasion) - told her about the triple regalia of the Runestaff: the Sword of the Dawn, the Red Amulet and the Entropy Configuration. "So that must be what the vampire gave you!" she says to Destiny. They have come across one of these devices before on the Shadow pLane; apparently it is a super-powerful method that allows one to move between the planes, and possibly the time streams themselves.

Point 18: Bomilcar makes friends with the water elementals. Good friends - I mean, REALLY good friends. The rest of them leave him to his amorous splashing for several hours...

[Edit: Bomilcar has been waiting for an opportunity like this for ages. A Critical Charisma role helps.]

Point 19: The party lets the lovely couple in this room go. After all, they made it this far only to get stuck behind all these horrible monsters - now that you've cleared the way for us, we'll just take our leave, thank you very much. The Draconian grimaces. "Probably evil. But you know what, if they don't bother us it's fine by me."

Point 20: Sir Blanque uses his powers as a Straasha-born to charm the gigantic battle crab here to hand over the red amulet that is attached to one of its pincers. Yes, that Red Amulet, which makes Marion more than happy. On the sand behind the enormous crustacean is a little minaret...