The Foundry

A few weeks ago my Swords & Wizardry Campaign players manage to recover the 3 holy relics beneath White Plume Mountain. This was my own version of White Plume Mountain. I retained the essence of the plot and a few of the iconic scenes but not much else. Everything else was changed to fit my campaign.

Primarily I was concerned that such a well-known adventure as White Plume Mountain would have been read several times by my players. After the session, I did ask about this and I was surprised to learn that none of them had ever had a chance to play the original. This suggests that I might be able to run other classic modules without a whole lot of changes.

Session 93: The Foundry

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Alrix (couatl sorcerer), Domago (human fighter), Flora (elven thief), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Lantosh (human fighter NPC), Aashdoshan (necromancer NPC).

Perched on an edge of an underground lake filled with boiling water the adventurers investigate the stone obelisk and orb that is placed on the floor near the edge. Lakima tries pressing or removing the crystals on the side of the pedestal and nothing happens. But when he places his hand on the orb it glows with an inner light. Soon, they hear the sound of rushing water in the cavern. A narrow pathway begins to form through the boiling water. Seemingly held back by invisible walls the water drains away to form a dry path across the lake. But the path is 50 feet below them and they have left all of their rope in the cavern with the mud pits.

Lakima asks Alrix to investigate the cavern. Alrix argues a little but then agrees and flies off into the darkness in his native form of a winged serpent. The cavern appears to be about 200 feet in diameter. The dry path leads to another ledge and another obelisk on the far side. Alrix returns and hears the flapping of a swarm of bat wings. Ahead he spots a cloud of what at first, he believes are bats but which on closer inspection are a swarm of stirges. Yelling a warning Alrix lands back on the ledge with the group. Lakima throws a fireball at the swarm of stirges. Most of the stirges are incinerated. The few that survive, flee away into the darkness.

Fenris and Flora climb down the slick cavern wall to the path and proceed ahead. Alrix flies above them alert for more dangers. On the far side, Flora and Fenris climb up to the ledge and find another tunnel headed deeper into the mountain. Fenris puts his hand on the orb and it lights up. But nothing seems to happen. Alrix flies back to the rest of the group leaving Fenris and Flora on their own. They all decide to all get into the Tower in a Book and then have Alrix carry the book in his mouth to the far side. This is accomplished and soon everyone emerges from the pocket dimension of the tower on the far side of the lake.

Once safely on the other side, the group heads a short distance down the tunnel when they come to an intersection. One tunnel heads off into the darkness and the other leads into a cave. Lakima shines his light into the cave and they see the stone statue of a Dragon. A few moments after their light falls onto the statue, it begins to move rapidly toward them in crashing steps. Alrix casts magic missile but he sees the magic dissipate when the missiles strike the stone dragon (golem). He shouts a warning to everyone that it is immune to magic spells. Eathwund strikes it solidly with his sword and sees a few chips of stone fall off. Domago blows the Silver Horn of Valhalla and three berserkers appear and begin striking the dragon doing no damage at all. The stone dragon stretches to its full height and breathes out a cloud of poisonous gas over Eathwund and Alrix but both manage to avoid breathing long enough to get out of the gas cloud. Lakima yells at Eathwund to use the power of Wormbane. Eathwund strikes the stone dragon again and uses the sword’s power to negate its magic resistance temporarily. Lakima waits a moment for Eathwund to nod that it is done and then he casts Magic Missile. This time the missiles blast parts of the dragon apart and it collapses into a heap of broken stone. Eathwund searches through the pile of stones and he finds a glowing red gem.

Flora has been further up the tunnel on guard throughout the fight. Now she hears the sound of men talking urgently in common coming toward her. They are guards that have heard the noise of the fight. She signals to Fenris to hide the two of them and wait for the men to approach. Two men come into view, dressed in leather armor and holding swords and torches. One of them shouts in alarm as he spots Domago, but Flora manages to silence him with a strike from behind. The other man tried to run but is cut down but Flora. He does manage to shout out a warning.

Flora and Fenris try to sneak up the tunnel that the men came from but they encounter a number of men waiting and alert. There is a brief battle, and the men are chased back into a man-made portion of the dungeon. Stone block walls, floor, and ceiling are decorated with faded paintings. In a large hall, they fight and defeat ten men.

The hall they are in has several piles of wooden crates full of food and barrels full of water. All of these supplies are clearly new. The walls are painted in faded images of a Wizard working slaves in a foundry. The paintings look to be very old – hundreds and hundreds of years. Several doors lead from the Hall to a crude sleeping area, a forge, a storage room, and the sleeping quarters for a boss. Here they find a shrine dedicated to some evil god, three empty wooden crates full of packing straw, and three locked iron chests. Between Fenris and Flora they manage to open all of the chests and find some treasure – gold and silver coins, gems, jewels, a scroll tube, a potion, and a bronze jar. Everything is quickly stuffed into the bag of holding.

Leaving the hall, they travel down a smaller hallway that Alrix finds is very tight. Turning a corner, they see that the hallway has pairs of metal pools extending from floor to ceiling every ten feet extending its length. This clearly looks like a trap. Fenris checks and is unable to find anything indicating a trap. Lakima asks Flora to check as well but she also finds nothing. Lakima then asks if anyone has anything they do not need. Eathwund hands him a grappling hook. Lakima tosses the grappling hook underhand down the corridor. It lands and then slides for several feet. No trap is triggered. Lakima then looks at everyone and asks for a volunteer to proceed down the hall. Domago steps forward.

Domago walks slowly and carefully past the first pair of poles, then the second, then the third with nothing happening. But as he passes the fourth pair, a trap is sprung, and lightning arcs between poles and up and down the corridor. Domago leaps to one side but is still electrocuted. He gets up and runs for the far end of the hallway getting struck by lightning again. Lakima casts the Wall of Iron spell as quickly as he can extending the length of the hallway along one wall. This seems to stop the lightning trap. Or it could be that Domago reached the end of the hallway. As they debate this, Domago examines the room he has arrived in. The room is empty but for a circular passage entering one wall. The passage out is a cylinder of grey metal that appears to descend at a slight angle. An ominous red glow shines from the far end. As the rest of the adventurers start down the lightning-trapped hall, Domago carefully steps into the cylinder. Immediately, the cylinder begins to slowly spin, and Domago realizes the surface is coated in slick oil. He desperately tries to keep upright on his feet as he slowly slips toward the glowing end. Meanwhile, Eathwund is leading the way down the hall. As he passes the fourth pair of pillars, the lightning trap activates again – but this time it is grounded by the iron wall. He runs quickly to the far room and spots Domago slipping and sliding in a cylinder. Eathwund reaches out with his quarterstaff and Domago is able to grasp it. He is pulled to safety.

Once everyone is in the room, they do a careful check of the walls and floor but find no secret switches of doors. The cylinder slowly stops spinning. Looking down its length they see that it appears to lead to a cave filled with red-hot lava. Lakima declares that this is odd because one of the men they killed tried fleeing in this direction. He was sure that there would be a passage to somewhere safe. They return back to the large Hallway. Domago suggests checking the walls of the lightning trap hall before the first set of pillars. Flora checks but is unable to find a door. Lakima takes out the Wand of Secret Door detection which quickly finds a doorway and a switch to operate it. Fenris presses the switch and the door swings open. Flora goes ahead into the darkness as Lakima shields his light. She peers around a corner and spots two more of the armed brigands they have met. This pair of men appear at ease, having not heard all of the noise from the fighting. She and Fenris come upon the pair, surprising and killing them. The passage is lit by the glow coming from a large cavern. The glow coming from a lake of lava.

They see a huge iron structure sitting on stone pillars just above a lake of lava. In the center of the structure is what looks like an enormous ladle. Small iron winches and urns hang from chains near the ladle. A descending series of iron platforms held aloft by chains leads to the structure. At the end of the platforms, three humans in dark-grey robes wait expectantly. Apparently having heard the most recent fight with the brigands. Two of the men are hooded but carry no weapons, while the third man stands behind the other two. This man is unhooded, his bald head reflecting the light of the lava. He holds a staff in one hand and a mace in the other. On the platform, they also see, three dwarf-sized figures clad in bulky iron suits that cover their entire bodies. They have closed helms on their heads. Flames occasionally shoot out of vents in the front of the helms. The three creatures are working on strange mechanical devices directing the operation of the foundry.

They take in all of this strange scene, the iron devices and foundry suspended in a large cavern over a lake of lava. Lakima spots an iron chest with glowing runes on its sides, and he immediately guesses that this holds the holy relics they seek. Eathwund and Lantosh step onto the first iron platform which is thankfully very steady. Alrix spreads his wings to prepare to fly up into the cavern, and then the man speaks.

“Halt! Why do you disturb this place!”

Lakima tells the man that they have come for the Holy relics that were stolen.

“Yes – we took them. But they are needed to save our people. To forge a device that will smash the Cursed Ward of Valen!”

Lakima tells him to hand over the relics.

“You are too late; we have melted them down!”

Domago yells in anger at them and runs out onto the iron platform. Lakima yells at everyone to get out of the way and then he casts a lightning bolt right down the platform striking all three of the men. All of them are knocked down but they stagger to their feet.

Moments later, Eathwund, Lantosh, and Domago are upon them. The two guardians fight well but they are unarmored and use only their hands. Domago is struck solidly twice but both of the opposing men are killed. They then move on to the leader. He casts a spell at Eathwund making the fighter’s limbs feel heavy – but Eathwund manages to shake it off and slash the man. He discovers that the man is wearing chainmail under his robes. Before the man can strike back, Domago strikes him in the side of the head killing him.

The chamber continues to be filled with loud hissing from the lava. Lakima yells for them to grab the chest. The three dwarven creatures continue working the machines seemingly ignoring them but blocking their way. Alrix flies over to the largest machine being worked by a dwarf. Lakima yells at all of them to smash the machines. Eathwund brings his sword down on a large metal box with levers on the front of it. The nearest dwarf reacts and strikes him with his metal hammer knocking Eathwund back. Eathwund then turns and swings his sword at the dwarf but he finds that their armor is incredibly hard. Alrix reaches out with his tail to smash a machine and a dwarf swings his hammer at him. Lantosh moves to aid Eathwund.

At this moment they see three more dwarven creatures emerging from the lake of lava. They step up onto a set of stone steps leading up to the iron platform.

Lakima pulls a gem from his pouch and concentrates on it speaking words of magic and he slumps down on the iron platform, his eyes rolling back and his mouth hanging open slackly. Fenris rushes to Lakima side and yells for help. Aashdoshan standing nearby tells him not to worry that it is part of a spell.

Domago blow his Silver Horn of Valhalla and summons four berserkers on the iron platform near the stairs into the lava. The berserkers bravely, and futilely try to stop the advance of the dwarves coming up out of the lava. One by one the berserkers fall. Aashdoshan helps out by striking one of the dwarves with multiple magic missiles. The dwarf, already injured by Eathwund, topples off the iron platform into the lava.

One of the dwarves leaves the fighting and moves over to the iron chest covered with magic runes. In a feat of incredible strength, the diminutive creature lifts the chest up and starts walking stiffly toward the iron platforms leading off the foundry. It passes one of its fellows, who bellows strange, crackling speech at it. It steps over the dead man and moves onto the platform coming toward Lantosh.

“Let it pass!” yells Aashdoshan.

The dwarf keeps walking stiffly up the platforms approaching Fenris, Flora, and the comatose Lakima. Fenris readies his sword but again Aashdoshan waves him off. Fenris watches in disbelief as the dwarf sets down the chest carefully in the stone hallway. Then it turns and walks back down the platforms toward the foundry. Lantosh and Fenris look at it in astonishment.

“Let’s go, we have what we came for, let’s go!” Aashdoshan shouts.

Eathwund and Domago slowly retreat from the platform. The stiffly moving dwarf passes them and stops at the last platform. It strikes each of the chain mounts in turn causing the iron platform to tilt and then fall into the lava with the dwarf upon it. The small platform and the dwarf sink into the lava. At that moment Lakima comes to his senses, shakes his head, and pockets the gem. He gets to his feet and shouts for everyone to leave. Alrix who is furthest away knocks the dwarf he was fighting into the lava. Then he sees two columns of fire approaching the platform across the lake of lava. As they get nearer the remaining dwarven creatures form into a protective circle. He sees that the columns of fire have a roughly humanoid shape – they are fire elementals.

Bracing for more fighting, the adventurers are surprised to see the elementals attack the dwarven creatures. As Alrix flies into the tunnel they all move to leave.

“It is not our concern,” says Lakima.

They hear the sound of combat behind them. Alrix hears what sounds like someone calling out for help. But they all ignore it and close the secret door behind them.

The adventurers regroup in the large hall again. The iron chest is easily opened. Inside is a worn, wooden cudgel, a plain-looking mace, and a battered shield. Domago immediately realizes that the mace is the one that was used by St. Aleena. He picks it up with reverence.

“Lantosh, Domago, you two had better be the only ones to touch these holy relics,” Lakima says. Lantosh nods and picks up the shield and the cudgel.

Lakima tells everyone that they could start planning how to get past the lake of boiling water, the pool of boiling mud, and the maze of lava tubes again, or they could rest. The adventurers elect to rest. A long, quiet rest is spent in the sleeping quarters that the brigands were using. Eathwund checks the corpses and finds some gold coins. He also finds the tell-tale brands that indicate that these were a band Iron Choke Slavers.

The next day Lakima suggests he teleport everyone in the book all of the way back to their manor in Edgerton. A few of the adventurers are nervous about teleporting but it has to be safer than climbing over the mud pit again. He casts the teleport successfully and he arrives in the manor house's main hall. Popping into the book to tell them he was successful, then everyone steps out of the book, startling their manservant Henley who was just setting the dining table for breakfast.

Later in the day, the group takes the Mace of St. Aleena to the Church of St. Aleena. The abbess thanks them and suggests they take the Shield of St. Poul to the Church of St. Cuthbert when they drop off the Cudgel of St. Cuthbert. She also asks Domago to stay. Domago and Abbess stay back to talk. She asks Domago if he will return to his parish in Peake’s Crossing now that his task has been completed. After all, there is no longer any need for him to keep an eye on the Company of the Black Dragon. Domago tells her that he enjoys their comradery and that he will stay with the company for now. He tells her that he reasons it will be good to keep an eye on them. The abbess advises him to keep a careful eye on the necromancer. She then hands him the Mace of St. Aleena.

“I feel confident that she would have wanted you to have this.”

Domago is shocked, but the abbess explains that the shrine in Aleenton is destroyed and there is no safer person to hold the relic.

“Return it when you have no more need for it,” she says.

Meanwhile, the Cudgel of St. Cuthbert and the Shield of St. Poul are handed over to Abbot Marta at the Church of St. Cuthbert. Marta insists on their staying for lunch, and he has some of the holy casks of ale opened. Marta talks with them about new measures to protect the Cudgel in the vault beneath the Church. They will send messages to the Church of St. Poul in Dolmvay to send knights to get the shield.

The next day Lakima uses Identify on some of the stranger items that were found in White Plume Mountain. The brass jar turns out to be an Efreeti jug. He prepares a summoning circle and opens the jar. An efreet who calls himself Khisa appears in a column of flame. Lakima demands that the efreet serve him for a year and a day, but the efreet has other ideas.

He tells Lakima he will ponder his offer.