Conversion Crawl Classes 7: AD&D: White Plume Mountain (1): Wilderness Map

This isn’t the first time I’ve written about using White Plume Mountain in an ongoing campaign. This examination was requested by a member of my Patreon, who wanted to look at the “wilderness map” portion of this module in particular. Therefore, in this first post, I am focusing solely on said map, with a second post to examine converting AD&D to DCC more specifically.

If you are unfamiliar with White Plume Mountain, it is a 5-10th level AD&D tournament-style adventure module focused on recovering three magic weapons: Whelm, Wave, and Blackrazor. It includes, on page 3, a map by Erol Otus showing the region around the titular mountain. Although these areas are not explored in the text of the module, they are so flavorful that they have inspired many a home campaign since, and in some cases have also inspired published material. In effect, though, this post is talking about converting ideas, not specific statistics or other text.

In his forward to Dungeons of Dread, White Plume Mountain author Lawrence Schick gives us some insight into the adventure’s genesis:

Module S2, my own White Plume Mountain, wasn’t written to be published. I wrote it as a submission to persuade Gary that he ought to hire me as an RPG designer. Mission accomplished: Gary offered me a job, and also, to my surprise, offered to publish White Plume Mountain exactly as written. Gratifying, of course, but also a little embarrassing, since the adventure was really just a sampler of clever ideas that were never fully fleshed out. Its central conceit, a “funhouse” dungeon full of tricky obstacles designed to challenge adventurers for the amusement of a mad wizard, was already a cliché even at that date. And I was all too aware that the artifact/weapon Blackrazor, included to show I could adapt ideas from other media to AD&D, was a descendant of Elric’s Stormbringer. But unlike Tomb of Horrors, the challenges in White Plume Mountain were designed to make players think, work together as a party, and ultimately win through and feel successful. Players liked that.

While there may be potential problems with the “mad wizard” trope, we will address them further next post, when we look at the text of the module itself. I would, however, argue out of the gate that the author’s homage to Stormbringer is a direct ancestor of Harley Stroh’s The Curse of the Kingspire and my own The Imperishable Sorceress. Without Lawrence Schick’s example, these adventures might have looked very different (or even not exist!).

The items on the map have been explored by later writers, both in Return to White Plume Mountain and in Never Say Die, an adventure in Dungeon magazine #212. Possibly they have been revisited elsewhere, and Dagotha is certainly the seed of all dracoliches, but I am not going to reference them here. The goal is to teach some techniques to convert materials to Dungeon Crawl Classics, not to perform exhaustive research. Moreover, it is far more DCC to just make something your own than it is to make certain that you have followed the lore of some past product.

This is something you should definitely take to heart – there is no “one true way” to convert materials. There are conversions that are closer to, or farther from, the source material, but how closely you wish to cleave to the source – and what you wish to cleave away – is entirely up to you!

Dragotha, the Undead Dragon

Beyond to the lair of Dragotha, the Undead Dragon, where fabulous riches and hideous death await.

This one is fairly easy to convert. There is already a Bone Dragon in Through the Dragonwall, itself inspired by the Caldwell cover painting, which almost certainly has a lineage of inspiration reaching back to Dragotha. We could simply repurpose the Bone Dragon, or we could create Dragotha anew. The second approach is more appealing to me, in large part because it offers a better opportunity to teach the method behind my madness.

First we make use of the Purple Sorcerer Dragon Generator to create a large dragon at random. Here is the one I came up with:

Large shadow dragon

Init +11; Atk claw (x2) +12 melee (1d8); bite +12 melee (1d12); AC 21; HD 11d12 (66 hp); MV 60; Act attacks d20, spells ; SP see below; SV Fort +11, Ref +11, Will +11; Al N.

Breath Weapon: Type (Acid); Save (Fort 21); Damage (As dragon’s hit points or half with save); Shape ( Cone, width 1d6x10’, length 1d4 x 10')

Level 1 Spells: Charm Person

Martial Power 1: Weapon-resistant hide. The dragon’s armor is so thick that it takes half damage from mundane weapons. Magical weapons do normal damage.

Martial Power 2: Infravision 100’

Unique Power 1: Plant growth (1/hour). All plants within 100’ grow to twice their current size in 1d4 rounds; targets within growth are entangled (half speed, -2 to attacks).

Unique Power 2: Detection (at will). The dragon can detect object of one type within 100’ at will. Level of precision depends on age and ranges from very specific (i.e., exact size and quantity of object) to vague (directional only). Object of detection: living creatures.

Unique Power 3: Earth to stone (1/day). The dragon can transform an area of earth into solid stone. The area transformed, up to 100’ x 20’ x 5’, is permanently changed into stone.

Right there we are mostly good. Acid breath works well with Erol Otus’ illustration, I think, and we need to change “Large shadow dragon” to “Large un-dead shadow dragon”. However, there are a few other things we need to change, and this demonstrates why using a random generator when you have a specific outcome in mind will only get you so far.

A neutral alignment doesn’t really fit in with what we are creating. We can certainly make Dragotha chaotic!

“Martial Power 1: Weapon-resistant hide. The dragon’s armor is so thick that it takes half damage from mundane weapons” we re-skin to being a result of its bony construction. The mechanics do not need to change.

“Unique Power 1: Plant growth” doesn’t seem to match with being un-dead, though. We don’t need to replace this. We simply remove it. I am of two minds about “Unique Power 3: Earth to stone”, but let’s keep it anyway. The map seems to imply that Dragotha dwells in a fairly stony land, which matches, and we could always make their lair (Dragotha’s gender isn’t defined) contain loam traps (and the remains of former loam traps), where Dragotha has turned soil to stone in order to entrap the legs and feet of those foolhardy individuals who might brave the un-dead dragon’s lair.

Dragotha is also an un-dead creature, and the DCC core rulebook has tables to help make the un-dead unique on page 381. We already know what Dragotha looks like, thanks to Erol Otus, but what special power do they have? Rolling a “1” on Table 9-6, we get “Energy-draining touch (ability score damage; Will save resists)”. Putting this together we have a fairly good monster to place on the map.

However, before we do so we still must decide if Dragotha can fly, and which critical chart to use. Bony wings shouldn’t allow flight (unless magical), so I am not going to give Dragotha a fly speed. Both dragons and un-dead have fun, brutal critical hit charts, and this is a legendary monster, so I am going to do something unusual – it rolls on both critical tables at a -2d penalty!

You will also note that the Dragon Generator didn’t tell us what die the dragon rolls for its spells, or what bonus it might have, but looking at Table IV on page 407 of the core rulebook shows us that a single 1st level spell is linked to rolling 1d20 with a +2 spell check modifier.

Dragotha, Large Un-dead Shadow Dragon: Init +11; Atk claw +12 melee (1d8 plus Stamina draon) or bite +12 melee (1d12 plus Stamina drain) or breath weapon or transform earth to stone; AC 21; HD 11d12; hp 66; MV 60’; Act 3d20 and 1d20 (spells); SP Un-dead, infravision 100’, Stamina drain (1d4 Stamina damage, Fort DC 21 negates), breath weapon (Acid cloud 20’ wide x 40’ long, damage as Dragotha’s hp, Fort DC 21 for half), spellcasting (charm person, +2 bonus to spell check), transform earth to stone (1/day, up to 100’ x 20’ x 5’), two critical effects on natural 20, detect living creatures within 100’, half damage from non-magical weapons; SV Fort +11, Ref +11, Will +11; AL C; Crit DR/1d20 and U/1d12.

Thingizzard

The hut of Thingizzard, beware her potions.

First off, I read this name as Thin-gizzard rather than Thing-izzard. Secondly, I cannot help but consider the Clark Ashton Smith story, The Mother of Toads, as a potential inspiration, particularly in light of “beware her potions”. Finally, there are base witch statistics on page 434 of the core rules. Information on creating hags can be found in Curse of Mistwood (published by Shinobi 27 Games; I am a co-author and wrote the section on hags). I would consider giving Thingizzard the stats of a greater bog hag from Curse, which should be potent enough for 3rd to 5th level DCC characters. In general, an adventure for D&D characters converts well for DCC characters of about half the listed level.

What I would like to focus on here is “beware her potions”. I see Thingizzard selling potions on the cheap, but all of the potions she sells have side effects which further her own goals. For instance, Thingizzard might be able to provide healing potions at a very cheap price (initially), but the potions are addictive, and those using them soon find that they require more just to heal at the normal rate. Now the price is higher, and it is in services rather than gold.

Another potion could provide bonuses to combat – say +1 to Deed Die (or a 1d3 Deed Die if you don’t already have one) and half damage from mundane weapons, for 1d6 turns. However, these potions slowly turn you into creatures subservient to Thingizzard. You could create an effect similar to Patron Taint, a chart the imbiber must roll on each time one of these potions is used.

Ruins of Castle Mukos

The cursed ruins of Castle Mukos; who knows what lies within.

This is just another adventure site, without enough information to really give the judge direction. Who knows what lies within? The question if enough to make players want to find out. There is nothing here to convert. Any castle-based adventure might be slotted in here, although you will want either a reasonably cursed location or want to create an interesting curse which affects those who adventure here.

Dead Gnoll’s Eye Socket

Here be Dead Gnoll’s Eye Socket.

We have a particularly flavorful name but no details for conversion apart from it being a small natural cave which affords a possibility of rest. If you have access to Dungeon #212 from March of 2013, the adventure Never Say Die describes the “Dead Gnoll's Eye Sockets”, and we might take a look at this as a potential Conversion Crawl Classes for 4th edition D&D.

The Twisted Thickets

The Twisted Thickets; Skittering Slithers abound.

I have no idea what was in Erol Otus’ mind when he drew the illustration accompanying the Twisted Thickets, but I am willing to assume that it is a skittering slither. Moreover, I will make the assumption from the name that the Twisted Thickets are themselves difficult to move in. Let us say that, should a PC leave one of the unwholesome paths among the thorny growths, they cannot move at more than half speed. Let us also say that, while in combat (or when movement is time-sensitive) a DC 10 Reflex save is required to move at all. Worse, on a natural “1” something untoward happens (thorns, falls, falling branches, half-hidden pits) that causes 1d3 damage to the character.

Skittering Slither: Init +3; Atk claw +4 melee (1d3) or bite +2 melee (1d6); AC 14; HD 3d6; MV 30’ or climb 30’ or burrow 20’; Act 3d20; SP +8 stealth, free movement in thickets, use Action Die to retreat, cover bonus when disengaged; SV Fort +2, Ref +3, Will +5; AL C; Crit M/1d8.

These reptilian creatures are native to the Twisted Thickets, where they are capable of full movement without penalty. So adept are they at moving through the canopy, ground, and undergrowth of the thickets, that they are able to use an Action Die to break off from combat without provoking a free attack. For this reason, skittering slithers rarely use both claws and a bite, trading one potential attack for a free retreat. They attack using hit-and-run tactics, gaining a +4 bonus to AC due to cover once they have disengaged.

A skittering slither appears to be a three-foot long snake-like reptile with a froggish head whose mouth is filled with sharp, protruding teeth. They abound in the Twisted Thickets, often attacking in groups of 2d6 (or more). They are at home on the ground, in the trees, and even among the gnarled roots below ground.

Next: White Plume Mountain (2): The Adventure!