The White Plume Mountain Report

General Summary

1489 DR - Autumn - 25, Nightal (12) - Sembia and Anauroch  

• The Chosen anxiously depart the Fleshwright's demonic fortress in the Anauroch desert, and speed back to base to retrieve some supplies.
• They depart in the Gazer (which they have yet to christen or rename), flying a safer route to arrive at the foot the White Plume Mountain, located a little to the northeast of Mount Hotenow near Neverwinter.
• The mountain is a violent geyser nearly a thousand feet high, spraying a plume of mist into the sky resembling a feather. The crew determines through their flagrant misuse of their shamefully limited knowledge of natural things that the mountain is "really old."
• After allowing Abigor to drop them off at the foot of the mountain and then return to the base to keep the ship hidden and safe, they begin scouring the foot of the mountain for some hidden entrance.
• Lucyan hears an intense whistling every 30 seconds or so, and they conclude it must be an intake in the mountains geyser that could be a way in. Llewellyn uses her extensive expertise in mountaineering to effortlessly guide the crew up the mountainside.
• The party finds a cave halfway up the southern side of the mountain and Lucyan explores with his spider hand magic, which finds a passable tunnel until a point where the crawling spider is sucked into a crevice and lost.
• Exploring the uncomfortable steam gusts and howling wind of the tunnel, Oudman discovers a trap door hidden in the scalding muck, and Yasen tries in vain to open it, but Huden applies a crowbar and helps to wedge it loose.
• The crew climbs down a spiral staircase into a knee-high flooded cave overgrown with clinging moss and algae that thrives in the steam-bath like environment. The tunnels are 10'x10' wide with 8x8 square doors and carved of the pumice and volcanic rock that makes up the mountain.
• Exploring into the carved tunnels, they encounter a Gynosphinx, an anthropomorphic lion, that un-enthusiastically riddles the party. Xifor solves it with ease and she offers some helpful information only if they agree to free her from her imprisonment by someone she cannot speak of. Eventually she grew tired of their debate and vanished, leaving them to sort out their own way in the forking tunnels.
• They press forward and discover an alcove with a deep pool and a valve at the base. Only with Oudmans flash of genius and several members swimming to the bottom to unlock it were they able to unloose the valve. The water begins to drain slowly from the tunnels.
• Pressing into the next room, the crew finds a large open area with seaweed floating in two clumps in the center. Lucyan strides forward only to fall into the deeper water, again, as the party seems to be assaulted mentally one by one from something in the seaweed.
• The Chosen find their will is impressively able to fend off all of the mental attacks and they unleash attacks on the intelligent kelp, destroying one and spurring the other to grow and attack physically. Llewellyn finishes it off.
• Under the water in the center there is some kind of lair, and some valuable treasure is retrieved with a little swimming. There is a pathway around the pool that is a passable catwalk and they use this to continue through another door.
• The crew takes another right turn after the room and finds a cylindrical hallway, coated with oil and spinning slowly around preventing easy passage. The far end of the tunnel has another door and a crack in the wall.
• Huden ties a rope around Oudman, and he tries to slide down the hallway in one run and jump, but he passes halfway through the tunnel a flaming arrow is shot into the tunnel lighting the oil and creating a rotating conflagration. They haul Oudman back and help put him out.
• Xifor tries some magic on the the crack in the wall but there doesn't seem to be a trap or mechanism there, just an arrow slit.
• The party carefully crosses the oiled tunnel and is ambushed on the other side by a werewolf casting spells and some sort of grizzled warrior.
• Yasen and Oudman are feared and flee down the hall, while Huden bolsters their courage to rally the crew. The others bust into the room to try and surround the two but are quickly out maneuvered and find themselves all damaged by a frenzied and hasted veteran and a vicious werewolf that bites several of the crew before being put down.
• After the Werewolf is slain by a brutal attack from Huden, the veteran is intimidated by his threats and throws himself weeping on the werewolf, which has now reverted to a clothed woman. The crew argues over the fate of the veteran but in the end put him out of his misery.
• They explore the room, some manner of living chambers, and discover several items of note. Huden opens the werewolves spellbook, labeled as belonging to Snarla, which the crew finds humorous, but is quickly silenced when the trapped book explodes, showering the whole room and crew with fire. The group dresses their wounds and tries to regather their composure before trekking on.