I was first enamored by DND’s White Plume Mountain years ago, when I stumbled across the original map from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons module from 1979. The center of the illustration was dominated by the eponymous White Plume Mountain; regal and lonely amidst a twisted landscape. The thing that really caught my attention, though, were all the little references to mysterious locales and cryptic threats in the land beyond. They pulled White Plume out of its abstract void, and wove it into a living, breathing world. Full of danger, treasures, and adventures waiting to be had.
Danger, it shouted, an undead dragon lies in the north! Elsewhere, the cryptic alchemist Thingizzard works her potions unperturbed. Most intriguing of all was the simple arrow pointing off the page labeled TOWN. What kind of town would take root near so much danger? I was devastated to learn how little hid behind these tastes of adventure. Across several later editions and many years, color was added to flesh out the vistas and threats surrounding White Plume, but I wanted more. I wanted a cohesive story that bound these elements together into something I could bring to my own table.
Fortunately, my TTRPG friends, with whom I’ve played for more than five years, were more than happy to enable my madness. I immediately set to work building a brand new module which could fit together all the bits of story and lore and answer the questions I’ve always wanted to ask. Many of the elements I invented whole-cloth; blossoming the farming hamlet of Ringland into a bustling metropolis rich with traders, adding a distinctly outer-worldly flavor to the cursed forest surrounding the mountain. Elsewhere, I tugged at bits and pieces until something new emerged. I remember reading a sentence somewhere about Castle Mukos falling to the undead, and ran as far as I could with that idea.
My campaign is well under way by this point, and my module continues to grow on the foundations laid out by the brilliant creator of White Plume Mountain and later contributors. It’s been a pleasure weaving my own story out of the many works that inspired it. I have the next segment in mind already. After all, I hear there’s a dragon on the horizon.
*Image belongs to TSR, original creator of White Plume Module is Lawrence Schick