Oh, AB...

Forgot to mention earlier:

My brother (he, the one-time wielder of Blackrazor by the mailed fist of his avatar Alejandro) emailed me an "early birthday present" last week: a link to D&D On-Line. For interested parties, feel free to check it out.

Now folks who've been reading me for a couple months will recall that not only am I an avid opponent of on-line MMORPGs, but my Ables often gives me shit about my love of table-top RPGs. Asked if he's actually been playing DDO, he replied "yeah, the last couple days...I'm already Level 2!"

Ugh.

I did not even bother to register or create a character. Just seeing such a thing confirmed all my assumptions about 4E (that it was geared towards video gamers; that it was meant to be seague into an IP-driven on-line game). Barf!

I especially like how the female voice on the web site attempted to both cajole and goad me into joining, before finally berating me for not pressing the "Play Now" button. Pretty f'd up, all the way around, if you ask me...though it made me chuckle at the desperation in her voice. As if Hasbro realized it was on a goddamn sinking ship and wanted me to throw it a life raft.

Sorry, pal.

; )

Ooops...one minute to midnight. Almost time to wish myself a happt birthday!

And there it is...yay!

Top Module #8: Oasis of the White Palm

For all the grief OS folks give Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman, I have got to say that I really don't share in it. First off, while I read the (first six) Dragon Lance novels, I never played (or owned until the last couple years) any of the DL modules. My fellow DM, Jocelyn, did own three or four, but because of the cement of the setting and story-line, we never bothered to actually run any of 'em.

Furthermore, while Ravenloft WAS run in our campaign (again, by Jocelyn) I didn't take part in the adventure that particular session, so I can't tell how it went at all. The one time I tried running Ravenloft myself, we (everyone at the table) got bored with it and gave it up before we even met our first gypsy witch. Truth be told, while I own the module still, I don't remember hardly a thing about it.  I should probably re-read it one of these days.

No...besides the Dragon Lance novels, the main experience I have with the Weiss/Hickman duo is the awesome Desert of Desolation series (I3, I4, and I5).  I've never owned the "super-module" version, but I have two copies of each of the original modules.

What a great set...what a great setting! I've written before that I love blood and sand adventures, and anything vaguely "Sinbad" or Egyptian falls readily into that category as easily as Rome and gladiators, so it's not surprising I'm a fan. However, I came to these modules rather late in my DM'ing career...I actually never had the opportunity to run this for my original gaming group (Jocelyn, Matt, Scott, Jason, etc.).

First off, while I saw I4: Oasis of the White Palm and the grinning djinni on the cover many times at the game shop, it never intrigued me. A giant blue man? Nah. He was smiling for god sakes! If the cover had had a glaring efreet....well, maybe. Secondly, it was only for mid-level adventurers. The PCs in our games were a LOT higher than 8th level. Taken together, the module just wasn't as sexy an option as other choices on the shelf.

Then, of course I finally acquired it and found that it was part 2 in a three-part series...and it took me years before I was able to find a copy of I3: Pharaoh. Completionist that I am, I only ran I4 as a stand-alone for the occasional one-off game (cousins, my brother and his buddy, etc.), not for my regular game group.

Too bad really, because it is fantastic.

Of the three, I find Oasis of the White Palm to be the best and the only one worthy of my Top Ten list of "best modules" (coming in at #8).  Truly, all of 'em are great and they offer real old school AD&D entertainment: plenty of dungeon crawling, monsters and undead, tricks and traps galore.  Yes, there is a very specific plot and some end objectives, but the characters themselves are more of the hoodwinked than heroic variety. And while a party may fail to break the curse that created the "Desert of Desolation," there are still rewards to be had...the fate of the world does NOT rest upon the PCs. Also, the adventures do NOT tell the story of some uber-NPC.  The PCs either help the NPCs in the modules or they don't...but they are the protagonists in this particular adventure.

I3: Pharaoh and I5: Lost Tomb of Martek, the book ends of the series, are mainly dungeon crawls...yes, there is some outdoor travel with a few planned encounters, but for the most part they are just "what happens on the way to the dungeon." Oasis is the real meat and potatoes adventure. 

I4 can be used as a stand-alone adventure readily. I've read other folks' accounts on-line where they spent weeks and weeks of game play in the Oasis because they couldn't "figure out what to do." The fact that you can do so much with the module speaks volumes. The adventure includes two full multi-level dungeons, a city in ruins, and a detailed town (the Oasis of the title) in addition to the desert wilderness setting...really a ton of adventure packed into not very many pages.

The dungeons themselves are nothing but the coolest of non-standard encounters with fiendish, fiendish traps.  The "maze of light" is the kind of thing I was designing in my own adventures, and the Pit of Everfall is just a bowlful of awesome. A pit that leads to Pandemonium? The minions of Set?  A gigantic chasm filled with an ARMY OF UNDEAD and only a single bridge across?  Holy guacamole! 

The fact that the wandering desert encounters has the equivalent of lance-wielding bedouins riding pegasi and the gigantic vicious purple worms just make the thing all the more crazy-cool. But I absolutely love the intrigue and adventure that can be explored in the Oasis itself...a desert outpost with legends and history that tie directly into the adventure's story.  

This is adventure design at its finest.  I think Weiss and Hickman really reached their peak with I5, regardless of the "cool maps" and plotting of Ravenloft.

I know I haven't mentioned him in awhile, but I would like to note that Alejandro and Company cut their mid-level teeth on the Desert of Desolation series (from Pharaoh to Martek). This was before Alejandro picked up Blackrazor (and a good thing too with the abundant legions of walking dead!), back when Big Al was simply a two-handed sword Weapon Specialist rather than the force of destruction he was to become.  

[I do recall Al and Arioch  finding a copy of the Necronomicon in the Oasis bazaar, but I don't recall the party ever using it (never a good enough reason to risk insanity I suppose). However, it seemed to fit the whole genre...was Set and Elder God? Perhaps. This question was never answered in the campaign]

ANYway, it IS an excellent adventure module and one worthy of praise (in my opinion). I would certainly be willing to run it again, and if one isn't too tied to the original game background, it wouldn't make a bad "jumping off" point for starting an Arabian Nights (or Knights) type of campaign.  If I were to ever convert it to B/X I would probably do just that...starting the players off in the Oasis itself, allowing them to find the Pharaoh's or Martek's tomb only after acquiring the need for the Star Gems...hmm, not a bad idea at all, really.

Ah! The place is set! I must do this!

As soon as I have the free time, of course....

**EDIT: I actually finished this post at 11:38pm after getting home from a Seattle Mariners game. I don't know why these things insist on carrying the timestamp of when I started the post!**

The Rainman Cometh

My brother finally made it in to Seattle, and he brought the rain with him.

Which is fine because we've been experiencing one of the driest June-July combos we've had in awhile.  Thunder, lightning and downpours don't bother me. I like my town green. But ol' Ables is getting a bit of a swollen head about the matter.

It started down in Tennessee and North Carolina, where he's been the last month or so...the rain was following him around down there. 

When he got to Detroit yesterday (to transfer flights), he likewise brought thunder storms.  Per the folks at the airport, the weather was both strange and unusual for July.  But there it was: pouring rain and flashing lightning.

And now he's here...and Seattle is grayer than it has been in awhile.  It's a nice change of pace. But now AB's calling himself "Rainman." Which is pretty ridiculous in itself, but he's hoping to work up to the title of "Rainmaker," or so he says.

Personally, I'm not sure he'll be able to learn to "harness his powers."

Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to pick his brain as much as I would have liked.  Or rather, I have, but he has little memory of our gaming days.  Pressed for anecdotes on Alejandro for this blog, he advised me to simply "make some shit up."

While I certainly could do that, I decided when I started this blog not to embellish if at all possible...hell, I'm trying my best not to "spin" these stories just to make things look more sophisticated or less venal than it is/was.  This blog is supposed to be actual memories as much as possible...though admittedly with the analysis of adult hindsight.  I realize that sometimes it's hard to NOT romanticize things and there are definitely times when memory fails.  But I will try to keep the outright bullshit as minimal as possible.

AB's final word on Big Al was this: asked what ever happened to the character, my brother said he didn't think Alejandro faded away so much as he (my brother) "grew up" and stopped taking D&D (and other RPGs) seriously.  Unlike myself, who AB describes as "age 35 going on 12."

So says the guy with the 80th level "Blood Elf" on World of Warcraft. 

Oh, well...as long as you're not killing people or actively working to make the world a worse place, I won't fault folks for their interests; certainly I won't apologize for MY hobbies. I can (and do) apologize for being an asshole in the past and any transgressions I made against the social contract inherent in gaming.  But those are apologies that are owed to individuals, not to society.

Heh...Rainman, indeed.

: )

Welcome Back Alejandro!

My brother is flying in to Seattle tomorrow for a quick visit, and will be staying with my wife and I for a couple days. He left town back in April (before I began my spanktastic blog!).

For those who haven't been following, AB (or "Ables" as I call him) was a long time victim...er...player in my D&D campaigns of old. His greatest character was the esteemed Alejandro, the first and only character to gain possession of the sword Blackrazor and wield it in later adventures. I shall be sure to pump him for any information he may remember from those glory days while he is here.

Later, gators!

Summertime Gaming

It's July 3rd, I am off work (since the 4th is on a Saturday) and I am enjoying a caffeinated beverage at the Neptune in Greenwood while my wife gets a pedicure with her buddy downtown and outside people are enjoying the beautiful summer weather. Nevermind the drought, a quarter of the people in Seattle are transplants these days, and they are grateful for the break from the gray.

For me, it reminds me of my youth (what doesn't, really?) when I'd be out of school with no responsibilities besides taking the occasional family road trip and mowing the lawn weekly. The rest of my time was spent lazing around, riding my bike, reading books, and playing D&D with my friends and family.

So right now I'm thinking of my old S1: Tomb of Horrors module. I've been reading other folks posts around the internet and to me it feels like part of the Rite of Passage of an RPG blogger to share one's experiences with this fabled module. Guess it's my turn.

Originally, I was going to title this post "I Was A Killer DM," which would have been accurate if not literally truthful. I was, in point of fact, a real asshole at times, but I didn't collect deceased PC's character sheets for a "trophy folder," nor did I force players to rip them up (truth be told, I was always unhappy when someone crumpled a character sheet...to me, D&D is a game and characters could always "come back" from the dead. Maybe I read too many Marvel comics).

Tomb of Horrors is one of those problematic modules that have so many love-hate issues for so many people. I'm one of 'em, I guess. I've owned this module pretty much since its issue with the Green cover, and I actually own TWO of them (one came in a four-pack back in the day...imagine my disappointment with only getting 3 "new" modules). There were a couple things that really attracted me to it.

#1 It had a cool cover (which leads to disappointment #1...where the hell is the big lich-like monster? Argh!).

#2 It was the highest level module available at the time (levels 10-14).

The reputation for this module as a "meat grinder" was completely unknown to me. If it has that reputation with me now, it is only because it did grind so many characters. As one of my oldest modules, I must have run it at least four times, and perhaps as many as six. I can clearly remember running it for some players on the living room floor of my parent's house one sunny, summer afternoon like today, and another time running it on a dark evening in Port Angeles for some cousins (around Christmas time). I know that at least two different groups made it to the end, but I don't remember any single group slaying Acerak...though, I may have mis-placed a memory or two (we'll get to that).

The thing is, as a self-taught DM, I used these modules as models for games. I had never played D&D with high level characters before; now I found my players HAD high level characters, and how was I going to challenge them appropriately. I, of course, figured that published modules should be the yardstick to use for these things...can you believe Tomb of Horrors as an example of a 10-14 level dungeon? But for me it seemed appropriate.

And my players, back in the day, were fairly saavy. I take umbrage with the idea that it is an "impossible" or "unbeatable" (mostly, see below). A party that sticks to the task and follows the clues in the demi-lich's poem is going to be able to find his tomb...perhaps with a little luck. As I said, at least two groups I know made it that far.

Ha! I remember the first pair to do it...

Generally, players did NOT use their own "spoon fed from level one" characters for the game. Although I was a "killer DM" after the first couple practice runs, I decided that informed consent was appropriate: it's pretty hard, and the treasure take is a bit paltry for the challenge level. The module has pre-gen characters in the back, and many players (especially for one-off runs like with my Port Angeles cousins) would use these characters...often without even bothering to pick names. Hey, they were some level 14 characters in there! Right on!

Anyway, one of the first groups DID include a regular player...Bladehawk (I've mentioned her before) a high level fighter that had been able to thwart (or at least survive) all the modules and dungeons I had thrown at her. My brother was riding shotgun with one of the level 14 NPCs (a cleric, I think?), and together they were able to make it to the end.

Not without some set-backs. Early on they got the "naked teleportation treatment;" pretty low-down considering the amount of gear that high level characters possess. However, BH and company (I believe my friend Jason was also playing, but he ended up leaving either shortly before or after his character perished) decided to head back into the tomb. No way the 'Hawk was leaving her dancing defender sword behind! They found the false tomb, exited, figured out their mistake and went back a third time, this time making it all the way to the true tomb.

Pretty bedraggled by this point, my brother's character turned the key the wrong way and blew himself 10' into the air. Nearly dead, they finally found Acerak...and had no way to kill the bastard.

This leads to Disappointment #2 with the adventure (and it is the most prominent disappointment). The methods for killing a demi-lich are simply too obscure. Unless you've owned the module, or read the description in the Monster Manual II, there's no way for a player to know any of the creature's vulnerabilities. It's not like a vampire, based on folklore. It's not simple enough to be slain with a magic weapon or fire like some undead. It is immune to turning. And there's nothing in Acerak's riddle that provides a clue as to how the thing can be destroyed.

Maybe an especially kind DM would allow a legend lore, commune, or contact other plane spell to provide the info. But the high level players in my games made it through most of their adventuring careers without resorting to these mechanical "give me a hint" spells, and they didn't think to use them now. When running the module, I usually encourage the players to take a paladin in the party (at least as an NPC) if only to give them a fighting chance at the end, but it's never worked out that I remember.

With Bladehawk and her companion...well, her companion ended up getting his soul sucked out (whadya' know), BH decided discretion was the better part of valor, she grabbed her sword and left the dungeon and the demi-lich behind. She was the only party member to survive.

I've seen party members crushed by the juggernaut, burned to death in the sliding corridor, and lose members to poison and annihilation. I had at least one guy (or pair of guys) squashed to jelly against the roof of the dungeon. I don't remember anyone getting incinerated in a fiery explosion, but I know at least one guy snuffed it with the crown and scepter (I think that was Jason's thief character).

So has anyone actually succeeded? I think Alejandro may have with the help of the magic-user Arioch. But this doesn't really count...after all Arioch was an NPC magic-user, so having him cast contact other plane and stocking the correct spells for the demi-lich is basically handing the players a giant crutch. I don't remember if I did this or not, but it sounds like something I would have. I certainly WAS a killer DM, but towards the end of my DMing career, I know I was getting tired of the Tomb of Horrors being un-defeated, grinning like an old skull from my shelf of gaming products. I'll have to ask my brother if he remembers.

Alejandro (Part 2)

Decided it was time to write more tales of the black sword…enough with these Elf and Northman posts!

By the black sword, I am speaking of Blackrazor of course, not Kas’s wretched short sword, nor Elric’s infamous rune blade.

“Big Al,” my brother’s fighter character Alejandro, was the only player that ever wielded Blackrazor on a long term basis. Why no one else chose to retain the blade after winning it from White Plume Mountain, I can only guess. Certainly, not all characters could meet the alignment restriction. Some perhaps wanted the reward money for turning it in. Others already possessed weapons they considered “better;” I’m just not sure any realized the potential power of the weapon.

Let us recall what Blackrazor does…it sucks souls and transfers life force from its victims to its wielder (I won’t say “its master,” as with an infinitely increasing ego, no mortal could ever truly master Blackrazor). This transferred life force comes in two forms: increased hit points, and temporary bonus levels “to fighting ability.”

Back in the day, fighters shared many of the same responsibilities that a tank/warrior in the World of Warcraft has…namely: absorb damage and draw “aggro.” Of course, drawing aggro in the Old School is accomplished a little differently…instead of having special skills or talents that “taunt an opponent” you simply do the old fashion thing: hit him as hard and as often as possible so that he refuses to ignore you.

Blackrazor’s special powers turn the AD&D fighter into the ultimate tank. Increasing hit points make the fighter a huge “meat shield” even without clerical support. Increasing combat ability means more attacks per round + more chance to hit which = more damage output. Coupled with the threat of soul-sucking, a wielder of Blackrazor is going to draw a LOT of “aggro.” And that’s even before adding the haste ability.

If memory serves, Blackrazor was the last weapon found by Alejandro and Co. in their conquest of White Plume Mountain. Whelm was discovered first, though for the life of me I can’t remember how they dealt with Ctenmiir…I am guessing Isaiah got a lucky “turn” roll and they looted the hammer before he returned. Wave was next, and while they got “blown out the top” (as is wont to happen in that encounter), they returned shortly thereafter for the Blackrazor.

No one ever believes the “doughty hobbit warrior” is anything other than a disguised monster and a trap. Never. Whether this is due to the Venger-Halfling switcheroo in an early episode of the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon, or just the sheer un-likelihood of encountering a friendly henchman-type in the middle of a volcano/dungeon…who knows? The point is, everyone draws down and attacks this lil’ guy at first opportunity. He’s neither a great surprise, nor a great challenge.

Anyway, pulling Blackrazor last, many adventuring parties may never actually get the chance to use it in battle and see what its capable of…perhaps this is why they have no qualms parting with it after the adventure. In the case of Al’s party, they decided to accompany Nix and Nox to the Indoctrination Center before leaving (I'm guessing my brother and his friend had no idea the meaning of the word “indoctrination” or its shady implications). Once they realized things were no good (I had to make up a mage Keraptis on the fly), they fought their way out…and here Blackrazor first demonstrated its power.

Alejandro must have already been around 8th to 10th level when the party began their siege on WPM. I’m pretty sure he was in the 9-10 range as the party had recently completed the Desert of Desolation series (I3-I5) withOUT the aid of Blackrazor. Can you imagine my brother’s surprise as he downed one of the Efreeti? Suddenly Alejandro rocketed to 19th or 20th level fighting ability (an efreet having 10 hit dice) plus an extra 40-50 hit points. Even if Alejandro had gained an ACTUAL ten levels, he would have only gained 30 hit points (3 per level after 9th). A fighter’s fighting ability maxes out at level 17 with two attacks per round and the best “to hit” rank in AD&D. Activating Blackrazor’s haste function at this point simply turned him into a one-man killing machine (4 attacks per round!).

Once Blackrazor had “fed” on a single opponent, the contest was over. Keraptis may have killed one or two henchmen before Al downed his first efreet, but the fighter was unstoppable thereafter. Big Al exited the Mountain with an effective level around 35 or so and probably double his normal max hit points.

There was no way Alejandro would relinquish Blackrazor after this first taste of power. A new legend had been born.

Alejandro (Part 1)

It was difficult considering a title for this post...I thought about, "And Now...Blackrazor," but that seemed a bit redundant.  I think I've decided on simply breaking this post into several entries, as it might get even more long-winded than my usual ones (and that's saying something).

In actuality it's hard to know where to start, except with Alejandro. The MIGHTY Alejandro, one might call him, though I'm not sure it was intended that he start out that way.  Certainly other characters from my original campaigns stand out with much more clarity than Al (Big Al, I might call him in this post, though we never referred to him as such at the time).

Yeah, other characters had more personality, more personal history, deeper ties to the campaign.  Even my brother's barbarian character, "Bork," remains larger in my mind, and he didn't last more than half an adventure before being killed by a fellow player character (um...me, as it so happens, acting as a player rather than DM).  But I think we we went on to raise good ol' Bork.  I'm not sure such would ever have happened to Alejandro.

Whatever happened in the end to Al, I don't remember, though probably his character sheet lies abandoned in some stack of papers I've yet to unpack, fading remains of the glory of a campaign that long since trickled to an end.  In its hay day, he was the man, really...we just never really took the time to give him his due.  You see, he had a very limited audience at the time.

Oh, and before I go any further, let me first explain that the reason I am writing about "Big Al" is his place in the Blackrazor mythology.  He was the only player character to ever (so far as I can recall) ever retained and wielded the sword Blackrazor in any of my campaigns.  We'll get to that.

Alejandro must have been conceived and created some time around 1987 or '88.  It was after the demise of my first and (I'll say) best gaming group, but before I'd become entrenched with a new, steady gaming group in high school, and before my parents divorce (which is to say, before we stopped making regular pilgrimages to Montana).  That's a lot to say in a short paragraph and there is a lot of elaboration there, but for a young adolescent with a lot of crazy stuff going on, suffice is to say life was certainly murky back there at the tail end of the Reagan administration.

Alejandro ran in a campaign DM'd by myself. He was the character of my younger brother.  My only brother, he had been an irregular and "bit player" in past D&D games; now with no one else stepping up, he became the prominent fixture in my gaming.  Certainly there were other players that would join us...friends of my brother (Brandon, Mike), a friend of mine from a different school (Rob), cousins (Todd, Jason). But there was never any regularity to those games, or the group that would show up on any particular weekend.

Alejandro was a human fighter.  I don't remember his alignment, but I'm guessing it was Chaotic Neutral or Neutral.  He was big and strong (not lanky) with dark curly hair and a mustache, if not a full beard.  He was actually conceived by my brother as a send-up of his buddy's tennis coach (also named Alejandro) which he thought was a pretty funny name at the time. In retrospect, I really like the name choice...Alejandro is simply "Alexander" in Spanish.  And he was quite the conquerer.

Alejandro would have several companions over his adventuring career, some NPCs and some not.  Arioch, the Evil magic-user, was conceived of by myself and remained a constant NPC from an early point; I'm not sure if he was ever slain by Al or not.  Taliesin (Rob's bard character) was eventually slain by Big Al, sacrificed to power an artifact.  A cleric, Isaiah of Hoquiam, and his lesser brother, Moses of Sequim were both one-time companions, played by our friend Brandon; Isaiah DID die eventually (the reason Moses was brought on the scene), but I don't remember what happened to MoS.  His fate is lost in the sands of time along with so many others.

In this particular campaign, I did little as far as adventure crafting or world creating.  For the most part, I simply ran adventure modules, shoe-horning them together with very little narration.  For me, this was easiest, as I had plenty going on with high school, extracurricular activities, family obligations, and teenage life....I had little time to conceive grand plots a la Dragon Lance or some Arthurian tragedy.  Which I think may be part of why this gaming period has so little that is actually memorable (besides Blackrazor, of course).  

It certainly was prolific: just off-hand I know that I ran all of the following modules for Alejandro & Co.: I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City, G1-3 Against the Giants, D1-3 Drow series (though Q1 was unavailable), I3-5 (Pharoah, Oasis of the White Palm, and Lost Tomb of Martek).  It is certainly possible that Tomb of Horrors and Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, but I don't remember doing so.  S2 White Plume Mountain, of course.  And even some Boot Hill with a crossover c/o Six-guns & Sorcery from the DMG.

Don't recall the earlier modules played, though it's quite possible Alejandro began at a level higher than 1...however, his first module may very well have been N2 The Forest Oracle and/or some cobbled version of the Keep on the Borderlands.

Just looking at that list...that's a ton of gameplay there, with some serious classics in dungeon module design.  And all of these were completed, beginning to end...with the possible exception of the D series.  This is far and away different from my other experiences with running "standard" modules.  With the exception of Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain, most D&D adventures aren't really suitable for a single session of game play...even a loooong session of game play.  Keeping those games organized and coordinating different players' schedules is a real challenge...and when adventures aren't going well or players aren't interested, they may skip a follow-up session. Part of what allowed us to complete so many modules is surely due Al's player being my brother and living under the same roof...I can only imagine running the same kind of campaign today with one's own children, significant other, a roommate, or next door neighbor.  Most adults simply don't have the time (nor inclination) to invest in gaming that way.

Hell, even kids don't much.  Sports in school take up sooo much time with "summer training camps" and travel times...not to mention the distractions of on-line and console gaming.  Heck, my wife and I just threw down the cash for a 42" LCD screen and blue-ray player; I should be watching 40 hours o TV every week to justify that kind of investment!  Then add up all the time people (kids to adults) spend talking or texting or emailing or twittering from their electronic devices...yow.  When does anyone have time to learn a musical instrument?

Well, anyway (sorry, lapsed into "old guy syndrome" for a moment)...I'm sure this is why some of us OS guys romanticize (I won't say "fetishize") the games of our past. It's challenging to get the same intensive gaming experience we once did.  Doesn't mean we shouldn't try...table-top gaming has a lot more plusses than networked XBoxes in my opinion.

Conquest of White Plume Mountain

I can’t remember the first group I ran through S2: White Plume Mountain, but one of ‘em got TPK’d, wiped out after failing to answer the sphinx’s riddle. That may have been the first group to every try.

I remember clearly that another expedition including Bombur and Bladehawk, two fighters of (respectively) dwarf and human cultures, made it as far as Whelm’s resting place before realizing that they had no chance in hell of defeating Ctenmiir the vampire without a cleric (their companion having perished slipping and falling into the lake of boiling mud. They did manage to make it out with their lives, but just barely.

A later sojourn, again including Bombur the dwarf, was the first fully successful venture into the Mountain (I know Bombur was there because I still have his character sheet and his weapon remained Whelm from that time thereafter). Whether or not (the later legendary) Bladehawk was present, I cannot recall; however, she never used Blackrazor herself, and was Chaotic Neutral in alignment, so I find it hard to believe she was there. The first successful completion of the module finished in spectacular fashion with the players first getting Whelm and Blackrazor, before being blown out of the volcano’s spout protected by Wave’s force shield.

I believe the party sold Blackrazor on the open market. Too dangerous to keep around, I suppose.

The first adventuring group to complete the adventure and attempt exiting through the front door consisted of three memorable (to me) characters: Alejandro the fighter, Isaiah of Hoquiam (a cleric), and Arioch (an evil magic-user), plus assorted henchmen and hirelings. The magic-user was an NPC created by myself…the irony of his name totally lost on me at the time.

Meeting Nix and Nox at the front door, they decided to accompany the efreet to the “Indocrination Center,” whereby I was forced to invent stats for the wizard Keraptis on the fly…I believe I made him a 16th level magic-user based on his description as a “mage” (the level title for a 16th level magic-user in the PHB). They slew him, took his spell book(!) and left the Mountain leaving the corpses of their fallen companions behind.

It was a precursor to what was to come. Alejandro would go on to wield Blackrazor in many future adventures. Isaiah would eventually die (and be replaced by “Moses of Sequim”). Arioch would continue to grow in power and evil. All would prove to be exceptionally villainous and destructive, in some ways echoing the tale of Kas and Vecna.

If you catch my drift.
: )