Put simply, “Drums on Fire Mountain” is probably one of the better adventure modules that you’ve never read, and probably one you might not even know. It's an oft-neglected little gem that deserves some attention.

My first forays into being a DM started with Basic & Expert set D&D. “Palace of the Silver Princess” and “The Lost City” were the first real modules that I successfully ran … and that led to running “Isle of Dread” and “Castle Amber”. All four of these modules ranged from “very good” to “outstanding” in terms of quality (with most headed towards the “outstanding” part of the range), and all were written exceptionally well for a newbie DM like myself. All provided enough guidance to help keep the adventure on track, but a little room for some creative experimenting and freelancing.

I didn’t really pay attention to who wrote each module back then (hey, I was barely a teenager!), so I just started assuming that anything from the “B” series or “X” series would be good. However, after finishing up “Castle Amber”, I moved on to my latest purchase, “Curse of Xanathon”, and found a genuine dud.

“X3: Curse of Xanathon” will not be getting the fullNaClaMoMo treatment, but suffice it to say that it’s a prime example of how not to write a module. It features a lot of heavy-handed, awkward railroading of the players throughout the adventure, and there’s a lot of strange things going on throughout the module that simply defy logic. (As examples, the module relies on players listening to the offhanded remarks of a drunken dwarf in a tavern to propel them towards saving the kingdom; players – who may be of Lawful alignment – are constantly put in situations where they have to kill Lawful town guards; and don’t forget the giant temple of Chaos being built in the center of town that no one seems to care about. And that’s just scratching the surface.) Part of this is due to the module being set first in a city, and then in the wilderness, which lends itself to being fairly open-ended … but how that module handles that open-ended nature is just appalling.

My experience running “Curse of Xanathon” led to the first real bad DMing experience of my time in gaming, as I stubbornly tried to stick to the awkward railroading, and my players tried stubbornly to get off of its ludicrous rails. We never actually finished that one … and after the debacle of “Xanathon”, I avoided the “X” series for awhile, and ran some AD&D modules instead.

It was probably a year or so later when I went to Tiny Tots and found this module.

The cover was what caught my eye (the title certainly didn’t) … and I’ll admit, the little flag in the upper left-hand corner intrigued me. What’s a British module like? I didn’t know, I was curious, so I bought it. And a few weeks later, I ran it.

“Drums on Fire Mountain” did everything right that “Curse of Xanathon” did wrong. Like “Xanathon”, “Drums on Fire Mountain” takes place in an open-ending setting – the entire adventure happens on the island of Teki-nuri-ria. The module starts with a slight amount of railroading, as the player characters are hired by merchants to hunt down and slay the devil-creature KalnaKaa, who has riled up the native kara-kara savages on the island. They are given two specific suggestions as to how to get to the dormant volcano Ni-malowa, where KalnaKaa is thought to be hiding … and then, from there, things get interesting.

The two suggestions for getting to Ni-malowa – using an underground slavers’ tunnel, or simply going overland to Ni-malowa from where the ship’s captain wants to land – are given the most detail in the adventure. However, the module’s writers (Graeme Morris & Tom Kirby) do an outstanding job of quickly fleshing out the entire island with a few set encounters and a well-written random encounter guide, in case the players decide to simply explore the island instead of tending to their mission, or decide to approach Ni-malowa in a more unconventional way. (“The slavers’ tunnel? It must be a trap! Let’s head to the northern reaches of the volcano instead, they’ll never expect that …”)

It’s an excellent example of adventure balance. Writers only have so many words with which to write an adventure, and in an open-ended setting like an island, it’s hard to balance out the encounters and the adventure against all the possibilities that the players might choose. Spend too many words on the “obvious” choices like the slavers’ tunnel, and the DM isn’t given much material to work with when the players choose to ignore the obvious courses of action. Spend too much time fleshing out details not particularly relevant to the main adventure, and more important adventure material and details get short shrift. It’s not an easy thing to balance, but “Drums on Fire Mountain” just about gets it perfect.

The NPCs of “Drums on Fire Mountain” are also well-written and memorable. The kara-kara (who are essentially “tough tribal orcs”) aren’t just mindless monsters – they have reasons for following KalnaKaa, but those reasons disappear if the players manage to accomplish certain things. KalnaKaa’s daughter Maerie makes an interesting foil in the adventure as well – she’s tough, she’s certainly loyal to her father, but she isn’t evil. As for KalnaKaa himself … while he’s a despicably evil sort, he’s more interested in survival than just trying to destroy the player characters, so that switches up some of the encounters in ways the players might not expect. As with some of the other modules covered in NaClaMoMo, “Drums on Fire Mountain” has an abundance of roleplaying opportunities for the player characters, if they choose to take them. The NPCs of “Fire Mountain” are certainly much more than sword fodder.

The module does possess one potentially big, fatal flaw, though. Halfway through the adventure, it’s expected that the player characters will encounter KalnaKaa for the first time, and that KalnaKaa will manage to get away from this encounter, setting up for a rematch and grand finale with him at the end of the module. If things work out that way, it makes for dramatic and awesome adventure … but I’ve learned never to bet against the players in my group. If they manage to take down KalnaKaa the first time around and prevent his escap, it makes for a pretty short adventure, and there’s no contingency plans in the module covering what to do in case the players happen to be a little too successful in combat.

Still, “Drums on Fire Mountain” does far more right than it does wrong. It’s got a lot of distinctive flavor and feel, and really evokes a haunting atmosphere of the strange and the savage. It has a terrific mix of roleplaying opportunities, combat, puzzles, and other sorts of challenges. And it has a lot of options – I doubt two groups would ever play the module the same way, which to me is a sign of a great adventure.

There were two old classics I always wanted to give the “Dungeon Crawl Classics” treatment (much as I gave “Expedition to the Barrier Peaks” the “Dungeon Crawl Classics” treatment with “Talons of the Horned King”.) One was “Castle Amber”. The other was “Drums on Fire Mountain.” At this point, I don’t expect to ever get the chance to do so, but that doesn’t change this undeniable fact – both are exceptional adventures that to me exemplify the way all adventures should be written, whether old-school, new-school, or however the hell you want to classify them. Both have stood the test of time, and in my opinion, are just as good today as they were when they were first released.

But you’d probably heard of “Castle Amber” before, and knew that it was a classic.

“Drums on Fire Mountain” is definitely a classic as well.

And now you’ve heard of it as well.