[if my players find this thread, please don’t read it]
The Halls of ACKSen Vul
The Halls of Arden Vul is the megadungeon’s megadungeon: absurdly large and chock full of traps, treasure, monsters, and lore. As a capsule review, one might describe it as “Dwimmermount, but more”. A vast dungeon that (1) is deeply embedded into the setting and (2) takes advantage of this. The reams of descriptive text describing everything from wall graffiti to item history to factions, to a shocking extent, is player-accessible and matters (with respect to solving puzzles, bypassing dangers, making allies, etc.).
I have no idea if this campaign will last long enough to encounter even a tiny fraction of it.
Bryce’s review of Arden Vul (https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=6633) is typically informative; there’s also a currently-running DCC campaign (Vul Yourself Together: A Halls of Arden Vul DCC Campaign Log | RPG PUB) that has a better name than mine.
We’re using the eldritch spellcasting classes from the Heroic Fantasy book because I really like them, although this could change if needing to write up NPC spellcasters becomes too much of a chore. Characters have started with 1500 XP, because our sessions only last 2-3 hours and I’m hoping to minimize dead game-time from dead characters. I’m happy to talk about other aspect of preparing/running Arden Vul.
Session I
The cast:
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Sabrina, a Sylvan Witch
- Clive, the cacodemon she often chooses to summon
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Ferret, an Elvish Nightblade
-
Frank Reynolds, a Dwarven Vaultguard
-
Thesk, a Thrassian Gladiator
Arden Vul, jewel of the Old Archontean Empire, home to uncountable wealth, graveyard to a thousand heroes. Though the world is full of wonders, Arden Vul is known by all to be the crucible that decides whether a name lives forever or is swiftly forgotten. Most are forgotten, and we laugh at their misfortune as we dream of our ascendance.
With these words, and more, in their mind, an indefinite number of adventurers [read: the four current PCs plus any needed replacements or alternatives] have made their way up the treacherous plateau upon which the ruins of Arden Vul’s surface layer rest, in the hire of a merchant who plans to make a killing off of questing would-be heroes. The merchant has left them at a strange fortress-inn, the Luck in the Head, run by an uncannily-jolly man and his wife.
Some of the things they have learned, during the travel and at the inn:
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A priestess of Mithras has gone missing; some saw her being carried up the plateau in the guard of a band of pig-men.
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The two best ways to enter Arden Vul’s depths are (1) the Pyramid of Thoth, a great landmark that stands tall in the ruins, and (2) a small ruined building near the Pyramid, recognizable due its still-tall chimney
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A few levels beneath the surface are the “Obsidian Gates”, a strange barrier that not even the ancient Archonteans managed to open.
With these nuggets of wisdom, the adventurers venture into the ruined city for the Pyramid. Climbing to the top of this structure revealed a great statue of the ancient Archontean god Thoth, along with a set of baffling carvings. Although the party recognized that Thoth’s arms could be rotated, and that there were closed passages near Thoth that led downward, they could not decipher the ancient knowledge needed to gain entrance. Perhaps the mosaics on the stairs leading up to statue clearly revealed the answer, but reenacting the rituals they depicted failed to achieve that which was desired. Despite this, Sabrina’s sacrifice of gold to Thoth seemed to imbue in her an ability to discern the character of objects and remnants.
Thus, they moved next to the smaller ruined building near the Pyramid. Investigation here swiftly revealed a staircase leading downward; descending this staircase led to a vast underground chamber overrun with rubble and hints of vermin infestation. The company avoided the worst of this (a nest of centipedes) and were able to put to torch a number of large spiders without harm, recovering an appealing silver chalice. Continuing on, they found a room filled with yet more mosaics. The strangest of these, perhaps, showed a white baboon (thought to be a representation of Thoth) laying waste to a group of salamander-like creatures none in the group could recognize.
Session II
The cast:
-
Sabrina, a Sylvan Witch
-
Clive, the cacodemon she often chooses to summon
-
Ferret, an Elvish Nightblade
-
Frank Reynolds, a Dwarven Vaultguard
-
Thesk, a Thrassian Gladiator
The party continued their investigation of the ruined structure in the top layer of Arden Vul. Some of the things they encountered:
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a pool of sludge. Despite its ominous appearance, Frank deduced that it was, in fact, restorative when consumed.
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a giant snake in its lair. Thinking quickly, Thesk threw a fallen adventurer’s body at it, and it retreated to hungrily feast on this bounty.
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a strange and deeply malodorous old man who called himself Lankios. Lankios seemed not all there, but he was willing to parley. He suggested that the Pyramid of Thoth could be opened by either rotating Thoth’s arms to point aligned with the horizon, or to the sun. He couldn’t remember which was correct though, and suggested that the wrong choice would lead to certain death. He also warned against “the privy”, a dreaded location north of his home, and counseled them to eradicate the Cult of Set, should they encounter it. (Set, like Thoth, was recognized as the name of an old Archontean god whose worship was proscribed in these modern and civilized times.) Lankios seemed obsessed with a woman named Guivrel, perhaps his lost love, though he had forgotten most anything he had once known of her.
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a second vast room, covered in guano and inhabited by far too many stirges for comfort. Although a cleared path guarded by foul-smelling candles led through this room, past an intriguing circle of stones, the party grew concerned by their rapidly deplenishing set of torches. Thus, they chose to retreat to the Luck in the Head for the night.
Upon leaving, they met a hitherto-unknown major presence of the ruined city, a green dragon that called itself Craastonistorex. The wyrm was content to let them let them pass, although it hinted that it would henceforth expect tribute sampled from whatever treasures the group came across. (Frank’s initial tribute, a set of iron spikes, was luckily accepted with gentle amusement.) The return to the inn also put the group in contact with another group of adventurers; these had the snazzy name of Dalton’s Darlings. Their leader proved to be quite unpleasant, although he laughingly said that he knew of Lankios, and that his lost love had left the city, where she had died in a tower. Rather than the Pyramid of Thoth, the Darlings were consumed with Arden Vul’s obelisks, another mystery.
Session III
The cast:
-
Sabrina, a Sylvan Witch
-
Clive, the cacodemon she often chooses to summon
-
Ferret, an Elvish Nightblade
-
Frank Reynolds, a Dwarven Vaultguard
-
Thesk, a Thrassian Gladiator
Having re-equipped themselves with torches, rope, and herbs, the party ventured for a second time into Arden Vul. Lankios’ advice fresh in their minds, they returned to the Pyramid of Thoth. Seeing that the statue’s arms would only be able to be pointed at the sun at the sun’s zenith, they instead rotated the arms to face the horizon. As Lankios suggested, this indeed revealed a staircase leading downward. Descending proved to be a tragic error.
Intriguingly, the area revealed by this statue manipulation bore minimal sign of prior habitation or exploration. Like much of Arden Vul, some corpses lined the stairs, but they were old and very decayed. “This is it guys, we’ve hit the jackpot” Frank suggested to his colleagues. Thesk was more cautious, especially after he found graffiti on the wall featuring quotes like “the way is blocked” and “where is the exit?”, so he carefully led the descent, tapping each step with his wooden pole.
This forethought proved insufficient, and, after taking one step too many, the steps turned to a ramp and sent the Thrassian sliding (thankfully without injury) into a lower room, lit with an unseen magic. As his compatriots threw down a rope that he might climb and rejoin them, however, the lizard-man triggered a second trap and was sent hurtling downward into the Pit of Bones. Perhaps mercifully, the fall knocked him unconscious.
As Frank prepared to descend and rescue his friend, Sabrina wisely summoned additional muscle, in the form of a cacodemon (named Clive as it happens). Unfortunately, as this all happened, three other things took place: (1) the party heard the trap door near Thoth’s statue that had granted them entrance to this region slide closed, (2) from the stairwells through which they had descended came the howls of the undead, (3) Frank saw a horrific winged eyeball crawl toward him on the pit’s floor.
The outcome at this point was likely inevitable. The howls proved to be from two ghouls, who dispatched Clive (with the inadvertent aid of Ferret, who fired upon his ally in the melee), and then threw themselves at Ferret. Ferret endeavored to escape to the Pit, but he misjudged his jump, and, like Thesk, fell to his death. Sabrina successfully descended to aid Frank, and, though they both fought bravely, they could not overcome their demonic foe.