Rappan Athuk #1 - The Village of Lhend

(Here we go. It's a long one.)

Well here you are; the village of Lhend, the last speck of civilization on your journey.

Once you leave here, you’ll be on your way to Rappan Athuk – The Dungeon of Graves.

Many hundreds of years ago, the forces of good allied to destroy the main Temple of Orcus in the city of Tsar. With their temple in ruins, the surviving high priests of this accursed demon-god fled the city with an army of enemies on their trail – an army of heroic warriors, priests, and paladins led by Zelkor, a powerful wizard. The exact fate of these evil priests was then unknown, for not only did the remnants of the followers of Orcus disappear from all human reckoning, but so did the army of light that followed after them. Some said that in the eternal scales the loss of so many good men was a fair price to pay to rid the world of so much evil.

The evil cult, however, had not been destroyed. The surviving priests and their followers instead settled on a hill. They found a vast underground complex of caverns and mazes carving out a volcanic intrusion beneath the hill. There the priest of Orcus found the perfect lair to continue their vile rituals. For many years they carried on in secret, hidden from the light and from the knowledge of men.

Many years later, their underground delving completed, the evil priests erected a hideous mausoleum and a sunken graveyard atop the hill. It is believed that these graves are in fact the final resting place of the pursuing army of heroes that been destroyed to the last man. Soon after the mausoleum was erected the peaceful creatures began to vanish. Though many rangers and druids investigated the happenings, the cause of the creatures’ disappearance was not immediately determined. Some years later, a powerful group of adventurers, led by Bofred, a high priest of Heironeous, investigated the evil happenings and found the sunken graveyard leading to a labyrinthine underground complex. Bofred and his companions found great hordes of evil creatures in the caverns beneath the graveyard. Though some of his companions returned from their expedition telling tales of fantastic treasure and ferocious monsters, Bofred himself was never seen again – presumed lost in the catacombs beneath the cursed mausoleum.

For the last one hundred years, ranks of adventurers swarmed to the newfound dungeon. Many fell prey to bandits and monsters in the surrounding wilderness. Of those adventurers who survived to reach the mausoleum and the sunken graveyard, rumors suggest that most were slain by guardians of green stone before they even entered the dungeon or that they perished on the very first level. Those rare few who return from deeper treks speak of horrible undead and of creatures that cannot be slain. All who have explored Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice: “Don’t go down the Well.”

Beyond this well known story and a few unreliable rumors you have no knowledge of what the place is like.

Your family and friends begged you not to do this, but seeking fame, fortune, and power is not for the weak of heart.

At the moment you need to rest and re-equip yourself. Hopefully this one road town will have what you need.

This above is the intro given to the players just before we began playing.

We had a pretty good first session. A lot of minor plot lines were laid out, but not too many, and there are many more to discover all in good time (no need to dump everything on the players the first night).

I increased the rumor list from 60 to 100 and gave plenty of opportunities for the group to hear/find more, but in the future there will be less opportunity to do so.

I handed out 4 or 5 “coupons” to the players throughout the night, but the flow of them will also most likely slow down as time goes on.

I did go ahead and give the party their level 2 and 3 hit points at level 1. In spite of that being a 4E thing, I had heard about this long before 4E was announced. It’s just added to reduce the fragility of low level characters.

Also, I’ve mentioned before about the issue of skill points and gestalt PC’s, there usually aren’t enough to go around. So I took something I heard about from 4E, classes have some skills they are already maxxed out on. For barbarians this is intimidate and survival, for the sorcerer and favored soul it is concentration. I basically took the number of skill points a class gets per level, cut that in half and picked the most appropriate skills that class would have.

For the most part, it gave the PC’s some extra skill points.

Yes, I know I’m being ultra-generous to the PC’s. Once they actually get into the thick of the module I think you’ll see why.

Here are the PC’s made by the players, all humans:

Brian’s playing Vars, a fighter/rogue who specializes in fighting with two bastard swords (he blew a lot of feats to get that, and I allowed it, after a lot of deliberation).

Joy is playing Sasha, a barbarian/fighter greataxe wielding melee freak whose only job is to kill things.

Aaron is playing Emanuel, a paladin/sorcerer. It’s an odd combination, I know, but Aaron usually has something up his sleeve.

And finally Dale is playing a favored soul/sorcerer. He originally was going to play a monk/rogue or favored soul/rogue to deal out nasty amounts damage in combat, but changed his mind when he saw that no one was making a healer and the DM made it quite clear he isn’t going to supply one.

Dale’s PC’s name is Savor Dye. He chose it as kind of homage to the loss of all save-or-die type spells and effects that 4E will not be using. Usually I would make Dale pick a new name, but not this time. The wussification of D&D in 4E bugs me; no save-or-die spells, the probably nerfed rust monster, removal of level drains, and all that stuff that they believe is “un-fun” for players.

Hey WotC! How about you let us decide what is un-fun and instead give us alternative rules to use instead of making us wear kids’ gloves?

Ugh, but anyway, here’s a list of some of the rumors the members of the party heard either prior to entering town or after spending a day or two there:

- “Beware of purple worms”, as the great mage Speigle said. The wise man heeds his advice.
Of course they saw the wisdom in this.

- A demonic spider queen lurks near her pets.
Immediately everyone thought of Llolth and drow elves.

- Beware small holes in the ground. Vicious little creatures have been known to make a meal out of the offending head or hand that searches within.
This gave the party and idea of buying a leg of lamb in the events they came across a hole in the ground.

- Beware the fairy with the purple wings. Her tricks have lead many to their deaths while she laughs at them.
Dale has a soft spot for the faerie-kind, so he was a bit concerned at that.

- Trolls are almost as numerous as undead around these parts.
That didn’t give the party the “warm and fuzzies”.

- Something is wrong with Itchy; the well doesn’t smell like it usually does.
They immediately figured that the well mentioned in the intro was one in the same with the one referred to here. They were wrong. It was just the plot hook for the party’s first adventure.

Starting just at the edge of the main street of the village, they set about going into the only inn around; the Grey Horse Inn.

They found out later that the Grey Horse Inn was previously the White Stallion Inn, but when Kriel bought the place, he hasn’t cleaned much of anything since, so he just renamed it after it got dirty.

Everything about the place was overpriced and poor quality, if not downright disgusting. They rented 2 rooms for 10gp a piece, and found that the sheets may not have been cleaned since Kriel bought the place. Everyone but Joy had a bedroll, so she had to risk it for the first night – after which she bought her own bedroll, but only after she had to take a one night job at the place as a serving wench and potential bouncer because she was broke and Kriel has a high turnaround on employees.

In spite of the décor of the place, it was still an inn, and the town attracts adventurers like flies. In fact, adventurers are the money source of the town, kind of like tourists.

And of course Mayor Brague Wyrm knows this, so when he saw some new people in town, obviously wet-behind-the-ears adventurers, he had to collect the usual adventuring fees. With a big smile he introduced himself and collected the fees right there at the bar of the inn. The party didn’t know what they liked less about the guy; the fact that the fees aren’t the same for everyone (Savor was charged 10gp while everyone else 5gp), or that he paid for his drink with the same coins the party just paid him.

Savor did strike up a conversation with a lone elf in the bar casually crafting some arrows. The elf had no interest in talking at first, but a few cups of wine helped him be a little friendlier. His name was Varasilisin and he’s been in town for a few weeks, looking for the right group to go adventuring with. In the meantime he just crafts arrows to sell to adventurers willing to buy them.

The elf gave Savor a few bits and pieces of information over the next few days. The first was giving vague directions to find the druid of the wood that occasionally harasses villagers when they get a little too destructive for her tastes, and he prevented Savor from casting a spell in the inn; Detect Evil.

The party figured there was wisdom in not knowing at this time who is and isn’t evil, considering they were on the edges of civilization and maybe stirring up trouble in their possible base of operations was a bad plan.

Next on their list of businesses to visit was Trake’s Armory. This was a guy they liked. A hard working dwarf who makes non-magical armor and weapons of decent quality (the inn made the group afraid that the whole town would be a cesspool of shady businesses). He was nice and helpful to the party and willing to make anything he could for them so long as they gave him a decent description of what was needed, but anything that takes a good amount of time (masterwork) required payment ahead of time. Trake has had one too many adventurers request a masterwork weapon, only to be never seen again thanks to Rappan Athuk.

While the main group was checked out the armory, Savor wanted to take a look at Tantagel’s Magic Emporium. This place definitely did not belong in the village, since magic stores are located in much larger cities. But the nearby dungeon does supply many adventurers with money to spend and magic items to sell, and this place exploits it.

When Savor checked the place out, he found a sparse and small room with a mousey sort of man minding the store. Teebin was his name and he immediate insulted Savor by asking him if he was in the right place. Once Savor opened his coin pouch, Teebin apologized and set about looking to make a sale, only to be disappointed by Savor’s lack of interest in paying 100gp for a Comprehend Languages scroll.

Next was Georg’s Butchery. The man was not nice, but got his job done. He twice the usual amounts, but oh well. It’s not like he has easy access to farm animals, so the cost has to be increased due to increased risk, lower supply, and such economic tools as that.

Near Georg’s was a horrible smelling well, but no bucket there to gather water. The party’s information gathering told them that it was the town’s “garbage chute” and the town’s pet “Itchy” lived there, taking care of things for them. But for now the party still thinks that this is well spoken of about Rappan Athuk. It’s not until the next day that things are cleared up for them.

Then on their walk of the town was the General Store. It had all the basic tools the party needed (like bedrolls) at standard costs. They were happy for that.

Since it was too late to take a chance traveling down the river to find the druid lady (Teela was her name, as they would find out later), they decided to call it a night.

They didn’t have an entirely comfortable sleep, but if you’re going to whine about sleeping in a less than comfortable bed, perhaps adventuring isn’t the best career for you.

The next morning, while the fog from the Mudd Flow River (a stream at best) was still in the air, they began their trek along the edge of the river. They had been told that the druid’s home was to the west, near where the plains, forest, and hills met at the river.

About an hour into their journey they heard many footsteps marching in unison, but the nearby hills echoed the sounds, and the fog had not yet burnt off. By the time they had seen the hobgoblins, over 20 in number, it was too late, they had been seen as well.

But it turned out to be a patrol for the king of land. After a quick questioning by the hobgoblin’s leader (show arms, who is your king, etc.) they were sent about their way.

Hours later, when the party came to the last edges of the forest, they found no signs of any druid lady, just the hidden voice of man coming from within the woods. It explained to them that Teela knew of them and would speak to them if she had a reason to.

A few questions went back and forth and the party found out that the voice knew of no fairies that were malicious or evil, beware of any animals with glowing red eyes, and they were requested to get that dwarf in town to stop using so much wood in his forge (Trake).

They wanted to earn some brownie points with the druid, but they also liked Trake.

So when they got back to town, Emanuel tried to talk to Trake about either using less wood, or planting trees or what not, but Trake flatly refused. He barely had enough time to get what he needed done during the day; much less plan a nature hike for some hippy girl.

They wrote this one off as a fail for now, but hope to figure something out in the future.

Paying 20gp per night for some poor quality rooms was outrageous to the party and not sustainable for very long, so they decided to see if anyone in town had room and board options or maybe find a place to stay in tents.

They quickly determined that living in tents was not looked upon well, plus tents offer no safety to whatever lurks out there.

They knocked on a few doors, but found no takers of any kind. They did strike up a conversation with a nice old woman. Her story was that she used to make potions for a living, but that bastard magic store owner, Tantagel drove her out of businesses by undercutting her prices until she had no choice but to retire.

The party wrote that down as a potential plot hook, and moved on, not knowing how to do anything about it yet.

They were about to head back to the inn for the night when they heard a commotion of angry voices. Several villagers had cornered the mayor and were demanding to know what he was doing to fix the problem with Itchy and the well. The mayor caught sight of the party and immediately claimed that he was talking with the party about fixing this very problem.

After a lot of negotiation the party agreed to find out what was wrong with Itchy and the well, but only if they were guaranteed that any disease they caught would be cured, and they had one month of no taxation from the mayor.

The mayor very reluctantly agreed and took the party to the Enchanted Temple of Wee Jas to make sure that this was possible when the party wanted more proof than his word.

They noted a sign on the door to the temple, “Adventurers – No resurrections. Ever.” and weren’t pleased.

There they were introduced to Jorgleen, a cold, humorless woman with a permanent scowl etched into her thirty-something year old face.

After some closed door negotiations, Jorgleen agreed to back up the mayor’s promises.

So they bought some handkerchiefs to protect them from the smell and airborne diseases, and climbed down ropes into the well.

They found ankle deep slime, trash, and more at the bottom (the whole area was considered rough terrain).

The first room they found was an almost organized room with multiple piles of the trash almost arranged in some manner.

Then they saw a light coming from around a corner, so they naturally investigated.

The light was simply part of a trap. A few feet down the corridor and the ground gave way beneath Emanuel, dropping him 10’ down onto a small pile of coins and trash.

And hiding in the nasty pit was a ghoul pressed up against the side and covered in trash.

Before Emanuel had a chance to respond, he was paralyzed by the ghoul’s touch. And when Vars attempted to get a rope around him and pull Emanuel out, the ghoul paralyzed Vars as well.

Then the ghoul climbed up to get to Sasha and Savon, but it was then pelted with Magic Missiles and the large edge of a greataxe. The round after the ghoul was killed, the paralysis wore off.

They gathered up their new treasure and moved on to the next room, which conveniently contained Itchy.

Itchy was in bad shape. He is a standard otyugh, but the ghoul made him into a play-toy and chew-toy. When the party found him, they cautiously chatted with Itchy (he had been known to be indiscriminate in the foods he ate), told him they had killed the ghoul, and even cast a healing spell on him.

Itchy told them that there was another creature living in a cavern nearby that was becoming a nuisance, and there were plenty of rats (dire and normal), but Itchy liked having them around as snacks.

The party found the creature, a choker, and took it out with very little difficulty (Sleep spell, poor DM rolls, and a crit from a greataxe will do it).

Itchy was happy and thankful, he even offered them a particularly nice smelling glob of something. The party declined.

Feeling that they were done, the party climbed back up their rope and headed straight to the river to clean themselves off.

Being a sleazy politician, the mayor took the credit.