Rappan Athuk #122+123: To Challenge a God

This writeup is only two years late! It tops off the EPIC campaign of the legendary megadungeon Rappan Athuk! (MASSIVE SPOILERS for Rappan Athuk and The Slumbering Tsar.)

The party cleft through a complex of mages of considerable power who threatened to dispel their magic items. They would soon stumble upon the ingenious plan that Orcus had to return to Golarion. Grom-gil-Gorm, their stalwart viking fighter, tells the party’s final chapter.

(-GM)

12th day of Sarenith, 4722 AR

Grom-gil-Gorm

The mages turned their heads toward us, their faces obscured by masks of twisted metal. As one they lifted their arms and called forth their fiercest warriors to fight us. And these warriors were not the simple grunts we fought before. Every one of them wore the cold aura of the antipaladin, and every one of them wielded their double-axes as effortlessly as one might hold a knife and fork.

Our only hope against such martial prowess was to overwhelm them with force before they could orient themselves. I charged forth without hesitation, barreling toward the nearest of the unholy champions with a scream that was at once a taunt and a prayer. Perhaps the taunt made him hesitate, for my ever-hungry mace found his skull and brought him down. Perhaps the prayer guided my hand, for as I swung the mace around me it connected with the skull of a second warrior.

I had no time to marvel at my luck, no time to shout in defiance, for the leader of the warriors pushed past the two corpses and began a ruthless frenzy of attacks. One would expect him to be a lumbering brute given his inhuman bulk, yet he was as swift and precise as a master swordsman. I might have had a chance against him in single combat, but with the other warriors surrounding me I was overwhelmed. Their axes bit into my flesh, their cold auras burned into my soul. The leader stepped forward as I fell to the ground, cutting open my throat to make sure I was dead.

 

Rappan Athuk #120: The Horde

The party’s bard, Shia Labeouf, fell silent, leaving the legacy of the lightning devil-face and the first half of the party’s confrontation with the combined force of a race bred for war for others to wonder about. Alas, Shia appears a little tongue-tied.

(-GM)

12th day of Sarenith, 4722 AR

As we finished off the last of the grunts, a company of orog spellcaster elites left the safety of their temple to face us. They were very smart, conjuring a wall of wind to deflect our arrows, enhancing their eyes to see through our smoke, and covering our great banner with stone. But they weren’t smart enough, for if they were they would run away.

Deckard made quick work of their magic, dispelling their tricks faster than they could conjure them. We felled them one by one, tearing apart their flimsy charms and cantrips until they were reduced to mud and corpses just like their martial brethren. As we stood on the roof of that profane temple, we heard sounds of more soldiers, marching from every corner of that vast cavern. Let them come. We do not balk at weaklings simply because they come in numbers.

Susurrus unleashed a powerful blast of anti-magic that made the orogs unable to fly, then brought forth a sea of black tentacles that dragged them down into the mud. We flew down to that mass of desperate struggle, and killed them. We killed and killed and killed, and didn’t stop until the entire orog army was reduced to dead flesh and scrap metal.

The cavern was silent. All that remained were the pulsing lights, illuminating the temple of Orcus and the demonic carvings on its walls. We explored the tunnel that their spellcasters fled into, finding an amphitheater with a pool of pitch black liquid in the center, and three mithral golems to defend it.

I attacked one of the golems with the full force of my fury. I dealt six deadly blows to the machine, one of them removing its head, yet the thing fought on. Eventually, like all things that face us, it fell in a pool of its own molten metal. We then investigated the black pool. It appeared to be the very essence of the shadow plane. The orogs would use it to turn their elites into twisted monstrosities. We could not allow such a substance to exist, so we disintegrated the entire pool.

The hole where the liquid once rested revealed a secret tunnel under the amphitheater.

And in that tunnel we found what may be the most formidable enemy yet:

The Mages of Disjunction

Signing off,
Grom-gil-Gorm

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Death from Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away, tiefling slayer 20 / fighter 1 / wizard 1 / alchemist 1
Deckard Cain, aasimar oracle 22
Doomfist, oread monk 20
Grom-gil-Gorm, half-orc viking fighter 20 / brawler 3
Shia Labeouf, human bard 20
Susurrus, sylph wind-listener wizard 22

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Rappan Athuk #118: Flame, Water, Wind, and Earth

The door to the Golden Toilet opened, and out floated a small flame. As the party beheld it, it grew larger and assumed fire-elemental form. Deckard Cain had been gone awhile, and he asks us to listen.

(-GM)

11th day of Sarenith, 4722 AR

My return to the party went more or less how I expected it. A large, menacing dungeon, lots of hostile and powerful enemies, and an epic fight. 

The party had gone beneath the massive statue of Orcus, the Prince of the Undead. I found the party in a rather peculiar situation. The ceiling of the vast cavern was covered with tainted bats, intent upon overwhelming the party. Already dozens, it not a hundred or more, were dead on the ground, their corpses slowly being consumed by the lava Susurrus had conjured. Others resembled pincushions from the arrows DFSIFA had skewered them with. 

Then, out of nowhere, a large demon with octopus tentacles jumped out of the nearby water and swallowed several bats flying towards us, then retreated back to its home in the depths of the lake. We debated our next best course of action, and it was decided that we should head over the lake. However, as soon as we started to fly our way across the lake, the water under us erupted to reveal two of the demons we had just seen. One of them concentrated for a mere second, and Shia Labeouf simply fell out of the air, completely losing his ability to fly; his screams were cut short by the crushing of his slim, fragile form by the monstrous tentacles of our foes. I cursed as our friend’s body was mutilated beyond most forms of healing.

Knowing that there was nothing I could do to save him, I focused and shot a bolt of death energy at the creature still constricting his corpse, greatly wounding it. Doomfist and Grom Gil Gorm engaged the now-wounded sea monster up close and crushed several of its tentacles, Finally, Susurrus shot a pure blast of cold at the enemies, freezing them, while DFSIFA lined up his shot and brought them down in a matter of seconds.

After the fight, I performed a ritual to bring our unfortunate bard back to us, and the rest of the party debated our next move. We eventually moved on, and, after a considerable amount of time spent wandering around the vast chambers of the cave complex, stumbled upon a most horrendous sight.

Towering above us was the largest, most menacing plant I had ever seen, which was identified to us by Susurrus as a mu spore. DFSIFA immediately nocked an arrow, drew, and fired at the beast, piercing its hide. The creature cried out in rage and spat a volley of spores at us. I shot a ray of pure cold at the beast, weakening it. After many an arrow shot, the beast fell to another lancing ray of cold from the hand of Susurrus.

-Deckard Cain (Aidan)

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Death from Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away, tiefling slayer 20 / fighter 1 / wizard 1 / alchemist 1
Deckard Cain, aasimar oracle 21
Doomfist, oread monk 20
Grom-gil-Gorm, half-orc viking fighter 20 / brawler 3
Shia Labeouf, human bard 20
Susurrus, sylph wind-listener wizard 21

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Rappan Athuk #117: Slumbering Tsar

The party, having defeated the Grand Cornu of Orcus, and now races against time to stop a demon lord’s return.

(-GM)

11th day of Sarenith, 4722 AR

Before we started our journey back down into Rappan Athuk, we took a trip to the capital’s library to research the person we kill called the Grand Cornu. He had been the head of the cult of Orcus. The gods had imprisoned Orcus because he killed a deity, and Orcus sought a way out. The Grand Cornu’s notes said that Rappan Athuk was a “distraction” from Orcus’ ritual, which was almost complete and was being done somewhere in the ancient, evil ruin of Tsar.

We then proceeded to Tsar.

In the back of the city against a cliff face was a gigantic Orcus statue with a set of large doors at the base. As we approached the giant gates of the cathedral, we noticed a huge dead stone golem. The inside was a great room with many statues. A large well dominated the middle with an uncountable amount of skeletal troops. There were two spots shielded by pitch-black. Once dispelled, the party noticed a large amount of footprints, presumably from another party.

The party went to a large statue at the back of the room. Susurrus sensed magic behind the eyes. When removed, black smoke spewed from the two gems, creating two ghostly hostiles. With a couple of shots from DFSIFA and a punch from Doomfist, they slew the two beasts.

There was a set of small steps in the well, and as the party descended the steps, we noticed some writing reading “Saint Harul’s Well.” Suddenly we heard large banging noises. The door flew open and a huge troll with fangs cast dispel magic to no avail. Grom Gil Gorm rushed the troll and smashed its head to a pulp.

At the bottom of the steps of the well, there was a large room with a single tunnel leading away. Susurrus stated he must birth the Poop Monster and opened a door to the Golden Toilet and closed the door saying he will catch up.

Ahead there was a room with four ropers ready to attack, but DFSIFA was already ready and launched six arrows killing two of them. Doomfist moved forward and threw Grom Gil Gorm into combat range. One of the ropers smacked three tentacles against Doomfist, but he resisted most of the damage but took two strength damage, Grom Gil Gorm killed one, and Doomfist killed the last, concluding the battle.

There were ten plinths in the room, and eight had either stone figurines or iron wands. The last two plinths had nothing, and one stone figurine and an iron wand were on the floor. They resisted all attempts to move them. There was also a secret door with no way to open it. We figured that the room was a puzzle involving the plinths and the stone and iron objects. After almost an hour of puzzle-solving we got the right color coordination and a secret door opened.

Doomfist (Cayden)

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Death from Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away, tiefling slayer 20 / fighter 1
Doomfist, oread monk 20
Grom-gil-Gorm, half-orc viking fighter 20 / brawler 2
Shia Labeouf, human bard 19
Susurrus, sylph wind-listener wizard 21

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Rappan Athuk #52: Stone Cold!

Deckard Cain sits us down and tells us what they found in the level containing a temple to Orcus. Stay awhile and listen! (-GM)

3rd day of Pharast, 4719 AR

Then we saw 4 Gorgon Hounds who had a strong breath that could turn flesh to stone.

Hello travelers! It is I, Deckard Cain again, in the second of my journal entries in the Rappan Athuk dungeon. This time the party had a less eventful, but exciting nonetheless adventure in the Orcus alter-temple whatever. We spent the majority of the time exploring blank hallways with nothing in them or on the walls, but DFSIFA (repeatedly saying “Blink!” to activate her ring) insisted on looking at them with her 1002 eyes (1000 on her robe/cloak and 2 on her head).

“Blink!”

After a while of exploring hallways, we heard a group of creatures around the corner. They seemed to have heard us for they cast darkness around themselves. Seeing this, I channeled the power of daylight through my body’s connection to the sun god Sarenrae, pushing the darkness out of existence. Seeing their spell countered,  the creatures fled around the corner and through a door. We saw the tail of one of the creatures and recognized them as leucrottas, the creatures that Gudmund had entertained. We spoke to them, and they asked us for mercy. We gave it and explored their rooms and found another buckled boot and some droppings (by the creatures). We left the creatures and explored more halls with nothing in them for the purpose of mapping the area out.

“Blink!”

 

Rappan Athuk #51: Demons-Be-Gone

We rejoin our party as they continue their battle with cultists and demons that was so epic that there was a cliffhanger. A paralyzed Death from Somewhere Irrelevantly Far Away tells us what happened. (-GM)

8th day of Abadius, 4719 AR

Demons filled the room, as far as the darkvision eye could see. The mummies in front of me were so pathetically weak, it terrified me. I was paralyzed with fear unable to move, attack, or do anything other than stare straight ahead (and drool a little).

During this time I connected my head to the cloud (via a magical link in my brain) and started looking at memes and cat-dragon videos. Then I remembered that I had started a journal a little while back. The last thing I had written down was about a big fiery cave.

 

Stoneheart Dungeon #7: Kingmaker!

The party took a reprieve from their mission and the Orcus cultists and decided to open a casino in Taverlan. But as the saying goes: you can take the party out of the dungeon, but you can’t take the dungeon out of the party… (-GM)

14th day of Arodus, 4717 AR

One of Meme’s minions

Hello, I am Isaac, a ratfolk. I’m Isaax’s distant cousin. I have been recently traveling around when I spotted a town called Taverlan. As I entered town, I saw a fire and dead bodies. I realized that Isaax was one of them. I also smelled the distinct smell that I hadn’t smelled for 2 years. It was the smell of a sauna! Additionally, I only saw 2 people, a priest of good, and a priest of bad, I later learned was named Meme. Then I asked how this all happened. Meme handed me a piece of paper from Isaax’s bag and said she will fill in the missing parts.

It went like this;

Entry 333: Wow, what a day after traveling back to town and meeting Boominator the Beautiful (a goblin and sister of the late Groominator the Great -GM), we decided to creating a casino. Wow, that’s an unlikely turn of events. At least, after a year, we might have enough to buy a magic item. In the process, we had to get a loan. Meme tried hitting on the bank person, but we got a loan anyway.

 

Rappan Athuk #50: A Well-Prepared Enemy

The party ascends stairs leading out of the scorching salamander caverns and find a unique sort of respite… (-GM)

5th day of Kuthona, 4718 AR

After dealing with the salamanders, The Hero of No Name, our designated mapper, decided that he wanted to finish his map of this level. I remembered all the fallen souls that had contributed to our extensive maps of Rappan Athuk, as well as The Mouth of Doom. First we had the mysterious Drun Ken Sayler, then Strix, a strange bird-like creature that was quite handy with a bow. Then an amusing vanaran monk that was also quite good with a bow named Monkey, and finally The Hero of No Name, the fifth brave adventurer to hold the title of Mapper. Somehow, they have all understood the cryptic and confusing maps. Yet, they have all been able to lead us through the labyrinthine halls and pits of Rappan Athuk. They had all had one common trait though, the need to have their maps be complete, and showing all of the secret doors and traps. The Hero of No Name is no different, and so after a few long hallways, we found the door he was looking for.