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

=========================

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)

=========================

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)

=========================

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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RPG Campaigns in Fall 2017

Join one of the RPG campaigns that I am running this fall! (These are separate from the afterschool program.)

There is an online application to sign up for one of these groups. If you are interested and/or have more questions, parents/guardians should contact me (Ronald) at guildgrandmaster AT gmail DOT com!

Princes of the Apocalypse (investigate elemental cults in the Forgotten Realms)

The party continues its investigations into the Sumber Hills, where brigands and strange cultists seem to have sinister designs that may threaten the humble town of Red Larch. Set in the iconic Forgotten Realms. (Uses 5th Edition D&D. Continues at Level 5, goes until Level 14.)

Rappan Athuk (challenging and deadly megadungeon)

Rappan Athuk, also called the “Granddaddy of All Dungeons,” is in the spirit of old-school D&D, full of lethal traps and demons from hell that will force you to think smart and use your wits. Just as unforgiving as the dungeon is the wilderness surrounding it. Notoriously difficult, Rappan Athuk (and the massively powerful creature it serves) have never before been beaten by RPG players anywhere without cheating. If you succeed, you will most definitely get BRAGGING RIGHTS in the Guild! This campaign is more about thinking creatively, avoiding death, and trying to “beat” a very difficult adventure! (Uses Pathfinder RPG. Continues at Level 13, goes until Level 20+.)

Slumbering Tsar (challenging and deadly lost city/dungeon sandbox campaign)

By the makers of Rappan Athuk:

Something Stirs in the City of Evil… Over the distant northern hills, beyond The Camp, and past the Desolation stand the pitted walls of Tsar. A hundred armies have crushed themselves against this bulwark in futile attempts to breach the city. Even the combined might of the Heavens and Earth were unable to break through in the final battle of Tsar. So why was the city suddenly abandoned on the verge of victory, and what waits for those foolish enough to enter the Temple-City of Orcus? (Uses Pathfinder RPG. New group could start exploring the desolation surrounding Tsar at Level 7. Current group would continue at Level 12. Goes until Level 20+.)

Dead Suns (galaxy-spanning adventure)

This is the first adventure path for the new science fantasy Starfinder Roleplaying Game, which combines exotic alien races, futuristic technology, magic, and starships! Dead Suns begins when a derelict ship arrives at Absalom Station towing a mysterious asteroid. Investigating it only raises more questions requiring traversing the galaxy to answer them… (Uses Starfinder RPG. Goes from Level 1 to 12)

Stoneheart Dungeon (challenging and deadly dungeon) –> Slumbering Tsar

By the same people who publish Rappan Athuk, Stoneheart Dungeon begins with the party reclaiming lost temples to Sarenrae and Abadar. However, uprooting the evil that claims them requires delving into a deadly dungeon… (Uses Pathfinder RPG. Continues from Level 4 and goes to Level 7, when it can transition into Slumbering Tsar)

-Grandmaster

 

Slumbering Tsar #11: Ghosts

The party encounters shades from the past in the wall-fortress of Tsar. -GM

10th day of Sarenith, 4717 AR

“Well look here, another group of dead adventurers. Or, if you aren’t yet, then soon to be dead.”

The screams of the dead filled of the air as they drifted into the room. The party was struggling; even Nonek had broken a sweat. We were tired, wounded, and outnumbered. Hope seemed fleeting, and for a moment I thought all was lost. But then, Neptune raised his rail gun, shaking in his weary hands. The weapon slowly panned towards the wraith, before exploding in a tidal-wave of light and sound. The monstrosity was blown into oblivion by the barrage of debris. And, like a spark catching, visions of victory sprung up before us. Nirot raised his voice into a cry of battle and plunged into the fray. Jackie Sparrow was like a darting viper, exploiting weaknesses and taking out foes at the perfect moment. The foes tried to surround Nonek, but he simply laughed as blow after blow glanced off his armor.  All the while I stood behind them, manipulating the world to better suit our needs. We were glorious in our sheer power, and the undead could not hope to compete.

From there we retreated, needing to regather ourselves and regain what energy we had spent. Soon, we were back within the keep. Down into the tower we went, looking for clues in order to solve the mystery that is Tsar. We eventually came upon some barracks, which may have been built for the more expendable soldiers of the city. The party opened the lockers in search of anything that could be of value or use, but sadly we didn’t find much. However, the next floor down was another story. Chained to the wall was a spectral man, bound by manacles as dead as he. It seemed that he had lost all belief in escape long ago. He slowly pulled up his head to gaze at us. “Well look here, another group of dead adventurers. Or, if you aren’t yet, then soon to be dead.” He soon dissolved into incoherent ramblings, but not before telling us that the only way to set him free would be to burn his body deep below.

 

Slumbering Tsar #10: The Armory

The party gains some valuable information and continues exploring Tsar’s wall-fortress. The party’s techslinger, Neptune, narrates. -GM

9th day of Sarenith, 4717 AR

As soon as I heard the squeak of The Peddler’s cart, I sighed, wondering what ominously cryptic information he would give us.

We left the swamp, muck still clinging to our armor. Personally, I hope we never return. I hate mud and smelly swamps. We returned home, and while Nonek and Nirot were having their mummy rot and swamp sickness cured by Father Death at The Camp, Dio and yours truly made a quick trip to the capital to sell the spoils of our adventuring. It took two castings of teleport, and the second one landed us about a mile off-target. I pointed out that a technological teleportation device would never do that, but Dio ignored me. We also stopped in at the local library, to ask about the artifact we had recovered after the fight with the iron devil and the weird blade robot.

The historians told us that long ago, Orcus had a competition to decide his “Grand Cornu,” which is a weird way of saying second in command. There were 11 priests, and after competing, Orcus gave the title to the weakest and turned the rest into these statues. Orcus seems to have a pretty twisted sense of humor.

We returned to The Camp, and the night before we returned to Tsar, the weird old peddler who told us to not sleep in Tsar or “to darkness we would awake” decided to stop by. My keen ears heard him first of course, and as soon as I heard the squeak of his cart, I sighed, wondering what ominously cryptic information he would give us.

 

Slumbering Tsar #9: Drain the Swamp!

In a missing chapter of our tale, the party entered the tower on top of the central fortress and fought an iron devil and a mechanical construct wearing a human’s skin but with an array of flensing blades in its chest. They also found a statue with an overwhelming magical aura… an artifact? (More on that later.) -GM

6th day of Sarenith, 4717 AR

There was another hideous mummy standing unnervingly still next to the entrance…

Destroying the iron devil and machine had taken a considerable amount of our strength. We were too tired to charge the central guard tower and vanquish the sinister creator of all these nonliving guards, but we weren’t tired enough to go back to the camp and rest. After some thought, we decided to explore a presumably less dangerous entrance to the city: the sunken, swampy northeast gate.

There were two immense towers guarding the oxidized gate. One seemed to be mostly intact, but the other had fallen halfway into the bog. It looked as if whatever made the area sink didn’t happen until after Tsar’s citizens made the place perfectly suited to a flat, dry climate. A pool of swampy water separated us from the northern tower, but luckily there was a functioning boat on the shore. It looked more like a weird triangle than a boat, but we knew it was a boat because it was labeled as such, in large capital letters.

As we boarded the small vessel, we noticed several lights hovering above the pool. I threw a rock at one of them to show the insignificant photons that they were no match for us. The light flew toward me and exploded. How rude. I would have given the remaining lights a lesson on etiquette if a bunch of hideous mud mummies hadn’t ambushed us.

 

Slumbering Tsar #7: I Don’t Say Much, and Let My Gun Do My Talking for Me

Choosing the method of frontal assault, the party enters the bailey of the fortress at the center of the city’s walls. (-GM)

4th day of Sarenith, 4717 AR

They call me Neptune. And they also told me to chronicle our little expedition into Tsar. So I will.

After dealing with the mob of skeletons, leaving them dead (again), we realized that we were still in danger. In the middle of the large courtyard was a tower, and from the arrow slits came a continuous stream of arrows. Not many hit their targets (us), but it got annoying, and so I took a few shots at one. It stopped firing for about 30 seconds, then kept shooting. We quickly had Alucard’s roc fly us back up to the ramparts, saw a door to our left, and went inside.

We found ourselves in a barracks, with beds, an armory, and a kitchen. A careful search revealed some dust, and a few cobwebs. We took the time to heal, and discussed our plan of action. I remembered seeing a door above the side of the entrance gate leading into the central fortress, and we decided to go into that. I knew my lock-picking prowess could get us in, and Dio could get us out.

 

Slumbering Tsar #6: The Midnight Message

The Church of Iomedae, intrigued by the possibility that some remnant of the paladins left behind in Tsar by the Army of Light might still survive thousands of years later, resigned itself to the fact that the previous adventurers they had sent had either died or otherwise succumbed to some great evil. The Church has sent a new party of more experienced heroes to investigate the ancient ruin of Orcus.

Their diviner, Dio, begins their story. (-GM)

4th day of Sarenith, 4717 AR

Malerix, the tar dragon

The first thing one might notice about The Camp was the smell. Not the pure, putrid odor of rot, but a more subtle, complex, dry smell that leaves you wondering. A smell that makes you nervous, a smell that makes you look over your shoulder or lock your door. The next thing one may notice is the inhabitants of this “town.” They peer through rotten curtains and cracks and doors. Their greedy, shining eyes peer out at you with a wicked desire, instilling a sense of wrongness, a sense that all is not as it seems in this pathetic excuse for a town. Finally, the last thing one may notice is the Usurer himself. His rat-like eyes glint out at you with a sheen of avarice. His thoughts are occupied with any situation that could result in the smallest bit of profit for himself. He concerns himself with nothing else, for in his mind there is nothing more important in life. Overall, one may conclude that The Camp is a sad, disgusting mockery of modern civilization. No one in their right mind would want to go within 50 miles of the place; it is simply that repulsive.

However, our group cannot be rightly called within their right mind. Our company is composed of a Paladin, Alucard, a wizard, Dio, a gunslinger, Neptune, and an Armored behemoth of a man, Nonek. We have come together united by our mutual goal of reaching the city of Tsar. We arrived together at the camp at mid-day, and were greeted by the Usurer. He peered at us through shrunken eyes. “Good day sirs, Welcome to my fine city. If you would like to purchase anything, you must exchange your gold for bits. The current rate of exchange is, lets say, five gold per bit.” He smiled as he crowed this to us, eyes alight with dreams of wealth.

“Sorry to disappoint, scum, but we do not deal with weasels. Good riddance.” I proclaimed. He sneered at us and scurried away, knowing that he would not win this battle nor convince us otherwise.

We headed to the outskirts of town, content to waste the day and head to Tsar tomorrow. However, that night we heard an ominous noise which awoke the more perceptive members of the party. An odd creaking came from out of the gloom. “Who’s there?” The noble paladin bellowed, but to no response. Louder and louder the noise grew, until we could finally see a hunched figure in the distance. Pushing a cart and bundled in rags, the creature moved closer. Searching my mind, I remembered tales of strange figures coming out of the night and offering knowledge at a price. “Buy? Buy?” The mass of rags spoke, shuddering slowly and holding out a quivering hand. Upon his hand was a set of false teeth. We paid the man 50 gold for the object, and he spoke unto us this, “Sleep not in the city or to darkness awake. Not light to the eye but to the soul at stake.”

The next morning we headed out from The Camp and ventured towards the city. We knew of a large dragon that was said to vomit upon travelers before swallowing them whole. However, we believed that the vile beast would pose little threat to a group as adept as ourselves. Overall, when we did face the beast, the fight was anticlimactic. It flew away constantly, and just spat over and over. It died how it lived: Pathetic and alone.

Finally we arrived. The colossal structure loomed over us, intense and ancient. What lay within was unknown to all. The giant doors to the city seemed to lean over us, awing the party with their massive size. We entered through those doors, but not before some scouting was done. We discovered that there were groups of undead on the ramparts above and to our sides, and we decided that they needed to be dealt with. The bird took us up, and the battle began.

– Dio (Zack)

=================================

Alucard, ifrit paladin 11
Dio, elven diviner 11
Neptune, undine techslinger 11
Nonek, human armor-master fighter 11

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