"Once upon a time, there was an idea—an idea formulated by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974 and published in a little paperback book called Underworld Adventures. The idea was simple: it is a lot of fun to go into a dungeon and kill evil monsters. Why is the dungeon there? No one knows. Why do the monsters usually fight rather than talk? We aren't really sure. Why are there 16 trolls in a cave with a jug of alchemy? No one cares. What do all the monsters eat? We don’t know that either (although “adventurer” probably tops the list). And we don’t have to know these things. This isn't an ecology experiment, it’s a dungeon—the quintessential setting for pure swords and sorcery adventuring.
This adventure pays homage to that original idea. True, there are
opportunities for role playing, but most of this module is dedicated to
“roll playing.” Hopefully, while exploring the halls of Rappan Athuk, you
will recall the thrill of discovery, the terror in your heart when you fought your first skeleton, the joy of rolling your first natural 20 and the despair you felt when that 1 came up for your poison save.
This module, Rappan Athuk—The Dungeon of Graves, is nothing more and nothing less than a good, old–fashioned, First Edition dungeon crawl
updated for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Very difficult, it should strike fear into the hearts of the most stalwart adventurers. It offers an
abundance of traps, tricks and monsters."
House Rules
1) Character creation:
A) Characters will be created with a 25 point buy.
B) Classes and weapons are restricted to European only.
C) Classes are Core Only, plus Inquisitor, Swashbuckler, Warpriest. I might consider Gunslinger, but the gun powder rules are the simplified rules from Razor Coast and not Ultimate Combat. I might discuss others if they fit an old school theme.
D) Sources: Core Rules, Advanced Players Guide, Ultimate Combat and Ultimate Magic after 5th level on DM approval on a case by case basis only. Additional Sources: Freebooter's Guide, A Brace of Pistols, Book of Magic Pirate Spells, 101 Pirate and Privateer Traits, Fire As She Bears, Pirates of the Inner Sea, Heart of the Jungle, Inner Sea World Guide, Isle of the Shackles and Dead Man's Chest.
E) Races Human, elf, half elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome, goblin, half-orc and orc.
2) Fumbles: Rolling a natural 1 in combat will result in a fumble ending the player action for the turn.
3) Skill checks.
A) Rolling a natural 1 on a skill check results in a -10 to the check.
B) Rolling a natural 20 on a skill check results in a +10 to the check.
4) Initiative: Rolling a natural 1 results in an initiative of a 1.
5) Area of Affect Spells:
A) The action of combat is considered a dance, therefore when an area of affect spell affects enemies that are in melee combat with adjacent characters they are considered to be in the area of affect.
B) Exceptions: Some spells are done on a line affect such as a lightning bolt and thus will not affect adjacent characters. Also the feat shape spell can shape the spell to only affect certain squares. Also spells that only affect squares do not affect adjacent squares.
6) Surprise Attacks: Amended back to RAW.***
7) Hit points: Reroll all natural 1's on hit point rolls. Barbarians can reroll all 1's and 2's.
8) Cure spells: If the die/dice are all natural 1's, reroll.
9) I don't take 10 or 20.
10) Dispel Magic I am rule 0ing Dispel magic back to the 10 level limit. If you want more than that, use Greater Dispel.
11) Note on ranged attacks: Cover: When firing through your allies they provide a +4 cover to the enemy. This is in addition to the -4 for firing into melee. Precise shot removes the latter only. Improved precise shot is needed to get around this. Now here is the kicker. If you miss by the cover, you hit the cover. Meaning you have a 20% chance of hitting your ally!
12) Giving an unconscious person a potion requires a DC15
heal check. If you fail by 5 you spoil the potion.
The Legend of Rappan Athuk
Many hundreds of years ago, the forces of good allied to destroy the main Temple of Orcus in the ancient city of Tsar. With their temple in ruins, the surviving high priests of this accursed demongod fled the city with an army of enemies on their trail—an army of heroic fighters, clerics 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 disappear as well. 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 near the Forest of Hope, a sylvan woodland near the Coast Road. There they found a vast underground complex of caverns and mazes, carving out a volcanic intrusion beneath the hill. There, the priests 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 had been destroyed to a man. Soon after the mausoleum was erected the peaceful creatures of the wood began to disappear. Though many rangers and druids investigated these 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 Thyr, investigated the evil happenings and found the sunken graveyard leading to a labyrinthine complex. Bofred and his companions
found great hordes of evil creatures in the complex. Though some of his companions returned from their expedition, telling tales of fantastic treasure and ferocious monsters, Bofred was never seen again—lost in the catacombs beneath the cursed mausoleum.
For the last one hundred years, ranks of adventurers have ventured to the newfound dungeon. Many fell prey to bandits and monsters in the surrounding wilderness. Rumors suggest that of those who survived to reach the mausoleum and sunken graveyard, most were slain by guardians of green stone or perished on the very first level.
Those rare few who return from deeper treks speak of horrible undead and creatures that cannot be slain. All who have explored Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice: “Don’t go down the Well.”
