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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 demon-god 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 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"
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Rappan Athuk is an old school dungeon crawler that chews up characters and spits them out. It's difficult, impossible even in some areas as it's not built to be even remotely fair. Every encounter can be one's last, and even the most optimally built character can become the next puddle of blood and sinew due to an unlucky happenstance. It's a throwback to AD&D with the scarcity of resources, where not every encounter is winnable and knowing when to run or hide will determine if your character will live to see another level. But where there's risk, there's reward in finding treasure far above APL.
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###-- Expectations for play --###
+ Fantasy Grounds I hold an ultimate license so those who don't have a Fantasy Grounds license can connect.
+ One shot drop in format: Each session is effectively a one shot, starting equipment vanishes upon death (Found dungeon loot is preserved)
-- Leaving/returning players appear in and out existence each session unless dictated otherwise, (In case of abuse), their inventory will carry unless it is an item needed for progression in which case it will transfer to a current player.
-- Half starter WBL due to the above average APL treasure drops, isolated location limits shop access so a majority of player wealth will be found.
-- Leveling is tied to progression as opposed to EXP, the further you get in the dungeon will advance the level of everyone in the group, including new comers. Due to the level EXP field, there will be minor perks granted to those who survive a number of character levels which is to be determined.
+ High death rate: Don't get attached to your character, there's a 90% chance they'll die, besides, epic and embarrassing deaths are part of the fun. If you manage to survive a few character levels, you'll gain minor perks (traits) but not enough to garner jealousy from others, and often relate hilariously to how you survived when your fellow adventurers did not.
+ Varying time: Depending on what days I have free, the time slot will float, but will adjust to an [U]EST/EDT evening slot[/U]. The next game's time will be announced to a group skype chat so everyone will know what games they can play.
+ Low prep: A simple white background with the dungeon drawn in using drawing tools as it is explored.
+ Medium rule adherence: Rules as written, but as with previous experience, I reserve the right to bend a few, mainly to be in favor of the party due to the sheer difficulty of the dungeon. But if you're going to argue about a 2d6 spike trap when I previously bent a rule preventing a TPK.. well... you get my drift.
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###--- Requirements ---###
- Experience with the Pathfinder System: This dungeon is far too difficult for those starting out, this campaign is more suited to those who want a challenge, and [U]aren't afraid[/U] of losing a few characters, or even a ton back to back.
- Skype: The skype group chat will be a hub for updates as well as alerts in addition to being the primary voice channel during the game. Microphones are mandatory.
- Teamspeak: Teamspeak will be used to stream ambiance/soundtracks/jingles to add to the atmosphere of the game. Typically you'll connect to my teamspeak server muted as the the music client streams as skype is primary VOIP.
- Laid back: Lots of s$@@ago will hit the fan, and you'll need to be able to take it in stride. Helps in game as much as out of it.
Characters must be a Core race and can be created with any official paizo material minus the technology guide and any tech related items. In addition are the following creation rules:
New players may create a character with the following:
- 1st level characters
- 150gp starter gold (do not use class based gold)
- 20 point buy
- no traits
See the the Fantasy Grounds LFG post for details on applying!
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absolutely dot.
a few questions
1) would you be ok with evil characters assuming they are obviously capable of working in a team?
2)are you ok with prestige classes?
3) are you placing rappan attuk in the pathfinder setting? Uf not, can we still adapt classes that have a pathfinder multiverse reference to the game?
4) are we assumed to have the time from one session to the other to forge magic Items?
I would be interested whatever the answer is but if possible I am aiming at playing a souldrinker somewhere so I wonder if this is the right game for it.
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Hey, @Scarletrose
1.) Yes, a golden rule is that there is no PvP, I'm clear that this is a co-operative campaign as there's enough out there trying to kill the group. Ideally, we'll discuss character creation before you join the group. I don't have any hard restrictions, if there's a questionable ruling on a rule you want to use, ask first. Entering with a 'surprise I interpreted it this way' isn't a fun way to get to know people; I'm sure everyone has had their share of 'that guy'. We're all here to have fun and 'OOhhh' and 'Aaahhh' at interesting deaths and triumphs over the seemingly insurmountable odds. It's not the players vs the GM, the campaign as written is already deadly enough.
2.) Yes, since the campaign is currently at level 1, this is not an issue. Even further down the line this still isn't an issue.
3.) Rappan Athuk is in the PF setting. However given the light nature of this game, I've generalized the surrounding world as 'northeros, easteros, westeros, and southeros'. The wilderness envrions are the main stage of this adventure.
4.) Any magic crafting is done during the session if you can eek out downtime. Given the 'edge of civilization' nature of this campaign, item crafting feats aren't useful. If you decide to pop in at the later levels and figure that you can use a combination of craft and starter WBL to get better gear, this is not allowed. It is not fair to the other players (not to mention the stunted WBL). In addition, most magic crafting assumes you have access to a market to turn that wealth into a magic item. Given this crafting is done in the wilds, brew potion and scribe scroll become far more useful. A portion of the raw treasure drops will be converted into 'magic reagent supply' to be used for this purpose. You can't transmute gems and gold to magic items, but eventually when you leave Rappan with a haul of treasure, you can conceivably sell and craft with downtime... If you get to civilization in once piece.
You mentioned that you have a set character. I'm going to nudge remind you that this is a deadly dungeon, characters can very well die at the drop of a hat. There's nothing stopping you from cloning that character, but generally Rappan is a good place to throw experimental builds into a blender to check that blendability. I do keep an eye on stage time so there's a general balance among the players. Given everyone is trying to eek the most out of their characters, the bar already is pretty high. I'd advise against exploiting well known broken builds (synth summ etc..) ask about anything questionable before diving into grey territory. It's both a courtesy to the other players and myself.
I'm interested if you need pcs!
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Session 53: "Death waits for the slightest lapse in concentration"
Next session is July 11th @8:30pm EDT
We have a single opening for a new player!
See here for more campaign information
New characters arrive at 8th level with 8000gp
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Session 54: I still see it in my dreams.. A creature not meant for this world that hungers for thine flesh, whose gaze turns men to ashes..
Next session is Tuesday July 24th @8:30pm EDT
We have an opening for a new player!
New characters arrive at 8th level with 8000gp!
(Note that the linked post has the more up-to-date information)