Updated Campaign Map

 

It's been a few weeks since my last post, but life got busy. I've used the legendary DMG Appendix B to flesh out the results of the various mapping expeditions that were underway during training downtime and have generated the above map.

A few observations from the above and the first 7 sessions of solo play:

1. So.Much.Content! This map contains a mere three fully populated 6 mile hexes and look at how much content they contain! Specifically:
• 4 cities
• 13 villages
• 4 independent castles/fortresses
• 23 ruins of various sorts
• Over 120 one mile hexes that can be rolled for random encounters as they are traversed
  
  
2. The Bros Are Objectively Correct! The three core AD&D books (the Holy Books of PHB, DMG, and MM) are probably the best value in gaming if you have even a modicum of creativity and are willing to jettison all notions of the necessity of post-1989 "gaming products".
   
   In all seriousness, ignoring the BrOSR shit talk posturing, which some find distasteful (not me - I think it's hilarious), they are objectively correct in one important fact. You don't need to buy anything outside of properly designed core rulebooks to enjoy endless hours of TTRPG fun. I think I'll post a separate rant about this, but this is enough for now.
   
   The three Holy Books are all you need to generate literally years worth of adventure content for your group. Master the concepts of downtime actions, patrons, faction play, 1:1 time, and figure scaling and you'll never need anything else for literal years of fun. You will never need to "buy product" because the campaign will spontaneously come alive on its own and the players will be invested as never before (...and yes DM, you too are a player in this game).
   
   
3. I'm quite sure that the above map as-is could easily keep me occupied for the rest of the year with no further effort. "No prep" gaming might be a little bit of a stretch, but minimal prep is absolutely achievable. Get PDFs of the Three Holy Books, use an online dice roller, and you can probably generate months worth of gaming material while you're trapped at work or during a lunch break. Ka-ren, Queen of the Harpies, and your immediate supervisor, will even think you're working on TPS reports and praise your diligence! Smiles everywhere!
   
   
4. Build factions early and don't wait until name level. Henchmen and hirelings are force multipliers, instruments of power and plot generators. Look at what my Bros have been doing, all within the rules and prior to name level:
• Blastikus has purchased a property to create a lab and start brewing potions and writing scrolls as soon as he is able. He's hired a couple of henchmen (obtained from a randomly rolled encounter) as guards and is making moves to eventually set himself up as a local power. Will he make Eilifsdalsa his future base of operations or is it merely a feint in some more clever plan? Will Bilious Yarena allow this upstart to carve out his own fiefdom so close to hers?
  
  
• Brogallo, by hiring mercenaries and giving them some bonus combat pay, now has a sizable mercenary company of 23 mounted men-at-arms under his command. This already establishes him as a non-trivial minor warlord and may get him noticed by the right (or wrong) people. What will Lord Jirex and Bilious Yarena have to say about Brogallo's increasing power?
  
  
• The Mighty Redneck, obligated to donate his excess wealth to a worthy "communal or institutional cause" (PHB pg 25) has done so in two cities, extending his influence and reputation for goodness. He has been noticed by the druids during his latest training period. Will they allow him to be initiated into the deeper mysteries of the wild? Are they angry with him for expanding the prestige of "civilization" via his urban (gasp!) social institutions? Time will tell.
  
  
• Kleptikos is laying the groundwork for his future thieves guild by quietly recruiting a network of spys and beggars, right under the nose of his ostensible "brother-in-arms", Redneck!  Remember Kleptikos is Neutral Evil and has zero problems exploiting anyone at any time for any purpose. If the goofy hillbilly wants to squander his wealth on street urchins and starving veterans, why shouldn't Kleptikos secretly leverage Redneck's gullibility for his own gain?
  
  
• Brother Sully and Brother Fitzy quite unexpectedly got noticed by one of the Chaos Gods with some pretty fearsome future implications. Why did they get noticed? Per AD&D DMG pg 38, cleric spells of third, fourth, and fifth level are obtained through the aid of supernatural servants of the cleric’s deity, so something is paying attention to their new found ability to cast 3rd level spells. 
  
  Up until now, I've been pretty light on the cosmology since this is a solo campaign but I decided the DMG quote means I should come up with some sort of pantheon. I'm going with Michael Moorcock's Lords of Higher Realms motif but putting a secret society spin on it. Exactly what does their order represent? The low level mooks will never find out, but the movers and shakers will slowly be initiated into the truth. Let's see if Fitzy and Sully learn the new secret handshakes and silly walks as they level-up. 
  
  Note that Fitzy is kind of a good natured dope (hence his friendship with Redneck), but Sully is clearly running his own program by building up Fort Rackham with refugees and survivors who all owe their lives to him in one way or another. Is Sully just being practical or is he, in fact, laying the groundwork for a new cult loyal to him and him alone? Everyone else has been going along with his suggestions since they were mutually beneficial, but how long will that last? What will the druids in the area have to say about this through their possible agent, Mighty Redneck?
  
  
5. Downtime and 1:1 time tracking is vital if you want to have a true living, breathing campaign that actually interests people! Everyone at the table should have their own motivations for advancing their character's agendas and these can be carried out in downtime. Encouraging this adds a lot of dynamic verisimilitude to the game without soaking up time at the table!
   
   If this were an IRL party of multiple players instead of my solo campaign, would Brogallo's player want to waste time listening to Kleptikos laying out the details of his urchin and whore network? No!! The group probably only has a few hours per week available to roll dice and slay dragons! All of this other stuff is nice character flavor that the group may appreciate, but free time for adults with family responsibilities is at a premium.
   
   
6. PvP is inherent to the game, but not necessarily in the way that it is popularly misconstrued. Does your group want to have the thief backstab the magic-user in the middle of combat "because that's what my character would do"? My guess is a resounding "FUCK NO" (and kick that fucking retard sociopath out of your group, by the way), but it's quite another thing if all players have competing agendas that run constantly in the background (i.e. use downtime and 1:1 time). This is even better if you have multiple player groups active at the same time since they could screw with each other via downtime actions or by swapping DMs/stories.
   
   PvP makes alignment a meaningful choice. Is the assassin going to say "Lolz - I kill people for coin and sadistic kicks!" to the NG ranger? No, he's going to keep his mouth shut and pass off his badass combat skills as "lessons from the school of hard knocks since I can never hope to develop your martial skills". So why is the assassin in the party? Because he wants to use these dopes as cover and subvert their factions for his own ends without revealing himself. Maybe the druid senses the truth about the assassin and keeps his mouth shut since he may have a future need for his services when the ranger morally objects to some necessary unpleasantness required to "maintain the balance".
   
   Study real world history, especially post-WWII to expand your viewpoint. "The party" is not The Super Friends (blecch!) or The Getalong Gang (double blecch!) - it is the Allied Powers of World War II. Remember that the "Big Four" - the United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China - did not ally because they had a deep and abiding love of each other. They were facing a threat to their hegemony from an organized and determined enemy. It was in their mutual interest to pool resources (somewhat) and coordinate military activity to eliminate a threat. They certainly didn't toast marshmallows and sing Kum Bah Yah around a campfire, in spite of the fairy tales they still like to tell about their "fight against evil". Oil, land, global financial restructuring, and monopolizing natural resources had nothing to do with it, right?
   
   
7. Don't get overly attached to any character when running AD&D RAW. I forgot how shockingly lethal this game is when played correctly. Look at The Book of The Dead post. As of this writing, eight of sixteen generated PCs have been sent to Valhalla which translates to a 50% mortality rate (for those of you who are too stoopid to figure that out on your own). How does that compare to reality?
   
• WWII Mortality Rate for USSR: 13.7%
• WWII Mortality Rate for Nazi Germany: ~8.5%
• WWII Mortality Rate for USA: 0.3%

This information is from Wikipedia - you can argue about the absolute veracity of the numbers but the scale is accurate IMO. Medieval/ancient battles are tougher to calculate, but this thread has some good info. If we go with a super high estimate and use 25%, it means AD&D is insanely lethal when compared to reality. Session zero, extensive backstory and "muh character" is for theatre kid dopes, not devotees of True AD&D.

OK, long post but I was on a roll (Ha! See what I did there?). Back to gaming in the next post...

Session 2 Downtime: The Fine Art of Carousing

Having reconnoitered the area, our crew decides to return to town to see if they can dig up some information on their newly discovered sites. They hit the local taverns and learn that the Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad (Hex 300.298) was a derelict stronghold that has existed for hundreds of years. It gained its moniker due to the herds of ice toads that inhabit the keep's moat and always seem to protect the castle master, regardless of who it might be. 

Recently, Kophyn Mizzar, a human female warrior of local renown, has taken possession of the castle and started taxing the nearby villages for "protection donations", ostensibly to rebuild the castle and secure the surrounding areas. She has attracted a group of followers and utterly destroyed four sizable warbands of orc marauders, and the peasantry has gone along with the taxation imposed by their new "lady"...for now.

The Croaking Castle and its eternal batrachian watchers seem to have likewise accepted the new mistress. Several local tradesmen have left Valthrun to join her stronghold staff directly and rumor has it that Kophyn has begun excavations in the nearby ruins (Hex 299.298). No one knows for certain what she's doing, and numerous wild tales are swapped in drunken confidences by the tavern hearths throughout the city.

Lord Jirex, overt master of Valthrun, has remained silent on the latest developments and most assume he is indifferent to Kophyn's machinations don't impact the flow of trade to the Obsidian Portal. If she wants to practice her swordplay on the orcs and squeeze the peasants a bit, who cares? As long as she knows her place and doesn't develop delusions above her station, all benefit.

Less is known about the small keep to the east of the Croaking Castle (Hex 302.298). The master of the keep is Belgos Trith, a very famous human male fighter who had great success against the savage barbarian horsemen far to the west and has seemingly retired to this keep to enjoy some well earned rest. He has patrolled the surrounding areas for years and rescued countless caravans from various monsters and bandits on the North Road. He collects reasonable road tax for his services and rumor has it that he secretly made a mutually beneficial agreement with certain hidden hands to ensure trade, and the fat merchants that accompany it, flow uninterrupted to Eternal Valthrun. Whether or not these rumors are true remains to be seen.

Of course, the true masters of Valtrun, Kirenos the Thief and the Night Hag Bilious Yarena, do not care at all what happens with these petty lordlings. So long as the trade flows and these delusional upstarts do not interfere in the affairs of their betters, they are of no interest...for now.

Session 2: Hexcrawling and the Glories of AD&D DMG Appendices

Since our new group is a little wary of the Shrine of Lethria given how badly it went for our previous crew, they decide to explore the wilderness around Valthrun. 

For map scale, I've gone with a 6 mile master (blue outline) subdivided into 1 mile sub hexes. I think this gives me enough to play with for quite some time and it's easy enough to expand if I get bored. 

Since everyone knows where the Shrine is located, I've added it to the map gratis. I roll a d6 and get a 4 so that means the group originally came to Valthrun from the southern road. This is a nice synchronicity since I've already decided the empires of Man are to the south. Some quick rolls on the tables Appendix B tables fill out the road's environs and encounter checks don't reveal any hungry critters. So far so, so good.

Our group decides to explore the immediate area around Valthrun and then begin working their way outwards based on what they find. They start in hex 300.299 and begin exploring clockwise. The terrain is generated as shown and yet again, no encounters. They return to the starting hex and then randomly strike out from each hex. I'm using a d6 to determine direction of travel with 1 indicating north and subsequent numbers continuing clockwise around the hex (e.g. 4 is south and 6 is northwest).

The dice take us in a northeastern direction and end up generating a shrine in hex 299.298, a castle in hex 300.298 and another one in 302.298. Nice! After some rolls on the Appendix C castle and inhabitant tables (with a detour to a random castle name generation site) we get the following:

Hex 299.298: A Ruined Shrine

I roll a 15 and a follow-up 82 which means we have another ruined shrine located between Valthrun and the Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad (see below). This is pretty awesome since this means the entire 6 mile hex seems to have been some sort of pilgrimage in the distant past. What caused the collapse of these religions? Why did they spring up around Valthrun and be surrounded by fortresses? This is awesome - I'm getting vibes about hidden cults, buried secrets guarded by some sort of Knights Templar order and the hidden hand of the Chaos Gods or the Great Old Ones. 

Hex 300.298: The Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad

This is a large fortress complex (97 on CASTLE TABLE I: SIZE CLASS AND TYPE) inhabited by an NPC and retainers (68 on CASTLE TABLE II: INHABITANTS). We roll on CASTLE SUB-TABLE II.B for the castle master/henchmen (a 50/50 rolls tells us this is a named castle and we use random alignment rolls of d6 for Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic and another d6 for Good/Neutral/Evil) to get the following:

Kophyn Mizzar, human female, Lawful Neutral L11 Fighter with 2 henchmen:

• Chalbale, human male, Neutral Good L6 Illusionist
• Tar Ahlys, human male, Neutral Good L6 Magic-user

The men-at-arms are determined to be:

• Squad 1: 9 Heavy horsemen (Men-at-Arms) (Heavy horse, splint mail & shield, lance, long sword, mace); Squad leader is Kophra Era (human male, Lawful Evil L3 fighter)
• Squad 2: 15 Light horsemen (Men-at-Arms) (Light horse, studded leather, light crossbow, long sword); Squad leader is Thirn Phyn (human male, Lawful Evil L4 fighter)
• Squad 3: 16 Heavy Infantry (Men-at-Arms) (Men-at-arms, scale mail, shield, spear, hand axe); Squad leader is Velgara (human female, Neutral Good L4 fighter)
• Squad 4: 10 Heavy Crossbowmen (Men-at-Arms) (Men-at-arms, scale mail, heavy crossbow, morning star); Squad leader is Alarra Durdana (human female, Lawful Evil L4 fighter)

Lots of interesting dynamics here, based on the alignments. Why is this place named the Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad? Why does a fighter have two magic using henchmen? Who knows? We haven't gone there yet! Let's see what the other castle is doing.

Hex 302.298: A Nameless Stronghold

This is a small walled castle with keep also inhabited by an NPC and retainers. Interesting...do we have competing warlords in the area? Let's find out who's running this place:

Belgos Trith, human male, Lawful Neutral L12 Fighter with 5 henchmen:

• Kyonithmyn, mountain dwarf male, Neutral L7 Thief
• Lymma Keldana, human male, Chaotic Good L7 Fighter
• Jael Kyorlicar, human female, Lawful Good L7 Paladin
• Myrra Tazennarin, human male, Chaotic Neutral L7 Illusionist
• Imra, human male, Lawful Neutral L7 Fighter

The men-at-arms are determined to be:

• Squad 1: 9 Heavy horsemen (Men-at-Arms) (Heavy horse, splint mail & shield, lance, long sword, mace); Squad leader is Ildia Houndraern (human male, Neutral L3 fighter)
• Squad 2: 12 Light horsemen (Men-at-Arms) (Light horse, studded leather, light crossbow, long sword); Squad leader is Xundara Kophyn (human male, Chaotic Evil L3 fighter)
• Squad 3: 18 Heavy Infantry (Men-at-Arms) (Men-at-arms, scale mail, shield, spear, hand axe); Squad leader is Lymeoynet (human female, Neutral L4 fighter)
• Squad 4: 7 Heavy Crossbowmen (Men-at-Arms) (Men-at-arms, scale mail, heavy crossbow, morning star); Squad leader is Tazena Urmeoynrae (human male, Chaotic Evil L3 fighter)

What is up with all the evil men-at-arms squad leaders (in both castles, no less)? Are they just waiting to turn rogue and become highwaymen? Do their good-aligned masters not know of their nefarious  natures? Is the paladin Jael Kyorlicar weak in her faith to tolerate this? What is the relation of this stronghold to the Croaking Castle of the Miraculous Toad? Who knows? We'll figure all that stuff out if and when the party explorers the area. What happens if they don't? Who cares? We'll roll up something else equally awesome. If this turns into an ongoing tabletop campaign, we'll give these areas to patron players and let them expand the areas in downtime/Braunstein sessions.

I think that does it for this session. The crew is going to return to town and plan their next moves.

New Murder Hobos Enter the Fray!

While Brother Fitzy and the Mighty Redneck are nursing their wounds with booze and babes, I rolled up a new group of miscreants that just rolled into town. I picked a random direction from the roads on the map as their arrival point and rolled the terrain per Appendix B. Luckily our group didn't have any encounters so they arrive at Valthrun fresh and ready to delve.

New party stats:

I forgot to roll for age on the first batch of PCs and they were subsequently punished for my sins (let's pour one out for the fallen). I remembered to do so for this group and adjusted their stats appropriately. Let's hope they fare better than their predecessors.

Since I rolled a cleric, I'm going to say he's in the same religious order as our battered friend Brother Fitzy. It seems Brother Sully has become concerned for his missing cohort and has come looking for him with some boon companions he met on the road. He finds Fitzy in a local watering hole in a sorry state of drunkenness and pain, which does not sit well with his rather unpredictable CN nature.

A reaction roll (AD&D DMG pg 63) comes up at 14 with a +10% adjustment since Fitzy is a lovable kinda guy bringing the total to 24%. Oh crap - Brother Sully is majorly pissed off!

Although somewhat sympathetic to Fitzy's sad fallen state, he was unable to hide his rage at Fitzy's lack of faith and utter stupidity for going into the Shrine so woefully unprepared. 

"You're making us all look bad, Brother Fitzy! How could you be so careless to undertake such a dangerous expedition without the support of our Order! With BLOODY HERETICS, no less!!! And to shame us even further, where do I find you? IN A TAVERN with a - ahem - hill person and harlots! Harlots, Brother Fitzy!! And ugly ones at that!!" 

As senior member in The Order, Brother Sully grants a penance of one week in cloistered prayer to Brother Fitzy which means he's out of action until 8 March 2024 now. See kids? Charisma is NOT a dump stat in Real D&D...

Considering the alignments of our new group, Brother Sully seems a lot more "morally flexible" than lovable Fitzy. He soon learns of the Shrine of Lethria and some other potential leads to some potential loot ("For benefit of The Order, of course!"). He commandeers the late Sir Stabbington's horses from Brother Fitzy ("Pay you?!? Be grateful I don't flog you for your sins!") and learns of the men-at-arms. Some quick negotiations (a reaction roll of 65 plus his Charisma bonus of +25% brings it to 90%) and they ethusiastically agree to join his group under the command of Brogallo. Let's hope Brogallo can keep his sadistic side in check for the time being...

Brother Sully decides that the rumors of loot in the wilderness are too good to ignore. The Shrine of Lethria is clearly too dangerous with hordes of orcs and fire breathing cockroaches. "Donations" to The Order can probably be found more safely...elsewhere.

Next time, we explore the wilderness!

Session 1 Downtime: Travails of AD&D Healthcare

Our intrepid band of murder hobos had a pretty rough night in the Shrine. Blasty, Shifty and Sir Stabbington are feeding the worms under boot hill, our new resident badass ranger is at 4hp and Brother Fitzy is contemplating his many and creative sins after nearly crossing the veil. I'm ruling that Brother Fitzy is out for 7 days since he went to 0hp and won't be able to cast any spells for that period (AD&D DMG pg 82). The Mighty Redneck isn't going to waste precious gold on healing, and has decided he's going old school grizzly man and will nurse himself back to health with booze and food. He'll be out for 11 days which means the earliest that both will be available is Friday 1 March 2024. 

Since this is the first real adventure the crew has undertaken, I'm assuming they already paid upkeep for February and will not hit them with February upkeep expenses. Funds are running low (85gp for Fitzy and 76gp for Redneck). That gives them 161gp total which is not enough to cover 100gp per level expenses (AD&D DMG pg 25), so they're going to be in desperate straights if they don't get some cash flow in March. That's another problem for another day.

Looks like we're rolling up more murder hobos...

The Depths of Lethria: First Level

I've decided to use AD&D DMG Appendix A to generate the dungeons beneath the shrine. I did the first level by the book and it unsurprisingly sprawled into a slightly chaotic mess. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but gaming time is at a premium for me, so I'll tweak the process slightly for subsequent levels. I cleaned up my graph paper version and sketched it up quickly in Dungeon Scrawl. Here's level 1 in all its glory:

Note that I randomly rolled starting area 5 (pg 169), but getting the triangular area to match within the Dungeon Scrawl app was too much of a PITA for me, so I turned it into a rectangle ("discretion must prevail", after all). When I finished the random generation, I thought about the layout for a little while and decided to replace some hallway openings and regular doors with secret doors to segment the areas and generate a backstory for the place. I also added some secret doors in the ceiling to throw a twist into it and add some 3D vertical motion. My plan is to run our previously generated PC group through the dungeon as a solo play exercise. Let's see if the fickle Dice Gods decide to reward or punish our feisty murder hobos.

The History of the Shrine of Lethria

The Shrine of Lethria has existed as long as Men have walked the Cold Wastes around the city of Valthrun. Some say the shrine was built at the same time as the city, others that it existed prior to the city's founding, but the truth is that its origins are lost to the mists of time. Even the name is in dispute. The most widely held belief is that Lethria was the name of the god of Law to whom the shrine is allegedly dedicated, others say it was the name of a former high priestess who grew the shrine to prominence countless centuries ago. Whatever its origins, the site of the shrine is dominated by the crumbling ruins that sit above at least one underground level. It is pure conjecture as to why the upper levels were allowed to fall into ruin but the lower levels remained intact and largely undisturbed for so long.

Over the decades, many intrepid souls have ventured to the shrine and explored its treacherous depths. Most disappeared without a trace but a very, very few returned with great wealth in the form of oddly proportioned baroque jewelry, hoards of strangely minted ancient gold coins from unknown and forgotten kingdoms. Most intriguingly, several bizarre esoteric magical devices were unearthed and very quickly bought by wealthy patrons for staggering sums of coin.

No maps of the shrine have ever surfaced (if they even exist), so nobody knows with any certainty what the interior of the shrine looks like nor how far beneath the surface it may stretch. The shrine stands on a wind blasted hill some mile or so outside of Valthrun, its obsidian ruins a perpetual beacon in the fevered dreams of the curious, greedy, or insane adventurers that seek to plunder its long-hidden ancient riches.

The Secret History

The shrine sits at a particularly potent intersection of magical, planar and temporal forces. It was discovered eons ago by the insane priestess Lethria, servant of the Outer Gods. Recognizing how powerful this nexus of energies truly was, Lethria built the shrine on the hill with the efforts of her slaves and disguised it as a sacred temple dedicated to the gods of Law. As she gradually attracted followers to her false faith, she slowly corrupted them and turned them to the path of the alien Outer Gods beyond space and time. Using her slaves and fanatical worshippers, she quietly expanded the shrine deep below the Cold Wastes and built warped structures beneath the tundra to further channel and amplify the eldritch energies that flow through the land.

As is the case with all insane cultists, her ultimate goal was, of course, to loose some nameless horror from the Outer Dark and bargain with it for power and control "when the stars were right". Her efforts failed and she is now damned to wander the twisted halls of the complex as an insane undead horror. Her power is still formidable and her damned soul acts as a magnet for all evil creatures who instinctively make their way to the subterranean terrors of the shrine's depths to seek her out.

Lethria is uniquely cursed by the Outer Gods with a hideous form of undeath. When first encountered on level 1, she will be a mindless zombie. If slain, she will reform on level 2 as an insane starving ghoul. If her ghoul form is slain, she will manifest on level 3 as a wight. If her wight form is slain, she will achieve apotheosis as a vampire on level 4.

Level 1 Encounter Key

If the party investigates the above ground ruins of the shrine, they will see that the remnants of the building are made of the same deep obsidian-like stone that is used in the city of Valthrun. Some great cataclysm or war has destroyed the upper buildings, but it is possible to pick through the rubble and find a 20ft wide set of broken stairs that lead down to level 1 of the dungeon. There are likely other entrances and egresses, but they are doubtlessly hidden elsewhere in these crumbling ruins.

The first dungeon level is segregated by secret doors into roughly four sections:

Rooms 1-7: public face of shrine and fake Temple of Law

Rooms 8-14: worship areas for the acolytes of the Outer Gods

Rooms 15-18: acolyte ritual chambers, guardrooms and pens for the sacrifices to the horrors beyond time 

Rooms 19-20: preparatory ritual chambers for those moving to the deeper mysteries

Room 1: False Temple of Law

This room is dominated by an altar to the Gods of Law (as can be surmised by the familiar representations carved into it), but everything else of interest was plundered long ago. This room (along with areas 5 and 6) were the only areas shown to the uninitiated public. All other areas are secured by secret doors, originally only known to those acolytes who were sufficiently devoted to their pursuit of the Great Old Ones (i.e. insane cultists).

Room 2: Hall of the Acolytes

Statues representing the less loathsome aspects of the Great Old Ones as well as some of their greatest champions line the walls of this chamber. The indoctrination and further degeneration of the acolytes occurred here at the hands of Lethria (her statue is the most prominent one and is located in the center of the eastern wall). All other statues seem "off", with minute unsettling runes covering every inch of their bodies, misproportioned body parts, poses that shouldn't be possible for humans with the standard number of joints and so in. The evil radiations of the shrine have attracted 18 kobolds who have some here to worship the idol of one of their new gods (a Great Old One that resembles a leprous toad with six horns and all-too-human delicate feminine hands). The statue in the southeast corner covers a trap door that opens onto a spiral stairway leading to Level 4. The kobolds know about the stairs (and were, in fact, about to descend before the PCs arrived). If any kobold can be interrogated, it will gladly reveal the info in exchange for its life (and freedom).

18 kobolds: AC: 7; 1/2 HD; HP: 1,3,3,4,4,2,1,4,1,2,1,3,3,4,4,1,4,4; #AT: 1 short sword (1-6dmg). The kobolds have a total of 238cp between them.

Room 3: Plundered Treasury

Thick, solid shelves made of carved stone are expertly cantilevered into the walls of this room. It was originally the treasury for the shrine and is only accessible via the secret tunnel from the EHP's suite. Lethria would also use the secret ceiling door in the southern tunnel as well to enter and leave the complex unseen by her lowly followers. Through sheer dumb luck, a group of orcs discovered the secret trap door and the subsequent secret door on the south wall that led into this room. Orcs being orcs, they're too dumb to find the hidden trap door in the floor. They don't know anything else about the complex.

11 orcs: AC:6; 1 HD; HP: 4,3,1,7,7,8,5,6,2,3,1; #AT: 1 Battle Axe (1-8) or Shortbow (1-6) There is a total of 92ep sitting in an old sack on one of the shelves. The orcs have no treasure themselves.

Room 4: EHP Private Chambers

The once lush trappings of this room were plundered long ago. The only indication of the function of this once grand room are some scraps of faded fabric and broken remnants of furniture. The room is otherwise empty.

Room 5: Visitor Reception Area

The remaining furniture in this room (rotten tables and benches) indicate that this is a reception area. Lurking in the detritus are two very hungry fire beetles.

2 fire beetles: AC: 4; 1+2 HD; 10hp, 7hp; #AT: 1 (2-8dmg); red glow from glands light 10ft radius; lasts for 1-6 days

Room 6: Guard Room

This was the barracks of the personal bodyguard of the EHP Lethria. Some bits of broken weapons and other unidentifiable junk is the only indication of the rooms former purpose.

Room 7: Acolyte Dormitory

The acolytes of the unholy shrine made their home here. This is where the PCs will first encounter Lethria where she will appear as a zombie clad in fraying and decayed finery, accompanied by her most devoted acolytes. The zombies cannot be turned due to the curse of the shrine and will fight until destroyed. This is, of course, what Lethria wants so that she may begin her path to apotheosis.

3 zombies: AC: 8; 2 HD; 3hp, 7hp, 8hp; #AT: 1 (1-8dmg)

Rooms 8 through 12: Ritual Chambers

These rooms were a series of ritual chambers that the cultists would pass through as they entered increased states of insanity before ultimately attempting communion with the Great Old Ones in the Forbidden Temple of the Acolytes (room 14). A group of giant rats have found their way into the shrine via the chimney in the far north of the complex. They're hungry...

9 giant rats:  AC: 7; 1/2 HD; HP: 3,3,3,1,4,1,4,1,2; #AT: 1 (1-3dmg); 5% chance of disease per wound; save vs poison

Room 13: EHP Throneroom

At the peak of her power, Lethria would receive delegate, supplicants and would-be allies here, as she was seated on the great stone throne that dominates the northern wall. The pillars and the walls are completely covered with disturbing carvings and obscene runes that hurt the eyes of any examiner. The very room radiates a deep set "wrongness" that will make normal people nauseous and anxious while within. Should any fool spend more than 30 minutes (3 turns) trying to decipher the abominable writings, they must make a save vs. death magic or suffer the effects of a random insanity for 1d8 hours. 

Room 14: The Forbidden Temple of the Acolytes

Lethria would lead the acolytes of her cult in dark services to the insane Great Old Ones in this terrible place. Much like the throneroom (room 13), the walls, altar and columns are covered with the same type of unholy runes, frescoes and bas-relief carvings. The effects in this room are the same as above.

Room 15: Guard Room

This was the guard room for the sacrificial victims that were kept in the pens (room 16). It is currently occupied by a rival party of adventurers looking to make their fortunes (and angry over the fact that they've found nothing). If conversations don't go to their liking, they will take out their frustrations on the party.

NPC Party:

• L1 (N) druid; 6hp; leather armor, wooden shield, spear; L1: Detect Snares And Pits; backpack, iron rations, 5 torches, water skin, large sack
• L1 (NE) fighter; 9hp; scale mail, shield, broadsword; backpack, iron rations, 5 torches, water skin, large sack
• L1 (NE) fighter; [S:18/82 +2/+4]; 2hp; chain mail, shield, battle axe; backpack, iron rations, 5 torches, water skin, large sack
• 6 men-at-arms: 3hp (x4), 4hp, 5hp; scale mail, morning star, light crossbow; backpack, iron rations, 5 torches, water skin, large sack

Room 16: Sacrificial Victim Pens

This was where the sacrificial victims lived out their final moments before being dragged to the altar in the Temple of the Acolytes. Though abandoned for centuries, the place still reeks of blood and filth with an oppressive air of hopelessness leaving little doubt as to the purpose of the place. The cages of the victims are set below the floor level of the center part of the room so the guards could easily keep watch on the damned souls below.

Room 17: Empty Room

Its purpose is lost to the ages.

Room 18: Adept Ritual Preparation Room

This northern wall of this chamber is open to room 16 and allows the occupants to stare down upon the wretches that ended their lives in the Temple of the Acolytes. This was an unsubtle reminder of the fate that awaits the unworthy servants of the Great Old Ones. The walls are covered with the same obscenities as the Temple of the Acolytes and instill the same effects upon the overtly curious.

Room 19: Sentinels of the Adepts

Guards in this place once kept watch on the corridor to the north to ensure that only the adepts descended to the lower levels. The punishment for all others was, of course, death on the altar of the acolytes.

Room 20: Adept Ritual Room

Adepts would ritually purify themselves here before descending to the lower levels. Its walls are covered by the now familiar eldritch horrors and will affect the party as described previously. There is a spear trap in the corridor leading to the stairs (1-3 spears for 1d6 damage; 1 in 20 chance of poison). I mean, you are checking for traps with a 10ft pole...right??

The Shrine of Lethria

We've got our starting city, our band of degenerate murder hobos and a nearby temple. Let's say the temple is in the next hex over, so let's see what the environs look like, per AD&D DMG Appendix B.

I roll a d6 and get a 3 which means we're starting in the southeast (FYI - I decide 1 is north and continue clockwise since we don't really care in which direction the shrine lies). We roll on the wilderness table (pg 173) and get an 18 which means our lost shrine is in the swamp. Let's see if there's anything interesting in the hex. We roll a d100 get a 61 which means there's a shrine in this hex (how cool is that!? The dice gods know what they're doing!). Let's see if we've got any monsters lurking around the outside of the shrine.

Turning to AD&D DMG pg 47, we see that there's a 1 in 20 chance for an encounter in a relatively dense area (remembering that Valthrun is a city of 40,000 a mere mile away). We get a 12 so there are no further monsters encountered, beyond whatever we might find in the forbidden shrine.

I'm planning on using Appendix A to generate the dungeon beneath the shrine, so let's put some limit around the size. I roll a d4 for the number of levels and get a 4 so that's how deep it will go. I'm going to limit each level to a max of 20 rooms because I don't want to turn this into a megadungeon, mainly due to time constraints on my part.

Since we've described the beginning environment of our campaign, it's worth starting to flesh out our world map. Let's start with 1 hex = 1 mile and we can expand later if needed:

Hex 100,100 is our starting area that we rolled up previously and I've added icons for the city and the monsters living in the hex. The shrine is is in hex 101,101 and we've changes the terrain to a marsh. 

As described in the last post, I've decided Valthrun lies at a crossroads and is a trading hub since that's a reasonable explanation for the population of 40,000 humans that live here. What's in the remaining gray hexes? Who knows??? We haven't explored them yet and will populate them as the campaign progresses.

Next up: we generate dungeon level 1 and see if the murder hobos can survive to tell us more...

Eternal Valthrun, the Black Citadel of the Cold Wastes

Based on the rolls we used to define our starting hex, I've fleshed out the background of our starting environment. Notice that this is pretty much straight out of the rolls with minimal editing to flesh this out and make it a (hopefully) enjoyable read. Seriously, AD&D DMG Appendices are content creation machines! Enjoy...

Eternal Valthrun, the Black Citadel of the Cold Wastes, World's End, the Portal to the Dark - The City has many names and countless stories told about it for as long as men have told tales. Ancient beyond memory, the city has stood in the wind-blasted steppes of the north for countless eons and has served as the hub of communication and trade between the rich demon cursed holds of the Inhumans to the north and the Realms of Man to the south. All manner of goods, both fantastic and mundane, flow in both directions through its cyclopean black walls. Some say the Men that currently are merely the latest upstarts to think they rule its labyrinthine roads and age-darkened halls, others say the Inhumans abandoned it after seizing it from its prehuman creators, but the truth is nobody knows who built the city or when it was founded. Although there are numerous remnants of previous civilization, both familiar and not, surrounding and beneath the steppes around Valthrun, none have yet revealed any cultural, architectural or historical connections to The Black Citadel.

Valthrun is a city of narrow roads, steep windowless buildings, and iron doors protected (some say imprisoned) by 40ft thick black stone walls that rise unbroken to heights of 75 feet and surround the city of 150,000 souls. Its physical properties are a mystery. The stone used in its construction is unlike any that naturally occurs within a thousand miles around The City, and sages have yet to discover its like anywhere in the Known Realms. If the Inhumans know anything of its source or how it was so expertly worked, they do not speak of it to the humans. The avaricious dwarves speak with grudging admiration of the great artifice shown in its construction. The decadent and degenerate elves say nothing of it, too concerned with their relentless pursuit of unfettered hedonism. The insane gnomes, in rare moments of lucidity between their madness-inducing narcotic journeys to the Outer Dark, admire the supreme skill of the creators but quickly degenerate into ravings about the Horrors that were and will be again. The halflings? No sane Man would willingly risk life, limb and soul by deigning to speak with these naked cannibal savages to see if they even possess enough lucidity to converse naturally.

The buildings and their architecture are unique, sharing no commonality of culture or aesthetic with any other civilizations in the Realms of Man. All are made of the same dark stone as the city walls and are protected by 1ft thick wooden doors that never seem to rot, or need repairs. Visitors find the doors to be extremely unsettling - are they meant to keep the threats out or to trap the inhabitants within? There are no windows on the ground floor of any building in The City and are only seen on the upper stories. This, coupled with the narrow winding streets, turns Valthrun into a trackless maze for the numerous visitors, most of whom wisely pay local guides to escort them through The City as they conduct their business.

For it is business that is the lifeblood of the city. The City is the nexus of numerous trade routes among the Known Realms and the ancient cities of the inhuman empires. While various groups may be bitter genocidal enemies outside the black walls of Valthrun, all observe a truce while within its environs and those that do not, quietly disappear leaving behind the bloody rags of their once fine clothes as the only testament to their miserable existence.

Valthrun has a functional government ostensibly headed by Lord Jirex, Guardian of Portal. The real power lies with two radically different patrons: Kirenos, the Master of the Thieves Guild and Bilious Yarena, a Night Hag from the depths of Hades. Jirex, in reality, is largely a figurehead put in place by Kirenos and has no real power beyond the administration of quotidian affairs (such as city patrols, tariffs and the like). Jirex is, of course, well compensated for his role and sees little point in upsetting an eminently agreeable situation.

Little is known of Bilious Yarena since she (it?) takes great pains to ensure no mortal knows of her existence, goals or agents. Based on scattered records recovered from the Cold Wastes and other places, she has been part of the city for at least 1,000 years and quite possibly more. There have only been a few confirmed sightings of the foul hag in this vast period, and she has largely remained invisible, pursuing whatever her goals may be. She always operates through a vast network of operatives, only some of whom know their true employer, and has, so far, never interfered in the mortal affairs of Valthrun (at least far as anyone can determine).

Only slightly more is known about Kirenos, for he too prefers to keep a low profile. Nobody knows for certain his age or appearance, but all are aware that he will do anything to ensure the flow of trade is never disrupted and that every merchant pays their tax to him. If some choice items disappear, well, that's the price of business in The City.

The most famous site of numerous ruins scattered the Cold Wastes surrounding Valthrun is the Shrine of Lethria, some mile or so beyond the walls. Numerous adventurers have journeyed to the Shrine and explored its eerie depths, but very, very few have ever returned. Who can say if these poor souls met their doom in the Shrine's twisted depths or rather fell to the hill giants or leucrotta herds that roam the Wastes? The handful of brazen fools that have survived and returned did so with great wealth and doubtlessly fabricated tales of horrid undead and twisted dimensions that nearly broke their sanity.