Rappan Athuk Campaign Start

Introduction

This campaign will be played under Pathfinder 1.0, frequently referred to as D&D 3.75.

Rappan Athuk—The Dungeon of Graves—is nothing more and nothing less than a good, old–fashioned, First Edition style 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-- the quintessential setting for pure swords and sorcery adventuring. 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. It is designed to take characters from 1st to 20th level, provided you survive. Due to the lethality of the campaign, it is recommended that you have a back-up character ready to go in the event your character is killed...particularly important at low levels, before the party gets access to resurrection magic.

Since we’re starting with First level characters, previous D&D experience is not required to join. Most of the core folks in this adventuring party played D&D 3.5 for 10+ years, so we are still learning / forgetting / remembering some of the Pathfinder-specific differences...so everyone has to just bear with everyone.

To participate in this campaign, the commitment is downloading Fantasy Grounds (the shared desktop available here: http://www.fantasygrounds.com/), Skype, and (optionally) the $ for a hard copy of Pathfinder's main Handbook (although the material is available for free on the web at http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/). I have upgraded my FantasyGrounds license so that players won't have to purchase one of their own...you can just download the free software and connect to my server without having to pay for a license.

We are a laid back group primarily consisting of people in their 40s and 50s (eek!), many with kids. We are not rules lawyers, and individuals may have to pop off the call for a few minutes here and there to deal with family tasks. If you want to ask how long the dragon is so you can calculate her hit dice and points, or if you are going to tell me all the ways you never could have been surprised when I say, “Suddenly…”, then this isn’t the group you are looking for. If you want a fun and casual game with some occasional jokes, movie references, and bad puns thrown in then this IS the campaign you’re looking for.

I anticipate this campaign beginning the week of January 7, 2019.

Rules Specific to This Campaign

The adventure will be based solely on Pathfinder rules and will consist of the Rappan Athuk module for the entirety of the campaign.

All Forgotten Realms (FR) and other fantasy setting material will be excluded from this campaign.

All third party spells, character classes, items, and any other material will be excluded from this campaign.

Any material that isn’t in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook needs to be discussed with me first, including material in Advanced Player’s Guide.

You cannot have any relationships with any prior Bloodstone Lands characters from any prior campaign, as this will take place outside that space / time continuum.

Game Night is one night every week, usually Monday, 7:30-10:30 PM (eastern), but we do shift the night around, depending on when most players are available (but my wife frowns on putting a game night on a Fri, Sat, or Sun night). We usually schedule the next game or two at the very end of the current game.

Lots of treasure divvying up and other down time activities will take place over email. Players are expected to keep up with game emails as best as they can between sessions.

We do our best not to cancel a scheduled game, but when we do they are canceled via email. Always check email leading up to a game session.

Character / Campaign Background

The following information may be useful in creating your characters (see item #2 in the next section). The information below is considered “common knowledge” for your characters. If you are new to D&D / Pathfinder don’t worry, we can help you out and your backstory can be pretty simple (e.g., ran away from home to seek fame and fortune and ended up in Zelkor’s Ferry).

The Legend of Rappan Athuk - tl;dr

Rappan Athuk is a bad, bad place where the lucky adventurer can find fame and fortune, and the unlucky (i.e. most) end up dead. This fact hasn’t stopped people from seeking it out and trying to be one of the lucky ones for more than 100 years. All who have survived any part of Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice: “Don’t go down the Well.”

The Legend of Rappan Athuk

The Legend of Rappan Athuk is well known, having been told numerous times by bards, adventurers, sages and loremasters.

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.”

Starting Point - Zelkor’s Ferry

Rumors about the Rappan Athuk dungeons point adventurers toward a remote, semi-fortified inn known as Zelkor’s Ferry. Zelkor’s Ferry offers a place to re-provision, to rest with some safety, and possibly even to hire some men-at-arms or baggage carriers. These benefits might be of little importance to a higher level party that has access to its own magic and healing, but for a lower-level party the resources of a “home base” could very easily mean the difference between life and death.

Note: How and why you ended up at Zelkor’s Ferry is up to you, and should be part of your character’s bio (see #2 on the next page).

Character Creation and Level Up Rules

If you are new to D&D / Pathfinder, don’t worry. If you don’t understand what most of the items below mean, don’t worry. This is a very helpful group (with no shortage of opinions) and any one of the core group can help walk you through character creation. It will also be a good idea for the entire party to discuss what character each person is thinking of playing, otherwise we might end up with an all-wizard party (which, while interesting, probably won’t be successful).

Characters may take maximum hit points for each of the first two levels.

I would like a character bio before starting. This should include at least one (small or large) paragraph regarding physical description (height, weight, hair, eye(s), etc.) and a personality description (aggressive, passive, greedy, or sensitive about height). There must include one thing that drives him (Cult of the Dragon killed all of my brothers), one thing he would not ever do (back down from insults), and one major fear (falling or water or whatever). Preferably, there are reasons for these (Why falling? Why water?). You can keep this bio pretty generic (not necessary to place your hometown somewhere in the setting, for example). If you would like your character to be from the immediate area, please let me know as I have a list of additional deities specific to this campaign.

Everyone has a patron god or set of gods and a reason for this choice. If you believe yourself to be godless, be aware that there are penalties in the afterlife that affect resurrection. Some gods are race specific. You must be either full/half that race or have been fully raised in that community to revere racial gods. Standard Golarion deities are listed here: https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Deity

Character alignment cannot include the descriptor “Evil”. I also frown heavily upon Chaotic Neutral and pure Neutral. The web page background is hideous, but I recommend you read: http://www.angelfire.com/rpg2/vortexshadow/alignment.html and include some of these alignment-specific traits in your character’s bio...it will help you role play to your alignment.

Ability Score Generation: 25 point buy system (Core Rulebook p15-16). Racial adjustments are applied after you have completed your point purchase and assignment. At the end, no score can be lower than an 8, unless you have a specific role-playing reason why not (and it had better be a good one).

Starting Gold: Standard amount per Core Rulebook p140. Characters can either roll (in FantasyGrounds as I observe) or just take the average total.

We will use “Medium” experience points for character advancement (p30).

All standard Pathfinder classes, feats, skills, etc. from the Core Rulebook are available, with all benefits and restrictions. If you want something from Advanced Player's Guide please discuss with me first. If you want something from another Pathfinder source, please discuss with me but know in advance that I’m inclined not to approve. Also, no third-party (i.e., non-Pathfinder) / custom classes or custom prestige classes will be allowed...the whole point is to try and run a pure Pathfinder campaign.

Characters may optionally take fixed hit points at each level, starting at 3rd. To take fixed hit points, you take half of the character’s hit dice and add one. For example, an 8HD class would get 8/2 = 4 +1 = 5 hp. Not as good as rolling an 8, but better than rolling a 1. You will need to decide what you want to do before you roll hit points for that level (in other words, you can’t have a crappy roll and then decide to do fixed points for that level).

We will apply training time when increasing levels or adding an additional class. Training will take one game calendar day per new character level if there is an opportunity for interaction with another NPC/PC who is of equal or higher level in the class you are advancing in. If there is a similar class available (e.g. a Fighter is training a Paladin or a Ranger), then the training time is doubled. Training time is tripled if there is no one available.

Table / House Rules

In the interest of moving play along, I will sometimes issue an on the spot ruling rather than pause the action to look something up. I reserve the right to change my decision for future situations once I’ve had the opportunity to review the official rules. In other words, a spot decision does not automatically make a rule.

When players are absent, their characters will be run by other players in attendance, or optionally by the DM. They will receive a normal share of regular experience and treasure, however they will be ineligible for any bonus experience.

If a new character is created or joins the party, that character will start at a character level equal to the lowest current character level in the party, with the minimum experience required to achieve that level. In other words, if your second level character who was just about to hit third level dies, you will replace that character with a new character who has the minimum XP needed for second level.

All die rolls will take place within the FantasyGrounds program. All players must have the client version of the program. I have an “ultimate” DM license so players should not have a purchase a client license.

Skype will be the software for voice.

Players will only reference Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and Advanced Player’s Guide during the game. Other material such as Game Mastery Guide, all Bestiaries, and the Rappan Athuk module are particularly prohibited.

When characters are addressing each other, they should do so in character (yes, I know we all have trouble with this one but it is nice to have goals).

We will use the standard initiative rules (roll once per combat).

We will no longer permit the “refocus” action.

I will give bonus experience points and/or other bonuses (e.g., extra skill points) at my discretion for each of the following:

Being present for a game
Good role-playing
Updating your character before the game
Having an idea that significantly and positively affects the party
Keeping a character journal
Updating the Wiki

Note: The Wiki is private due to my blatant and extensive copyright violations, so you will have to create an account and then request that I add you to the Wiki.

Also Note: These are non-trivial awards and can add up quickly, so I recommend you try to follow at least a few of them!

Instead of tracking upkeep costs, I will sometimes not include non-magical items and/or small quantities of coins in the party treasury, with the assumption they are going towards upkeep (food, beverages, clothing, lodging, etc.)

No renaissance or greater technology weapons, ever. (I hate guns in D&D).

Identification of magic items will require the use of a Spellcraft (not Knowledge: Arcana) check, as most magic items will not instantly impart knowledge of their purpose and function to a wielder. The DC is 15 + item’s caster level.

Please Note: This is different than 3.5 and different from how we did things in the last campaign.

For saving throws, a "1" is a "1" and a "20" is a "20" (plus or minus your individual and situational modifiers). There are NO fumble rolls.

You can improve an item by paying the difference between the current value and the value of the item including the upgrades.

Advice to Players

Pay Attention to Rumors - You will get some up-front (before you arrive in Zelcor’s Ferry) and some once you arrive. While some will be false, some will be unbelievably helpful. Reviewing them before each game is not a bad idea.
Run Away! - Traditionally, a dungeon crawl consists of encounters on Level 1 appropriate to Level 1 characters, encounters on Level 2 are appropriate to Level 2 characters, etc. That is NOT the case in Rappan Athuk. There are encounters early in the module that can wipe out a Level 1 party (or even a Level 4 party!). The adventuring party / characters need to be prepared to retreat when needed. Expect this situation to be frequent, not rare.
Know When you are Outmatched - There will be times when something bad happens to the party and there will be nothing you can do about it. The party that knows when they are outmatched is a party that may live to fight another day. This is a little different situation than #1...where that is pure combat encounters, here I am talking about more story-related interactions (e.g., traps you cannot disarm, a section that seems like it may be above your level, steering clear of lower levels until you are high level, and demands by better equipped/higher level NPCs).
Traps, Traps, and more Traps. - The party MUST have a rogue or someone who can detect traps, or else the party will have a very short life expectancy. There are Total Party Kill (TPK) traps very early in the module.
Not Pulling any Punches. - This module is supposed to be very difficult and fill you (and especially your characters) with fear. I’m going to be very, very hesitant to pull any punches. In other words, if you miss a bad trap you are probably going to lose some characters. If you take on an encounter that is beyond your ability, you are probably going to lose some characters.
Have a Back-up Character Ready to Go - Really. Chances are very good that the party will lose characters early, when they won’t have the funds / capability to resurrect them. Having an additional characters ready to go (at the same level as your current character) is a really good idea, especially at levels 1-5.

Rappan Athuk Exposition

For whatever personal reason(s) you may have, you made the insane decision to travel to Zelkor's Ferry either for its own sake, or for the even more insane reason to explore the legendary dungeon of Rappan Athuk. You therefore booked passage on a keelboat named The Yellow Dagger, captained by Riko Jaskin. The Yellow Dagger is a fast riverboat that usually traffics in furs, ale, and wool. Captain Jaskin travels with a crew of 3 sailors and his guard, Orik. Captain Jaskin also has a lynx named Ramakin, which seems fiercely protective of him...maybe even more so than Orik.

Several other like-minded would-be adventurers were also on The Yellow Dagger, and as a result of spending a couple of days together in tight quarters you got to know one another and decided to form an adventuring party, working together in your quest for fame, fortune, and/or whatever else lies at the heart of your decision to travel to Zelkor's Ferry.

The Ferry is a small cluster of buildings surrounded by an old stone wall that once served as a border fort. It is now an inn and a small trading post for occasional river traffic and infrequent overland travelers following the river trail to and from the Coast Road. The Ferry is the last convenient place for downriver traffic to make a safe landing (the coast is particularly dangerous due to reefs, pirates, and bandits), so although the settlement is small and the river traffic is infrequent, barges and keelboats do arrive here from time to time, offloading cargoes bound for the Coast Road. The settlement itself is little more than an inn, a smithy, a merchant trader, and a ferryboat for those who desire to cross the river. Nevertheless, Zelkor’s Ferry is a place of comfort and safety compared to the hungry wilderness that surrounds it on all sides.

You intended to seek the entrance to Rappan Athuk near the Coast Road, however, from what you've been hearing on the keelboat as you travel down river is that this last leg of the journey overland from Zelkor's Ferry to the Coast Road is quite dangerous, and no merchant or caravan will make that trek without heavily-armed guards. You have also heard of something called "The Mouth of Doom", which allegedly leads into the dungeons of Rappan Athuk and can be found to the south of Zelkor’s Ferry. From what you've gathered speaking with Riko, Orik, and the 3 sailors is that the Mouth of Doom is much, much closer to Zelkor's Ferry than the "main' entrance to Rappan Athuk, and therefore relatively safer to reach.

Your group held a brief meeting, and decided that this Mouth of Doom sounds like an easier way to gain access to the Dungeon. You intend, once you arrive in Rappan Athuk, to find out more information/directions to this Mouth of Doom as well as to seek out other potential adventurers for your yet-unnamed party.

Finally, after 3 full days traveling downriver, The Yellow Dagger tacks to starboard to head up a smaller tributary where Zelkor's Ferry lies in wait on the south shore. You see the town approaching, looking exactly as described, and as the sailors begin pulling down the sails and docking the boat you can't help but feel a shiver of excitement as this grand adventure begins!