RA 01

# Intro to Rappan Athuk

**Local Date: The 27th day of Maia, 1002 years into the Vance Epoch**

*Zezzi and Azodan hear a tale told by Darwin about Rappan Athuk. With no desire to travel there through a portal he has in his bar, they find themselves there nevertheless. They travel south, cautiously, and find what they believe to be the local patrol fleeing from physical shadows. They are almost killed by their strength draining attack and are forced to flee.*

## Player Characters Involved

* Azodan Gal'dram
* Tiburzezzi

## The Legend of Rappan Athuk

As told by Darwin:

*Many hundreds of years ago, the forces of good allied to destroy the main Temple of Orcus in an ancient crystal sphere world known as 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 Tronald, 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, bus 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.”*

## Zezzi and Azodan Hear Rumors of Rappan Athuk

With nothing to do with their lives in between sessions, Zezzi and Azodan find themselves at Darwin's Undead Bar and Grill. There, they hear tales of people from Tsar and they learn some useful information although whether the information is true or not is unknown:

* *Pirates sometimes hazard the reefs along the coast to land at secret inlets and bays and stash great treasure; woe betide the adventurer caught spying upon them!* - Told by a pirate looking mofo from Tsar
* *The temple of Orcus no longer exists within the dungeon. It's existence is a lie told by adventurers to keep others away.* - Told by a Halfling Merchant from Tsar
* *Rappan Athuk? Bah! No one ever gets out of that place alive!* - Told by a Human Ghoul that died in Rappan Athuk

## Zezzi and Azodan Go to Tsar!

Suddenly they appear in Tsar! Who could have predicted this turn of events? Their accursed sigil runes on their body ported them here against their wills and together they began heading south. On the east was hilly terrain but the ocean carried the scent of salt and ocean from that direction. To the south and west the area was open and one can see for miles with trees splotching areas. They proceeded cautiously to the south and made camp. Azodan had a *ring of sustenance* so he was able to go without foraging and needed only 2 hours of sleep. Through the night no encounters.

On the morning of the 27th of Maia, almost immediately after heading towards the south, a group of patrolmen consisting of several armed men wearing insignia of their rank, were seen sprinting away from some type of shadow creature that was taking the knights wearing chainmail down. After seeing that their summon creatures could do no damage to them, and after obscuring the area with a fog cloud, Zezzi and Azodan decided to flee as well.

The shadows followed the knights to the south and Zezzi decided to check the bodies of the fallen knights. However after walking around the fog cloud, the fallen knight had turned into a shadow creature as well. Zezzi found he could hurt them with his magic weapon however he quickly found his strength drained away by their assault.

After entangling one with his breath weapon and more celestial beagles summoned to distract them, Azodan *benign transpositioned* Zezzi and a beagle. Together they ran, with Zezzi's gear weighing him down with his strength nearly drained away.

They found a rocky area with some gargantuan sized boulders to hide behind about a third of a mile east of the road.