The members of my AD&D campaign have recently been spending time wandering between Rappan Athuk and their home base in the lands of the Frost Barbarians near the Caverns of the Oracle. That last has turned into something of a megadungeon itself, but Xury, Reece’s halfling, recently murdered the local lord so the group had to flee and thus returned to Rappan Athuk.

We had eight players for this session, of levels 4-8, with both the magic-users of the group weighing in at 8th level. The one lack was that of a thief, so Shane brought in Mira, his thief henchman. So, nine characters entered Rappan Athuk and descended the third level, “Beware of Purple Worms!”

Astonishingly, they didn’t meet any purple worms, which is a distinct change to the rest of their trips to that level, and they explored the one remaining unexplored corridor, passing by the traps and finding a secret crypt of an elf warrior, which – astonishingly – they left undesecrated. Instead, they headed down the stairs to the fourth level.

After passing through a secret door, they entered a cluster of caverns and winding passageways, one of which led to an extremely smelly chamber, which the group avoided. Instead they came to a chamber containing eight ogres. They were not much of a threat to such a large and well-equipped party, and once the ogres were slain, much loot was taken. A lot of it – eight bags of it – and even though some of the bags were full of body parts, they still had a worthy haul.

Ben, playing a ranger, wanted to know where the ogres came from. The adventures states they came from level 12A via 6A and 9A, although I really don’t know how they got to 6A in the first place! However, that’s where Ben tracked them, so the group descended through a long windy tunnel. 

There they encountered a great cavern of a lot of giant spiders. Lots and lots of spiders. Ben really enjoyed this, as he was able to use his bow to shoot the spiders before they engaged the party; the ones that got through were quickly dealt with. The few that actually bit players were resisted – save one, and antitoxin was swiftly applied.

A greater spider – a retriever – then menaced the party, and struck Ben for a fair amount of damage before Paul entered the fray and beheaded it with his vorpal sword.

Further investigations of the chamber led them to a silken bridge, from which spiders dropped to attack Jesse, who’d flown up to investigate on his broom of flying. He was entrapped in their webs, but was saved before too many horrible things could be done to him. Then came the attack of the spider queen – a mutated human magic-user – and her wererat companions. The clerics of the group quickly silenced the magic-user before her confusion spell could go into effect, and she retreated as her wererat companions were slain by the rest of the group.

Somewhat wary of what else lay on the level, the group returned the way they came to the previous level, where they investigated the smelly room. And, boy, did it smell! Dung and rotting bodies were everywhere. Callan was wisely suspicious about the chamber, muttering under his breath about an otyugh being present. Jesse, meanwhile, blithely wandered into the chamber – and was caught by the otyugh lurking there. However, Max the Otyugh was a friendly sort, and just wanted to be fed – more than a scrawny magic-user. The rest of the group negotiated to bring in the ogre bodies, and he gave them Jesse back, along with a goblet carved of lapis lazuli. The group were appreciative.

Exploring down another tunnel brought them to a group of four black skeletons guarding a great door. After the skeletons were dealt with, the group proceeded past the door and into a long, long tunnel beside a river, which they followed for at least a mile before giving up the journey. The great door was closed and locked when they returned, but Shane used a knock spell to open it.

That provided them with the way out, and they decided to return home and rest, having spent most of the day in the dungeons. This was accomplished, and the group resolved to investigate the treasure map they found with the ogres on their next expedition. Which, of course, means that I have to actually create where it leads – as such is not part of the adventure proper.

This session was the 43rd of this AD&D campaign, which I began in December 2011. Eight players were there for this session (one other possible decided to sit out), and Rich wasn’t present. It’s been a very popular campaign, running at my FLGS on Saturday evenings. I began it as a weekly game, but it’s gone fortnightly as some of the players have started their own games with other systems (4E, Rifts and Fantasy Hero being three such). I don’t mind, as it gives me a chance to play some boardgames!