Soloing Arden Vul- Session 1
I have a week off, and after putting basing paste on 30 odd stands I had a few hours with little to do. Inspired by A talk about megadungeons I decided to run myself through some bits of Arden Vul. I had to playtest and work out kinks in my shitbrew anyway, and this was a good excuse.
I'll have timestamps in place to show how long elements took, and on which day they took place. Furthermore, for those reading along at home with the book I'll place room/location codes within brackets at each locations.
I rolled up 8 characters. If they make it to second level, I might start posting stats, but for now I don't feel that's really important.
I shouldn't have to say this, but spoilers for The Halls of Arden Vul
But without further ado:
The First Delve
Played
Dramatis Personae
- Abraham, Cleric 1
- Boris, MU 1
- Clint, MU 1
- Dick, FM 1
- Edgar, FM 1
- Ferdinand, MU 1
- Graham, FM 1
- Huey, FM 1
Activities
Getting to Arden Vul
It was a clear cold day as the party made their way from Gosterwick to the Falls of Arden. The mist hung in the air, and as they came close the sound of the waterfall could be heard loudly. They saw the statues coming into view. They could barely hear each other over the noise.
Travelling to the bottom of the falls took roughly one hour. No encounter took place
Instead of trying the Long Stair immediately they decide to try and scope out what else is in the vicinity. They find a tower (EX-4), they scope out the Short Stair (EX-13)a and see signs of recent activity, including many boot prints and signs of pack-animal activity, and one of them spots a nearby cave (EX-5) at ground level a while off on the other side of the river.
Decision:
- 1-2: Go up the long stair
- 3-4: see what that cave's about
- 5-6: Check out the Short Stair
1
The party starts climbing up the long stair. Only Ferdinand had had the good sense to bring rope, so not everyone was able to be bound together for safety. Ferdinand, Graham and Edgard were tied in a line in the middle, since they were the least experienced in this sort of climbing. As they neared the first switchback, a mossy stone slipped up Ferdinand, and he started scrawling down the mountainside.
- 1-2: Ferdinand needs to be cut as the others start to go too. Instant death
- 3-4: If both Gr. and Edg. make a 2d6 under strength: ok. If one: save v Death. If neither: ferdinand dies.
- 5-6: Phew
6
They hear a horrible crunch as Ferdinand slings down and hits his head on a jutting stone, instantly going limp. Graham and Edgar start to slip too, and Edgar quickly cuts the rope with his sword to save their lives.
Abraham says a quick prayer to the gods before they go on their way. They continue on more slowly and cautiously until they make it to a wide entrance in the cliff face (EX-9). They eat lunch here, uninterrupted.
At the third switchback they find a door broken open (EX-10). Assuming that anyone who's been past here would've already found anything of value they leave it alone. They continue on, still uninterrupted, to the plateau of Arden Vul.
They go through the cliff gates (AV-1) carefully. They decide to check out the towers to either side. The eastern one's empty of all useful materials. They decide to skip the western one for now.
Decision point:
- 1-2: West to the water
- 3-4: follow the road
- 5-6: go east following the old wall.
4
A massive granite obelisk stands in the middle of a small square. There's an inscription in Mithric on the base, which none of them speaks. They continue down the boulevard (AV-6) to the Grand Forum (AV-7). They ignore the big Tree and have a look at the tower (AV-8). The front door is locked with powerful magic, and their rope isn't long enough to reach the windows in the top floor.
ENCOUNTER 10 giant rats. Neither side is surprised. They hear chittering from the south-western corner of the plaza. Edgar looks around the side of the tower and sees 10 massive rats sniffing at their trail. One chitters as he sees the broad man looking around the corner. Edgar grabs one of his rations and throws it towards them. The rats descend on the dried meat like vultures, and after a short scuffle move off.
The party knows they only have an hour or two of daylight left. They know there's an inn on the north side, near the river but the pyramid in front of them intrigues them. Should they go scope it out? There's also a lot of stuff to the east of them.
- 1: go east
- 2-4: pyramid
- 5-6: follow the river to the inn.
2
The pyramid (AV-15) is too enticing. They look around and eventually go up the stars, where they see a massive statue of Toth. Going up the stairs they see four images of Toth in various actions. They climb to the top and see the statue in all its glory, surrounded by babboon statues at the foot of each column. The eyes of the statues look massively valuable… Huey grabs a knife and starts to go for it, but Edgar stops him. He doesn't trust the situation. Again, saying that anything this valuable in plain sight would've been looted if it were easy.
He notices however that the arms appear to be movable. Clint realized carefully starts manipulating them, and after a failed attempt he realizes that one of the images had Toth pointing his arms a particular way. He tries it and a grinding noise and the cover moves aside (UP-1), revealing stairs leading down (UP-2).
For now they decide not to go down, intending to return in the morning.
They go north, reaching another gate (AV-21). They see men up the towers, who shout at them to go to the inn. The party thanks them and they continue on to the Inn of the Broken Head (AV-22) as darkness falls around them.
They enter and meet Kronos and Estelle, who take an immediate dislike to them as Boris trudges his filthy boots inside without cleaning them, shouting at Estelle behind the bar for a beer.
They meet some tinkers, who sell them new rope, spikes and some other goods at extortionate prices, and they pay 12 silver pieces each for lodging for the night and a meal.
Tomorrow they intend to go down the stairs in the pyramid they uncovered, but tonight they rest and drink to their lost companion.
To the pyramid
The party makes it back to the pyramid unmolested, remanouvres the arms to both be parallel to the floor and reopens the stairwell.
The party stars going down the stairs. They read some graffiti on the way down; "Plumthorn Rules these Halls, Obey Him!", "The Darlings were here; Hide your loved ones!". Evidence of people having been here before. They keep going down, burning two torches before making it to a large room…
However, they stop before they get there. They hear voices from within the room. High pitched; halfling. It doesn't seem like they have been noticed just yet… It won't be for long, however, as the halflings appear to be moving towards the stairs.
How to interact: 1-2: Only six halflings, get them! 3-4: grandstand and drive them out. 5-6: be friendly 3 The party decides to grandstand. The ones at the back start making massive amounts of noise coming down the stairs, clanking their armor loudly, while Clint says "COMPANY….. HALT!"
The Halflings roll morale, and before the ref even realizes that the writer had forgotten to put morale into statblocks sees a 12 come up. They hear a female halfling shout "Get back boys, not worth it" and soft footsteps going off into the distance. They wait for another moment and then enter the room (UP-4)
The stairs go even further down they reach a large room (3-2). They move silently and see a large room. They hear noise from the east as something heavy and metal clanks shut, followed by hushed voices. They decide to stay away from that for now and go north-south for now to (3-31).
They find an empty guardpost. They quickly check the room and find a rotted pouch with 13 sp and a 100GP jewel.
However, behind them their hear a creak, and voices saying "go check it out". They decide to move on quickly, spiking the door (TO 3-2A) behind them.
They move into another guardpost (3-30). They look around but find nothing. They hear bashing on the door. Clint is happy he prepared a Lock spell, and casts it on the door to 3-31. They decide to quickly move north. They come to a room (3-26) and listen at the door. They hear nothing. The room is empty and unremarkable, with a door to the west. They take it (3-25).
Two skeletal baboons look at the party at the party in surprise for one second. Abraham tries to turn the undead creatures but fails. The fighting men charge one of them, and between the four of them they take down one in the first round. The second goes down as his teeth bite down on Huey's shield.
The party rests in the empty room as they light new torches and search the place, finding a scroll of sanctuary.
The area seems to be been a dead end. They make their way back down to (3-30). They still hear the halflings banging on the wizard-locked door. They decide to go right and end up in a lit room with ibis heads on all walls. They see the halfling footprints in the dust leading south and where they came from. The door in the north appears locked.
They decide to go back and try the left door to (3-18). Massive pillars hold up the roof, each carved in the semblance of a Cthonic god. They search around for anything interesting but find little of interest. They hear voices from the north…
Fearing more halflings they take up defensive poses, but the language isn't that of the halflings but of dwarves. They call out to them and the dwarves answer. They call themselves the Survivors of the Stone, and are willing to share information, but only tit-for-tat. The party tells them how they came here, which interests them. They tell them that the statue of toth does somethign different if you put both arms up; leading to a much more dangerous entrance, and warn them not to. They grumble about the halflings and their fees, and move off to the west.
The party decides to go south. They follow the slope down west and south (3-16). A floor littered with bones. Keen ears hear things skittering. 12 massive rats jump out of niches and go for the party from all angles. 3 rats die, but the party is heavily hurt. Huey goes down in a swarm of rats, and the rest of the party runs back to the door and closes it behind them. They hear the last few screams of huey echoing behind them.
The party is exhausted, but this crossroad is not a place for resting. They drag the hurt members of the party north, where the dwarves came from, hoping the place is more defendable (3-19). They enter a small chamber with a beam of light cast from the ceiling. However, they ignore that for now to tend to their wounds.
- Abraham has knocked his head against a wall as he dodged one of the massive rats. He's feeling woozy (-3 con; 3 hours).
- Clint is badly shaking from shock. (-2 to all dice rolls; 4 days).
- Dick's legs have been chewed up badly. (2 worse movement classes for 5 turns, bringing him to 6")
- Graham has a bad limp (1 worse movement class for 2 hours, 9")
They decide to check this room out and then try to make it back to the inn to recover. They have now lost another companion here, and they need to consider how to deal with this. They see the feather floating in mid-air. Clint suggests taking it, since the imagery in the room suggests it'd be a good thing. When a new one appears after the first, they all take one.
They decide to go and face the halflings, if they're still there. In their current state they won't be able to deal with trying to find another way out. They go back to (3-31), heavily hampered by Dick's bad leg. They slowly move towards the main hall (3-2), and find halflings standing guard.
The halflings interrogate them. Where did they come from? Did they barricade that door? The party says no, and the halflings appear to believe them. They tell them they need to pay Plumthorne's fee to be allowed to adventure here. 25 Gold one-time, 10 gold for each delve. Seeing little way out, they pay up, and go up the stairs, towards the entrance of the pyramid (AV-15).
They make the slow trek back to the inn, though little bothers them in the mean time they don't feel happy. Two days in Arden Vul, two friends lost.
Experience
- -25GP paid to the halflings
- 13 sp, 100GP Jewel
- Scroll of Sanctuary (100Exp)
- 2 2HD monsters 200 exp
- 3 1HD monsters 300 Exp
Total: 675 exp / 6 = 112 exp each.
Post-mortem
Not a great run. They had bad luck and came out with little to nothing. The gem is enough to last them a while as the recuperate, but they'll want to go back quickly. They'll have to strategize if they want to go back down into the depths of the pyramid, or if they would rather try their luck elsewhere. It's a big place with enough other opportunities...
Until then though, count your torches and keep on mapping.