The Halls of Arden Vul
Who has not heard rumors of the lost city of Arden Vul? During the glory days of the Archontean Empire, now 1,200 years in the past, Arden Vul was a small, but important, wealthy and secretive imperial center located atop a 1,500-foot-tall cliff at the head of Burdock’s Valley. Dominated by the imperial administration itself, as well as by the great temples of Thoth and Set, the city attracted alchemists, scholars, priests and sorcerers by the droves. Seeking the lost secrets of long-dead civilizations as well as the mysterious element known as arcanum), the Archonteans delved deeply - and secretively - within the mountain. Alas! The terrible civil war that rent the Archontean Empire, that is, the war of Sortians and Theosophs, led to the utter destruction of the city and the withdrawal of the imperial legions from the western continent of Irthuin.
Now, with the renaissance of imperial power, it is possible for well-equipped adventurers to make the long trek to Arden Vul from the exarchates of the coast. Tales of gold piled in imperial vaults, legendary magical artifacts resting in unspoiled crypts, and the fruits of the lost secrets of ancient imperial smiths and mages lying ripe for the picking are legion. Yet alongside the tales of lost treasures are other, more unsettling whispers. How could a lost city remain unplundered for more than a millennium? Surely only the existence of the cruelest of foes and unimaginable evil within the mountain can explain Arden Vul’s unspoiled status. Only the bravest, the cleverest, and the luckiest of adventurers will survive to plumb the mysteries of Arden Vul.
The Halls of Arden Vul is a recently-released dungeon for 1st Edition D&D. (I'll be using its retro-clone equivalent, OSRIC, which available for free.) It's a massive, sprawling behemoth of a dungeon, too, more the size of a campaign setting than a simple crawl. Within you'll find a host of huge, interconnected levels, deadly monsters, wicked traps and puzzles, and narratives both large and small. It will test your mettle, your luck, and your cunning, but if you work as a team to pass those tests, you'll find an incredibly rewarding experience.
The campaign I'm planning to run is a large one - you almost certainly won't explore the whole of the dungeon (which would be a herculean task), but you'll go from 1st-level weaklings to the pinnacle of what it's designed to accomodate (somewhere between levels 15 and 20, most likely). How you make your way to end end will be in your hands - I won't artificially constrain the party's access to anything, and it will be up to you to decide whether you're ready to face a particular challenge.
If you're interested, click the link and check the "Before You Apply" thread. No prior experience with the system is required; if you're willing to learn, you're welcome.
This message was last edited by the user at 05:16, Sat 06 Mar 2021.
