Halls of #ardenvul, session 27.
Jerome, the surviving gnome, organizes an expedition to recover the corpses and equipment of his party from the Great Cave, on the hope to revive them at the temple of Mitra.
This time Thoth must have blessed the party, as their trek through the great caves is mostly uneventful. They fail to open the magic door that could provide a shortcut, but find their way to where the battle with the mummy took place. Now to bring the corpses and the loot back to Gosterwick
Halls of #ardenvul, session 26.
The party pays a heavy price for disturbing the Tomb of Lord Ptarmis.
Between a mummy and a large group of assassin vines, the party quickly breaks down. The cleric and the fighter decide to cut their losses and run, but are ambushed by a pair of mephits in the Great Cave, who burn the orc fighter to a crisp (heat metal is nasty).
Alone, hurt, and deep in the dungeon, the cleric summons Kerbog Khan and exchange party secrets for teleportation to safety.
War ein langer und irgendwie anstrengender Tag mit Bewerbungsgespräch und viel Gerenne, aber heute Abend durfte ich mal wieder eine Runde #ArdenVul an unserem #osr Open Table leiten. Schöner Start ins Wochenende! Bin total begeistert davon, wie viel Spiel aus dem #Megadungeon rauszuholen ist und wie die Setting-Elemente ineinandergreifen. #pnpde
Pretty intense work day and tired af, but tonight i could run a session of #ArdenVul at our online open table, which was great fun. Now listening to #gothdiscoinferno
Halls of #ardenvul, session 25.
The party continues exploring the great caves, following the path among the Mushroom forest. They meet a mad mage who claims to be Lord Ptarmis, the creator of the fungal florest.
A little later, their exploration takes them to the Mausoleum of... Ptarmis? Certainly an empty tomb.
Unfortunately, that turns out to be a wrong assumption, as a mummy and the tomb guardians rise to defend their resting place.
Halls of #ArdenVul, session 24.
The group briefly chats up the beastmen patrol, and then keep exploring the caves. They find a TPK scene, and pick up stragglers around the way. Coming across large predators in the cave, they pass unscathed by sheer force of will.
Finally, they reach the famous "Grand Caves". Rocks fall and, surprisingly, not everyone dies!
Halls of Arden Vul is on bundle of holding.
It’s a mega dungeon, like a thousand page pdf.
This post by Orthopraxy really speaks to me. I think it captures why I bounced off #ArdenVul. It was too big to eat, and too cumbersome to use as an at the table resource (for me - I'm not that bright).
https://orthopraxy.bearblog.dev/eating-the-book-a-response-to-we-need-to-talk-about-goodman-games/
Halls of #ArdenVul, session 23.
First session of the year. After much, much, much deliberation and crying and shuffling of feet, the party decides to use the wish ring they found in the Goblin Market to remove the great curse Thoth had placed on them.
They took some R&R time in Gosterwick to party, upgrade their equipment, research legends and buy a nobility title.
Finally heading back to the dungeon, they try a new hidden entrance and find themselves face to face with the LRCP.
#ArdenVul, with characters around levels 8 to 12, with interplanar artefacts stolen from the slaads in another region of the Wooly Coast, resulting in a fight to expand a stronghold and a backstab attack by 20 or more slaads while fighting about 30 other aliens and an earth elemental, but no worries half a dozen wights and a dozen ghasts are on the player’s side. Madness! Worse than any Lovecraft! And confusion spells! The worst! 😂
Halls of #ArdenVul , session 22. For the last session of the year, the party heads back to the surface and then to Gosterwick, after learning that Thoth laid a heavy curse at them.
The temple of Mitra does it best, but they can't easily remove their curse. They propose petitioning the god directly, but that would require the entire party to convert.
Later, the party takes their items to be identified. They learn they have a Ring of wish, that could also solve their problem.
What will they do?
Highlights:
- two #osr Retreats with good friends: running an old #Adnd adventure, playing #odnd & #ClassicTraveler
- Attending the #LoFi osr Con.
- A couple of fanzines are approaching finalization.
Positive: After 2 years, our online osr open table is still active. Ran #ArdenVul got to play #Warlock
Not so great: less games than I was hoping for due to some nasty surprises the Real Life TM threw at me.
Gute Vorsätze oder einfach nur Wünsche fürs #pnp #ttrpg nächstes Jahr:
Habe einen Open Table für #stonehelldungeon gestartet und hoffe, der tuckert einfach entspannt weiter.
Bei #valravn wäre ich gern öfter dabei. #ardenvul war große Klasse, und das Tal der Thani gibt's ja auch noch.
Ansonsten reizt mich mal wieder #talislanta, da kann ich auch die famose #dcc #DyingEarth -Box reinpacken.
Ganz famos wäre piu-piu #spaceopera, so Richtung #starwars meets Becky Chambers. #starswithoutnumber
Finally got around to uploading scans and notes for the last weeks of my #dungeon23 project - yes actually from 2023. It's been a while.
I was thinking of doing an actual megadungeon #dungeon26 but I'm still not sure. I've been reading #Stonehell and playing #ArdenVul recently which has made me think of megadungeons. The theory is that it will make the "blank days" easier by letting me fill in corners but I dunno if that's realistic.
https://daisychase.net/blog/2025/12/06/the-rest-of-my-dungeon23/
Halls of Arden Vul, session 21.
Tired of smooching with the Goblins, the party decides to explore the catacombs of Thoth. They wear the feathers of Mahat to protect them from undead, and avoid disturbing the tombs.
The dead leave them alone, but the same cannot be said of a Gelatinous Cube! They retreat from the catacombs, and decide to take a stairway to a different level instead...
... Just to be jumped on by a ravenous troop of baboons!
Some days you just can't catch a break.
I'm bailing on #ArdenVul.
Halls of Arden Vul, session 19. After bringing a bag of holding full of gold to the Goblin Market, the Party decided to go back and grab as much as they can from the treasury before someone else finds it.
They go back down to the Goblin Market carrying every single gold coin they can, sparking a gold rush among goblins.
Knowing it is a matter of time before others find the treasure, The party reveals the treasury as a gift to the Goblin King, and gain an ally in the process.
@mitvorteil as a trained archaeologist I really dig how Richard Barton, the creator of #ArdenVul goes in length and breadths to rationalize the #Megadungeon in terms of architectural detail and coherence, and how he combines ancient cultures from the real world (Byzantium, imperial Rome, Egypt) and Fantasy tropes to create a mythical, but - if you buy into the Megadungeon-thing - also believable setting. It‘s quite coherent - really the opposite to a funhouse dungeon. 2/2
Yesterday, I ran a session of #ArdenVul at our online #osr open table (using the #Shadowdark system). Sometimes I catch myself cursing the unwieldyness of Arden Vul, its walls of text in particular, but then on the other hand, I already got SO many hours of gaming out of this „monster“. I’m really fascinated by the degree of interconnectivity Arden Vul exhibits. Everything makes sense in a weird way..I mean once you accept the idea that something like a #Megadungeon exists
