#Dungeon23 Inspires Dead Blog Resurrection!

 Ok, here we go. (And I really do not have time for this.)

Been meaning to resurrect the blog for a while, and #Dungeon23 has given me the impetus to do so. Without risking immediate derailment via long boring explanations about why I've done nothing blog-wise for quite some time, instead, let's dive straight into #Dungeon23.

What: A mega-dungeon! One room per day! How hard can it be?

Why: Why not?!? This blog lives again and I get to run Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2E through its paces in a mega-dungeon format.

How: I'm using Graham Bottley's excellent random dungeon generation method from the Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2E rulebook (pp. 134-137). I'm then using my own interests and methods to populate the catacombs. Obviously, it's going to be set somewhere on Titan.

Where: Here, on this blog. Will probably post weekly digest updates elsewhere, and may start up a separate 'How To' forum thread to really unpack the AFF 2E approach to dungeon-building.

When: Every day! (Disclaimer: may post multiple-room clusters ahead of time if I know I have crazy things coming down the line.)

Who: Me, Andrew Wright, author of Beyond the Pit, The Titan Herbal, Rough Guide to the Pit, Return to the Pit, and volume one of the Encyclopedia Arcana. What can I say? I love Titan and Fighting Fantasy!

The Concept: I was once doing a side-project involving a wilderness-crawl in southern Allansia, so let's use that as a jumping-off point. The mega-dungeon is a tomb-complex in the desert upland wilderness, surprisingly much-visited by adventurers and heavily populated with obnoxious types, and yet still somewhat isolated and slightly off the beaten track. We'll situate it near the obscure but useful city of Pellod (Heroes Companion, p. 43).

The Found Tombs of Arvakaten

The Background:

"The Found Tombs of Arvakaten lie several days wandering upstream, through the valley of the river Murab, northwest of the city of Pellod. Opinion is divided as to whether Arvakaten was a lord or god (and thus were these tombs or a temple), but this Djaratian crypt-complex was subsequently ransacked and repurposed over the years by Vatosians, Allansians from Carsepolis, the Caarth serpent-folk, Orcs and other bestial races of the uplands, and many others besides.

As such, it has become a local stamping ground for up and coming heroes, a place to test your mettle and the speed of your sword or the potency of your magic. Miscreants congregate here too; Orc mercenaries, pirate looters, Lizard Man kidnappers, and every renegade mage from the Spellcaster's Guild of Pellod, who needs solitude, time, and tight dark places, to find themselves and their one true calling.

In the final village before you reach the tombs, you find the Last Step Inn. The walls of this run-down establishment are hung with the debris of adventuring lives brought abruptly to an end; broken swords, split shields, shattered helms, Orc arrows and Gnollish clubs, skulls, bones and other bits and pieces. The innkeeper, a tall thin fellow named Abughan, regales you with tales of the mystic underworld of Arvakaten and its place in Djaratian cosmology; his rustic, dusty clientele of farmers and herders may have more practical information to share.

The region is a craggy wilderness split by goat-trails; of stony fields, bone-dry vineyards and twisted olive trees. The main entrance to the tombs lies right at the end of the valley; a rocky path leads upwards to where several trickles of water from nearby springs coalesce into a green scummy pool that forms the source of the river Murab. A rocky outcrop abuts the pool, it contains a shallow cave that opens up into the main tomb entrance. The walls of the cave are daubed and carved in much graffiti, the languages include Common (Allansian), Orcish and Gnoll. 

Entering the tomb, a passage leads north, into darkness..."

The Rumour Table: Gossip and scuttlebutt from the Last Step Inn. Spend 1GP on drinks per roll. Roll 1d6:

1. An evil wizard has fled to the tombs to conduct unspeakable rites!
   
2. There are several entrances to the tombs.
3. Orc mercenaries stalk the halls of Arvakaten!
   
4. One must know the ancient tongues to understand the way.
   
5. There are cannibal Gnolls in the tombs!
   
6. There is an invincible lion-monster who speaks gibberish!
   

Caveats:

• It will be fun.
• It will probably fail.
• It will be unashamedly heavy on AFF 2E and Titan.
• It will have maps of varying quality, timeliness and availability. Ditto room descriptions.