Starting my Jakalla Megadungeon

[korgoth]

I thought I'd mention that, according to the wishes of several fellow gamers, I'm going to be starting up a Jakalla Underworld campaign. It will follow the Megadungeon paradigm, with the characters undertaking missions for patrons or simply exploring of their own initiative.

The design philosophy I'm using for the levels, which is in part based on the Mark Pettigrew article on Underworlds, is that each level is really a collection of several themed areas. Catacombs will look and feel different from undercities, etc. Certain destinations, such as tombs and shrines, may be more lucrative to plunder but will have additional dangers. I'm shooting for a feel not unlike the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with tougher monsters than mere spiders!

One feature I'm going to use is a little thing I call The Table of Despair. Because the game is an "open invitation" game, such that anyone can show up and play for any given night's expedition, the PCs are expected to be out of the underworld at the end of the session. Whoever is not gets to roll on The Table of Despair. It will tell you whether your character's flesh has been consumed by denizens of the underworld, he has been lost in space and time, he has staggered back to the surface naked and bereft of all possessions, or has somehow made it out unscathed. That way every night will be a new episode.

Any comments, suggestions, encouragements, criticisms or offers of assistance are much appreciated. Also, if you're in Austin, Texas and want to play, the game starts in early September.

[jrients]

The Table of Despair is a great idea! I'd love to see that.

[ffilz]

I also would love to see the Table of Despair as I also plan to run my mega-dungeon campaign in this style. I may occasionally allow an expedition to last more than one session, but then any players who miss the 2nd session should roll on the Table of Despair. It might even be cool to have a similar table for people who stay in the dungeon for a whole week. I also plan to use the originally suggested 1 week of real time = 1 week of game time (though I don't expect to run multiple sessions per week like was suggested occurred in Greyhawk). I might use Midkemia Press's Cities to give PCs who miss a session something to do.

Frank

[Melan]

Lá, The Table of Despair should be prime Fight on! material. Go write it up!

[korgoth]

We had our second session last night. The party made its first incursion into level 1, going straight into the Durritlamish area. Fun times. They even managed to get mixed up with the unctuous but murderous high priest... but they used a Petrefaction scroll on him before he could claim them for sacrifices (his mighty spell being spoiled by a well-placed javelin from the party's rather irrepressible javelin boy). Good thing they acquired that scroll.

[korgoth]

UPDATE!

Hey, all. I haven't been posting here much b/c of time constraints, etc. (I rarely post anywhere that much anymore). But I thought that EPT people might be interested to know that my Jakalla Megadungeon campaign is still going strong (and going strange) after about 8 months now.

After up and down fluctuations, it has settled in to five regular players plus me. They managed to penetrate down to the 4th level of the Jakalla Underworld before the campaign took a different turn.

I designed the Underworld in sections, following the general guideline in the Pettigrew Selections, where each part of each level has a different function/history: there was a Durritlamish temple on level 1 and a Vimuhla temple on level 2, for example. Some burial complexes were simply catacombs, whereas others were grand tombs. Strangely, they only went into two of the major tombs (once to check it out, and lost a character, and a second time on a quest).

Major highlights have been receiving quests from the temple of Vimuhla on level 2 (we have two priests of Vimuhla plus a warrior dedicated to him), having a character eaten by a shoggoth, finding a lecherous old stone face on a dungeon wall and 'feeding' a slave girl to it in exchange for information, fighting a scythe-bearing lich mounted on a chariot pulled by stone chlen, fighting a death match in the arena, acquiring the Gladius of Entropy (a flaming sword; you lose the power to formulate speech for 2d6 turns if you roll a 1 to hit), hatching a red and blue dromaeosaur out of an egg and taking it on as a pet, albeit one that eats like a war elephant, and the brave young warrior being raped by an obese statue of Dlamelish (complete with crocodile head)... and later having a crocodile-child (externally a crocodile but when it opens its mouth, where the maw should be is a child's face) appear to its "daddy" who then brutally butchered it. Among many other adventures.

The adventurers, who are refugees from the destruction of their southerly islands by the Hokun, have been granted a lease on an abandoned temple complex to Vimuhla out in the jungle-forest of Gilraya (frog country!). They have invested most of their wealth in the necessary foodstuffs to allow the remnant population, some 500 ex-islanders, to make the journey. There they intend to refurbish the complex, pay off the lease, and establish their people within Tsolyani society. Of course the complex, if they make it there, looks like Angkor (rather overgrown). Well, at least the area is not crawling with torturous frog-men, carnivorous monkeys, barbarians and enemy scouts. Oh, wait.

Just thought I'd say how it was going.

[greentongue]

Thanks for the update!
Intriguing.
=

[arokh]

Thanks for the update! Any plans to share all or parts of your megadungeon with the rest of the us? I know there are lots of EPT fans who would love to see this material and it sounds like the PCs won't be returning there any time son.

Also, I really like your inclusion of a shoggoth in your campaign. Sounds like exactly the kind of creature some half-mad sorcerer in ancient times would have summoned or created. What stats did you use for the beastie (as if any PCs would ever really stand much of a chance against something like that)?

[korgoth]

May 21, 2009 12:59:23 GMT -6 arokh said:

Thanks for the update! Any plans to share all or parts of your megadungeon with the rest of the us? I know there are lots of EPT fans who would love to see this material and it sounds like the PCs won't be returning there any time son.

Also, I really like your inclusion of a shoggoth in your campaign. Sounds like exactly the kind of creature some half-mad sorcerer in ancient times would have summoned or created. What stats did you use for the beastie (as if any PCs would ever really stand much of a chance against something like that)?

I hadn't thought about revealing my version of the Jakalla underworld. Perhaps I might reveal specific locations for others to use.

The shoggoth: it was pretty tame. AC 2 (or maybe 0... I'm not looking at my notes), HD 7 or 9. Of course, it was on level 1 so it was tough to deal with. It was in a big stone bowl like the thing from the C.A. Smith story... they looted some of its treasure by having the most fleet party member run around getting chased by it. He barely escaped with his life! The critter still lives in its section of that tomb. Since they've got 4 level 4s and a level 3 they could probably take it now (maybe with some casualties, but they seem rather lucky).

[Deleted]

May 26, 2009 15:33:18 GMT -6 korgoth said:

(maybe with some casualties, but they seem rather lucky).

So far, at least!

[arokh]

May 26, 2009 15:33:18 GMT -6 korgoth said:

I hadn't thought about revealing my version of the Jakalla underworld. Perhaps I might reveal specific locations for others to use.

I'd love to see whatever you'd care to share, and I'm sure that others would as well. It sounds like you've got a phenomenal, long-running campaign there.

[Deleted]

Where can one find the articles Korgoth referred to about the Underworld by Pettigrew?

[bigjackbrass]

Oct 7, 2009 20:25:09 GMT -6 christopher said:

Where can one find the articles Korgoth referred to about the Underworld by Pettigrew?

The easiest way to get the Underworlds article is in a copy of The Best of the Journal: The Pettigrew Selections from Tita's House of Games. It's a reprint, but well worth the money.

[Deleted]

Thanks!