World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[chrisheff]

After resting, the party awoke to find that Avron had disappeared. Mechanus stated that Avron had said he could not sleep and wished to walk the nearby hall, but never returned. Fearing he had gone off to see the imprisoned red dragon (of whom Avron had been continually mentioning) the party went off in pursuit. Back in the tunnels the party was set upon by two wandering fire giants. In the battle, the party was aided by an unknown source. After the battle, the party discovered a tiny sprite hiding in the shadows who had been blasting the giants with lightning bolts.

The spryte’s name was Vaeth and he explained that he was from the same are of the dungeon as the party’s old companion Riswan. Indeed he had been tracking Riswan when he fell through the same portal the young dragon had, but had been teleported to a completely different area of the dungeon. Vaeth agreed to accompany the party, everyone knowing there was strength in numbers. Solara had another dream, this time Kelara and the celestials lay dead in pools of blood.

The party realized the search for Avron was futile, and that if he wanted to be found, he would find the party. The party continued to explore, and found a series of hallways with statues of angels, gods and ogres. Much searching and deduction had the party re-arranging the statues and activating switches found on some of the statues in the hopes of unlocking some sort of puzzle. They seemed to succeed. Zathras had another dream that the final puzzle was to be found on a ziggurat near the lava river. He believed they could free an imprisoned celestial inside, perhaps the woman from his dreams. Upon arrival, some of the party members had doubts that anything good could be imprisoned inside, but they discovered the way in anyway.

Once inside, the door re-sealed, trapping the party within. Exploring the tomb, the party found a beautiful celestial vampire and her minions. Her name was Serratine and she wanted to strike a deal with the party. Other than Zathras, the party would have none of it and attacked. They made quick work of her minions, but she escaped in gaseous form to hide in the cracks in the walls of the tomb. The party tried to find a way out, but could not. They summoned a djinn from their lamp, and he tracked the vampire, but could do nothing to lure her back into the tomb.

Serratine continued to speak in Zathras’ mind, hoping he would be able to convince the party to work with her. She told Zathras that she left the means to their escape back at the room where the battle took place. Searching there, the party discovered a ring of three wishes with one wish remaining. The party tried to figure out what to wish for, assuming that it wouldn’t be as easy and just wishing they were outside the tomb. Serratine told them they had to wish for the door to open for them, and that she was unable to use the ring; a final taunt from her celestial wardens. The party did not wish the set such a fiend free, but they could see no other way of escaping the ziggurat. They wished for the door to appear and waited for Serratine to leave the tomb. However, the vampire never appeared, presumably escaping through some other method, perhaps the opening of the door allowed her to escape through the cracks in which she hid.

End of session 16.

 

[chrisheff]

The party decided to make their way back to the Celestial garrison to make sure Kelara got Solara’s magical message about the possible escaping prisoner. They made their way back without too much difficulty only to discover a massacre. Kelara and the other celestials had been torn apart in an apparently one-sided battle. The party studied the area and determined that all the celestials were accounted for except Doj, who was either not present at the time of the battle or who had somehow escaped the carnage. The party found Wetoq, the inevitable quartermaster, in a side room still slightly functional. Vaeth repaired him somewhat and he recounted the tale of how Incantus, the Vengeful (for that was the name of the cambion who was held prisoner in the block of ice), came to the garrison and murdered everyone. The cambion had two companions, the Chronomancer and another being whom Wetoq could not describe as to look on him caused light to bend in strange ways, making it impossible to focus. Wetoq explained that Incantus was looking for something that was valuable to him, but Kelara had hidden it inside Mechanus when he was created. Incantus was able to glean this information through magic before killing Kelara. Wetoq told the party that Incantus was looking for them, or more specifically for Mechanus. The party buried the celestials in the nearby forest, and left Wetoq to maintain the area as best as he could.

The party returned to the section with the fire giants and trolls and began to explore once again. They triggered a huge pit trap and Solara and Killiash fell 140 feet. Unfortunately the fall killed the aasimar sorcerer.

The party found more statues of Serratine, and even heard her voice begging for help again. Though Zathras wanted to investigate further, it was deduced that the voice was a recording, still functional even though she had already escaped.

The party rested, and once again tried to determine the best course of action.

End of session 17.

Updated party list:

Solara, level 12 female human cleric of Pelor.
Vaeth, level 12 male spryte conjurer.
Mechanus, level 12 male warforged Juggernaut.
Zathras, level 11 male half-elf swashbuckler.
Glanrak, level 11 male dwarf paladin of Moradin.
Sharra, level 11 female halfling warlock.

 

[chrisheff]

The party decided to go back and deal with the mining operation that they had noticed. They knew they would be dealing with the azer slaves and their masters, but did not really know the extent of the operation. On their way, they met a wandering behir that looked half-starved. They got the behir to chase them towards the mine, hoping it would add a distraction. It did; the behir began to attack the azer guards. The party also joined the fray while the azer slaves fled. Two fire giants also appeared, and one was blasted down into the mine pit by a combined spell attack from Shaara and Vaeth. The other was caught in one of Solara’s blade barriers.

After dealing with the mine, the party discovered a room filled with gems; cast offs from the mining operation (the giants wanted the ore, not the gems). The party took a few diamonds and left the fortune behind.

The party continued to explore the region, slowly making their way to the icy prison of the ancient red dragon Tyrus, hoping to thwart any plans the giants had of digging the beast free. They found more statues of Serratine as well as a nasty fire cloud trap. They also discovered a series of rooms that contained huge celestial rasts. Normally benign beings, these were insane and attacked the party on sight.

The party decided to rest to recover.

End of session 18

 

[chrisheff]

The party continued exploring the region, dealing with more demented celestial rasts. They also found a heavily locked room with the word “Lament” written on it in Celestial. Regardless of the many locks, the party had Zathras do his thing and the party soon entered the room. The inside of the room was sheathed in iron. A globe was floating in the center of the room and within it was a fist-sized cube. The cube radiated powerful evil. Vaeth studied the cube and discerned it was a puzzle box that could open portals. Concerned that the box was held in stasis for a reason, the party left it alone and re-sealed the doors.

A terrible earthquake struck, shaking the very foundations of the dungeon. The party feared that the giants and their minions may have released Tyrus the dragon. They came upon a room of huge cages with a gargantuan fiendish wyvern roaming free. The wyvern summoned a bone devil to fight the party while it cast spells. The bone devil didn’t prove much of a challenge, but it did buy time for the wyvern to seriously harm the party with a horrid wilting spell. Shaara was killed by the magic. The party was able to close in on the wyvern finally, and destroy it.

They found more rooms with fiendish wyverns, including one that was half-asleep, coveting a golden coffer. The party snuck in and stole the coffer. They discerned the coffer was cursed with a deep slumber spell, but Zathras hung on to the item, immune to its effects.

Another quake wracked the halls, and the party decided to try to find where the giants were digging without any further delay. After searching some of the likely areas, they found a large room with a tunnel that had been dug through the walls. Three giants were guarding the tunnel, one of them wearing a medallion of Tiamat. The party attacked, and the first two giants fell. The third ran down the tunnel. Zathras pursued but stopped when he saw what was beyond.

The tunnel opened into a huge ice cavern. In the center of the cavern was a colossal red dragon, its’ wings spread as if preparing for flight. All around the ice was breaking and falling and melting. Giants and azers were cowering in adulation to the beast, Tyrus. Zathras fled the cavern in heart stopping fear. He ran back through the tunnel and past the party, babbling about the dragon. Mechanus, immune to fear, entered to observe. Tyrus at last spread his wings fully and flew to the top of the cavern, some 700 feet above. He crashed through the ice and rock, causing the rest of the ice to fall, killing the giants and azers within. Mechanus took shelter inside the tunnel. Above, Tyrus left nothing but a huge gaping whole in the ceiling of the cavern.

The party entered to search the cavern, discovering Tyrus’ treasure of coins and gems. Vaeth and the resurrected Shaara flew to the top of the cavern to see where Tyrus went, and if perhaps it was a way out of the dungeon. What they saw was mostly beyond their comprehension. Outside the hole was a night sky, but not a night sky. Strands of white appeared and disappeared and huge chunks of rock floated by in the darkness. The slightly uneven surface from the hole stretched off as far as they could see. Vaeth discerned that this was the dungeon floating through the astral plane.

The party decided to finally enter the undead region in an attempt to deal with the largest threat of the dungeon, the World Eater. They passed numerous wards and protective measures before encountering numerous rooms filled with undead hordes; skeletons, wraiths, and wights. These undead were not humans, but were some sort of demented humanoid forms, standing nearly eight feet tall. This was the oldest section of the dungeon and its inhabitants may have been interred here ages before the birth of humans.

End of session 19.

The pictures: 1) The gang (clockwise from front - Shaara, Mechanus, Zathras, DM, Vaeth, Solara, missing - Glanrak), 2) Fighting the wyvern (the gargantuan black dragon mini standing in for the wyvern) - with a dead Shaara, 3) Zathras chasing the fire giant and meeting Tyrus

 

[chrisheff]

The party continued to slowly make their way towards the central chamber of the undead region, wanting to ensure the Nightcrawler was still imprisoned. However, they did not want to leave any potential dangers behind them, so they continued to take their time, checking rooms and other areas especially since they knew there were powerful intelligent undead somewhere within.

They fought more hordes of skeletons, wights and zombies as they made their way. Soon, they found themselves in the domain of The Great Death; a giant demented bodak who though he was the God of Death himself. A battle with the beast ensued, but the party was protected against Death magic by Solara, greatly diminishing the dangers posed by the bodak. The battle was still hard fought, with Mechanus taking a fairly severe beating, but the beast was eventually vanquished. Upon his death, his hordes and followers died their final death. The party also dispatched a pair of morghs that the bodak had been keeping prisoner.

The party continued forth, Solara feeling her connection to Pelor and Glanrak feeling his connection to Moradin becoming more and more faint.

End of session 20.

DMs NOTES:

Solara is now level 14.
Everyone else is level 13.

 

[Hussar]

Wow, 20 sessions in and you're 13-14th level? How long are your sessions?

 

[chrisheff]

We usually play 5-6 hours per session. They've really started going up very fast the last six or seven sessions due to the fact they have been adventuring in sections that are a good 4-5 levels above the suggested levels for the party (ie: region J is suggested for levels 13-15 but they were there at level 9) so they are getting huge amounts of xp due to the level of CR they are facing compared to their levels. However, they are surviving since I allowed non-Core options for their characters (which I probably shouldn't have as the WLD advises against it since the adventure itself is Core only). I can see why, because the options I've allowed have perhaps made it a little too "easy" for the party (too many immunities, special attacks, etc).

The bodak was a CR 18 monster with a few CR 5 minions. The party received no xp for the minions, but approximately 8000-9000xp each for the bodak. That's more than half a level in one encounter. Early on in the game I was using my own xp calculation, which is generally just giving between 2000-3000xp per session, but once the party hit about 6th-7th level this was progressing too slowly, so I decided to give out xp as per the rules in the DMG. Suffice it to say when a party is fighting against encounters that are a good 3-4 levels above their party level, they gain crazy amounts of xp and that is why they are level 13-14 after 20 sessions.

EDIT: At the rate it's progressing, I don't see the game going past May (I'm guessing 6 or 7 more sessions at the most) at which point I'll be starting a new non-dungeon campaign with them.

EDIT 2: Just read a bit at the beginning of the WLD that I completely missed, and/or forgot about. It talks about how a party will progress too quickly if you use the normal xp system, and suggests parties only level up once or twice per region, and how they should only get full xp the first time they defeat a specific monster. So my party would have gotten at least one level less when dealing with the fire giant section for sure if they were only getting 1/2 xp for every encounter after the first fire giant fight.

 

[chrisheff]

Finding maps of the region with the bodak’s treasure, the party decided to explore the perimeter of the Nightcrawler’s prison to make sure any locks, traps and protections were still in place before deciding what to do from there. On the way, the party had a rough go of it in a room with magical darkness that even Solara’s blessed radiance could barely overcome. In the room were a number of wraiths and dread wraiths. Solara and Shaara both nearly had their life forces completely drained from them. The party was able to win the day however, and leave the dreaded room behind.

They encountered smaller rooms, also containing dread wraiths, albeit in smaller numbers. They dispatched these beings and continued on their way, finally discovering one of the passages leading to the prison of the Nightcrawler. The passage was blocked by a scintillating wall of force as well as a door with a strange lock on it. Satisfied that this passage was still secure, the party continued on to the next.

After battling some wights on skeletal wyverns, the party discovered a room with a diabolical trap. The walls began closing on the party. They only had a few seconds to decide what to do. Glanrak used his new rock walking ability, and moved through the wall to the hallway they had come from. Vaeth created a magical abode using a spell, and the rest of the party entered it just as the walls closed shut. There they waited wondering if the walls would re-open allowing them to escape, and even if they did, would they have enough time to escape the room before the trap sprung again. Would they be trapped in Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion forever?

End of session 21.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Would they be trapped in Mordenkainen’s Magnificant Mansion forever?

I vote "Yes" because it would be a memorable way to end a campaign.

[sblock]Just kidding. If I were a player stuck in a situation like this, I would expect/want/beg for a way to escape.[/sblock]

 

[chrisheff]

I definitely plan on making them sweat a little.