#Sunless Citadel

[silversteampunk]

Cover Illustration Commission for MargoMod's Sunless Citadel Companion book. It's available on DMsguild for anyone interested! :)

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

The Sunless Citadel Cover Art by Todd Lockwood

[artdesorsa]

Snowball fight at Oakhurst

Secret Santa gift @oyeedraw

Our very first dnd campaign together was the Sunless citadel, so of course I had to draw our babes together having fun :D Or at least Mühhen is having fun.... Mühen belongs to @oyeedraw

Mancs and art by @artdesorsa

[simplegeneral]

Hello folks, so I was recently watching a dnd campaign in the sunless citadel and I had grown so found of one particular kobold from it, Meepo, the dragon caretaker of some sorts, I was so invested on his small story that when he died, killed by Calcryx, I almost feel into a kobold depressive state, like bruh, I wanted for them to get along 😭

  So by the powers granted by myself, I shall now present a small story I have as my canon event. At some point, in the sunless citadel, a clan of kobolds (~34 members) carrying a white dragon egg migrated from the north to this abandoned cultist temple, settling around and preparing for the arrival of their master. As they explored the temple and lost a few members to traps, their leader, Yusdrayl decreed there would be no more expeditions and the places known as ‘the frontier’ were established. Not much later, goblins would invade the temple in far greater numbers and threat the kobolds’ existence.

A war had begun and Yusdrayl decreed a desperate breeding program to increase their numbers. From many attempts and eggs, only a few had survived, among them, the one who would become Meepo. He had hatched on the same day Calcryx hatched and was designed to be her caretaker when time would call.

Years would pass, both Calcryx and Meepo had grow up, quite differently. The temporary caretakers of Calcryx did an awful job and the already naturally aggressive white dragon would frequently harm her caretakers.

Meepo also resulted to be a considerably weaker kobold than the rest of his tribe and not fit for much else. Yusdrayl considered to give him the task immediately than sacrifice any body-fit kobold to Calcryx. The young kobold was casted out of the hatchery into the most dangerous job it could be offered.

His first days were tragic, gaining many scars and nearly being killed by Calcryx at least a couple of times, before more kobolds would come to help. Meepo however, showed to be a fast learner and quickly established what worked and what didn’t with Calcryx, within a month, the white dragon was rather appeased.

Calcryx enjoyed Meepo, as a plaything, of course, his rather submissive behavior made her trigger happy. However, the key that made the difference was that Meepo respected her, not only as an equal, but as a superior, the minimum required to please a dragon. His valiant progress would come to a crashing halt the day goblins attacked the kobolds and in large numbers, managed to capture Calcryx. The entire kobold clan entered in a shock, their master was taken from them, and all blame was casted to Meepo, the shame of the clan. Yusdrayl declared that he should alone take Calcryx back or die trying, and rather preferring him dead, she mobilized the entire clan for a holy war to retake Calcryx if needed. Meepo cried into a nearly depressive state for days, but as he grieved over the loss of his ‘friend’, he begun to plan how he could possible infiltrate the goblin’s stronghold. They were not so different from kobolds, and also had darkvision, still meaning that he would have a better chance at night, when they would be asleep as kobolds would be too. When the night came, he departed with the blessing of Yusdrayl, more like a last goodbye, not expecting him to come back. He crossed the frontier and moved sneakily through the temple at night, avoiding a few patrols and traps, as well as killing a few rats. He would come close by a goblin stronghold, its guards deeply asleep, but with one of them, presumably the leader, keys that would open the doors he needed. He sneaked inside and ever so carefully took the keys. He crossed a hall into a door, which he tried all keys until one eventually worked, opening the door. Inside he saw a caged gnome, as well as several kobolds chained in the floor, he promised them he would return. ‘Meepo will come back for brothers and sisters. Meepo promises.’ He closed the door carefully and continued his journey. He eventually came into a large hall, filled with doors on both sides. After letting a guard patrol pass, he tried the first door in the right, using the keys, he managed to open it and to his surprise, there was Calcryx. The wyrmling hissed, as she was out of her chains, broken by her mighty teeth and claws. She looked at Meepo and recognized her caretaker, almost friend. She moved from her hiding spot on the room to his direction near the door. ‘You came.’ ‘Meepo came to save you, alone, Meepo will save you’ ‘Before we return, I have some… Unfinished business with those pests.’ ‘Meepo understands. He will not oppose your wishes.’

Calcryx walked out of the room and moved west, where she broke the door and proceeded to blast every goblin she saw with her ice breath. Meepo could only hear screams of horror falling silent, possibly from freezing into ice blocks, as well as screams of women and children fading into the dead silence of the temple. Soon Calcryx was returning from the door and moved past him to the corridors. He simply followed. ‘W-Wait. Meepo needs to fulfill promise to return to chained kobolds!’

He run past her and arrived at a door, opening it and unlocking the chains of the kobolds, as she watched over him. The kobolds had run to the door only to find Calcryx waiting there, a mix of fear and deep reverence made them bow to her.

Meepo saved them all, even the gnome who walked with them until reaching an entrance. With Calcryx returned, Meepo’s reputation was saved, captured kobolds returned and, even better, Calcryx’s attacks severely undermine the goblin numerical advantage over the kobolds, giving them time to breath. All of it accomplished in a single night demanded festivities. The kobolds partied for the rest of the night, with happy songs and praises for Tiamat’s spirit still lives with them, as well as increased rations of rat’s meat for everyone there. For Meepo however, things changed little, past his hero status, he returned to his status quo as the weakling of the tribe and begun being mistreated again as usual. Calcryx this time watched it closely, while long previously ignoring the events, she begun to feel a small sympathy for the weak creature, as well as overall anger to be kept within this temple.

One day, completely without warning, Calcryx caught Meepo on the rope of her leash and run off the tribe, with every kobold being unable to stop her.

'Calcryx! Friend! Meepo doesn't understand!" He yelled while literally on the air. 'We are. Leaving!" She snarled as she run off into the forest.

[allybeardsleycamoshirt]

so I literally just got my hands on a dnd book for the first time and I have been reading about the Sunless Citadel, which I understand to be a classic campaign designed for first timers. Dungeons and Drag Queens seems to be a version of the Sunless Citadel! perfect for these first time players. v cool to see Brennan adapting this campaign for them

[margomods]

Sunless Citadel Companion

A few days ago, I released the Roll20 addon for my first book! The Sunless Citadel Companion is a detailed expansion and DM's Guide for the classic D&D adventure!

Never in my life as a scientist have I missed working on a finished project—I already miss this world and the characters in it. Luckily, I can always find them right where I left them with a batch of new players.

My dream is that others step into this world and make it theirs. If that's you: I'd love to hear your story.

In today's climate, with generative AI poised to saturate the market, it has become even more important for me to put my money where my mouth is. The money I make off of this project will go right back into hiring artists for future projects. I can't wait to see what we make next :)

If you like this cover, check out Chelsea Crane's other work @silversteampunk

[river-roots-17]

A little throwback to me sketching during sessions and out rogue dying. Never to be completed, and Rivine still had her old design.

[rubiksicosahedron]

Remixing the Speaker in Dreams - Introduction

The Speaker in Dreams is a 3.0 edition adventure made by James Wyat in 2001, intended to be the third installment in a series of adventures that would eventually be called the Ashardalon Saga. The adventure centers on a town called Brindinford besieged by a mindflayer named Ghaerleth Axom.

Overall, it has some neat enemies and a misdirect right in the middle before the city is besieged by fiends! However, the adventure structure is weak and prone to breaking--to be honest most non-dungeon-based adventures have this problem, regardless of edition. So, I have decided to remix (ala the Alexandrian blog) and put it up for anyone who might need it. Please, take what sounds interesting and leave what doesn't. My players are partway through my version of it, and I will update this blog as they go.

This is the first adventure in the Ashardalon Saga to not be a large dungeon crawl (see: The Sunless Citadel and the Forge of Fury, both of which were included in Tales from the Yawning Portal for 5e). Instead, it was pitched as a site-based encounter. Unfortunately, the adventure’s formatting makes this obtuse and hard to structure. It does include a nifty flowchart (I believe all good adventures have these) which helps the reader understand how the adventure is meant to go. However, there aren’t real connections for the players between these encounters, which puts a lot of work on the DM. I also believe that this gets way more interesting as a mystery, so we are going to remix this adventure using a node-based design, which will funnel to the false ending of the adventure.

The adventure uses 3rd editions Gather Information skill to give the players a few rumors, that are going to point them either to The Wererat Hideout (a Bell Tower, Encounter 12), a warehouse some Grimlocks are staying in (Grimlock Warehouse, Encounter 11), or to an encounter at a local Shrine(Cry in the Mist, Encounter 14). Each of these rumors are barely accurate and hidden behind an increasing DC.

What I don't like about this is how, from a surface level, the adventure looks non-linear. "Look! A branching flowchart!" However, nothing really comes of either of these branches. There isn't even anything to connect them to the actual threat, as far as the players can tell anyway. The Grimlock Warehouse isn't even involved in any conspiracy, they just know about the cult and want to trade magic items with them. How the players are supposed to know that is beyond me.

Ghaerleth Axom (referred to as Axom or ‘the mindflayer’ for the rest of this adventure because that name sucks) has been speaking in the minds of different sorcerers in the city and has created a small cult who call themselves “Those Who Hear” led by a woman they refer to as The Blessed. The reason the writers create this second group I think is to add some mystery and give the players lots of ups and downs before the final confrontation. This way, the PCs can feel like they accomplished something great (which they did!) and the villains can seem even more evil when they summon lots of fiends to enforce the city’s new martial law.

However, Axom’s motivation per the text doesn’t make any sense.

In the original adventure, Axom is a rogue mindflayer who wants to create a new empire with himself at the top. So he travels to the world above, mind controls the baron, and summons a ton of devils. I don’t understand how this connects here. He gets to control a city, I guess? This didn’t feel very real to me, so let’s change his backstory slightly:

While in the Underdark, Axom was just a normal mindflayer when demons began terrorizing and destroying the city these illithids had taken over. This separated Axom from his Elder Brain and shunted him into the caverns there. Axom does still have the ambition to become an emperor (I think all mind flayers do), but he doesn’t want to make it in the World Above (due to all the heroes and whatnot) and definitely can’t fight all these demons on his own. So instead he discovers an army of devils that he could summon and makes a deal with their leader. If he can supply them with a Gate and a city ripe for the taking, they will grant him a contingent of devil soldiers to go take back his city.

I like this story more for a couple of reasons. First, it humanizes the villain without making him a character the PCs will likely agree with or ally with. Second, it makes this city he takes over important. A big part of this adventure is the city, which becomes its own character. The web supplement goes into a truly staggering amount of detail about each district of the city. Brindinford has a large Temple of Pelor, which the adventure makes a point of burning down right before the big finale. I think this gets way more interesting if the Temple is important to Axom’s plan (more on this in a later post).

The adventure splits into two parts, before and after the destruction of Those Who Hear, and that is a useful distinction for us, so we are going to keep it.

[bad-decisions-club]

Sunless Citadel Campaign Arc Recap

6 Sessions (+1 retrospective) 

( https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_wOqvAZAsjkM9PW8bJh6t64nTJeGnL8s )

PCs: Sharrog, Clarion, Hyacinth, Calder, Echo

NPCs: Barnabas, Meepo, Irky, Belak, Yustial(??), Calcryx

Monsters: Giant spiders, Twig blights, Gulthias tree, zombies

Notable Items: Shatterspike, special apples, Undead-controlling-whistle

Synopsis:

It all starts when our PCs, Calder, Clarion, Hyacinth, and Sharrog, get hired to investigate a mysterious Sunless Citadel. Accompanying them is the dwarven guard Barnabas. 

On their way to the local town, Oakhurst, the group is attacked by animated undead plant monsters, twig blights. At the town, they gather info, finding out that there are both goblins and Kobolds in the supposed Sunless Citadel. The goblins occasionally come and sell mysterious fruits in town. Also, our group is not the first to try and explore the citadel. The locals will pay for the recovery or proof of death of the other adventurers, as some were locals themselves.

The PCs and Barnabas head out, leaving a very hung over Sharrog behind in town to catch up with them later.

The group finds the citadel and battles past giant spiders to get to the part of the citadel controlled by the Kobolds, where they meet Meepo. Meepo is distraught as he was the caretaker to the Kobold’s baby white dragonling, Calcryx, but the goblins stole her away in their latest raid. He is now banished from the rest of the Kobolds for his failure. The group adds Meepo to the party, against Barnabas’ disapproval.

After negotiating with the Kobold leader, the group ventures further into the Citadel, where they meet the goblin Echo, another PC, who has just escaped death by giant spider with the party’s help. Echo explains that he was forcibly dragged back to the Citadel and is not allied with the rest of the goblins. He joins the group, which upsets Barnabas so much that he leaves to go set up a camp outside the Citadel.

They explore further and fight goblins and hobgoblins. One of which carries a message for Echo. The team manages to free a captured Gnome, Irky, who is the last remaining member of yet another adventuring party. The group finds the room where the goblins have stashed Calcryx, and through use of magic items, subdue her and bring her back to the Kobolds.

Meepo is welcomed back by the kobold leader, Ustriel, but he rejects her praise and stands up for himself. He leaves that night to camp with the rest of the group outside the Citadel. It is strange that, upon returning to the camp, Barnabas is nowhere to be found, while some of his gear is still there, and there is no sign of a struggle.

Echo tells the group of the message he received, a challenge to a duel, and how he is the heir of the previous war chief of the goblins. His father was killed by the current leader, a Bugbear named Durn, who is actually working under the Druid Belak. As Echo recalls, Belak focused mainly on his experiments in the lower levels of the Citadel.

The group agrees to go with Echo to the duel, but when they arrive, to no one’s surprise, Durn flakes on the duel and sets all of his warriors to attack Echo. The group jumps into combat, and they are victorious, with Echo landing the killing blow on Durn. Notably during the combat, Clarion used a new item, a magic whistle, to summon an undead minion to his side.

With Echo now the war chief of the goblins, the group stays in their part of the citadel for the night, preparing to confront Belak in the levels below.

The next morning, the team delves deeper and confronts Belak. He is working on the Gulthias tree, using its fruit to spread his undead blights. He has the lost heroes under his control as undead-vine puppets along with the missing Barnabas, who has also been infected with the vines.

After a very, very long battle the team manages to defeat Belak and his minions.

Barnabas tries to pull the vines out of him, but the process starts to kill him. The team uses the single fruit left from the Gulthias tree to heal him.

On their way out of the Citadel, Echo directs the goblins to leave, intent on escorting them to Calder’s family lands. The team also explores the rest of the citadel, including the cold-room-of-bad-decisions, where they kill the undead troll within.

The team returns to the town of Oakhurst and it is revealed that Barnabas is a king and was the person behind the group being hired in the first place. Also, Sherrog finally shows up, ready to head out and find that Citadel.

[cilverlining]

I started DMing for a dungeons and dragons group recently and we just finished The Sunless Citadel. Meepo wanted to impress his new friends with how he became Keeper of Dragons, he’s very proud of the story.

Meepo, buddy, only one of your friends is big. The rest are smol nerds.

[severevoiddragon]

D&D Story Time!

I run a D&D club for 12 11-15 year old boys. It's during term time (so nothing during holidays), but due to multiple factors I can't run it this half term, so a couple weeks ago was the last session for a good 3 months.

The party is currently in 3 groups, due to it's size. We have the 13-15 year olds (plus 2x 11yos) in one group, who are. amazing at the game. They know the rules, they are great at action economy. Im having to heighten the challenge for the monsters because otherwise they'll be lvl20 no probs. This group will be called the Mephits.

The other 2 groups are 3x 11yos, who I will dub The Hobgoblins, and 2x 11yos, who I will dub The Goblins. (These names are based on what monsters they were, or had been fighting) In the last session of the term, one of the Goblins was not able to come, so we just had one boy fighting 3 goblins. He was rolling so high that he was winning. Wow. I'm impressed. The Hobgoblins, however, could not even get a hit in.

And then, it happened. A failed roll and one of the Hobgoblins was unconscious. This wasn't the first character death at this table, though that one was from PvP. A story for another time. We will call this player A. Now, A was very eager and I had no idea if he would break down if his character died. This was his first adventure in D&D. So, he was rolling death saves for the rest of the day. The first roll. A fail. Oh no.

The Mephits, who were working out a puzzle, were trying to decide if they wanted to run and heal the Hobgoblins, since they were low, but the Mephits decided to keep going with their puzzle. They were too far away anyway.

Round 2 of death saves approaches. A success. I breathe a sigh of relief, but we're not out of the woods yet. I am not trained to deal with crying children. The Goblin is still winning against his goblins, I'm very proud of him. The other two Hobgoblins still fail to get any hits in. The Mephits continue with their puzzle.

Round 3. A fail. "EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!" A shouts, an exact mimic of the meme. I am getting worried. The Goblin continues to beat the goblins, and there is now one goblin left. One of the Hobgoblins gets hit. He goes down to 0. This was the same player who has had his character die before. I will call him B. I am getting very tense and trying to work out if there is anything I can do behind the scenes. There is not. The Mephits are now severely debating going to the others. Since they are in the other part of the dungeon, it would take at least 2 turns to sprint to the other side. One of the Mephits goes. He spends the next 2 rounds sprinting.

Round 4. The whole table is waiting. A success from A! A has 2 successes, and 2 failures. It is up to Round 5 to decide whether he shall live or die. B fails his save. At this point, while most of the Mephits are still doing their puzzle, the last Hobgoblin is still fighting, the Goblin is still fighting too, everyone is waiting to see if A and B will live or die.

Round 5. A rolls his die. We all watch. "ITS A NAT 20!" A yells. Everyone cheers. We have run out of time for the session, and must continue in September. I breathe a sigh of relief.

B asks if he can speed run his rolls. I allow it.

A success. Good.

And... A nat 1.

I feel so sorry for him, but he seems ok. "I get to make a new character sheet again, yayy" B says. He looks happy still. He now has all summer to think about his new character.

Idk what the point of this story is, but I felt the need to share the thrilling end to my D&D Club.

[lawful-evil-novelist]

Well well well Halisstra, if it isn't the consequences of your own damn actions.

That will amount to nothing because honestly the Dancing Stone is increasingly giving "There is no amount of cult conditioning left after accepting your lord and savior Eiliastraee" vibes.

[moookar]

Weird loser

(Rbs > likes!)

[wuwubean]

i need a t-shirt that says ‘i survived the tpk windmill’ because OH MY GOD-

[sqf]

bad bunny

[margomods]

Can't wait to grab and drag my PCs with the Gulthias Tree's roots tonight.

The statblock and the full map can be found in MargoMods Sunless Citadel Companion!