RAPPAN ATHUK
The Legend of Rappan Athuk

Below is written what is known regarding the infamous dungeon known as
Rappan Athuk - The Dungeon of Graves

Many thousands of years ago the forces of Good rallied together to bring down the Rule of the Sorcerer Kings. One of the final battles took place in the city known as Infamy, under the Mistwall. Within this city was one of the largest Temples to Orcus in this world. The forces of Good in taking the town and bringing down its Sorcerer King, destroyed the temple and routed it's priests. With their temple in ruins, the surviving high priests of this accursed demon-god fled the burning city with an army of enemies on their trail, an army of heroic fighters, clerics, and paladins led by Zelkor, a powerful wizard trained by Zaphod the Mighty himself. The exact fate of these evil priests was then unknown, for not only did the remnants of the followers of Orcus disappear from all human reckoning, but so did the Army of Light that followed after them. Some said that in the eternal scales the loss of so many good men was a fair price to pay to rid the world of so much evil, plus in the wars against the Sorcerer Kings such prices had been paid many times before.

The evil cult, however, had not been destroyed. The surviving priests and their followers instead settled in the hills east of Dark Crag Marsh just under the Mistwall. They found a vast underground complex of caves and mazes carving out a volcanic intrusion beneath the hills. There, the priests of Orcus found the perfect lair to continue their vile rituals. For many centuries they carried on in secret, hidden from the light and from the knowledge of men.

Many years after first settling in the hills, their underground delving completed, the evil priests erected a hideous mausoleum and a sunken graveyard atop a hill. It is believed that these graves are in fact the final resting place of the pursuing army of heroes that had been destroyed to the last man. Hidden under the Mistwall, it is possible that this last assemblage of evil priests from the days of the Rule of the Sorcerer Kings would have gone undiscovered forever if not for a group of adventurers. A century ago, a powerful group of adventurers, led by Bofred, a high priest of Heironeous, was adventuring under the Mistwall and came upon the sunken graveyard leading to a labyrinthine underground complex. Bofred and his companions found great hordes of evil creatures in the caverns beneath the graveyard. Though some of his companions returned from their expedition telling tales of fantastic treasure and ferocious monsters, Bofred himself was never seen again - presumed lost in the catacombs beneath the cursed mausoleum.

For the last one hundred years, ranks of adventurers swarmed to the newfound dungeon. Many fell prey to bandits and monsters in the surrounding wilderness, others to the fell beasts that live under the Mistwall. Of those adventurers who survived to reach the mausoleum and the sunken graveyard, rumors suggest that most were slain by guardians of green stone before they even entered the dungeon or that they perished on the very first level. Those rare few who return from deeper treks speak of horrible undead and of creatures that cannot be slain. All who have explored Rappan Athuk offer this one universal piece of advice: "Don't go down the Well."

Page Last Updated Saturday, November 10, 2001