#RPGaDay2024 Day 16 – Dungeon

On day 16 of #RPGaDay2024, we passed the halfway point, and I’m delayed! Well, it’s still the 15^th; I did not post early in the day. RL happens. As you know by now, I am continuing with the alternative prompt challenge list by Skala Wyzwania. For more information on RPG a Day, see David Chapman’s Autocratik blog post for 2024.

The RPG challenge theme for today is Dungeon. Rolling a 1d10 for the quest. The result is 5: Write a Legend or Rumor.

The Ruins of the Great Reaver

Written upon the copper pages of the Forbidden Arcana in the secret library of the long-dead Metal Masters of Ravall is the hidden history of the origins of their mastery over gears and steam. The book tells how the ancient inhabitants of the lost mountain valley where Ravall would rise found their way into a cavernous labyrinth at the bottom of a humongous crater. Their myths told of a great metal bird that turned night into day and crashed into the crater in the distant past.

The shepherds who wandered into the caverns discovered a series of corridors and rooms with metal walls, floors, and ceilings. Strange colors of myriad colors glowed within, and ghostly forms appeared, speaking unknown languages. Only one shepherd returned to tell the tale, but the flock was lost, and others soon disappeared in and near the crater.

The tribal leaders of these primitive people called for the bravest soul among them, armed these adventuresome brave souls, and they entered the labyrinth. When they returned, they told tales of the remains of a flying airship from beyond the world, filled with wondrous magic of metal and lightning capable of turning a person to dust. The magicians among the heroes had deciphered some of the secrets hidden at the bottom of the crater. The great ship was once called the Great Reaver and traveled from world to world, conquering the inhabitants in the name of their ethereal masters who resided in the ship’s core. These masters, known as the Aye Eyes, were almost destroyed when the enslaved servants of the great ship revolted, and it crashed into this world in eons past.

Only one of the Eyes remained, and it used the creature and powers of the fallen ship to explore and conquer the lands beyond the crater. However, the heroes valiantly fought the Eye and its servants and were able to cause it to fall into an endless slumber.

Only six of the seventeen heroes that entered the cavern returned. But those who returned had discovered secrets and powers that changed the fate of their tribes. They became the first six Metal Masters, showed their people the secrets of machines and steam, and established the six princedoms of Ravall. The great capital city of Ravall itself was built upon the crater, and the city’s Great Engine secretly draws its power from the reality-warping core of the fallen airship deep below.

The cabal of warlocks that rediscovered Ravall have restarted the Great Engine but have awakened far more than they bargained for and are now the thralls of the awakened Eye in the depths of Ravall.

This post is my tribute to the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and the FSS Beagle in Blackmoor / Mystara. I have never placed a crashed spaceship in any of my games, yet the idea seems fun, and that’s the origin of this post. I hope you enjoyed it.

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