Rappan Athuk: What Do People Know?

Major spoilers for the adventure—potential players, get outta here!

Thinking about a future Rappan Athuk game, I want to establish what people in my world know about the dungeon, combining that with the lore contained in the book. There’s a really interesting rumor table in the book, but in some ways I want less of the historical information to be known to the players. At the same time, I want to leverage the rumor table to add flavor and danger to any communities or NPCs that would know more about the dungeon than the average person. So I’m going to scour the book, looking at what they seem to indicate people generally know about Rappan Athuk and then make my own modifications to the lore to fit my story hook.

From the Book

Rappan Athuk is noted on page 28 of the 5e version as a dungeon of legend, with most people at least knowing the location. The dangers of the area preclude exploration by anyone but only skilled adventurers and those with a deathwish (maybe those are the same people) seem to go there.

The legend of Rappan Athuk as related on page 13 is unclear in a couple areas. It indicates that the legend of Rappan Athuk is well known so characters may know some or all of the information provided. A few pieces of information are clear and seem to be more widely known:

• The Army of Light attacked followers of the Demon Prince Orcus in the city of Tsar.
• The surviving high priests of Orcus fled the city, pursued by the Army of Light.
• The Army of Light was led by the wizard Zelkor.
• The Army disappeared. It’s fate unknown. So did the evil priests.
• A graveyard and mausoleum were built on the hill of the site known as Rappan Athuk, and it’s rumored that this is the final resting place of the army of light.
• Adventurers have been attempting to delve and investigate Rappan Athuk for over a century.

Then there’s some information that seems to be secret:

• Secretly the followers of Orcus settled at the site now known as Rappan Athuk, expanding the system of already existing caves.

Now here’s what’s unclear for me:

• How is the gap in time between the disappearance of the army of light and the construction of the mausoleum and graveyard explained?

The timeline adds further information, clarifying (or contradicting in another sense) the details above, including:

• That construction of the dungeon of Rappan Athuk was begun almost 400 years before the fall of Tsar with temples to Orcus built there. 
• Only one year separates the destruction of the Amry of Light and the construction of the graveyard and mausoleum.
• After the rediscovery of Rappan Athuk by adventurers many have come to seek its treasures and mysteries (secret: these are now some of its denizens).
• Eighty years before the present day another small army led by a holy warrior attempted to attack Rappan Athum and cleanse it off evil. Almost no one escaped the dungeon.

Revised Legend

So the legend should actually go more like:

The dungeon of Rappan Athuk has a mysterious past. Under a dark mausoleum and graveyard, long rumored to be the final resting place of the fabled Army of Light that disappeared after destroying the demon-worshiping temple city of Tsar far to the North, adventurers a hundred years ago found a massive labyrinthine dungeon complex. Tales of wonderful treasures have attracted adventurers for almost a hundred years, but while many tell tales of the dungeon, few of them have actually visited it and survived. A holy warrior dedicated to the god of war even led a military expedition into the depths of Rappan Athuk eighty years ago, but few if any of his followers escaped doom in its halls.

Nestled in remote hills in a coastal forest plagued by bandits and monsters, Rappan Athuk is a destination not for the faint of heart. What dark and wondrous treasures and mysteries remain to be uncovered there?

Details to Hold Back

There are a few details I think are better held back to be secrets you can reveal to your players during play. With the hook and patron I would use the players are not from the region near Rappan Athuk, and thus have less information about the dungeon than those living near it do.

Details you can play close to the chest until a convenient opportunity to relate them during play occurs:

• That Rappan Athuk is a secret temple and dominion of Orcus. I think you can safely hide this until they discover it in the dungeon, or from an NPC. This increases the mystery about the dungeon, forcing them to ask “who built all this? What were their goals? Were they evil?” History is written by the winners but in this case the Army of Light was lost. With over four hundred years of intervening history it’s very much a possibility that only a few only texts in the wider world even recount how Tsar was a temple city to Orcus and that the Army of Light even existed, much less was formed to oppose these demon worshippers.
• Whether or not this is actually where the Army of Light was destroyed. This adds another mystery That they can investigate, and plays well with the hook I mentioned above that I created.

The rumor table has a few items that contradict these omitted details. I suggest rolling for your players and rerolling if you hit anything with info you don’t want them to know before they start adventuring. However, I think that Zelkor’s Ferry is a good place to use the rumor table since other adventurers may have more detailed (or completely false) information.

This product contains intellectual property of Frog God Games LLC under license. Such intellectual property is considered Product Identity under the terms of the Open Game License provided by Wizards of the Coast.

All references to Lost Lands Material from Frog God Games including Army of Light, Tsar, Tsarol, Rappan Athuk, and Zelkor's Ferry are product identity of Frog God Games LLC.