Attronarch's Athenaeum

Over at the forum El Borak mentioned Attronarch in his thread Hirelings, loyalty, and morale which you should take a look at.

Attronarch has a website Attronarch's Athenaeum (Campaign journals, reviews of TTRPG stuff, and musings on D&D).

About
Welcome to my digital home. Here you'll find session reports from my D&D campaigns, reviews of TTRPG stuff I've collected over the years, thoughts on the game itself, and some, hopefully useful, resources.

I’m running a weekly online D&D B/X game focused on hexcrawling and dungeon delving in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy Barbarian Altanis—a hostile land filled with ancient riches and antediluvian evils.

He has a ton of stuff to help you with your game and I highly recommend you go check it out.

Also I just discovered he lists this blog The Ruins of Murkhill in his blogroll. 

New Wotc D&D Survey

 New Wotc D&D Survey

 I enjoy filling these out and telling them things they don't want to hear.

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 073)

You retreated to the right side Door #7 room and hang out there and eventually the Cube of Death passes leaving the corridor spotlessly clean. You peak out the door and see it turn the corner back at the T.

What do you do? Try one of the Door #8 again or move on?

OK, Door #8 it is, left or right?

OK, right side first.

The door opens right away this time, perhaps the Cube of Death lubricated the hinges or broke up some of the rust. This room is 30'x30' and the floor sunken about a foot below the corridor and has a sandy bottom to it. As you examine the room you note that the sand is very clean and before you stepped in there was not  mark in the sand at all. There is nothing else in the room and the walls are bare. 

If they are lucky that will find one or more of the three secret doors in this room. Or not.

One secret door leads to a stairway going up (only), one leads to a stairway going down (only) and one leads to a 10'x10' room which holds a what looks like a trollish human that is frozen solid.

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 072)

Next up are doors #8 on both sides of the corridor. These doors are stuck tight, really tight.

How much time do you want to spend on trying to open them?

Wandering monster check, negative.

Do you want to keep trying?

Wandering monster check negative.

More time passes, do you want to keep trying?

Wandering monster check. At the limit of the torch light, you see something, it slowly get closer. It fills the corridor from top to bottom and side to side, it is semitransparent and as it gets closer you see stuff floating inside it.

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 071)

Proceeding down the corridor another 30' you come to doors on either side of the corridor (Doors #7)

These doors are made entirely of metal and with a little luck you are able to pick the locks and open each door one at a time. 

The right side door opens into a room that is 40'x40' and it is filled with barrels and kegs stacked throughout the room. Everything is covered with a thick layer of dust.

What do you do?

Why yes, you mage does detect magic, but he cannot pinpoint it, he thinks it is all around you. You open a keg and a barrel, you find that they are lined with glass and both are closed (under the barrel lid) with a wax sealed glass stopper. The contents of both look the same so you open the keg and discover that it is honey. There are enough kegs and barrels to fill at least 20 wagons.

The left side door opens into a room that is 40'x120' and this room is filled with rows of shelving. The shelves are 10' high going all the way to the ceiling. The shelves are covered with wooden boxes and crates of all different sizes. All are securely nailed shut and even the smallest ones are quite heavy.

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 070)

Advancing another 40' down the corridor from the vacant rooms and you enter an area where there has been a recent battle. There are fresh blood stains in the corridor and other indications of recent death, but the bodies themselves are mostly gone. The next four doors on either side of the corridor (doors 5 and 6 both sides) are broken down. All four rooms have been trashed, with freshly broken furniture, wall hangings laying torn up on the floor, blood everywhere. There is a secret door in each room that has been ripped out of the wall and a narrow corridor leading away from each of these rooms. Signs of bodies being dragged down each of these corridors is present.

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 069)

Next up are the 3rd doors on the right and the left and the 4th doors on the right and the left. These rooms are each 20'x20. They are filled with broken furniture, dust, dead rodents and such. Each of these rooms has a well hidden secret door on the real wall in one of the corners.

The door lead into narrow 3' wide passages. 

If you are successful in finding any of these doors, what do you do? Enter them or move on?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 068)

Next is the 2nd door on the left. This room is 40'x160' deep and there is a throne at the back of the room. The room is brightly lit and the throne appears to be made of gold. The throne is encrusted with hundreds of gemstones. On the throne sits a man who must be 10' tall. He is handsome and well built, he looks very intelligent, wise and forceful, his hair is black with gray at the temples. He wears a golden crown and he has a huge ring on either hand. 

On either side of it are two large chests, each is 8'x3'x4' high. Each has a lid that sticks up another 18" high. Around the throne are two huge men on both sides of the throne. All four are about 8' tall and each carries a sword and an axe. 

None of them are moving at all and there is no sound. A blue glow surrounds everything I have described on and around the throne.

What do you do? 

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 067)

Next is the 2nd door on the right. The door is hard to open and when you finally get it open you see two of the largest ogre's you've ever seen, you didn't know they could get that big. They were waiting on you and when the door opens they grab you and pull you into the room and slam the door shut in the faces of your companions and bar it from the inside.

Their strength is incredible, you are helpless and they quickly tie you up and once throws you over his shoulder and away they go through a secret door.

The rest of your party is trying to get through the door. Will they succeed? Will they be able to follow?  Will they rescue you in time?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 066)

So you are climbing down the beanstalk?  Are you sure you want to do that?  OK

It takes you a full day to get to the bottom of the beanstalk and when you get there you are a lot bigger than anyone there, you are to them as giants in your own world are to you.

What do you do?

As you look around, you see mounted knights with lances and behind them many men coming towards you with swords and spears. Behind them march many bowman.

What do you do?

While you think, a flight of arrows is launched, they barely break the skin, but they do hurt and some of them cause a trickle of blood. Right behind them is another flight and another after that. Then the knights charge.

What do you do? Fight or start climbing?

Climbing? Good choice!

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 065)

Next you open the 1st door on the right. 

What do you do?

If you immediately just walked in, then you had a terrible fall. 

If you looked into the room you saw no floor, but you are looking down at a vast plain a very long way below you. You see below you what looks like a very tiny village. You are so far away that if there are people they are too small to see.

What do you do?

Why yes, there may be a way down. To the left of the door a little ways in, you would have to leap to grab it, is a massive bean stalk and you might be able to climb down it. 

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 064)

So your proceed to the door straight ahead of you, we will call that door #1, you open the door fairly easily and walk down a 30' long 5' wide corridor that T's into a 12' wide corridor.

Do you go to the right or left or back the way you came?

You go to the right, along the right you see ahead of you in the dimly lit corridor a series of wooden door set into the jet black obsidian walls. 

Do you want to try a door on the right hand wall or the left hand?

The left hand, OK this door is very hard to open, but eventually gives. Inside the walls of the room, like the corridor are polished obsidian. The room is 20'x30' and has four 4' diameter tables each with four chairs. Along the walls are six square 2'x2' tables with oil lamps that are lit. 

At the left end of the room is a 3'x10' table covered with a bright yellow cloth. On the cloth are various trays. One tray has two pitchers that have frost on the outside of the pitchers. One tray has a platter of different cheeses, another has a platter of different meats that are still steaming hot. Two more platters are covered with roasted vegetables and another has fresh, hot loaves of bread and several butter crocks.

At each end of the table is a statue that is a carved serving person.

What do you do?

If you seat yourself, the statues will animate, fill a plate and a cup and serve them to you. Should you eat and drink?

What do you do?

Think about it!

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 063)

At the four way intersection you try each of the forward three options available and each one gets worse the further you go. as the floor sinks into the muck, mire and calf deep oily, slimy water.

You go back and return above ground, the next day you go down to a lower level than before. Here you find a polished marble floor around the stairway and a circular wall that surrounds the stairway with a diameter about 20' bigger than the stairway itself. When you start exploring and looking for doors or passageways you find that a new wall has formed behind you separating you from the stairway. Then the whole thing starts to rotate.

What do you do? 

As it rotates doors appear, lots of doors, but it is too difficult to count them. Suddenly the rotation stops and you are all thrown to the floor. Then you discover that there are ten doors around the outside of the circle. 

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 062)

If you try to door to your left, once you get the door open you enter a long, dark, musty corridor with dripping water. There is a general smell of decay and you wish a gelatinous cube had proceeded you down this path. Water pools on the floor here and there along with an occasional skeleton and outcrops of mold and mushrooms now and then. The walls are covered with moss and the walls seem to lean in towards you just a bit.

Here and there you think you see eyes reflecting the torch light back at you, but when you move closer they are not to be found.

What do you do?

About 60' in you come to a four-way intersection and all directions look like what you have just passed through.

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 061)

The dragon and the thousands of wyrmlings are gone, so you try the stairway again. At that first level you find an area that is collapsed, but you can explore the rest of it. There are two doors opposite the collapsed area. 

The door to your right opens into a brightly lit area filled with fountains and walk paths between and around them. Butterflies and other brightly colored insects flit through the air. There are many flowers and bees buzz all around. Then you here a chittering sound and realize that you are surrounded by dozens of foot long scorpions. 

What do you do? 

Arduin News From Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. 3/1/2023

 This following is a quote about Arduin:

News from Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp. 3/1/2023

Hello Fans,

We are still here, just been a busy last year for us! Here are the details:

• Arduin Bloody Arduin RPG Rule System is being developed by our team at EmpCho. This has become the focus of EmpCho for Arduin. This development started 15 months ago from December 2021 to present. It has been 15 months of Blood, Sweat and Tears with a lot more to be done on this critical project! We will keep you informed of the progress of this critical project! Here are some items of note about Arduin Bloody Arduin:

1. It is NOT OGL, ORC, Black Flag, or any other open system. This is an RPG Rule System for Arduin, which is Proprietary, Sovereign and Specific.

2. It will easily be compatible with most Fantasy Role Play Games, especially any of the many versions of OSR rules.

3. It will have tentatively 25 Races, 20 Classes, Hundreds of Spells, aspects of Dave Hargrave’s Original Arduin will be included into the game.

4. It will use a D20 for combat, Factors for Characters will be rolled up Arduin style, Racial Hit Points, CF Count for Initiative, Mana, and aspects of Original Arduin.

5. We will have a very selective playtesting tentatively late this year.

6. The Core books tentatively will be a Player’s Handbook, Gamemaster Guide and Monster Manual. There may be one more Optional Core book, but that would be down the road (Years) after the initial release. We do NOT plan to do any more ‘Core’ books for rules. Once you have the rules, you are good to go! We do not like the idea of new rules and ‘Core’ books every so many years…This is the last version of Arduin Rules.

7. Please understand that we are in development and things tend to change in a blink of an eye! Yet, the above items should be stable and not change unless, there is major reason.

• We are also working on support products for Arduin Bloody Arduin. This includes:

1. Game Master Screen – We have a very rough prototype but are getting a final design this year. It is cool!

2. New map for Arduin and the Continent of Khaora – Large, updated versions and each map about 75% complete.

3. Adventures – We have one done (Lancer’s rest) and two more 90% close to done.

4. Wanted to talk about Lancer’s Rest – We announced this adventure for release for late last year but have decided to keep the module for the Arduin Bloody Arduin RPG Rule System.

5. Miniatures – We have produced new molds but there are still more to be done. We are planning to do more casting and should have more miniatures become in stock soon.

• We do have a new product to announce!!! We have the card sets for the original 4 Dungeons available now! If you are missing cards, need replacements or a new set, please go here to order them:

https://empcho.com/product/arduin-artifacts-monster-card-sets-for-dungeons-1-4/

• This is an old video but wanted to repost here, and EmpCho did participate in the 12 Days of OSR Christmas again for 2022 and will do so again for 2023 and on. We want to Thank Erik and Mike for all their great support! Erik has many great videos on Arduin on his channel! If you have not already seen it, please check out our guest appearance from Wednesday 3/2/2022 at 8:00pm EST on Talking Crit with Bad Mike & Tenkar Live Stream on Tenkar’s Tavern YouTube channel at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o-9uBBasnE

• Here is another more recent video from our Friends at Shadow and Son:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WL-4KtCl9NY

Get to know us a little better in this video but excuse the information, which has changed since that point in time 11/7/2022. There also many Videos on all our Arduin products on their channel!

• Jesse Heinig from the EmpCho team ran a one-shot adventure for Caster’s and Cantrips on February 24th, 2023. He sent the 5e DnD group into a small section of Caliban! Check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs55lZbyq20

• We want to give a shout out to Griffith Morgan! He produced the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary/Movie. Please support his great works!

https://www.secretsofblackmoor.com/

We have been in talks with him about doing something similar for David A. Hargrave! It is a long-term goal for us to honor Dave.

• Wanted to let all of you know that due to the sheer amount of work, time, and cost with all the Arduin projects, EmpCho will NOT be attending any conventions this year. We will see where we are at for 2024 but our main goal is to get Arduin Bloody Arduin finished and produced along with all the support product as soon as possible!

I know this was a big update, but there was much to say! We will not deviate from the path of bringing Dave Hargrave’s Dream back to the gaming world! Thank you again Fans for all your great support!!!

Very Sincerely,
David Bukata
President
Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp.

George De Rosa
Vice-President
Emperors Choice Games & Miniatures Corp.

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 060)

So you have decided on the stairway you will try to access first, after relocating your camp to the best defensible position.

This stairway is a tight spiral and you descend 30' to the first landing. Here you find thousands of what appear to be long thin worms covering the floor, although none come near the stairway as the landing has a very rough and abrasive surface. You scoop one up for a closer look and it is not a worm, at least not like any you've ever seen. It has a head more like a snake in appearance. As you watch you see that they are all crawling into tubes in the walls that seem to slope upward. Soon all of them are gone except the one that you are holding.

What do you do?

If you put it down, it will rapidly follow the others.

Up above you hear shouts.

If you return above you will see these thousands of apparent worms (but they are not worms, neither are they snakes) coming out of the ground and dispersing in every direction.

(none of you are familiar with the three stage life cycle of dragons)

After they have all departed you decide to wait to the following day to try the stairway again. During the night you hear strange sounds and then the beating of giant wings.

In the morning running from a point 40' from the stairway and continuing away from you there is a giant hole in the ground about 120' in length, 40' wide as the widest point and 30' deep.

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 059)

Another earthquake happened during the night as the dungeon reshuffled itself. All around you the ruins are completely different in appearance. Giant piles of rubble where there were little piles before. A dozen pools of water are scattered around.

As you explore the area again, you find over two dozen stairways, chutes and deep holes throughout the ruins. At one of the holes you drop a large rock, but you never hear it hit anything.

What do you do? 

You don't have enough men to guard all the openings, what are you going to do?

What's that? You are going to move the camp so that you have a defensive position with nothing behind you but a solid wall and all the opening are in front of you. You say you are going to explore that nearest opening, while your camp guards are setup to defend themselves.

You continue to explore and listen and check things out before you ever go underground.

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 058)

You walk down the stairway 30' to another landing ( good catch, yes, the water level above extends into another dimension, another world) and when you step outside the area of the landing, instead of walking to one of the doors that you see, you find yourself in the middle of  a maze, a very large maze.

What do you do?

Can you find your way out, can you solve the maze or can you untie the Gordian Knot of the maze.

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 057)

As you stand before this seemingly endless pool of water three mermaids rise out of the water standing on their tails. They are large with their heads about 7 feet above the surface of the water. They beckon to you to come to them.

What do you do?

As you watch them, you see that each has a ring in the palm of their hand, again they beckon to you to come take the ring.

What do you do?

If you take the ring it is a ring of water breathing, if you refuse, then you will mortally offend them.

Choose wisely!

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 056)

You walk down the stairway another 40' and where there should be a landing their is a pool of water surrounding the stairway as far as you can see in any direction. A "lip" that extends a foot above the water keeps the water from flowing down the stairway. This lip is 18 inches thick. A 10' pole does not reach the bottom of the water. A grappling hook tied to a 50' rope does not reach the bottom of the water.

What do you do?

Shooting an arrow across the water with a long bow results in a faint splash.

Time and patience results in the catching of strange eyeless fish and eyeless eels. 

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 055)

You continue on down the stairway another 60' to a hexagonal landing that is 60' to a side. This area is well lit in sunshine, from where you don't know. It is walkways of polished stone running through areas of trees, flowers and other plants that occupy most of the space. On the far side of the outer walkway the outside wall is black granite, smooth and polished, with no apparent openings. 

What do you do?

About 40' from you a creature walks out through the wall, turns away from you walks about 20' and then just past the corner turns and walks back through the wall.

What do you do?

There is a secret to traversing the wall, do you know what it is?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 054)

You continue down the stairs another 80' to reach the next landing. Here you see a landing 40'x40' with the stairway in the center, the landing is surrounded by four blank walls, but when you step away from the stairway, the stairway, the landing and the walls disappear, shocked you take a step backwards and then another and you are again at the stairway with the same scene as before.

This time you move forward slowly and the moment the scene changes you stick your spear into the ground and clearly mark the ground with an arrow pointing back the way you came. Now looking around you are in the middle of a large grassy plain and all you see is tall grass up to your shoulders in every direction, no trees or building or hills or even mountains in the distance, just the grass and the sky. Oddly in the sky you see two suns near one horizon and near the opposite horizon you see three large moons. Your world has only one sun and two moons.

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 053)

You go down another flight of the stairs and you come out of the landing to a dark, dank, wet, cold system of small interconnected caves. Water is dripping everywhere and there is fungus everywhere. There is constant noise and you think somewhere nearby is a waterfall and a river. 

At the edge of the light you think you see small creatures darting around you and you hear the chattering of voices.

What do you do?

Then a large shape comes out of the gloom and as it gets closer you see that it is a heavily muscled *troll with a large gaping mouth.

What do you do?

*My trolls are mindless hungry eating machines. They only become intelligent when they get past 500+ years old and they also grow as long as they live, so trolls that have been around long enough to have some intelligence are also very large, to large to fit into a dungeon. Trolls are essentially immortal and die only of violence, specifically fire and/or acid damage. Even a small piece of troll will grow into a new troll. 

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 052)

You go down another flight of the stairs and you come out on the edge of a perfectly round tunnel, you step from a small landing through a small opening into the tunnel. The tunnel is cut through bedrock in a perfect circle that weaves back and forth as you follow it. Every now and then an identical tunnel cuts across the one that you are in.

As you follow the tunnel, at irregular intervals you see clumps on the floor of the tunnel, clumps of copper, iron, tin, zinc, silver, gold and other metals all mixed together. These clumps which are mostly iron and copper range from one to two feet across and are like half flattened spheres. You come across one every 200' to 300' apart.

On the walls of the tunnel you see here and there streaks of color that identifies a little ore here and there. Something is cutting the tunnel and concentrating out the ores that are present.

You have been following the tunnels for a while and have changed tunnels a few times. You suddenly realize that you have not marked your path, you are lost and not sure of your way back to the stairway.

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 051)

Ok, you survived the vampires, good for you. After that you figured out that this level constantly shuffles itself around, from rooms in many configurations to a wide open space. At each shuffle different monsters and room features appear. Some of them even have treasure, but the odds on any one shuffle are low, but a few of the shuffles are quite rich. It all depends on how much time you want to spend on this level AND on how long this level remains where it currently is.

After a dozen bites at the apple, two near TPKs and the loss of five party members out of the 12 you stated with, you get lucky and reap the following:

5,000 Copper Pieces 

2,000 Silver Pieces

10 Gold Pieces, Gold is very rare and extremely valuable.

Various gems and precious stones for another 5,000 Silver Pieces value.

Three scrolls and two maps, one of the maps is of this dungeon and if you stick with it you will find out that the details on the map shift and reform as the dungeon itself changes. You might even find a clue to the earthquakes, actually dungeon-quakes, if you stick with it.

There are two swords and five javelins. There are four potions and three jars of salve. There is a ring, an amulet and a cloak. There is 50' of rope that glows. Six-one foot segments of rod that snap together, to form a quarterstaff, but it will also become flexible and crawl like a snake, even up into the air, and it can do many other things.

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 050)

You walk towards the newly created door that beckons you, as you approach the door swings open by itself, in the dark behind it are eyes, many eyes.

What do you do?

As you get closer you see that the eyes are red, the skin is pale, very pale and the face has a feral look to it with long visible fangs. 

What do you do? Stay in the sunlight shining over the stairway or enter the room. You see the eyes, you hear the voices, what do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 049)

What do you do? Right or left or back towards the stairway? How wide is the river, if you throw a light stone, you will see it hit the water and you will still not see the far bank of the river.

If you go to the right you will walk 1500' paces to a wall that runs from the river at a 45° angle away from you. If you follow that wall you will walk 4500 paces to a corner 90° that turns to the right. You can follow that 6000 paces to a second corner 90° that turns to the right. You will follow that another 6000 paces to a third corner 90° that turns to the right. If you follow that you will walk 4500 paces and arrive back at the river. Along the way you will see nothing else but wall, floor and columns.

As you stand looking at the river you hear behind you the sound of sliding stone, if you move in the direction of the sound you will see a wall sliding across the floor between you and where you think the stairway is.

What do you do?

If you hurry you will see that the sliding wall is coming from both directions and if you run you will just get through between the two immense slabs before they close behind you. You hear more sliding stone and as you hurry towards the stairs you hear that sound all around you. As you reach the stairway, there are stone walls all around you. As you pause at the stairway, you see doors appear on the walls around you. One door opens and seems to beckon to you.

What do you do? 

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 048)

It is morning and the stairway is still there.

What do you do? Up again or down?

Going to the stairway and peering down into the darkness you listen intently and hear faint sounds, some coming up from below and some coming down from above.

What do you do?

Which should you explore, continue from yesterday or start downward? This place is massive, where to start or should you go recruit a much larger group?

You start down the stairway and at the first landing you look around. The stairway opens into a very large room, with all the light at your disposal you cannot see any walls in any direction. You do see many supporting columns in every direction but no walls. 

What do you do?

If you decide to explore this open area, one of your party  fastens a number of light stones around the stairway so that you will have a beacon to return to.

Coordinating with someone at ground level on the stairway you mark the four points of the world around the stairway and decide to head east. You walk forward and stop every 20 paces to listen quietly and look around. You hear nothing as you do this. As you come to each column you mark it to help find your way back. 

After 200 paces the light stones have grown very faint, you decide to keep going. When you stop at 2,000 paces, you listen and in the distance ahead you hear, what you think is the roar of moving water. You rest, eat and decide to continue. 

Another 1,000 paces and you come to a river that is about 200' wide, the water is fast moving and clear enough that your light stones let you see the bottom in  a small area. You tie three 10' poles together and they just reach the bottom where you are on the bank. At the edge of your light you see large shapes in the water.

What do you do?

Dungeon 23 Project - The Ruins of Mount Auyán (Day 047)

As you make your way back to the stairway through the massive ruins you run across several skeletons (not animated), giant skeletons that would have been about 20' tall in life. That makes you wonder even more about the stairway, since these fellows could not have used it.

Everything about these ruins appears to have been well picked over. You wonder what killed these giants and brought down these ruins. It is what it is, just another mystery, like so many others you have come across, you wonder if there is anyone who knows these tales of long ago. If only the stones could speak. (hint)

Back to the stairway (see this post for info about this stairway). Again you are on Level 100 (UP).

Heading back down the stairway you come to Level 99 (UP) which has one of the landings with eight doors leading away from it. The eight doors are equally spaced around a circular landing.

What do you do? Explore here or continue on down the stairway?

As you pause to think about it, something strikes you as odd and you go back up the stairway, but there is no landings and no ruins, because the stairway now continues on up and it looks like it goes up for a very long way. From where you are you see only stone walls extending up around the stairway and if you go up the stairway 40', 80' 100' there are no landing and the stairway continues much farther than you can see.

What do you do? Up or Down?

If you go up, you will climb for days, perhaps as much as a week, to get to the top and to the ruins you were in just a short time ago. If you go down you will return to Level 99, you can explore there or continue on down the stairway.

What do you do? If you stop at Level 99 for a bit, you will smell a strong reptilian smell and hear the hissing of large snakes.

As you continue on down the stairway, at each Level you will hear sounds or smell smells or both. Eventually you reach ground level again. It is late, so you camp wondering if the stairway will be there in the morning.