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.