Home to my long running TTRPG campaign setting of Telrhin, centered on the continent of Numarha and the Three Worlds of the cosmology.
Christian Aldridge is a web developer and technology director for an environmental NGO. Married with two cats. He's also a reformed game designer who ran Hubris Games back in the day (Maelstrom Storytelling, Story Engine).
Appendix N: Adventure like 1974 Intended
I couldn't resist putting together my own Appendix N for Telrhin (gated).
Surely There's More
The rest of the site, the good stuff about the world and the many campaigns, is for players and friends.
There's a little kernel to the right in the sidebar, but suffice to say that Telrhin:
- has a cosmology of three worlds drifting inexorably towards destruction or rebirth
- the elves (the Kaladri) have a few dark secrets
- so do the dwarves (the Boradun)
- there's a Dreamworld (the Oneiros)
- there are dark wars waged by the Golden Queen
What makes it any good is not its originality so much as the rich and vibrant details that have evolved over the course of 40 years of living in it.
You can find out a little more in the podcast:
A Few Spots of Adventure: Some Dungeons Over the Years
Over 40 years we've amassed a long list of adventures and places to explore. These are a few of the largest and most ambitious.
Dacartha: the Dead City
The capital of the Empire of Destin, lost behind its walls when it was sealed from the world during the blood plague that followed the cataclysm of the Worldswell.
The Tower of Storms stands like an empty sentinel over the haunted remains of the great metropolis, the wealth of the world's biggest trading empire waiting for the brave and fearless.
The Ruins of Darkfold
The great abandoned halls of Kaladvain, glorious city House of Fain, full of wonder, wealth, magic, and the secrets of the ancient world. It stretched under the spine of the Weatherpeaks from the Lowlands of Ebizhan to the Sinland Forest.
Many things went wrong when the city collapsed in -2030n, leaving behind a half-flooded ruin of broken halls, ancient horrors, and most of it in a constant war between the orc tribes who call it home.
A massive dungeon slog through the city, mines, and caverns of what was originally a version of Tolkien's Moria.
Catacombs of the Hanging Palace
This is my answer to Gygax and his never-finished 100 level dungeon under Castle Greyhawk (and post TSR as Castle Zagyg). Tombs stacked on tombs stacked on temples to forgotten gods, below the crypts, sewers, and secrets of the ancient city of Akansha and the Hanging Palace of the Eternal Queen.
The Black Cairn
Hidden in the high reaches of the Weatherpeaks, the Black Cairn is a maze of passages and magic that may even lead to another world. A classic dungeon crawl!
Isle of Seven Deaths
The burial place of Fyrth One-Eye -- the greatest pirate to ever live -- and all his loot. Hidden in the West Isles of the Valek Sea, an entire island built to kill off the most seasoned adventurers.
Beldigard's Tomb
The legends of a magical tomb of the great mage Beldigard have floated through the centuries with scraps and hints that tease the location.
Based on the infamous "384th Incarnation of Bigby's Tomb" from Polyhedron, the RPGA magazine from ~1984, you can grab the pdf here.
Only one party in all the long years of Telrhin ever found it, and they left to regroup after a disastrous start.
Adoneda: the Temple of Gold
Legends of a lost temple of Safan, the Elephant God in the jungles of Akanhara: stories of an idol made of solid gold, with diamonds for eyes from the era of the Twin Thrones, a time of wealth and opulence.
Any adventurer traveling north of Akansha will be offered maps, guides, and secrets to the temple, an entire industry around a place that may not even exist.
The Lost Pyramid of the Hekasa
Somewhere in the sands of Arakhet, the pyramid of the Lost Queen was pulled into the sands never to be seen again.
With echoes of the mythic city of Qutb and the stories of its vanished civilization, the Lost Pyramid holds the secrets to a world still rich with the Great Dream.
The Buried City of Aervinel
Some versions of the myth say it floated in the clouds and crashed to earth in a catastrophic fall. It may have been a city caught in the schism of the Great Dream at its end. But all versions point to a ruined city of wealth and magic buried beneath the mountains.
I suppose this is the Telrhin equivalent of the AD&D GDQ series: a continuation of Darkfold, and then after Aervinel would be the (barely sketched out) Throne of Talanasron adventures.
The Valley of Ash Agad
Hidden in a long history of betrayal, treason, and a vengeful king, the tombs and lost city of Ash Agad in the mountain kingdom of Rhask-Edaan.
This could be an entire campaign in itself, unearthing dark secrets and an ancient curse along with wealth, power, and adventuring glory.
The Elephant Tower
Looming over the city of Dryer Mob for centuries, the ancient temple to Safan became the central hive of dark cultists.
When we ran it in 1985 it was a ten level dungeon you entered from the top of the tower. Full of magical rooms and puzzles, and home to the hegemonic order of the Red Priests.
Temple of Whispers
Okay so not a mega-dungeon, but the story is spread over three dungeons in the foothills of the Weatherpeaks: druid cults full of secrets, and an ancient world-ending beast that's starting to wake.
TSR and More
We torched through a ton of AD&D modules in the early days: Tsojcanth, Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Keep on the Borderlands, Saltmarsh, most of the A series (later bundled as Scourge of the Slave Lords), even Ravenloft.
The first time through Moria we used the Iron Crown Enterprises module for their Middle-Earth Roleplaying game, which evolved into Darkfold.
Some Judges Guild stuff, Flying Buffalo, Mayfair, Palladium, Iron Crown, some material from the world of Harn (Columbia Games), you name it.
All of these adventures were absorbed into Telrhin in one form or another. Even the Alice in Wonderland modules: Gygax wrote TWO modules based on Alice! Dungeonland and Land Beyond the Magic Mirror.
Somehow we never ran TSR's classic S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, even though I've had that module since I was 13.