Slave Pits Of Khasarn

Slave Pits Of Khasharn is a zero level funnel adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game (DCCRPG)

Set in the dungeon arena beneath the Autocaliph’s palace, the characters are poor souls sold or captured into slavery and forced to work their way through the hideously dangerous pits for the pleasure of the Autocalph Shazoon and his guests. While the PCs fight and die in the pits, betting between the city’s elite goes on loudly above them. Those slaves who make it through alive through the pits are promised their freedom. Those who don’t, remain in the dungeon as undead warriors doomed to fight a never ending supply of slaves.

A regular dungeon, with running commentary.

The dungeon itself is built around a series of large chambers that can be reconfigured by the dwarves that maintain the underground site. The Autocaliph invites his guests to create, also known as sponsoring, chambers to entertain their fellows to show off their creativity and wealth. During the events the audience bet heavily on either the number of slaves that will fall in a room, or sometimes towards the end of the ‘show’ the odds of survival of particular slaves. As each chambers roof is open to allow the audience to watch the grisly performance, the characters are well aware of the bets place upon their lives. Worse still, the Autocaliph likes to win, and guests who are able to control the events that unfold in their chambers are known to subtly target individual slaves that are being bet against to please him. It is of course up to the dungeon master how much commentary they wish to add to game. By adding cruel comments about the players performance, and changing tone from betting on how many will fall, to who will survive the DM can bring dark humour and a growing sense of desperate success to the games sessions. If you wish however to run the Slave Pits as a more regular adventure you could have the chamber roofs covered in one way mirrors, or even having impervious floating eyeballs following the party around.   

Introduction to Khasarn, city of jewels.

Khasarn is a sprawling coastal city that sits upon the mouth of the River Of Black Pyramids. It’s fertile delta and excellent trading position has given it an enviable situation in amongst the city states that line the blanket sea. Ruled by Autocaliph Shazoon Khandiz The Golden One, who snatched statehood from his uncle as a young man, the Autocaliph is despotic, whimisically cruel and wickedly insightful. Under his rule the city has mostly prospered, thanks in part to his patronage of the slave gangs that raid across the lands far and wide. These gangs sell their wares in the market of chains and pay the ‘red tax’, sending one in twenty slaves to the palace.

Khasran is beautiful to behold, with a thousands of coloured glass minarets gleaming in the relentlessly sunny skies. Beneath though it is a dangerous place for those who cannot defend themselves or show a relationship to the many trading houses that make the city their base. While exotic slaves from far of places or strange races command the highest prices, local smaller gangs are not above selling their own neighbours or even family at the market.     

Autocaliph Shazoon Khandiz, The Golden One

Shazoon is a now a fat aging man, who seeks more and more to indulge his primal fantasies and his love of the gambling. He was once an aggressive expansionist but he isn’t the strong military strategist he thought, and although his political acumen is beyond compare he could never trust his warlords enough to let them led. He employs a number of wizards to provide him magical toys, devices, illusions and auguries, although it is rare that they receive the title of palace mage as Mecalca Nhoul has. Under his rule the slave pit games have grown in both frequency and creativity. He politically favours those of the city elite who large sums of money on the creation of interesting scenarios for their sponsored chambers.