Arduin's Cailban & Adventurer, Conqueror, King's Secrets of the Nethercity - An OSR Commentary

 So it looks like the Emperor's Choice site is back in place & we've got Arduin coming up in our Adventurer, Conqueror, King rpg campaign. And it brings up the fact that Vault of the Weaver is one of the foundation books for our setting. 

This is a collection of the Arduin adventures & dungeons including: 

– Caliban
– Howling Tower
– Citadel of Thunder
– Death Heart

– and a couple of more books thanks to Paul Mosher:

– Hive Home
– Heart of Darkness

Also included is the Tomb of D’Haera

These dungeons were the creation of the Elder races including the Elves who during the earliest days turned to the worship of Chaos. These dungeon  is very much a hold over from the ancient days of the corrupted Elves.  And this brings up the adventure within the vast kilo-dungeon as a part of the Secrets of the Nethercity ACK 's supplement. 

In the back of my mind is the idea that Dave Hargrave's flying Dutchman of dungeons Caliban is a hold over from the earliest days of the Elves. A place of sheer evil that carved its due out from the planes over & over again. The dungeon blitzing across the planes washing into & out of reality like a parasite taking the best & brightest from the ranks of adventurers. Caliban is a sink of evil that  AX2 Secrets of the Nethercity ACK 's supplement kilo-dungeon could hold long lost secrets about. 

This brings home the point that these Elves of Chaos may have done themselves in. And looking over the Graphite Prime blog I noticed his version of the classic Monster Manual II Drider. And a thought has been bubbling in my head, could the classic driders be a race unto themselves & a cursed race within this campaign unto themselves?! A cursed race of Elven chaos worshipers who went from Elves to spider hybrids?! 

Drider artwork by Griphite Prime blog artwork used without permission. 

So were the Elves of old cursed to become a hybrid race of spider monsters because of the creation of Caliban?! Its very possible! There are secrets beyond mere treasures within the dungeon walls that no sane man knows!