Under The Singing Bridge

Actual Play -  Dungeon Crawl Classics: Legends of Thracia

An Introduction...

I run a Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign for a group of six friends every other Thursday (life permitting). In October 2025 we started a campaign centred around Jennell Jaquay's classic 1979 D&D module Caverns of Thracia.

Originally released by The Judges Guild and republished by others later, it was recently the subject of a successful Backerkit campaign by Goodman Games who released a DCC and D&D 5e version under their OAR line. As has become customary, Goodman Games included a reprint of the original 1979 text along with an updated version for the two rule sets which included a minor mountain of expanded materials and modules.

We are playing the DCC version and kicked things off with their excellent 0-level funnel adventure, Grave Robbers of Thracia. I built upon the additional material GG provided, drawing my own simplified campaign map of the Island of Thracia and fleshed things out to suit me and my party's tastes.

On a whim, we decided to start recording these sessions via the Discord bot Craig and I began teaching myself how to edit the output using Audacity...

The Party

The story so far...

PelagiosMapMap of Pelagios, the party's home village

Spoiler warning: The below will contain some mild spoilers for anyone who might want to play The Caverns of Thracia themselves. These spoilers will become less mild as the campaign progresses.

The quiet, tranquil village of Pelagios had known peace for long years. That came to an end when, five years ago the village protector, Thenedes the Thaumaturge, suddenly dropped inexplicably and thoroughly dead. Three years later, more turmoil as one morning the sun failed to rise over the horizon. Much beard pulling and offerings were made to Pelagia - the patron goddess of the village - and the next morning, the sun returned.

Then, just a few months ago, the local burial grounds were disturbed and the graves emptied. Last week, people began to disappear too - a tunnel had been dug upwards into their villa and a family vanished without a trace.

The village elders raised a mob who followed the tunnels overground south into the forest who happened upon an ancient, ruined tholos. Descending below, the mob encountered danger and horrors before rooting out its ghoulish occupants and slaying their "King", Gallus - a former general of Ancient Thracia.

As well as some loot and artefacts, the party recovered a strange mystical gem - the Resurrection Stone, source of the ghoul legions - and an ancient map of the Island of Thracia: ThraciaMapMap of Thracia, inked by an unknown ancient artist

Six stout hearts from that mob decided the promise of riches and glory untold from the lost city of Thracia was an opportunity not to be passed on. Myridos, the village grave digger, also discovered his faith in the tholos of the ghouls; Sabazios the Sky Father reached out to him and charged him with building his followers and restoring him to glory. Meanwhile Sergius, the elf, made a dark pact with a demon lord from the Court of Chaos itself, KLARVGOROK - THE MERCILESS GAZE!

HamletMapThe town of Hamlet

Upsetting the local priests before they left, the party purchased equipment, took on a young lad to carry Lady Di's belongings, then set off south to cross the wilds of Thracia, heading towards the town of Hamlet on the River Styx. On arrival, they checked in to the Jolly Gryphon Inn and began getting their bearings..

-Stag

Credits