Le donjon de Naheulbeuk


Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk is a French fictional adventure in audio episodes. They are freely available on the Internet.
This humorous adventure takes place in a medieval-fantasy world. Stereotypical role-playing game characters, hired by a mysterious wizard, enter the Dungeon of Naheulbeuk in order to retrieve the 12th statuette of Gladeulfeurha which will allow the completion of a mysterious prophecy.
John Lang, the creator of Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk, distributes the downloadable episodes freely on his website. They are only available in French, however, and there are currently no plans to translate the project. The stories have also been published as comic books in French.
After two first seasons in audio format, the series was continued as a series of books and comic books; the sixth and final book, Chaos sous la montagne, was published on November 22, 2014; the comic book series is currently ongoing.

World

Earth of Fangh

The Earth of Fangh is the only known part of the world of Naheulbeuk. It contains various landmasses, such as the Schlipak Forest in the middle, high mountains in the north, or the plains known as the Wild Lands of Kwzprt, home of the Barbarians. Geography is pretty chaotical, as many things in Naheulbeuk are.
There are two major cities and multiple villages in the Earth of Fangh:
In the middle lies Glargh, the greatest city the world has ever seen. Its inhabitants are known for their hatred of magic and their ability to recover from the various disasters that may happen. The city is ruled by a brotherhood of Brewers-Monks, and was once the country's capital.
South-east is the current capital, Waldorg, the city of magic. It is ruled by a Council of Wizards who spend much of their time in endless meetings and plots to gain more power.
The west of Fangh has many villages such as Valtordu or Mliuej, city of beer, where half of the houses are breweries and the other half are taverns.

Chronology

Heroes

All the characters are stereotypical depictions of Dungeons & Dragons characters. In this story, not only are they rather inept and unskilled, they also swear profusely and are unable to cooperate. None of the characters have names; they are only referred to by their professions.
In the first season, the characters find their way through the dungeon to steal the statuette..
In the second season, they must cross the dangerous Earth of Fangh to meet with their employer, Gontran Teogal, in an inn of the lost city of Boulgourville.
In the third season, they must steal the statuette again to save the world of the eternal sleep due to the return
of the last god of chaos: Dlul the god of sleep and bore who is being summoned by the former employer of the adventurers..
The fourth season begins shortly after the end of the third season, with the adventurers running into the hills to escape from a hill giant. After the death of the Elf, they travel to Waldorg to ask a wizard to resurrect her. Then they are hired by the Council of Waldorg to steal an object in the tower of the Mistress of the Slanoush Cult. But they don't know that they are being used in a vicious plot against the city of Glargh...
The fifth season, the last so far, begins right after the end of the fourth, when the Elf learns that she has been proclaimed queen of her people. The adventurers must then follow her and prevent a war between all races from happening.

Derivative works

The Naheulband

''Naheulbeuk'' graphic novel

Published by Clair-de-Lune editions.

Novels

All the seasons have adaptated into novels written by John Lang himself. It could have been just a mere transposition from the audio and comic seasons into text, but the author added a fair amount of "cut scenes", as well a "prequel" part in the ironically last written book that relates the first seasons. Ironically because according to John Lang "Naheulbeuk could not go translated and sold in foreign languages unless the series was completed".