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WIR S1 Tomb of Horrors [SPOILERS!! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!!]
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<blockquote data-quote="Stoat" data-source="post: 5585003" data-attributes="member: 16786"><p><strong>Area 3: Entrance to the Tomb of Horrors</strong></p><p></p><p>Everybody is in such a hurry to get inside! But we've got a long way to go before we need to worry about Agitated Chambers or Valves of Mithril. In fact, we're just getting to the entrance hallway. It's 20 feet wide and 130 feet long with a 20 foot high ceiling.</p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic3.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic3.jpg</a></p><p></p><p>As I noted above, the real entrance to the Tomb is immediately distinguishable from the false entrances. The walls, floor, and ceiling are covered with bright, brilliantly colored murals and mosaics. The murals on the walls show "all manner of things" -- grazing cattle, wolves skulking in the woods, slaves of all types going about "various tasks", and "chairs, windows, boxes, bales, doors, chests, birds, bats, [and] spiders." You also see pictures of a library filled with books, a torture chamber and a wizard's work room (although it doesn't really look like a work room to me). The "torture chamber" mural shows "a painting of [an] iron door which evidently confines some sort of a horrid creature . . . which can be loosed to torment prisoners." The exact wording is important here, and if your DM doesn't give it to you, you'll likely miss one of the ways out of this area.</p><p></p><p>A two-foot wide line of bright red tiles snakes its way down the hallway. It branches at the very end, heading either to the Arch of Mist or to the Face of the Great Green Devil. </p><p></p><p>There's a lot to talk about here (the module breaks the corridor up into four separately-numbered areas) and the most important is Acererak's riddle. But before we get there, I want to talk about two other things.</p><p></p><p>First, pit traps. There are five pit traps in the hallway. The Red Path will take you right into three of them. If you're poking ahead with a pole, you'll find a pit 2 out of 3 times. If you trigger one, there's a percentage chance (derived from your dexterity) that you won't fall in. At Dex 18, you have a 24% chance to avoid falling into a pit. The pits are only 10 feet deep, but they've got save or die poison spikes at the bottom of them.</p><p></p><p>My understanding is that the 1E thief can't make a Find Traps roll to detect the pits. The PHB says that the Find Traps ability "pertains to relatively small mechanical devices such as poison needles, spring blades and the like." Am I reading that correctly? If so, then there isn't an easy mechanical way to look for the pits. The party either (a) uses a 10 foot pole and blunders into 1 out of 3 pits; (b) uses a "goblin mine detector" (a goat, hireling or PC played by your little brother); (c) uses flight or levitation; (d) gets lucky or (e) falls in. At any rate, I ain't seeing no clues to avoid the pits here. The PC's will have to rely on luck and/or ingenuity.</p><p></p><p>Second, concealed doors. There's a door behind the "torture chamber" mural . It's marked as a "concealed door" on the map. Why is this not a secret door? As I understand it, you detect a concealed door by rolling dice. Elves get a 1 in 6 chance to detect concealed doors that they just walk by and a 50-50 chance to find them if they look. I assume there are similar numbers for non-elven PC's too? </p><p></p><p>The door in question is hidden behind plaster and lath. To open it, you have to bust down the wall. How many of you guys would really let an elf find it just by walking past? </p><p></p><p>IMO: There are no real "clues" to help the PC's find or avoid the pit traps. There are a number of pretty ordinary ways to detect pits, but Acererak isn't giving you any particular help. I think the clue for finding the concealed door is pretty clever -- it's behind the painting of a door! Duh!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Stoat, post: 5585003, member: 16786"] [b]Area 3: Entrance to the Tomb of Horrors[/b] Everybody is in such a hurry to get inside! But we've got a long way to go before we need to worry about Agitated Chambers or Valves of Mithril. In fact, we're just getting to the entrance hallway. It's 20 feet wide and 130 feet long with a 20 foot high ceiling. [url]http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic3.jpg[/url] As I noted above, the real entrance to the Tomb is immediately distinguishable from the false entrances. The walls, floor, and ceiling are covered with bright, brilliantly colored murals and mosaics. The murals on the walls show "all manner of things" -- grazing cattle, wolves skulking in the woods, slaves of all types going about "various tasks", and "chairs, windows, boxes, bales, doors, chests, birds, bats, [and] spiders." You also see pictures of a library filled with books, a torture chamber and a wizard's work room (although it doesn't really look like a work room to me). The "torture chamber" mural shows "a painting of [an] iron door which evidently confines some sort of a horrid creature . . . which can be loosed to torment prisoners." The exact wording is important here, and if your DM doesn't give it to you, you'll likely miss one of the ways out of this area. A two-foot wide line of bright red tiles snakes its way down the hallway. It branches at the very end, heading either to the Arch of Mist or to the Face of the Great Green Devil. There's a lot to talk about here (the module breaks the corridor up into four separately-numbered areas) and the most important is Acererak's riddle. But before we get there, I want to talk about two other things. First, pit traps. There are five pit traps in the hallway. The Red Path will take you right into three of them. If you're poking ahead with a pole, you'll find a pit 2 out of 3 times. If you trigger one, there's a percentage chance (derived from your dexterity) that you won't fall in. At Dex 18, you have a 24% chance to avoid falling into a pit. The pits are only 10 feet deep, but they've got save or die poison spikes at the bottom of them. My understanding is that the 1E thief can't make a Find Traps roll to detect the pits. The PHB says that the Find Traps ability "pertains to relatively small mechanical devices such as poison needles, spring blades and the like." Am I reading that correctly? If so, then there isn't an easy mechanical way to look for the pits. The party either (a) uses a 10 foot pole and blunders into 1 out of 3 pits; (b) uses a "goblin mine detector" (a goat, hireling or PC played by your little brother); (c) uses flight or levitation; (d) gets lucky or (e) falls in. At any rate, I ain't seeing no clues to avoid the pits here. The PC's will have to rely on luck and/or ingenuity. Second, concealed doors. There's a door behind the "torture chamber" mural . It's marked as a "concealed door" on the map. Why is this not a secret door? As I understand it, you detect a concealed door by rolling dice. Elves get a 1 in 6 chance to detect concealed doors that they just walk by and a 50-50 chance to find them if they look. I assume there are similar numbers for non-elven PC's too? The door in question is hidden behind plaster and lath. To open it, you have to bust down the wall. How many of you guys would really let an elf find it just by walking past? IMO: There are no real "clues" to help the PC's find or avoid the pit traps. There are a number of pretty ordinary ways to detect pits, but Acererak isn't giving you any particular help. I think the clue for finding the concealed door is pretty clever -- it's behind the painting of a door! Duh! [/QUOTE]
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WIR S1 Tomb of Horrors [SPOILERS!! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!!]
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