Questions on Tomb of Horrors/Greyhawk/AD&D history

[Katana_Geldar]

Okay, so I'm running 4E Tomb of Horrors with two groups, one in real life and one onlineand I've had some ideas for sometime about incorporating further lore into the campaign as the module does make references to quite a number of ToH material. Like the fortress of conclusion, the underdungeon by that bloke who's name starts with "M", Skull City.
Also the Tomb of Horrors has a lot of lore behind it in the campaign world itself, a story oft told by adventurers to other adventurers but the real truth of the matter is a matter of dispute.
One thing is clear though: the Tomb of Horrors did exist in all it's scariness of the original module, furthermore a group of adventurers did go through and "beat it".
So my question is, who could they be?
What I would like to have, as part of the lore of the tomb, is those adventurers to be from a group run way back by Gary, perhaps even the group that beat it with the crown and sceptre trick. I'd hardly need any details besides race, class and gender...and even that could be a bit murky with the passage of time and swapping of stories.
And they'll be edition in-jokes with how magic worked different then and certain gods have been forgotten and disappeared.
Can anyone help me? I don't have access to a lot of resources including Return to the Tomb of Horrors or back issues of Dragon (I don't think my library ever got it).
I was thinking maybe Robilar and Tenser, as it was this article that gave me the idea.

 

[Alzrius]

Well, the original material on the UnderTomb is from Dragon #249 - the (now undead) architect that's buried there is Moghadam.

You could liberally sprinkle in materials from the updated v.3.5 version of Tomb of Horrors, such as having a crypt chanter in the Cavern of Mists instead of the original siren.

You could also use some of the NPCs from Return to the Tomb of Horrors who were said to have originally tried to find the "true" tomb - I remember there was an aging one-armed fighter ("Groller" I think) and a mage who made it all the way to the Fortress of Conclusion; "Dessatysso" or something like that, I think.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

I don't have access to either of those things, as I said in the post.

 

[Remathilis]

RoToH has the group meet an NPC who was the sole survivor of the last group to go in there: Grunther. He's a human fighter with a 6 or 8 Int and is missing his left hand, which he stuck

Spoiler

in the mouth of the devourer

to test it.

 

[the Jester]

Actually, it was the pcs from my 3e campaign. The story hour starts here.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

Jester, what exactly is that and what does it have to do with the price of ten foot poles in Skull City? Or is it some sort of joke?

 

[the Jester]

Jester, what exactly is that and what does it have to do with the price of ten foot poles in Skull City? Or is it some sort of joke?

I ran my 3e party through Return to the Tomb of Horrors in my regular campaign play. Kinda ambushed 'em with it. They succeeded beyond my wildest imagination- and I am a notoriously lethal and ruthless dm. That link is a story hour that includes the tale of the party in the Tomb of Horrors, and tells the tale of their trip through the Tomb itself, Moil and finally the Fortress of Conclusion.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

Nice! I'll have to read it when I'm not at work.

What about that party with the sceptre and the crown? Any idea about them?

 

[grodog]

The original ToH was beaten by both Rob Kuntz (playing Robilar with orc servants, all of whom died in the entry corridors) and Ernie Gygax (playing Tenser, and I don't know that we know much in the way of details on his play). The scepter/crown trick was mentioned in the RttToH introduction, but wasn't DM'd by Gary; if you need the details, I can pop them into the thread for you?

This may also catch your eye: the "Catacombs of the Necromancers" map:

It's a double-sided TSR promo sheet that was a freebie to be given away by retailers to help promote sales for RttToH, and you could easily have it tie into a previous group of explorers (or be some part of an elaborate trap/lure created by Acererak, of course). If you're interested, you can buy one from Noble Knight for $3.50 @ TSR Gold Promo - Return to the Tomb of Horrors - Catacombs of the Necromancers Map

 

[Katana_Geldar]

One of my friends managed to locate Return to the Tomb of Horrors so I'll be using his copy for lore, but I certainly will get the handout as it's a nice feelie. And with the way the dollar is at the moment now's the time.

So it was just Robilar and Tenser? No more details on the characters? I find it hard to believe they beat it with just two.