Cooperative Dungeon IV: Update

[Phineas Crow]

I finished rewriting room 21. I may have to go through it again tomorrow with a clear head to see if there is any errors I missed.

 

[Conaill]

Uhm... I'm afraid I have to agree with tarchon here, Phineas. We've been assuming the tomb has been locked up for centuries/millenia, and that the party was the first to enter since it was sealed. Now you've got a grimlock in #21, which needs to eat, needs to have a way in, etc. Unless you come up with a back entrance we'd have to rewrite #20, #15, and possibly some other details as well. Plus you still have the two-body problem for Toth, which was my main issue with your earlier version.

Can't we just say that Chaos/Toth are one and the same, and that he got turned into a demon because something went wrong with the preservation process? Only one body, he's been in there all along, and none of the other inhabitants know what happened to him...

 

[Phineas Crow]

Uhm... I'm afraid I have to agree with tarchon here, Phineas. We've been assuming the tomb has been locked up for centuries/millenia, and that the party was the first to enter since it was sealed.

Actually, according to the adventure guidelines:

"- This adventure is split in two: the gnoll controlled sector, and the hidden tomb, populated by aberrations and other critters."

The tomb wasn't sealed enough to keep things out of it.

Now you've got a grimlock in #21, which needs to eat, needs to have a way in, etc. Unless you come up with a back entrance we'd have to rewrite #20, #15, and possibly some other details as well.

This one is my fault, I was going to put a black jackal master key in the room, but forgot (I'll add it tomorrow). The key was suppose to be in there during the previous version, but I forgot it then too.

Plus you still have the two-body problem for Toth, which was my main issue with your earlier version.

Can't we just say that Chaos/Toth are one and the same, and that he got turned into a demon because something went wrong with the preservation process? Only one body, he's been in there all along, and none of the other inhabitants know what happened to him...

Two bodies makes more sense. Toth had a body and a soul. When he died his soul was transfered to the lower planes and his body was entombed. A demon (or any outsider) has no soul, their souls and bodies are one and the same.
Hence while Toth's soul walked the lower planes, and eventually became a demon, his body is still entombed.

I intentally glossed this over in my summary since this isn't exactly covered in the SRD, I kept it vague enough not to cause problems.

 

[tarchon]

Actually, according to the adventure guidelines:

"- This adventure is split in two: the gnoll controlled sector, and the hidden tomb, populated by aberrations and other critters."

The tomb wasn't sealed enough to keep things out of it.



This one is my fault, I was going to put a black jackal master key in the room, but forgot (I'll add it tomorrow). The key was suppose to be in there during the previous version, but I forgot it then too.



Two bodies makes more sense. Toth had a body and a soul. When he died his soul was transfered to the lower planes and his body was entombed. A demon (or any outsider) has no soul, their souls and bodies are one and the same.
Hence while Toth's soul walked the lower planes, and eventually became a demon, his body is still entombed.

I intentally glossed this over in my summary since this isn't exactly covered in the SRD, I kept it vague enough not to cause problems.

The Egyptians believed in a tripartite soul, curiously.

 

[Conaill]

It's just not consistent with a lot of other stuff we already have: the dust-covered floor floor in #15 and #20, the unbroken seal on the door to #20, the opening mechanism for the secret doors in #14, #15 and #20 (what is the Open Lock or Disable Device DC for the lock that fits the jackal key and bypasses all those cool traps?), why doesn't he just open all the hidden doors and/or send Syl‘r out to convert the gnolls, and so on. At the very minimum, we'd have to rewrite #15 and #20.

Two bodies makes more sense. Toth had a body and a soul. When he died his soul was transfered to the lower planes and his body was entombed. A demon (or any outsider) has no soul, their souls and bodies are one and the same.

When he died, his soul(s) departed, and for some handwavy reason his body turned into a demon. Seems much more straightforward to me.

Anyway, it's your room, but I do like your earlier version *much* better. At least Chaos by himself could just have teleported in (Great Teleport at will), and we wouldn't have to make so many changes to the rest of the dungeon. Changing the background story this late in the game is a hassle...

 

[Phineas Crow]

Actually I'm currenting writing up the key I had previously mentioned. Here is what I have so far.


Black Jackal key: This is the master key to the tomb. It consists of a tiny onyx jackal figurine fastened to a black crystalline rod with four buttons below the jackal figurine. Each of the buttons is etched with symbols, the first has the head of a jackal, the second has a scroll, the third has seven bones in a line, and the fourth has an urn and a sheaf of wheat.

Three times per day the key can be used to teleport to a specific location if the command words "Toth Nekamek" are spoken and one of the buttons is pressed, other than that the effect is similar to a teleport spell.

Pressing the jackal head button teleports the user to room 21.
Pressing the scroll button teleports the user to room 12.
Pressing the seven bones button teleports the user to room 8.
Pressing the urn and wheat button teleports the user a mile away from the tomb in a random direction while the key teleports back to its resting place within the sarcophagus in room 21.

If the user tries to teleport to the same room that they are currently in, they are instead teleported to just outside the tomb (area 1).

The key will only function while in the tomb, any attempts to activate the key while outside the tomb automatically fail.

 

[Conaill]

PS: I believe we actually still have an "opening" if someone wants to write another mini-room: if I'm not mistaken, the secret door and tunnel from #14to #15 has not yet been described!

This is the entrance to the hidden portion of the tomb complex, so despite its relatively small size it's probably worth putting in a cool entrance and a few nasty surprises...

Any takers?

 

[Conaill]

The key will only function while in the tomb, any attempts to activate the key while outside the tomb automatically fail.

Could work, but it still doesn't explain how the grimlock got in. Or would you consider area #1 to be part of the tomb?

 

[Phineas Crow]

Could work, but it still doesn't explain how the grimlock got in. Or would you consider area #1 to be part of the tomb?

Same way the gnolls got in, through the front door.

 

[Phineas Crow]

[snip]...and we wouldn't have to make so many changes to the rest of the dungeon. Changing the background story this late in the game is a hassle...

It would be wrong of me to force others to alter their rooms on account of my changes. I'm doing my best to make my changes seamlessly fit with the rest of the dungeon and I thank you for bringing up any conflicts there might be between my changes and the rest of the dungeon.