Killer Modules

[Grim]

what about Vecna Lives?

That module was crazy!

Spoilers



















The first thing that happens is the DM hands out the Circle of Eight as the players characters. They are in "a tomb." Then Vecna shows up and kills them all. Mordekinien, Bigby, ALLL OFFF THEEEEMMMM!!!! His tactics are as follows: First round: gain innitiative (the DM is encouraged to cheat here). Cast timestop. Use his massive strenth to snap six of the character's necks (two a round). Survive whatever the remaining two characters do the next round (there are gargoyles attacking that round too...) Round Two. Cast cone of Cold three times (quickened spell, normal spell, hasted action) All dead. So then the players roll up each of the Co8's "helpers," which are whatever the players want.

The characters then spend days and days hunting down thier masters. And Divinations NO LONGER FUNCTION. Fun. Then when tehy find him finally, Venca runs away. He goes to Sigil, and when there, the only way to kill him is to do the following:

If you come within thirty feet of him, he can kill you as a free action. Unless he doesnt detect you. And he can detect anyone within a mile.

The only way to not be detected is to be attached to one of his rellics (the hand or eye). The only way to get those is to kill off the highest level memebers of his cult, and take them from thier cold dead bodies. And you have to find them first. They grant immunity from Vecna's instant locator, but he can still see you, even if he cant instantly detect you. And he can still hurt you

And the only thing that prevents against his instant death attack is the sword of Kas, which you have to get from Kas himself, who doesnt want to give it away. So you have to sneak through ravenloft, sneak through Kas's domain, Sneak into his mantion, and steal it from his book room (where it is carefully hidden and well, well guarded.

But if you bring the sword of Kas near vecna, he can ALWAYS detect exactly where it is, so he instantly see's you. The only way to kill him is to have one character get the sword of kas, and one of venca's relics, and then fight him in single combat. And he is DARN hard to kill. He has over 1000 hit points. Not good...

Now thats a party killer...

 

[Melan]

If older editions count, I must add "Deadly Treasure" from Dungeon magazine. It was basically a pretty linear tomb-dungon built by an archmage - the guy used his considerable magical wealth for traps - I ran the module thrice and only one party completed it.

In 3e, Tomb of Abysthor is a tough low level meatgrinder - not that many instant kill traps, just tough and organized opposition.

 

[Ulrick]

All of the modules I can think of that can be defined as "Killer" have already been mentioned.

Yet, I have to say that if you had a character who made it all the way through "Return to the Tomb of Horrors," then you've got bragging rights.

I love tough modules though. They force players to think. And if your character survives you've got a good story to tell.

 

[Apok]

Yet, I have to say that if you had a character who made it all the way through "Return to the Tomb of Horrors," then you've got bragging rights.

*raises his hand*

So I can start bragging now?

Good lord, that module was disgusting. It's alot worse than the orignal ToH because it's basically the original ToH with some extra nastiness thrown in courtesy of Bruce Cordell. Our 2e characters were in the 22-30 level range and we still took a major pounding (only 3 characters out of a 7-man party survived, the rest were raised afterwards).

One thing, RttToH is a little more combat intensive than it's predecessor. Skull City you can rp your way through alot of (especially with characters who have few scruples like ours) and the Tomb is a thinkin-man's meatgrinder. The City that Waits and Fortress of Conclusion sections are a brutal mix of traps, puzzles, and combat. As nasty as it is, the RttToH was probably the most fun I've ever had gaming. I strongly recommend converting it and running it. Our DM was able to weave the setup into our existing campaign flawlessly, which helped alot. We never knew he was using the module until it was too late...

 

[Sanackranib]

Re: Re: death modules

I haven't heard any playtest reports about ToH: just some stories Gary and or Rob Kuntz have related about running or playing it. Can you elaborate foruther Sanackranib?

It was years and years ago. I was in a local gaming store talking adout D&D with the manager and he told me that he had heard that at a con. reguardless, it's a "difficult" module

 

[Ulrick]

*raises his hand*

So I can start bragging now?

Good lord, that module was disgusting. It's alot worse than the orignal ToH because it's basically the original ToH with some extra nastiness thrown in courtesy of Bruce Cordell. Our 2e characters were in the 22-30 level range and we still took a major pounding (only 3 characters out of a 7-man party survived, the rest were raised afterwards).

One thing, RttToH is a little more combat intensive than it's predecessor. Skull City you can rp your way through alot of (especially with characters who have few scruples like ours) and the Tomb is a thinkin-man's meatgrinder. The City that Waits and Fortress of Conclusion sections are a brutal mix of traps, puzzles, and combat. As nasty as it is, the RttToH was probably the most fun I've ever had gaming. I strongly recommend converting it and running it. Our DM was able to weave the setup into our existing campaign flawlessly, which helped alot. We never knew he was using the module until it was too late...

Oh my. But see what I mean...that makes a great story.

I love that module.

Sometimes I wish I hadn't bought it so I could play through it as a player and not know everything.

 

[laiyna]

Undermountain

If played corectly its more leathal than any other module. It is instand death for all players and a gruesome at that. No rest, wearing down, just keeping the group happy with mybe a treasure nearby and in the end when they have enough of it, you can play to let them leave the dungeon.

And ofcourse in the mean time you can cause several TPK's with great fun, but I do say killing members and never causing a TPK is much more fun in undermountain.......

Laiyna

 

[Felon]

Cast timestop. Use his massive strenth to snap six of the character's necks (two a round).

Well, Vecna must know some special time-stop-related secret, because otherwise coup-de-gracing characters while they're time-frozen is not allowed. I thought you might've been referring to another edition of D&D, but if he's casting quickened spells and getting an extra partial action from haste, that sounds like 3 to me.

Can I get some spoilers on Necropolis? I've been hesitant to try another Gygaxian product since I purchased "The Hermit" (PU! Big mistake!). What are the characters faced with that gives this module its killer rep?

 

[Leopold]

Night Below
GDQ
Greyhawk Ruins
Undermountain
Rappan Atthuk

 

[kengar]

Forge of Fury was actually pretty tough. Every character dies in that one*

This one I'm running now Bloodhollow is pretty rough, though the party hasn't finished, so I can't say for sure how bad it will get.

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*(one to poison, the others to the dragon)