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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DM-Rocco" data-source="post: 2323274" data-attributes="member: 14451">Session 23 Module the Tomb of Horrors“Shun green if you can, but night’s good color is for those of great valor.” The words rang in the ears of all of them. Death had welcomed them twice and none of them wanted to die here, in this Tomb of Horrors, but a riddle was before them and they needed to solve it if they wished to survive. This time they left nothing to chance, they again covered the hall, from top to bottom, they poked everything before touching and poked twice for good measure. Every step was checked for traps and every door opened from as much as a distance as possible.  This great hall was exactly the same shape and size as the last great hall, there could be no doubt that they found the second great hall. This one too had many drawings on the wall, but instead of scenes from ancient times, this mosaic pictured odd figures foreign to the adventurers. Most of these figures had human bodies, all had heads that were not human, ranging from birds to dogs to bats. Each also held a sphere of some type and in a different color. The party had found another arch too, at the end of the hallway. Like the last one, this one had colored stone but these, unlike the last one, did not change the mists.  They never disappeared. While the others where fooling around with the magical arch, nameless was in the side room contemplating the days journeys. He was settling himself into a state of calm, meditating on events, trying to find a solution that the others might have missed. From the distance, he heard them in the other room and then there was silence. He heard them no more. He was just trying to sneak a peek from around the corner of the hall when he felt a hand touch him on the back, it was Shump. He was completely naked and was grappling with nameless. “If we are naked, then so too shall you,” cried shump. Not sure of his motivations but sure he didn’t like the sound of it, he broke the grip on the mans arms and fled for the next room. Soon, the whole of the party flooded from the small room he had been in and it became apparent to nameless that they were messing with the portal and it had not only teleported them to the beginning of the Tomb, but it had some how stripped them of all gear. Now so some reason, they felt a compulsion to make nameless the same, by shoving him into the portal as well.  Nameless was a monk of the first order and had sworn an oath of poverty, he had very little in terms of wealth or possessions, but never the less, he felt a sense of entrapment from the rest of his comrades and didn’t want to go through the arch. It looked however, that he had little choice, he was getting surrounded and grabbed by everyone and they were dragging him into the arch. He didn’t want to do it, but he had no choice, his friends had violated his personal space and went against his wishes, he had no choice, he concentrated for a moment and tried to shift his body through the strands of time and space and slip from one place to another. He triggered the fail safes of the tomb to prevent escaping or cheating the tomb of fun from those who would teleport to the end or as a means of escape. It was the last mistake he ever made. Shump screamed in agony, as did they all. On either side of the party appeared two balors. One talked in a painful language of evil so vile that just to hear the blasphemous words caused everyone who heard them to stand around in a stupor. They could barely stand their own ground and protect themselves from harm. While one did this, the other summoned a Maralith, a general of the armies of the Abyss, to do its bidding. It immediately went for Shump and wrapped its coils around the huge barbarian and began to grapple the man, squeezing the life from him. The first kept speaking in its vile tounge while the second drew forth its massive sword of flame and thunger and struck at Nameless with its lethal blade while it cracked its flaming whip at Gren. The sword missed its mark, nameless just barely able to dodge out of its way, but Gren on the other hand was not so lucky as the whip wrapped around his legs and entangled the man. He then turn his attention to Delvin and with an unseen force, blasted the woman/man, with a force of unseen energy, knocking her through the air.  Dlevin, normally blind, could see the evil radiating from the demons. They stood out in stark contrast to the blackness of being blind. He watched as the battle rages on. No, it was not a battle, it was a slaughter, the first balor had continued speaking in its evil tongue, causing all that heard it to be unable to react. He watched as the second balor struck down with his mighty blade of flame and thunder, striking Gren a fatal blow that severed his head. He watched as the Maralith continued to squeeze the life from Shump.  He had had enough. In that moment, watching Gren’s head fall from its neck and roll towards him, he had gained a strength that he could not describe. His naked body gleamed in the flickering torch light. The Collar around her neck, the ring of Pelor, began to glow, a holy light that spread over her naked form and made her eyes glow. She drew into herself the power of Pelor, a divine force of unmatchable power. With each passing moment, as her power grew, her faith in Pelor increased as well. Somewhere, deep inside, she could her a long forgotten friend, whether it was Pelor himself or someone else, she could not tell. When she could not stand a moment more of the power she held within, she released the power and directed it at the first Balor.  She watched as the white light of holy energy struck the demon and it paused for a moment, unable to move as the unfiltered power or Pelor struck the beast and in a moment of pain it was gone, exploded into thousands of tiny pieces of demon flesh that soon became eaten up by the power of Pelor. With the First Demon gone, Shump flew into a frenzied rage, a furry so mighty that he broke the hold that the maralith had on him and began pummeling the demon with his bare fists. A normal man would not effect such a beast of the outer planes, but in his rage he was strong enough to slowly pummel the beast and make her pay. He paid for every blow however, while he could hit and wound the demon, he was not trained in the art of fighting unarmed as Nameless was and for every attack that he had landed she had hit him with two in return. Again a normal man would have fallen from the many wounds, but the others had seen him in this frenzied state and they had know from past experiences that such a man as he would not succumb to such wounds until his rage had abated. While Devlin gathered her power again and blasted the second balor with a lingering fraction of the power that remained. This time it was not enough to kill the beast, but it was greatly wounded, not wounded enough to prevent it from casting spells however. At that moment he pointed a finger at the wily monk and Devlin could do nothing as she watched in horror as the body of the Nameless imploded in on itself. She screamed again and again blasted the demon with a force of divine might that did its job and slew the demon. Shump, after having battered the demon to a bloody pulp looked for a new beast to slay. He bled from every manner of cut. It was amazing that the man could still stand, muscle and sinew could be seem and in places hung on shreds of flesh. He turned his murderous rage on his friends for lack of any other enemy to attack. He could not help himself, he had to kill, he could not stop himself. He focused his rage on Sir Darian, a man whom he considered a friend, but now, he might as well have just been a demon. He bloodied the man in one blow, a lucky strike that knocked the naked man from his feat and lifted him from the ground and he was dead before he even hit the ground. As Sir Darian flew through the air he could feel the touch of Delvin as the man cast a spell that healed the man of all of his wounds. Flesh reformed itself and mended in front of every ones eyes. Then, an instant later, a calming effect came over Shump and he was able to regain control of himself. Silence filled the room. No one could make sense of what had happened and none pointed fingers at anyone. Three more had died and that was not acceptable. Everyone gathered their wits and placed dead bodies neatly to the side of the tomb, bringing them to the front of the entrance, for when they left, if they left. They took an inventory of the items they had left, they had no food, no water, no weapons save for those the maralith had on her, and three artifacts that seemed to not disappear as the other items had. The Ring of Pelor, The Penetrating Dagger of Dulum and the orb of the Ancients. One other thing they now had, or at least Delvin had, she could now see. She was still blind as most would consider, but she could make out shapes in the light, which is more than the total blackness that she had seen before her. Throughout the course of systematically checking the hall for traps, they had uncovered the master illusions hidden behind the spheres. They had found three illusions and after much debate, they had decided to go down the illusion of the black sphere for the riddle had said, ‘by night’s good color is for those of great valor.’ Although, after the situation at the Tormentor, the party was cautious and slow moving through the tight tunnel. It lead to a dead end, but some careful searching exposed a way through. It lead into a small hallway, seventy feet long and ten feet wide. They rest of the party slowly came through the tight fitting hole. The hallway was plain an unadorned, save for a massive ten foot by twenty foot door, a simple desk and a cloaked figure sitting in the chair behind it. * * *On another plane a tormented soul felt a calling to return, but he was in a state of bliss. He had served his purpose in life and wanted no part in the dealings of man. Still, he considered it. * * *Acererack sensed the death and mayhem in his Tomb, but he was beginning to become disappointed in this band of individuals. He had hoped that these brave and foolish adventurers would serve their purpose in life and pass his tests. Acererack had needs, but not the need for the weak. It could only wait to see what would happen.  * * * * * * * If you are following along with your own copy of the module, you will notice some inconsistencies. This night the party was in a funky mood. They thought that if four of them were dumb enough to jump through the second arch and lose all their gear then the rest of the party should be forced to the same fate. I don’t understand it either, drove me nuts, but that is a players job some times, okay, all the times, to drive the DM nuts. The module calls for a chance that a demon gets summoned when certain spells are cast. I changed this to a demon will be summoned every time a spell is cast of the right type. This brought the PCs to think they could farm XP, so for every summon they did by teleporting or dimension door or the like, I had a progressively harder demon fight the party. When they got to the Balor, I started over, but had them summoned in pairs. They stopped before having two balor to deal with. While having a fit and trying to throw Nameless into the arch, nameless said ‘screw this’ and did an abundant step, triggering two balors. Many died, yes it was foolish, still not sure what they were thinking. I also ruled that artifacts would not be effects by the teleporting of all gear from the party. Partly cause the artifacts in the game are custom and plot points and partly cause even though Acrerack is powerful, I feel that he should not be able to effect an item of ancient power like an artifact.  If you are wondering, Shump is a barbarian frenzied warrior orc (the world is mostly evil, so I allow a large selection of races to choosed from) and he was able to gain a strength score so high that he could hit the maralith and damage the Demon and punch the demon to death. Cause of his frenzied state he could not die.  NOTE FOR OTHER DMs, NEVER ALLOW A FRENZIED WARRIOR INTO THE PARTY. YOU WILL REGRET IT!!! As to the hallway, I added a change to the temple and this is part of it. </blockquote>

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