WIR S1 Tomb of Horrors [SPOILERS!! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!!]‏

[Bullgrit]

Not dead, just resting.

Bullgrit

 

[Hussar]

It does set the precedent that you need to approach the Tomb less as a typical dungeon romp and more as a particularly dangerous bomb-site disposal effort.

As we've discussed before, one way to succeed at the Tomb is to take it super slowly and super carefully. Never touch anything yourself. Use magic or slaves to tear it apart brick by brick, so you find all those doors hidden behind plaster or keys in vats of acid.

Along that line of thinking, how would it work if the PCs stood outside the Tomb and saturation bombed it with earthquake spells or any of the various AD&D magic items that facilitate digging or excavation? Throw in a decanter of endless water and you could wreak serious havok by pressure-washing and flooding. Summon a bunch of earth elementals or xorn. Use passwall to weaken the structure of the Tomb so that it collapses.

Better yet, scout the place out with scrying, then passwall directly into the demilich's chamber.

All would depend upon DM rulings, of course. But there is actually nothing to be gained by setting foot in the Tomb if you don't have to. (Nothing other that GP/XP; if you just want to "win", your goal is the demilich's treasure horde, period.)

Well, this has been pointed out. Probably the absolute best solution to the Tomb is to bring a flock of sheep in with you. Or pigs. Pigs would probably work best since they'd be heavy enough to set everything off.

Wand of Monster Summoning, or anything like a Bag of Tricks, or basically anything that gives you lots of disposable troopies like Animate Dead would solve a great deal of the adventure.

 

[Stoat]

Area 27A. The Chamber of Hopelessness

This is a 30 by 20 foot rectangular chamber. A small fountain of water spills into a basin on one wall. Skeletons and debris are scattered everywhere.

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic27a.jpg

Acererak has left a message on the north wall written in glowing, magical letters::

YOU WHO DARED TO VIOLATE MY TOMB NOW PAY THE PRICE. STAY HERE AND DIE SLOWLY OF STARVATION, OR OPEN AND ENTER THE DOOR TO YOUR SOUTH WHERE CERTAIN BUT QUICK DEATH AWAITS -- WHICHEVER YOU CHOOSE, KNOW THAT I, ACERERAK THE ETERNAL, WATCH AND SCOFF AT YOUR PUNY EFFORTS AND ENJOY YOUR DEATH THROES.

There's some low-value loot hidden in the rubble here: 30 - 300 silver, gold, electrum and copper pieces, 2-20 gems, a potion of diminution and a +1 Flail.

if the door to the south is even opened, all of the swords and shields in Area 27 animate and attack at once.

IMO: We've already talked about this room, and I don't have much to add. I'm not convinced that PC's teleported here by area 25B show up nude, but even if they have all their equipment, 24 animated swords and shields is a hell of a fight. It's not quite a deathtrap, but it's close. Acererak provides a warning, if not a clue, to the risks of leaving the room.

[MENTION=22779]Hussar[/MENTION]: I really don't think a herd of pigs or goats or whatever will be that much help in the Tomb. Pigs won't get the key out of the acid vat in Area 19. Pigs are probably not going to be much use in the Agitated Chamber. Pigs aren't going to be able to figure out the trick with the scepter and throne in Area 25. You can't clear the Tomb without picking up items and manipulating them. Maybe you should charm a few henchmen.

 

[Hussar]

True, it won't catch everything. But, it will catch an awful lot. Take the agitated room for instance. Let the pigs in first, get bounced around, trigger the green slime maybe. Or goats. Yeah, goats would work, they'd try to eat everything.

 

[Bullgrit]

Acererak provides a warning, if not a clue, to the risks of leaving the room.

Kind of funny how he gives a warning for something the PCs pretty much *have* to do. It's not like he's giving a warning the party can use to avoid danger.

Also, as for "CERTAIN BUT QUICK DEATH," the sword/shield trap really isn't either. At least not certain or quick like the sphere of annihilation or green slime or juggernaut or seesaw into the fire traps.

And imagine how the party would take the gloating message if they got to this room not by the teleporter, but by fighting their way through the weapons. It kind of falls flat in that entirely possible case.

Bullgrit

 

[Squire James]

Well, this has been pointed out. Probably the absolute best solution to the Tomb is to bring a flock of sheep in with you. Or pigs. Pigs would probably work best since they'd be heavy enough to set everything off.

Wand of Monster Summoning, or anything like a Bag of Tricks, or basically anything that gives you lots of disposable troopies like Animate Dead would solve a great deal of the adventure.

Actually the best setup would be a solo high level wizard with access to the Ethereal Plane, a Protection From Evil spell to ward off those pesky demons, and a Power Word Kill spell to deal with that pesky demilich. I guess a lower level wizard with a PW Kill scroll would do in a pinch. Not that any of the pregens or the adventure has any of this, of course.

I suppose that wizard would also need to somehow learn exactly where the demilich is, but I can see Gary hand-waving that part as he explains how Mordenkainen could solve the Tomb in about 15 minutes. Almost as if he crafted the adventure to work that way...

 

[amerigoV]

Well, this has been pointed out. Probably the absolute best solution to the Tomb is to bring a flock of sheep in with you. Or pigs. Pigs would probably work best since they'd be heavy enough to set everything off.

Wand of Monster Summoning, or anything like a Bag of Tricks, or basically anything that gives you lots of disposable troopies like Animate Dead would solve a great deal of the adventure.

As a DM, I would make this extremely difficult to pull off. Not to nerf the idea, but to build mood. This place just oozes EEEEEEEVIL from the start (isnt the area around the tomb someone mishappened from the efffects?). No way any normal animal is going near that place. I would make any animal companions have to be coaxed into the place, and have familiars give a really bad vibe to their owners. Maybe a druid could pull it off, but that is about it (sure, you could stuff them down the first main hall if you were lucky, but I think that is about all I would allow without heavy use of charm animal, etc).

 

[Loincloth of Armour]

As a DM, I would make this extremely difficult to pull off. Not to nerf the idea, but to build mood. This place just oozes EEEEEEEVIL from the start (isnt the area around the tomb someone mishappened from the efffects?). No way any normal animal is going near that place. I would make any animal companions have to be coaxed into the place, and have familiars give a really bad vibe to their owners. Maybe a druid could pull it off, but that is about it (sure, you could stuff them down the first main hall if you were lucky, but I think that is about all I would allow without heavy use of charm animal, etc).

Hilariously, this *exact* situation occured in one Dragon magzine comic, "Knights of the Dinner Table" (can't remember which strip).

Party was planning on entering the "Caves of Horrible, Sudden, Gory Death" --or some such-- and party responded by pulling out the horde of sheep trick. DM countered by saying the horrific waves of pure evil eminating from the caves mean the sheep won't enter.

Player trumped by casting "Shocking Fist" on a metal rod, turning it into a cattle prod. Then quoted the chapter and verse of the rules on animal control which allowed him to use the cattle prod to force the sheep into the dungeon.

Players... sometimes the game would play much smoother if they just didn't show up.

 

[jonesy]

I said earlier that I have huge problems with this part. Most of the individual things have already been said, but my biggest beef here is that sections 6, 33, 25, 27, and 27A all interact with each other by way of the passages and teleports that connect them, but the descriptions of the rooms do not account for any of this. Teleporting to 6 naked, but not to 27A? No mention on whether they stop floating, except that 27A assumes that the characters can freely drink from the fountain there which suggest they stop floating. Nothing in 6 mentions anything about this. 27A seems to assume that people teleport there because of the message, and if they don't they need to deal with the swords which are only mentioned in 27 and 27A, and not 25 which is the normal passage.

The individual rooms by description in this section of the Tomb are written as if they were isolated from each other, but they aren't. This is one section that really suffers from the flow of consciousness style dungeon design.

 

[MarkB]

The individual rooms by description in this section of the Tomb are written as if they were isolated from each other, but they aren't. This is one section that really suffers from the flow of consciousness style dungeon design.

That can occur even in more up-to-date modules. I recall having to hastily run a session of a Dungeon magazine adventure path one week without having had time to read the encounters through properly in advance. The PCs were entering a monster-occupied mansion, and the description of the living room mentioned that its occupants would rush to reinforce those in the lobby if they heard the sounds of combat there.

Of course, I only found this out when the party entered the living room, having already fought a pitched battle in the lobby. The description of the lobby, two pages prior, had mentioned nothing about a commotion drawing reinforcements.