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WIR S1 Tomb of Horrors [SPOILERS!! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!!]
- Thread starter Stoat
- Start date
Area 28 The Wondrous Foyer
The secret passage behind the throne in Area 25 leads to a really fancy room.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic28.jpg
The steps here are each made of a different stone: onyx, pink marble, lapis, black marble, golden serpentine and malachite. The walls are made of polished copper panels set between strips of rare wood inlaid with ivory. The ceiling is polished silver. The doors at the top of the stairs are made of solid mithril.
A big bronze key is sitting on the fourth step. This is the Second Key, and you have to have it to finish the Tomb. Unfortunately, the key is warded with an Antipathy spell. Anyone who touches it must save versus spells at a -2 penalty. Those who fail the save refuse to ever touch it again, and won't even allow it within two feet of themselves!
IMO: The trap here is the big doors in Area 29. We'll come to them in the fullness of time. But what's the deal with the Antipathy spell on the key? The players will need to use the key in Area 33. It opens the last door to Acererak's lair. The key is also a component in the Area 29 trap, so it sorta makes sense that Acererak would leave it out here. But why make it difficult to pick up and use?
The secret passage behind the throne in Area 25 leads to a really fancy room.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic28.jpg
The steps here are each made of a different stone: onyx, pink marble, lapis, black marble, golden serpentine and malachite. The walls are made of polished copper panels set between strips of rare wood inlaid with ivory. The ceiling is polished silver. The doors at the top of the stairs are made of solid mithril.
A big bronze key is sitting on the fourth step. This is the Second Key, and you have to have it to finish the Tomb. Unfortunately, the key is warded with an Antipathy spell. Anyone who touches it must save versus spells at a -2 penalty. Those who fail the save refuse to ever touch it again, and won't even allow it within two feet of themselves!
IMO: The trap here is the big doors in Area 29. We'll come to them in the fullness of time. But what's the deal with the Antipathy spell on the key? The players will need to use the key in Area 33. It opens the last door to Acererak's lair. The key is also a component in the Area 29 trap, so it sorta makes sense that Acererak would leave it out here. But why make it difficult to pick up and use?
There isn't much to Area 28, let's do two rooms today.
Area 29 The Valves of Mithril
A pair of huge mithril doors stand at the top of the stairs described in Area 28. And I mean huge. The doors are fourteen feet wide, twenty-eight feet tall and three inches thick. No wonder we hear stories of adventurers trying to steal them. These doors are almost certainly the most valuable things in the Tomb!
You'll be surprised to learn that the doors are "absolutely spell and magic proof." The module doesn't say if its immune to a thief with a high lock picking skill. Go ahead and be a rat bastard and say it is.
There's a keyhole right in the spot where the two doors meet. You can see it in the illustration provided for Area 28.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic28.jpg
The keyhole is set in a "cup like depression, a hemispherical concavity." Basically, it looks like somebody took an ice cream scoop and dug a dollop out of the doors. It isn't clear how big this "concavity" is, but it looks fairly sizable in the picture.
If you overcome your Antipathy and grab the Second Key, you might think it goes in this door. Zzzzap! Take 1d10 points of electrical damage. Hmm. Maybe the First Key, the one that was under the slime back in Area 19 will do the trick. Zzzzap! Take 2d10 points of electrical damage.
The trick is use the Scepter from Area 25. Poke the gold end of the scepter into the cup like depression, and the doors swing right open! Poke the silver end into the doors, and you'll be teleported back to Area 6, naked as the day you were born.
Maybe the players decide to bash down the doors? Well, if the doors are cut with a sharp weapon they start gushing blood like the elevators in the Overlook Hotel. In 20 minutes, blood will fill the room to the ceiling. The module provides a list of several spells that players might cast at the gushing blood. Each has a different effect; some of them seem pretty far fetched. Also, any kind of fire, even the torch you've been paying your henchmen to carry around, turns the blood into poison gas that kills everybody in the room, no save.
IMO: Obviously, the players are expected to try the Second Key on the Mithral Valves. It won't work, and somebody will take a relatively trivial amount of damage. My guess is that lots of groups will get confused and burn a lot of time monkeying around with the Second Key here.
Acererak has told us that the Throne in Area 25 is "key and keyed." We've already seen the Scepter open one secret door. Arguably, those are clues showing the right way to get through the doors. The concavity could be a clue as well, particularly if the DM describes it in a way that connects it back to the Scepter.
How are the players supposed to know which end of the Scepter to use? The silver end worked back in Area 25, but it doesn't work here. The general rule in Area 25 seemed to be "like touches like." Touch the gold end of the Scepter to the gold crown. Touch the silver end to the silver crown on the throne. Mithril is silver, nothing in Area 29 is made of gold, so that pattern fails here. Am I missing something?
I love the image of the doors that gush blood, but how likely is it that the players trigger that trap? Assuming they thought to use force, I'd guess that most groups would try to batter the doors down. The module is fairly clear that the doors only gush blood "if cut by a sharp weapon." Who tries to cut through a metal door?
Area 29 The Valves of Mithril
A pair of huge mithril doors stand at the top of the stairs described in Area 28. And I mean huge. The doors are fourteen feet wide, twenty-eight feet tall and three inches thick. No wonder we hear stories of adventurers trying to steal them. These doors are almost certainly the most valuable things in the Tomb!
You'll be surprised to learn that the doors are "absolutely spell and magic proof." The module doesn't say if its immune to a thief with a high lock picking skill. Go ahead and be a rat bastard and say it is.
There's a keyhole right in the spot where the two doors meet. You can see it in the illustration provided for Area 28.
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic28.jpg
The keyhole is set in a "cup like depression, a hemispherical concavity." Basically, it looks like somebody took an ice cream scoop and dug a dollop out of the doors. It isn't clear how big this "concavity" is, but it looks fairly sizable in the picture.
If you overcome your Antipathy and grab the Second Key, you might think it goes in this door. Zzzzap! Take 1d10 points of electrical damage. Hmm. Maybe the First Key, the one that was under the slime back in Area 19 will do the trick. Zzzzap! Take 2d10 points of electrical damage.
The trick is use the Scepter from Area 25. Poke the gold end of the scepter into the cup like depression, and the doors swing right open! Poke the silver end into the doors, and you'll be teleported back to Area 6, naked as the day you were born.
Maybe the players decide to bash down the doors? Well, if the doors are cut with a sharp weapon they start gushing blood like the elevators in the Overlook Hotel. In 20 minutes, blood will fill the room to the ceiling. The module provides a list of several spells that players might cast at the gushing blood. Each has a different effect; some of them seem pretty far fetched. Also, any kind of fire, even the torch you've been paying your henchmen to carry around, turns the blood into poison gas that kills everybody in the room, no save.
IMO: Obviously, the players are expected to try the Second Key on the Mithral Valves. It won't work, and somebody will take a relatively trivial amount of damage. My guess is that lots of groups will get confused and burn a lot of time monkeying around with the Second Key here.
Acererak has told us that the Throne in Area 25 is "key and keyed." We've already seen the Scepter open one secret door. Arguably, those are clues showing the right way to get through the doors. The concavity could be a clue as well, particularly if the DM describes it in a way that connects it back to the Scepter.
How are the players supposed to know which end of the Scepter to use? The silver end worked back in Area 25, but it doesn't work here. The general rule in Area 25 seemed to be "like touches like." Touch the gold end of the Scepter to the gold crown. Touch the silver end to the silver crown on the throne. Mithril is silver, nothing in Area 29 is made of gold, so that pattern fails here. Am I missing something?
I love the image of the doors that gush blood, but how likely is it that the players trigger that trap? Assuming they thought to use force, I'd guess that most groups would try to batter the doors down. The module is fairly clear that the doors only gush blood "if cut by a sharp weapon." Who tries to cut through a metal door?
Bullgrit
Adventurer
Oh my god. All the various materials and colors makes me think there are some kind of clues or hints to be figured out. But, no, all this descriptive detail is pointless. Unless the point is to distract the PCs into thinking about clues and hints.
A key sitting on the step right in front of the door? Reminds me of the glowing mace on the steps outside the fake lich’s room. Obvious trick is obvious. I would think most Players would leave it be. But if someone does try to pick it up, and the party discovers the powerful magic protecting it, this might stoke their curiosity. This might spur them to spend time and effort trying to figure a way of picking it up and using it in the door. Sadly, it’s only a waste of time and effort, and strangely, the resulting trick is not even entertaining enough for the waste. Obvious trick is obvious, and tempting, but ultimately a letdown.Stoat said:
This area has another one of Gygax’s little snide remarks on the Players. The one key gives a mild zap. The other key gives a moderate zap “to any so foolish as to insert it!” [Exclamation point in original text.] I’m sorry, but I don’t consider inserting a key into a key hole is a foolish action. Even here in the Tomb of Horrors, there are two more key holes, later, that require the PCs insert these very two keys into them. In one place, inserting a key is “foolish” but in other places it’s required and proper. It’s one thing for this trick/trap to exist – I’m not complaining about the gimmick itself, (though it is weak) – but it’s just poor form to set a snide tone toward the Players just because they don’t figure out the illogic of an clueless trick.
Yeah, again, no clue or hint or logical pattern to follow. Disappointing to me, but the standard trope, here, it seems.Stoat said:
This is an interesting gimmick and cool mental image, but really a weird trap with possibly a low chance of being tripped. And the results for some spells cast at it? Cure spells seem logical, (surprise). But cast polymorph at the flowing blood and you create a bunch of wights who attack? First, who would cast polymorph at the flowing blood?Stoat said:
Bullgrit
I've said before, and I'll keep saying it. The Tomb is full of evocative color details that look like they should be clues but probably aren't. It's weird to me that the module starts out with strong, color based clues (shun green, nights good color, etc. etc.) and then seems to abandon the concept.
Who would cast levitate? Who would cast purify water?
Bullgrit
Adventurer
Some of this stuff would feel more appropriate in a module like Gygax's Dungeonland and Land Behind the Magic Mirror -- a weird-fun environment where crazy-fun things happen. But in a module presented as a serious and thought-needed challenge, some of these tricks/gimmicks just feel out of place. Things like this door and the green slime tapestry and more seem more fitting for a whimsical adventure.Stoat said:
The more we study this, the more the Tomb of Horrors seems like a bad LSD trip: vibrant colors all around, convincing illusions, strange transmutations, paranoia, people ending up dead or naked.Stoat said:
Bullgrit
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MarkB
Legend
Anyone with an adamantine weapon, for one. I don't know about 1st and 2nd edition, but I recall from my 3e days that people would routinely apply those things to dungeons like a can opener, hacking away at doors, walls, containers, anything that might stand in their way.
I could see levitate being cast on someone in the blood pool to get them out above it so they don't drown - especially the heavy-armoured tank who has the natural buoyancy of a brick.
And if the DM is kind enough to provide some hint as to the possibility of the blood turning poisonous, a purification spell might seem to be the perfect response. Some players might do it as a routine precautionary measure.
You're right that hacking down the door with an Adamantine weapons would look like a good plan in 3.X. But, I'm almost positive that Adamantine weapons didn't work that way in 1E and 2E.
Yeah, I am pretty sure that this is a 3E-ism. That being said, maybe the blood is there for the greedy players who try to cut the doors loose to sell them. After all, any reasonable pricing of mithril (especially if they are solid) would suggest that it is time to go home and rejoice at a successful and profitable dungeon expedition.
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