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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stoat" data-source="post: 5716627" data-attributes="member: 16786">I'm not dead, yet!  I've just been getting my ass kicked at work.  Also, there's a lot going on in Area 25.  I'll do 25A, 25B and 25C today, and pick up 25D later.Area 25. The Pillared Throne RoomThis is the largest room in the dungeon.  It is 110 feet square with a ceiling 30 feet high.  Scores of huge pillars, each about 3 feet across, fill the room.   The pillars and floor are decorated in pastel colors. <a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic25.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic25.jpg</a>Anybody who touches a pillar starts levitating uncontrollably.  The floating PC bobs across the ceiling "just as a child's helium balloon."  There's a light breeze up there, and it gradually pulls the PC to either the northeastern or the northwestern corner of the chamber.  What's in those corners?  A familiar face!<a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic6.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic6.jpg</a>Yep.  There are devil faces in each corner.  The one to the west is green.  Anybody that comes within 3 feet of it is automatically sucked in and teleported back to Area 3 in front of the original GDD.  The PC will be naked, their stuff is with Acererak in Area 33.The devil face to the east is "bluish."  Anybody who comes within 3 feet of this face is teleported to Area 27A.  They get to keep their clothes.The southeast corner of the room contains a huge, glowing orange gem.  Cinders, ashes, charred bones, burnt skulls and fire-damaged clothing, armor and gear surrounds the gem.<a href="http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic25c.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/ToH_Gallery/ToHGraphic25c.jpg</a>The gem is evil and magic.  Strongly so.  Any character who uses "detecting" magic on the gem gets the sense that it is wish related.The bad kind of wish related.  Like a malevolent genie, the gem reverses and perverts the wishes of those who would use it.  Wishing on the gem brings doom and evil to all.  Worse, as soon as it "grants" a wish, the gem starts pulsing with hot, red light.  The DM is instructed to count down from 10.  When the countdown ends, the gem explodes, and anybody within 15 feet dies (no save).  The gem reforms 1 week later.There's a big black throne on a dias in the south part of the room.  Let's talk about it later.IMO:  Here's what Acererak's riddle has to say about Area 25: "into the columned hall you'll come, and there the throne that's key and keyed."  On the one hand, there's no mention of the other two traps here (the floaty pillars and the monkey paw gem).  On the other hand, the riddle's silence is itself a clue.  Leave that mess alone and proceed directly to the Throne that's Key and Keyed!I don't think there's any clue to warn the PC's that the pillars have a levitation effect.  They'll have to find out the hard way.  The module does not say how fast a floating PC moves toward the devil faces or which devil face the PC moves toward.  Presumably, a floating PC drifts toward the nearest face, but the speed that PC moves is pretty important.  The longer it takes to drift to a face, the longer the PC's buddies have to try and save him.The devil faces (Areas 25A and 25B) are not technically deathtraps.  Although as somebody noted above, donating all your gear to Acererak is almost a fate worse than death.  Also, note that the face in Area 25A deposits the naked PC right in front of the original GGD back in Area 6.  A player might think that the GDD serves to teleport lost PC's back to Area 25.  It does not.  Play one of the henchmen for now and roll up a new character for next week.All in all, the business with the pillars is probably not too much to worry about.  I expect that many PC's will never touch a pillar.  Nobody will touch one after the first PC starts floating.  Assuming the floating PC is moving at a slow pace, there should be time for the party to tether him before he winds up getting sucked into one of the devil faces.  As for the gem.  I haven't been too impressed with the illustrations in the module, but the picture for Area 25C is great.  That gem is clearly bad news, and anybody who touches it deserves what's coming.  I guess some players would be tempted to try wishing on the gem.  After all, there have been other helpful items scattered around the Tomb.  The module leaves the consequences of such a wish entirely up to the DM.  At this point, I expect the whole party to start running every time the DM starts counting down from 10.  I doubt many folks get blasted to ash when the gem explodes.</blockquote>

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