Your experience in these classic/iconic encounters

[Bullgrit]

There are some classic/iconic situations in the classic adventure modules that I’ve wondered what other people experienced.

Steading of the Hill Giant Chief – The grand party with a couple dozen giants. Did you attack? How’d it go?

Shrine of the Kuo-Toa – The statue of Blip’poop. Did you touch it and say her name? How’d it go?

Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords – The slave lords waiting at the end of the module. Did you fight them? How’d it go?

Ghost Tower of Inverness – The flashing gem that sucks lives. Did you get the gem? How’d it go?

Temple of Elemental Evil – Zuggtmoy is bound. Did you release her? How’d it go? Or did you collapse the temple? How’d that go?

Queen of the Demonweb Pits – Lolth awaits. Did you fight her? How’d it go?

Tomb of Horrors – Acererak’s skull awakes. Did you fight it? How’d it go?

If you, your PC, didn’t do any of the above, did you witness anyone else do these?

Bullgrit

 

[Corathon]

There are some classic/iconic situations in the classic adventure modules that I’ve wondered what other people experienced.

Steading of the Hill Giant Chief – The grand party with a couple dozen giants. Did you attack? How’d it go?

The cavalier and the ranger (and a henchman or 2 ) charged in and attacked the giants. They (foolishly) separated and were getting surrounded and pounded by giants. My polymorphed MU was hiding in the rafters, blasting in every round with wand or spell to try to kill enough giants to keep the rash fighter-types alive.

Shrine of the Kuo-Toa – The statue of Blip’poop. Did you touch it and say her name? How’d it go?

Hell, no! We avoided most of the Kuo-toa. Wasn't our mission.

Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords – The slave lords waiting at the end of the module. Did you fight them? How’d it go?

Nver played in this one or ran it.

Ghost Tower of Inverness – The flashing gem that sucks lives. Did you get the gem? How’d it go?

I ran this one, rather than playing it. The group got the gem, no souls sucked. I think that someone was bleached white, though.

Temple of Elemental Evil – Zuggtmoy is bound. Did you release her? How’d it go? Or did you collapse the temple? How’d that go?

We spent a lot of time in the Temple, but never reached the demoness.

Queen of the Demonweb Pits – Lolth awaits. Did you fight her? How’d it go?

I've both played in this one and run it. In both, Lolth was ultimately destroyed. In the version that I played we used something (a psionic teleport? Can't remember) to get on Lolth's back and kill her.

In the version that I ran, Lolth had allowed/baited the group into the Demonweb so that she could trick them into performing a chaotic and evil act - that way she wouldn't just get to kill them, but to keep their souls for all eternity. The group didn't fall for that, and when they finally confonted the demoness hasted, strengthened, and ready for a fight she banished them with an unholy word - except the paladin, whose magic resistance (he had a holy avenger sword) protected him. That left just the paladin alone against Lolth. The overconfident demoness toyed with the paladin, but he had a surpise up his sleeve - and item that she didn't know that he had - that allowed him to close with her and use that holy sword in melee. Plus 10 damage vs. chaotic evil, plus strength bonus, plus haste plus some good die luck told the story.

Tomb of Horrors – Acererak’s skull awakes. Did you fight it? How’d it go?

We lost no one in the Tomb until the battle with Acererak due to good planning and (in one case) good luck. In the battle against the skull we lost only one man. Not much you can do to avoid some death in that battle.

 

[Mark Hope]

There are some classic/iconic situations in the classic adventure modules that I’ve wondered what other people experienced.

Steading of the Hill Giant Chief – The grand party with a couple dozen giants. Did you attack? How’d it go?

Charged in and slaughtered them all. Still not sure how we got away with it. Of course, we were very drunk at the time.

Shrine of the Kuo-Toa – The statue of Blip’poop. Did you touch it and say her name? How’d it go?

No, although the DM kept egging us on to try it, the swine. I ran the same adventure for a group who went to great lengths to avoid the shrine entirely. You'd think it had some kind of reputation or something...

Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords – The slave lords waiting at the end of the module. Did you fight them? How’d it go?

Never played or run it.

Ghost Tower of Inverness – The flashing gem that sucks lives. Did you get the gem? How’d it go?

Ditto.

Temple of Elemental Evil – Zuggtmoy is bound. Did you release her? How’d it go? Or did you collapse the temple? How’d that go?

Never got that far into the adventure due to hideous, terminal boredom and the DM not really getting into the subtler elements of the module, but treating it like a huge dungeon bash. Shame.

Queen of the Demonweb Pits – Lolth awaits. Did you fight her? How’d it go?

Ran this, but didn't play it. The PCs got through it by summoning other similarly powerful entities to help. I seem to recall that an avatar of Tiamat was involved. One character did snap Lolth's stinger off and stab her with it. Those were the days.

Tomb of Horrors – Acererak’s skull awakes. Did you fight it? How’d it go?

Last time I ran this? 5-round TPK . One of my players from that session ran it for another group. They grappled Acererak and ran into the anti-magic room with him, where they pummelled him to death.

Cool thread idea, btw!

 

[Crothian]

Steading of the Hill Giant Chief – The grand party with a couple dozen giants. Did you attack? How’d it go?

Avoided it like the plague for one group. The other time I ran it they went into the cellar and freed the slaves then made the slaves fight the giants and then killed what lived through that.

Ghost Tower of Inverness – The flashing gem that sucks lives. Did you get the gem? How’d it go?

They lived through that and got the gem.

Queen of the Demonweb Pits – Lolth awaits. Did you fight her? How’d it go?

Ran this twice once a TPK, the other the PCs won.

Tomb of Horrors – Acererak’s skull awakes. Did you fight it? How’d it go?

Ran this three times. Once the TPK happened there, twice at least one PC got out alive.

 

[Freakohollik]

Tomb of Horrors – Acererak’s skull awakes. Did you fight it? How’d it go?

I ran this one with a party of 3. The module gives rules about which classes the skull will kill first. One PC touches the skull, skull kills another PC. Now there are two PCs left. The same PC touches the skull again, and it kills the other PC. The guy who touched the skull was then the only one left alive. He took all the treasure for himself and left.

Obviously this was a one shot.

 

[Lanefan]

Steading of the Hill Giant Chief – The grand party with a couple dozen giants. Did you attack? How’d it go?

I DMed this about 20 years ago, and I don't remember a thing about it. The party went on to other adventures, though, so I can only assume they won.

Shrine of the Kuo-Toa – The statue of Blip’poop. Did you touch it and say her name? How’d it go?

Never seen this one.

Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords – The slave lords waiting at the end of the module. Did you fight them? How’d it go?

Ask me in a month or two; I'm just starting a party into that module now.

Ghost Tower of Inverness – The flashing gem that sucks lives. Did you get the gem? How’d it go?

Temple of Elemental Evil – Zuggtmoy is bound. Did you release her? How’d it go? Or did you collapse the temple? How’d that go?

Never played or ran either of these. I once got about halfway through ToEE before bailing on the game, nearest I've got.

Queen of the Demonweb Pits – Lolth awaits. Did you fight her? How’d it go?

I ran this using the alternate ending from Dragonsfoot, and substituted a 2e Lolth Avatar for Lolth herself. (Lolth is a major goddess in my pantheon; she'd squash a party of mortals like bugs. The Avatar was still pretty bitchin' - 25th-Fighter (and remember, this is 1e), 9th-Cleric, other refinements...)

They charged. They got away with it; only one death, I think.

Tomb of Horrors – Acererak’s skull awakes. Did you fight it? How’d it go?

I played this one, we were using some of the module's pre-gens as PCs. We charged. The skull didn't last a round.

Lanefan

 

[Lancelot]

Each of the following is from the perspective of me being the DM...

Steading of the Hill Giant Chief – Yes, the players attacked the hall o' many giants (and multiple similar situations in the Glacial Rift and the Halls of Snurre). Not a challenge, given the presence of much area-affecting magic. Heck, even the fighters had javelins of lightning. The area was a burning crater after the first two rounds.

Shrine of the Kuo-Toa – Didn't touch the statue of Blibdoolpoop. Shame.

Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords – Fought the slave lords at the end of the module. Killed three of them. One got away (...the one who was supposed to... Mordrammo?). The swashbuckler (Feetla?) outlasted the party in the fight, so A4 (Slave Pits of the Undercity) proceeded as expected....

Ghost Tower of Inverness – One NPC got zapped by the Soul Gem. The PCs knocked down its force field and recovered it. Tense moments, though. Nothing like a random roll to put everyone on their toes.

Temple of Elemental Evil – Funnily enough, I've never DM'ed this one to completion. Or, for that matter, the 3e Return to the ToEE. In both cases, the dungeon crawl was just too long for both me and the players. We moved onto better things.

Queen of the Demonweb Pits – Yep. Lolth fled after taking a heck of a beating. But that was pure DM fiat. I liked the whole storyline of her fleeing the destruction of her spider-ship through one of her portal mirrors. If I was playing rules-as-written, the party would have killed her in the 2nd or 3rd round. Despite her excellent AC and magic resistance, those 66 hp just didn't go far enough.

Tomb of Horrors – I never DM'ed the original... except as part of 2e Return to the ToH (...which is effectively the same thing, given it reproduces the original module). Yes, they fought the demilich. And toasted it in short order. The rematch against the "improved" Acererak at the end of RtoToH was a much different case, though. That was a horrible bloodbath (or soulbath) in which only two PCs survived. And, from memory, they were both horribly scarred by traps and general insanity. That is one UGLY module, if you're a player...

 

[Remathilis]

Tomb of Horrors – Acererak’s skull awakes. Did you fight it? How’d it go?

We did it as part of Return to Tomb of Horrors. We grabbed the lich-dust and ran like b!thces.

<-- Namesake was the thief. Didn't die once!

 

[Gilladian]

I remember the Ghost Tower of Inverness. My bard got drained white. I played him for years afterwards. He was one of my favorite characters!

Years later I read the module and was surprised how deadly it was.

 

[Holy Bovine]

First things first - GREAT IDEA FOR A THREAD!

Ahem.

My experiences

Steading of the Hill Giant Chief – The grand party with a couple dozen giants. Did you attack? How’d it go?

We had 2 MUs with us and blasted the main hall with 4 fireballs over two rounds (we launched one set of 2 FBs spiked the doors shut then hacked a hole through one for the Mus to see through and launched the second barrage). We then waded in and finished off the remaining giants (took about 2 more rounds tops). The DM was surprisingly proud of us as our usual method was to smash first and think afterwards.

Shrine of the Kuo-Toa – The statue of Blip’poop. Did you touch it and say her name? How’d it go?

Y'know I never got to this part? We kind of skipped it to get to the drow city (draw were extremely cool back in 1983)

Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords – The slave lords waiting at the end of the module. Did you fight them? How’d it go?

Played the first 2 modules but never got to the finale. Yes I am still sad about it.

Ghost Tower of Inverness – The flashing gem that sucks lives. Did you get the gem? How’d it go?

Left that thing the hell alone. We may have been hack n' slash but we weren't stupid!

Temple of Elemental Evil – Zuggtmoy is bound. Did you release her? How’d it go? Or did you collapse the temple? How’d that go?

Never played it (or Village of Hommlet for that matter)

Queen of the Demonweb Pits – Lolth awaits. Did you fight her? How’d it go?

Very disappointing after the 3 module romp we had before it. She went down like a rhymes with itch.

Tomb of Horrors – Acererak’s skull awakes. Did you fight it? How’d it go?

We died long before we ever saw any skull. It was a one-off as no one wanted to risk their real PC. Years later i read the module myself and was floored at how silly the final encounter was (a thief can hurt Acererak by throwing his gems at him? Seriously?)

If you, your PC, didn’t do any of the above, did you witness anyone else do these?

Bullgrit

Again cool thread.