Running tomb of horrors tonight

[thedungeondelver]

So: use wandering monsters from the DMG or no?

If I do the will be the "Monster Level IX" table. Or perhaps Monster Level X.

[JCBoney]

I don't think that module is conducive to wandering monsters... too compartmentalized. Just me though.

[PatW]

That is AWESOME.

And it's too late by now, but "no" to wandering monsters. How would anything "wander" in there? It's a death trap.

[grodog]

There are some provisions for PCs who navigate the tomb astrally or ethereally that you could easily turn into some planar WM-type encounters (in particular, a ghost dropping in would be fun and appropriate!).

[thedungeondelver]

I didn't put WM in. The party was quite adept at inflicting damage on itself: the 14th level M-U cast Contact Other Plane to locate the entrance, rolled a 25% on his "25% or less = insanity". I rolled "Homicidal Mania" and he cast disintegrate at the paladin who was digging at the middle (correct) entrance. The paladin made his save and they beat the magic user senseless and tied him up and pointed out they were gagging him as well (which was fortuitous because he wrote a note to me that said "if they leave me alone I'm casting Power Word: Kill").

The cleric cast a Heal spell which I deemed would cure the insanity but the thing about completely over the top insanity is that most people don't know they're crazy - which means he got a saving throw (which he made). They tried again and he failed the 2nd attempt so the madness left him.

Three falls into pits (not the 30' deep one, the 10' ones) but no poison spikes were hit. The party eschewed the green devil face and the misty entrance and found the concealed door and faced the mutant gargoyle beyond. The magic-user threw his other disintegrate spell and slew the beast after it'd done 39 points of damage to the dwarven fighter...of course, the necklace of gems it wore was gone, too...

that's where we left off tonight.

[deathanddrek]

Man, I've never played the ToH, and I've deliberately tried not to learn a single thing about it. Curse everyone mentioning the green devil face. That's the one detail that's been spoiled. That, and the demi-lich, but I can forgive that one. (Actually didn't know about the drow and G1-2-3 until P&P said he changed the surprise. What surprise? )

[AxeMental]

I'd include some sort of wandering monsters, maybe something you come up with on your own. Maybe go threw and find things that might be able to move around in there, stick them in a table.

[Chainsaw]

The party was quite adept at inflicting damage on itself: the 14th level M-U cast Contact Other Plane to locate the entrance, rolled a 25% on his "25% or less = insanity". I rolled "Homicidal Mania" and he cast disintegrate at the paladin who was digging at the middle (correct) entrance. The paladin made his save and they beat the magic user senseless and tied him up and pointed out they were gagging him as well (which was fortuitous because he wrote a note to me that said "if they leave me alone I'm casting Power Word: Kill").

The cleric cast a Heal spell which I deemed would cure the insanity but the thing about completely over the top insanity is that most people don't know they're crazy - which means he got a saving throw (which he made). They tried again and he failed the 2nd attempt so the madness left him.

I love it! This is great D&D to me - the random shit that you could never have predicted, but is fun and totally hilarious. You weren't even in the front door yet!

[thedungeondelver]

Luck has been with the thieves who bore the brunt of the initial foray down the main corridor. Judicious use of spider climb helped the party avoid the lever trap.

No-one bothered to examine the floor mosaic and read Acererak's warning/hints, they just dismissed the red portion of the path as a trap and went on about their business. The thieves both fell into the pits, but avoided getting gigged by a poison spike. They steered clear of the sphere of annihilation and smoky archway and focused on the concealed door they found.

They marched into the room with the gargoyle and it almost immediately destroyed the dwarven fighter, but (as mentioned) disintegrate finished it off.

I've been looking over the spell choices they made and it is interesting to note that the high level cleric did not choose raise dead. Plenty of healing spells, but not raise dead!

She did however choose plane shift, which brings me to an amusing conundrum...I wonder if plane shift will do to deal with Acererak. The notes covering what can harm Acererak list a few spells and other events - but in a case such as this they would simply be attempting to move the demi-lich, not destroy it. Would it work? What kind of saving throw would Acererak get against such a spell (I'd say 20th level, at least).

Thoughts?

[JCBoney]

20th MU yeah. He's used to traveling to other planes and can mentally intefere with the spell.

[thedungeondelver]

20th MU yeah. He's used to traveling to other planes and can mentally intefere with the spell.

Definitely.

Plus, the module even says that Acererak is out haunting other planes and comes back to battle those who make it to his inner sanctum so he might be "banished" for a round or two but would return - almost absolutely "enraged" - and pull out the Cleric's soul...assuming the party doesn't do something with the skull first.

[thedungeondelver]

It occurred to me I made a bit of a cock-up in preparing the players for the module. For obvious(ish) reasons on the DM side of things, the players should be given access to a small amount of gems, not the least of which is so they have a crack at getting the Gem of True Seeing in area 11.

Well I botched that by neglecting to mention it when they were girding up for battle, and they disintegrated the Gargoyle in area #6, along with its necklace.

Of course they don't know the necklace failed the save, so I can always retcon it...the fight happened just before we broke and I can mention that the necklace is lying on the ground where the gargoyle was.

[thedungeondelver]

FINALLY finished this after some off-and-on revisiting.

And the casualties are:

Dwarf fighter - fell to his death after stepping through the smoke-archway and pulling all the levers down.

Halfling thief - bitten to death by an asp in the "unsettled room"

Half-elf fighter/thief - turned to slime in the same chamber.

The party "successfully" "found" the "real" lich's tomb and "defeated" it. Then, realizing the tomb was about to "collapse" the cleric cast Plane Shift and moved the party elsewhere.

...

Same group (different characters, natch) are also going through C1.