Canonfire!

Sun Jul 26, 2009 8:28 am Alternative locations for the Tomb of Horrors

Dear all:

How are you? Hope you are doing well. My players have decided to go after what will turn out to be the Tomb of Horrors, though they don't know it yet.

The original adventure listed alternative locations for the tomb. I thought it might be a good opportunity to tie in some adventures that they have not enjoyed yet.

Any suggestions for the locations below, especially with good, published material, would be greatly appreciated. Thanks ahead of time.

Iuz, highest hill: ?
Island in the Nyr Dyv: Tzunk (adventure available?)
Bright Desert: Rary the Traitor (especially Sulm), Ghost Tower (Soul Gem with soul-stealing power like Acererak)
Duchy of Geoff: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks
Vast Swamp: Tomb
Island beyond Sea Barons: Turucambi or the Sinking Isle (Greyhawk Adventures)

Sun Jul 26, 2009 2:54 pm

Put it in the sewers under Greyhawk City. Then you'll have LOTS of possibilities.

Sun Jul 26, 2009 6:23 pm

@Bubbagump: Ive been playing for some time with the idea of using ToH as a follow-up to EttRoG but I wasn't completely sure. Now your suggestion about the sewers of the CoG gives me some food for thought. :D

Saludos!
Gabriel
_________________
Discord: @GrillWizard

Mon Jul 27, 2009 6:33 am Re: Alternative locations for the Tomb of Horrors

Dear gentlefolk,

Thanks for the replies, and thanks for the suggestion, bubbagump.

As a clarification which I also made on GreyTALK, and as I showed with the list above, I want to keep the Tomb in its original location, but simulate a search for the Tomb with some standalone adventures at those alternative locations.

Any other thoughts for stand-alone adventures in the areas above? Thanks again for the ideas.

Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:18 am

Mon Jul 27, 2009 10:39 am

The Saltmarsh Series (U1-3) might give you some material, especially for a swamp/sea border area.

Trollpyre Keep in southern Sunndi was the home of the death knight Sir Loran... a death knight might make an interesting prequel to a Lich.

"Below the Tomb of Horrors" (dragon249) might give you some materials for before or after they tackle the tomb.

Dwellers of the Forbidden City (I1), Tomb of the Lizard King (I2), and Baltron's Beacon (I7) are all set in the Hool marsh but could be changed to the Vast swamp.

Quagmire (X-6) is a really old swamp based adventure that sends the heroes into a swamp searching for a lost city.

"The Swamp Hag" was a mini-adventure in the City of Greyhawk box set that you could drop on the party.

"Blackwall Keep" in Dungeon 126 was part of the Age of Worms adventure path that takes place in a swamp and gave some rules on swamp encounters and travelling/getting lost in swamps.

The vast marsh is home to lots of Bullywugs so I'd imagine you could find or design some kind of Cult of Wastri adventure.

Swamps are great places for getting your adventures really lost and throwing fun "wandering" monsters at them: trolls, lizardmen tribes, hydra, undead, oozes, etc.

Mon Jul 27, 2009 4:46 pm

While the sewer idea is a great one but,as mentioned above the adventure did take place primarily in the swamp especially the follow up adventure "Return to the tomb of horrors" which takes place about 120 miles from pitchfield in the vast swamp.

Mon Jul 27, 2009 7:37 pm

It is best to put it somewhere that your players can escape and regroup. If you railroad them then they will surely die lol

Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:50 am Re: Alternative locations for the Tomb of Horrors

Thanks for the replies.

Varthalon Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 4:39 am, "Trollpyre Keep in southern Sunndi was the home of the death knight Sir Loran... a death knight might make an interesting prequel to a Lich."

Good idea to link some of these locations together thematically. The legend lore that the players are following could bring up areas that are tied with Acererak.

Also, found the following locations in "Iuz the Evil" for the Howling Hills:

Drenghus
The Grouaning Mines
The Soul Husks Caverns
Spear Tor
The Swirlers
Wegwiur Thralls
Xanxeven Point

Tue Jul 28, 2009 8:28 am Re: Alternative locations for the Tomb of Horrors

Thu Jul 30, 2009 11:59 pm Re: Alternative locations for the Tomb of Horrors

Fri Jul 31, 2009 3:22 am Re: Alternative locations for the Tomb of Horrors

Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:38 pm

This might be an interesting thread for you, oteta: http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=33032
_________________
Allan Grohe<br />https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html<br />https://grodog.blogspot.com/

Fri Jul 31, 2009 9:56 pm

Tue Aug 04, 2009 4:12 am Re: Alternative locations for the Tomb of Horrors

Thanks for all the suggestions. Lots of food for thought. Those Howling Hills modules could prove useful, DM. Some impressive work on that false Tomb in the link, Allan. I will keep this link for reference.

I am considering a combination of legend lore and commune spells to lay down the clues for the search for the Tomb. Commune spells are interesting in that the contacted entity can color responses.

Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:28 am Re: Alternative locations for the Tomb of Horrors

Here's some further thinking as I continue to brainstorm these campaign ideas. It's great to bounce stuff off of you all. True creative process.

Players cast Legend Lore about the Tomb. They get the information from the module: "Ancient burial places; Ancient Tombs; Sorcerous Kings; Surpassing challenges, certain death; Soul Eaters; Great treasure; Portal (My addition).

Myra, cleric of Pelor, contacts a Ki-Rin through the commune spell. The Ki-Rin senses that the party's motives are not pure, tinged by greed. The Ki-Rin then sends the party on side quests related to the Tomb, ancient threats to the Flan people, recently revealed (Barrier Peaks), and long-buried (ex. Sulm) to help the party understand its greed? Does the Ki-Rin extract these quests as a price for the information about the Tomb?

Further philosophical questions this brings up. Is this manipulative on the part of the Ki-Rin? Does a person develop morality through coersion, through choice, trial and error and mistakes, or modeling and cooperation (esp. in the case of young people)?

Therefore, should the Ki-Rin instead ask the players to accompany it in a quest of its own related to one of these side adventures mentioned previously? In fact, I believe there was a Ki-Rin trapped in "Barrier Peaks". Perhaps it would be good if the Ki-Rin accompanied the party there to take their measure.

Otto
The mind flayer of Barrier Peaks finds brainstorming quite tasty.