When the party first comes to the area, Tunnel A is connected and leads between areas 31 and 34. Including a useless and meaningless candle as a shill in each room is questionable, especially when the book says (direct quote, here) that the candle cant be lit without air, but let characters waste time trying. While they are suffocating to death with mere seconds to live let them waste time trying to light a candle that cant be lit. Ill also give you some recommendations on handling boss encounters, as well as a little number-crunching to help make things a little more dangerous right at the end. And you listen to my Lord Lyttelton, he will tell you, in his "Dialogues of the Dead," that "in the annihilation of our globe, were Shakspere's works preserved, the whole science of man's nature might . It had 3 rotating levels and Old Omuan inscription at its base: "Bound by devotion to . This set up has the right monsters at the correct scale, but the room is TWICE as large as the adventure says it is. Cog of Rot, Area 58. There are four dozen of these terracotta warriors, so if you awaken them, they will kill you. Im making the tentacle attacks as unrestricted number of reactions, but limited to four of them, one per tentacle. Why, that would be the DM! If the PCs want to end the hunger effect by going back into the room and eating something, and of course suffering the benefit and detriment of whatever they eat, I think thats a fair way to handle the situation. I think I will be a frequente reader and aprentice here. The puzzle cubes flashed and then disappeared and the stone door began to open slowly. Ask yourself whether you could justify including a certain room or trap if this were a homebrew dungeon of your own devising, if you need to conceptualize the notion that death by unbeatable trap is tantamount to death by DM fiat. The original D&D Tomb of Horrors was first unveiled by Gygax at the Origins gaming convention in 1975, and it has retained its same deadly premise in subsequent editions of Dungeons & Dragons: an ancient, evil demi-lich named Acererak seeks to protect his tomb (and the treasures within) from meddling adventurers, electing to do so not with monsters but with a cruel array of traps and magical . Anyway, Artus wants to kill Ras Nsi for reasons of his own, and as long as the PCs are willing to help out, Artus is happy to help them snatch up the puzzle cubes, and then they can all escape together. Even if they dont understand what the marbles are for, make sure they get them, and make sure they get two of them in case they screw up the process at the ebon pool. Just to cover my own guides suggestions, be aware that if the party was released from the Fane by Fenthaza in Chapter 4, shell probably be waiting with a heavily armed contingent of yuan-ti to claim the Black Opal Crown from the PCs as they make their way out of the temple. Finding the Entrance, Areas 2 through 4. This is a potential game-breaker, because a grey slaad is a pretty formidable ally; at this level that one slaad is enough to give the entire party a worthy battle. The problem with Tomb of Horrors is that its very arbitrary, right from the beginning: there are three possible ways to enter, and two of them can get you killed right off the bat. Objectives. Thank you SO much. Better just to press onward, and find the skeleton keys in order on the way down. The control room is where someone has to be pulling the levers to rotate the cogs, and unfortunately the control room is also one of the places that can be cut off from the rest of the level depending on how the cogs are aligned, so in three of the five possible configurations, the control room is completely cut off from area 59 and everything else. Half of the encounter books are designed specifically for their respective 5e campaign adventures: Encounters in Chult (Tomb of Annihilation), . After this, you entered a series of turning passages in the shrine of Wongo. This screen has been specifically built with the Tomb of Annhilation module in mind. For another, busting up the area or destroying Withers will stop the various traps and other hazards in the tomb from being repaired or reset by the tomb dwarves, who would then have no tools and no leader. $18.00 + $16.50 shipping. Its a death sentence. If youre going to pull this off, youll need to make yourself five diagrams clearly showing what connects to what for each configuration. Really, really terrible, and some of the same horrible stuff is here in this new tomb as well, and we need to take care of it and make it dangerous but not automatically fatal. PUZZLE FLOOR To reach this section of hall, characters must climb a 7-foot-high ledge. Control Room, Area 61. And thats when my buddy socked me in the stomach, and they all stormed away, leaving me wondering what the hell had happened. Only the exposed one shall seize the circle. Refers to area 68, where gear gets disintegrated until the ivory ring is removed from its place. This is the first official adventure I ran (thus the insane amount of resources on this page). Assume that the Soulmonger has as many tentacles as it has possible targets, but that it can only take one or two tentacle actions on each of its turns, and only against a creature that has damaged it since its last turn. The bore is the only animal that is depicted that has more than one friend. Read them the story again if they need you to, because sitting back and telling them that they probably should have made notes the first time is a dick move. Or you could just let them cast the spells that will land them in this pit of carnage to be eaten by an otyugh. Ben: We draw our swords! I would suggest putting the Soulmonger into the initiative order, either by rolling or by assigning it to initiative count 20 (like a lair action). The door to the puzzle-cube can be forced open by creatures with a combined strength of 25. The problem with Tomb of Horrors is that it just isnt fair. At least not without chopping off your arm at the elbow. Catch-22, anyone? Some parts of the adventure have vast numbers of puzzles. Normally the party would have no chance at all of defeating Acererak (hes listed as CR23 in his stat block, and these characters are maybe level 10 or 11), but the Trickster Gods throw a wrench into the works, granting any character who is inhabited by a Trickster God 50 temporary HP at the beginning of each of their turns. Often, they make sure that youll die by making some special exceptions that might have given you a way out of the problem, like saying that magic doesnt work in this trapped room, or that even creatures who dont need to breathe still suffocate or drown or are poisoned by gas. Im not going to spend a lot of time on Chapter 4, because its essentially bonus content. Except in the mirror tomb, the dangers are risks without the possibility of rewards. They dont have to know what theyre for yet, but they have to understand that theyre going to be important for something and are worth seeking out. Important to note is that he can cast counterspell at will, but that he can only do it once per round, as it counts as a reaction; this will drive spellcasters nuts but will also not make them totally useless. Ask yourself how long you would be willing to let the party wander around in the fake tomb, all the while knowing that theyre not making any real progress. High-quality Tomb Of Annihilation jigsaw puzzles designed and sold by independent artists. That having been said, my recommendation for this room is to let everything in it work as described, but in a more limited way. One final piece of advice: when the book starts talking about rolling d20s to figure out whether any particular persons soul was devoured by the Soulmonger and cant be recovered even after the Death Curse has ended ignore that part. DraxxorT. What exactly once per turn is meant to mean is a bit confusing, because the Soulmonger isnt in the initiative order and doesnt have a turn per se. This is really simple to fix. If they really cant figure it out, have the arcanaloth tell them how to do it, or something like that. Look at all those beautiful skeletons. So thats how I described it, and of course any reasonable player would think that crawling into the mouth is what you were supposed to do, because why would the DM tell you that you would fit if you werent supposed to try it? I talked in my last post about the goals of play, and how the Meat Circus in Psychonauts and the Tower of Sarek in Trine both suffer . I would like to mention that theres information on pages 112 and 114 about how audiences with Ras Nsi and Fenthaza should work, and its fairly good information that provides a pretty accurate picture of how yuan-ti plan and plot. The old Web plus fire combo, baby. This material is covered by a Creative Commons 4.0 license. If you want to know what I think you should actually do, the first thing is to just remove all four cells from the tomb entirely. As soon as the golden mastodon is sent spinning, a new group of devils is introduced into the room (and the ongoing battle) every round. The best ways to manage this are using disintegrate and finger of death, each of which deliver an average of about 80 damage, or by using chain lightning, which will deal an average of 60 damage to any four creatures. Psycho Killer: Priscilla and the Tomb of Annihilation, Part 18. But when we were here, we all died. The Soulmonger lies deep within the tomb, which is riddled with puzzles, traps, monsters, and mag-gp =gold piece(s) CN = Chaotic neutral ical wards. And remember end of the campaign, the DM has to buy the first round of drinks, right? You get into Shagambis Tomb through the elemental cells, which are certain death. Also, because the life drain is high damage with a high save DC, and also does healing to the atropal, I think its a little overpowered for something that can be used every single round. Third, when you get to the Trial of the Octagon in area 76, make yourself a prop. But, when someone reaches the middle of Tunnel B, the whole thing rotates again, so anyone in Tunnel A is now free to go, but whomever tripped the mechanism in the middle of Tunnel B is now trapped there and waiting to die from suffocation. But, thats the choice for this room: everyone dies, or else the players get to decide whos going to lose their character permanently this close to the end. . This is the first of two boss fights here at the climax of the story, and there are two enemies to deal with: the atropal, and the Soulmonger itself. Second, when dealing with the magical feast in area 74, I recommend a little amnesty for characters who dont eat anything. I'jin was a deity in the Tomb of Annihilation Campaign of Nat19. Theyre a formidable enough enemy that you shouldnt need to resort to extra trickery to screw up the partys chances. The first fix option is to have someone or something do the control room tasks for the party, so they dont have to leave someone behind. This is the kind of sadistic garbage design that gets well-meaning DMs punched in the stomach, and I really hope that whoever came up with this mess got plenty of giggles while writing it so as to be essentially impossible to survive. You can go around instead of through the tunnel, and dead bodies in the path are often a good indicator that one ought to find another route. Power word kill is something to remember here, especially if PCs arent dying. The original Prizma Puzzle web games were released from 2009 to 2011 and included 4 games. When I ran this encounter, I chose some magical items of general usefulness to be part of the reward instead. The talk of the streets and taverns has all been about the so-called death curse: a wasting disease afflicting everyone who's ever been raised . For the Elemental Cells Aces warning only really provides clues to the first two rooms (Death to Fire, Dine or Drown) but the last two warnings dont really help with the Air and Earth cells (Precious Air, and Falling Sand), I wonder if you think adjusting these clues would help PC survival. Any way you slice it, you need to get the party out of the yuan-tis clutches and send them on into Chapter 5, and I just gave you three perfectly good ways to make that happen. Even though there are no clues given for this level of the tomb, my players didnt have much trouble figuring out the trials in areas 72 through 76. It doesnt reward good planning, and quick thinking, and creative problem solving, and leveraging your characters strengths in other words, it doesnt reward good D&D playing. Embed Tomb of Annihilation to websites for free. Thats much better than a lot of coins. Id be inclined to let the party pay each gargoyle once and call it solved. Figuring out the right configuration for the cubes shouldnt be impossible, provided that youve told them the legend and that they were listening at least enough to get the idea that some of the Trickster Gods are enemies of each other. . When you describe the ebon pool in area 81, use those very same adjectives to describe it we dont want to be too coy at the very end of it all, so be sure to make the connection between the marbles and the pool fairly clear. Gillian, level 10 Triton Bard of Whispers - inhabited by Unkh. Now, she gets that flash of deja vu as they approach the fateful location, and signals her companions to wait Ive seen this before. My VERY brief non-spoiler review so far: I really like it. If that character isnt a bard, I recommend a +2 version of whatever weapon they are currently using; it goes great with Shagambis extra attack. More frequent content is on the way for New World players, when Seasons come to the game on March 28th. But where were we ah yes, spinning mastodon. I recommend looking at The Tomb of Nine Gods in Tomb of Annihilation. Theres also a big spherical thing with a drape over it thats enchanted to make you think that the beholder is underneath it. This time as a digital board game called Tales from Candlekeep: Tomb of Annihilation.It will use the same base mechanics as other D&D board games like . So basically, either Ras Nsi or Fenthaza will give them the rest of the puzzle cubes and send them on their way. 15 hari retur. Really the only way out is to try to wrench the door off its hinges or else beat on it until it breaks open. If you roll something lower than 5, or that 00, fudge the roll and try for something else. The Wind Tunnel, Area 15. Chapter 2 is the biggest of the five chapters, covering the. . If the gears are ever aligned in either of Configurations 1 or 2, then shambling mounds form in area 58 and wait there to attack the party next time they pass through. Here Billie carefully placed the nine puzzle cubes in opposite sides with the neutral one going into the center. Physics puzzles: You can describe puzzles that your players must solve by clever thinking. Also, if that wasnt enough, one of the crystal eyes of which you need to collect all ten is located in Tunnel B, which you have to lock someone in Tunnel A to even get access to. She was an almiraj who was worshiped as one of the Nine Trickster Gods of Omu. Essentially, if the character needs to eat a snail or oyster, there needs to be a reason to try that: a wall carving, maybe, or empty shells. If you want to try to modify the cells to actually be survivable, consider the previous two paragraphs. This is kind of a counter-clue, because rewarding solving a puzzle with betrayal and death is kind of a cheap shot, and at least this lets the PCs know that all might not be as it seems. Getting your gear disintegrated is mostly inconvenient, but this is a decent low-risk clue. In my opinion some of those were the best traps/puzzles designed for 5e and running that adventure has changed how I think about 5e traps and puzzles. Even so, its not hard to figure out how to use it in the battle. The party successfully solved this puzzle, unearthing the "Blade of Omu" (vorpal sword) from within and recovering the last experience of the baelnorn during her spell duel with Acererak.The obelisk was surrounded by a permanent incendiary cloud which emulated planar conditions of Carceri (i.e. I am pretty sure I have positioned my heroes right, because I can see the hint wall and right floor plates turn green when I position my heroes on it. Mention of searching for (9) Puzzle Cubes, which are needed to open the Tomb of the Nine Gods; Zagmira (leader of these Red Wizards) believes that is where the Soulmonger is. The silver chest can be survived, and the rusty chest just disintegrates your gear, which is inconvenient but not fatal. Nothing happened. The players have 12 rounds to figure out something to do, and they are able to use whatever magic or other skills they can muster to solve the problem of the wine pouring in, or to arrange to survive long enough for the room to drain. At least it gives you a nice, clean way to get rid of that pesky forearm so you can go about your business. Still, there you are, and I hope you dont need it. Finally, I narrated that a complete and intense silence fell within the room as soon as one of the players started reading out of the book, just so that they would know that they had better read it just once and the right way, rather than reading it through and triggering the trap when theyre just trying to discuss the situation. If you gave the players a clue like the one in the previous blue box, that might be enough of a fix; at least theyll be expecting treachery if they try to solve the gargoyles riddle. Nevermind that an erinyes, at CR12, is probably more than a match for the party all on its own at this level, even if they werent already running low on HP and spell slots from the inundation of devils. If your players are hardcore completionists, there isnt much you can do or say about it, but it might be helpful for everyone to make it clear up front that clearing out each Trickster Gods tomb is not necessary for success. Remember Artus Cimber? Up to 70% off Big Brands. Note: For brevity's sake, I don't say every time I check for traps, search for secret doors or use detect magic. . And thats assuming they survive long enough to get to the arrival of the erinyes. Yep, thats right: cheat, and keep the adventure on track. In order to rule such a motley mob, the goblin queen must defeat any challenges to her throne, and because of this, shes a ruthless and dangerous adversary You might also consider giving them some warning before sending the juggernaut after them if they do the whole gem-crushing exercise, or at least leave off the knockout gas. Theres enough going on here that the players dont need to be breaking their backs over entering and conquering each individual room. As always, keep an open mind. The traitor always lies thrice. Refers to area 62c, where correctly interpreting the gargoyles clues results in getting gassed and run over. I have not actually play-tested this numerically, and I probably should, but I would say that providing 30 temporary HP instead of 50 as the Trickster God benefit would make the dangers much more relevant, if you wanted a tougher final battle. Lets take a look through this tomb, and hopefully I can help you figure out some of the tricky parts; when we get to those rooms and traps that are instant death, Ill give you some ideas as to how that can be fixed without making the dungeon easy. I recommend letting them find the first one, the triangle, very soon after entering the tomb for the first time. Its also possible for the party to fight and kill one or both of them, grab the cubes, and make a daring escape from the Fane, although this is obviously a riskier proposition than being released voluntarily by one of the cult leaders. The next room featured a 15-foot deep pit with a stone chest and a clay golem. There are four cells, for fire, water, air, and earth, and each cell requires you to do one particular action in order to escape it alive. The Wine Room, Area 20. You need to have the constant possibility that you might get seriously injured or killed if you get stupid or make too many bad rolls, or else theres no sense of risk, and without real risks, there cant be any worthwhile rewards. Interested in flipbooks about Tomb of Annihilation? #dnd #5e #toaChapter 5 Part 1 of the epic 5th edition module "Tomb of Annihilation." Chapter 5 is the end of the line, but my oh my is there a lot to go over. Hopef. Ultimately you dont have to tell the players how many temporary HP theyll be getting until the time comes, and I assure you that they will welcome the news that theyll be getting the HP boost no matter how many points are involved. Hes the guy with the Ring of Winter, and I placed him in the yuan-ti prison along with the party (who made a pretty decent attempt at infiltrating the temple complex but eventually fell prey to bad luck and an insufficient grasp of yuan-ti culture). GM: And poison gas starts filling the room! If the players say that theyre creeping along really carefully, gently shuffling their feet to stop from stepping on shards of pottery, going on all fours, or whatever, make that good enough. Be strong, and dont let a book intimidate you into making bad decisions for your game. :) Google is not helping < > Showing 1-4 of 4 comments . Magic is an important ability, magical items are powerful tools, and theres absolutely no reason to cripple characters by denying them the opportunity to use the skills and gear that they have fairly earned throughout the campaign. There are a couple of things worth mentioning, though, as far as getting the party through the skeleton gate. Falling damage, everyone lands prone, but they dont stay stuck up in the air and helpless for rounds and rounds. Lovely addition, am I right? Okay, first fix is to change Shagambis treasure into something that whomever makes it to the sarcophagus will want and can use. Besides, Acererak runs away from the battle at 30% of his HP or so, which also increases the partys odds for success quite a bit, especially as the PCs will be doing extra psychic damage as another Trickster God benefit. Remember that youre in Tomb of Annihilation, and that youve come a very long way through the adventure, and you should not let enemies just execute the player characters. After all, the atropal is the real danger here, and the Soulmonger is much more like a lair effect than it is like a normal enemy or magical object. Revolving Drum Trap, Area 38. Have a little happy ever after. Maybe theyll try to break the door, and thats a good plan. The next fix is to remove the skill check for moving quietly among the warriors. Its not exactly clear what the party is supposed to do with the whole apparatus, and this clue at least gives an indication as to how to proceed, and the notion that lucky and unlucky outcomes are possible here. Of course it is. Must have completed "A Grand Puzzle". Nangnangs Tomb, Area 24. Absolute Failure to gain the puzzle cube from Ras Nsi, amazing super long combat resulting in the party retreating! This is the first area that has traps for which there are no good answers, and which give no warning of their true level of risk, and which cant be circumvented. their tails from its underside. Just assume stuff like that happens in every damn room! Let the magnetic ball pull everyones armor and weapons in, but then have it drop them all right away. In order to make each button appear, a character has to climb into the corresponding chest and lock himself in, and then suffer whatever fate awaits him when the button is pushed. Yes, I just talked some serious trash on one of the most famous and allegedly beloved adventure modules ever to come out for D&D, and now I should probably give you at least the short reason why I have such a hate on for Tomb of Horrors. Armillary Sphere, Area 70. Also the floor is slick and people tend to fall over and lose their chance to do anything useful on their turns. GM: Suddenly an explosion is heard! As soon as someone reaches the middle of Tunnel A, the whole thing rotates, and now Tunnel B is connecting areas 31 and 34, and anyone who was in Tunnel A when the rotation happened is now trapped there and waiting to die from suffocation. Like Tomb of Annihilation? Yes, this is both literally and figuratively a death trap. Not because it's impossible (which it is), or because it's trivial (which it can be), but because it refuses to explain itself. Rotating Crawlways, Area 32. This isnt actually a very dangerous room, but Im including it because it has a feature you need to remember. And now the PCs can use spells that bring the dead back, because the Death Curse has just ended. This place is exciting enough without adding combat encounters that arent needed. Wongos Tomb, Area 16. I dont think Ill be spilling the beans too badly by saying that the final part of the campaign will be a venture into the incredibly dangerous Tomb of the Nine Gods; after all, the very title of the hardcover makes it pretty clear that there will be a Tomb somewhere in this story, and that plenty of Annihilation will occur therein. The general effect here is that by the end of a few rounds, the party is completely overwhelmed with devils, and more are arriving all the time. Ras duty is to keep te Tomb safe from intruders so Acererak would help the Yuan Ti to free Dendar. And, of course, you cant get the onyx button to appear without locking someone in the chest, and you cant get the sarcophagus open without pushing the onyx button. Maybe you could try it again in a year or two, when maybe people would have forgotten about the last time and wouldnt suspect you of going soft. D&D Tomb of Annihilation Notes #6 - Camp Righteous / The House of Man and Crocodile. I think I know how to solve puzzles, but nothing happen when I do as the hints show. Having clues and riddles with plenty of time to think about them can be tricky enough, and I have often just decided that the solution the players came up with will work, even if it wasnt my original solution. The structure got its name. Oubliette, Area 57. In the next chamber Billie got halfway across when a skeletal arm emerged from the opposite wall next to a lever, holding an hourglass. That having been said, I suppose it is somewhat convenient for Ras Nsi to be in possession of all of the puzzle cubes that the party needs, because at least it gathers them all in one place so they can be reclaimed all at once. Okay, this one is actually cool, because theres a tyrannosaurus zombie hiding in here and waiting to attack anyone who messes around with the painters. The onyx chest is quite likely to disintegrate whichever hapless PC is inside when the button is pushed; an average damage of 75 is plenty to reduce most characters at 9th level to zero, at which point they are unrecoverable dust, Death Curse or no Death Curse. Finally, at the end of the sixth round of spinning, an erinyes devil arrives with a terrible bargain that the players will be forced to agree to: if the party gives the erinyes the soul of one of the PCs, the rest of the party will be spared certain death at the hands of the swarm of devils that have flooded the room. the bridge. Figuring out that everyone has to feed each of the slots is far less obvious, and of course the gargoyles dont give you a second chance to find that out. Tomb of Annihilation - Session 20. Shagambis Tomb, Area 48. First, as mentioned at the end of the Chapter 3 guide, the party will either be infiltrating the Fane on their own, or they will be captured by the yuan-ti and brought there as prisoners. Avoid that. Again, Acererak isnt a particularly difficult enemy to run, although youll definitely want to brush up on his major spells and on how to control his sphere of annihilation. This is before there was a lot of read-aloud text, so we kind of had to describe things based on the descriptions that were in the module. Orvex was in desperate need of rest and the sun was setting so the heroes search for an abandoned building to post up for the night.