Hiding in Plain Sight

I got one more session out of the (Fake) Tomb of Horrors adventure. Getting 12 hours of gameplay out of this short adventure was unexpected and welcome. It means I do not have to write anything for another week. The direction the players needed to go did not have any obvious clues and they just missed out on it - assuming that if there was more dungeon to explore the entrance to the Underworld must be ahead.

Session 150: The Tomb of Horrors

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aldus (human cavalier), Grasshopper (human monk), Domago (human cleric NPC), Aelshara (half-elven fighter/magic-user NPC).

The members of the Company of the Black Dragon joined by Aelshara are resting in a safe haven in the Tomb of Horrors. Domago finishes communing with St. Aleena and tells the others that he knows the way forward.

Domago casts Find Traps and takes the lead of the group. He leads them to the hall of doors where they find water leaking out from under one door and draining under the wall (Clue!). Domago points at the wall and tells them a secret door is there. With some searching, they find and open the door. Beyond the secret door, they see a long hallway. Partway down the hall they come to an arched opening leading south. In the distance, they see a large open pit trap. Grasshopper suggests searching the hallway to its end but Domago tells him he can see that it is trapped. They decide to go south.

The large pit trap is 10 feet deep and the bottom is lined with rusty iron spikes. It extends from wall to wall and is 20 feet long. Lakima solves this obstacle casting Luminous Bridge over the pit. The entire group heads south and they pass through a door and find they are in a dead end. Lakima uses the wand of secret door detection and finds a secret door in the west wall. This leads to another empty hallway. But the wand again finds a secret door with a peculiar lock.

“It looks like it might fit the stone key we found,” Grasshopper says.

He tries the key and once entered it turns of its own accord and the stone door slides to one side. Inside they see a large chamber with many golden pillars. The thin pillars holding up the stone ceiling look like they are made of gold. Aldus moves to one pillar to check but Lakima tells him not to touch the pillars.

“Look a throne!” Grasshopper says, and points to the south wall. A black throne with skulls for armrests sits on a stone dais. Rubies glint in the eye sockets of the skulls. Aldus and Eathwund move south toward the throne but Domago and Grasshopper head further into the chamber. They spot a dim light coming from the west wall where they see a large arch.

“There is a door over here,” Grasshopper calls out.

The group approaches the stone archway set in the wall. The archway appears open, but they can only see swirling grey mists. As they get close three stones in the arch light up. One stone is red, one is green, and one glows yellow.

Mysterious Portal

Lakima asks everyone to step back and the glowing stones go dark. Then he asks first Domago, then Grasshopper to step toward the archway. Finally, he does the same. The stones light up the same regardless of who is close.

“Let’s check this throne,” Lakima says.

Using his magic lens Lakima views the throne. It radiates strong magic. Domago voices concern that it could be evil. Lakima pulls a 10-foot pole from the bag of holding and gives it to Aldus. Aldus touches the throne and there is a crack of thunder and a cloud of brimstone appears. As the cloud clears, they see an enormous demon standing on the dais, with dark skin, a horned head, and bat wings.

“A pit fiend!”, Domago yells.

Eathwund and Grasshopper both attack with swords but they miss. Aldus strikes the demon with his sword and cuts it deeply, black ichor weeps out of the wound.

The Pit Fiend

“Begone!” Domago yells casting Dispel Evil causing the demon to vanish.

“It will only keep it away for a few minutes,” Domago shouts, “We should leave!”

“We need to destroy it,” Lakima says, “Let’s prepare to attack it when it returns.”

Everything gathers surrounding the dais. When the pit fiend returns a few minutes later they all strike at it with their weapons. The pit fiend roars in anger and slashes at Eathwund and Aldus with its long claws drawing blood from both fighters. After a few more hacks and slashes the pit fiend collapses and it burns away to a pile of soot on the floor.

“Quick take the gems, Aldus!” Lakima says.

Aldus carefully removes four large gems from the throne and hands them to Lakima to be put in the bag of holding.

The group goes back to check the strange archway again. Lakima touches the green glowing stone but nothing happens. Telling everyone to step back he takes the 10-foot pole and pokes it into the mist and he instantly vanishes.

“Lakima’s gone!” Aldus shouts.

Grasshopper immediately jumps through the arch and vanishes. Shrugging his shoulders Eathwund also steps through.

Elsewhere in the tomb, Lakima arrives in a small 10-foot-square room with no exits. A moment later Grasshopper and Eathwund arrive. Then, after a short pause, Aldus arrives followed by Domago.

They look about. The small chamber is immediately familiar. Four skeletons lie on the floor and the walls are covered with crude paintings of dying adventurers. They realize they are in the prison chamber they entered once before. Knowing this, they trigger the secret door they previously found and make their way down a hidden corridor and up into the chamber of four statues.

“Hey, where is the half-elf,” Lakima notices.

Domago shrugs, “I guess she decided not to follow us.”

It takes some time but they make their way back to the room of golden pillars. They find Aelshara sitting near the portal. She does not say anything but nods to them.

“Right, let’s see if there is another way out of here,” Lakima says. He takes out the wand of secret door detection and checks the walls of the chamber. He finds the trigger for a secret door on the south wall.

“This is the way forward,” Lakima says and waves everyone over.

Grasshopper takes the lead down pit trap-filled hallways. Eventually, the hallway comes to an end and turns right. Grasshopper finds a pit trap here and triggers it open.

“The stone floor has changed,” Grasshopper says as he steps around the pit. The hallway he has entered is very long extending out of sight. The stone flagstones are smoother and better fitted together than elsewhere. He also can see that the hallway ascends at a low degree.

As he makes his way down the hall toward a door on his right, he hears a low rumble echoing through the dungeon. The rumbling sound gets louder and seems to be moving closer. Looking about Grasshopper does not see anything moving. It sounds like a stone rolling over stone. Eathwund and Lakima retreat around the corner of the hallway. Grasshopper also begins to slowly back away. Then picks up the pace as the sound gets closer. The walls and floor are shaking at this point. As he reaches a pit at the start of the hallway, Grasshopper leaps over it and feels a stone boulder brush against his leg. There is a tremendous crash and then the noise and shaking stops.

Grasshopper reaches out with his hand and feels an enormous stone boulder sitting half in the pit trap. Using his hands, he measures it at eight feet in diameter – and invisible!

“An invisible stone trap,” Grasshopper says in awe.

All of the adventurers can squeeze by the stone and they make their way down the hallway stopping to check the door. Grasshopper opens it and they see an alchemical workshop. The benches are covered in hundreds of beakers, bottles, and flasks. Large urns rest on the floor. A door exiting the room proves to be false but they see a message written on it in dried blood. The message is in an unknown language.

“It says, three keys are to be found. Each has one purpose and one curse. All eventually lead to your doom,” Domago translates.

“Great,” Lakima says.

Lakima grabs a number of the liquid-filled bottles and puts them in the bag of holding and then they leave the chamber. Using the wand of secret door detection, they find a secret door and continue south. Long hallways lead south and then west frequently they head down flights of stone steps. Finally, a door leads into a dark chamber with thin pillars holding up the ceiling. Valuable gems are set into the pillars filling the chamber with reflected light.

“Don’t touch the pillars,” Lakima advises.

In an alcove, they find a coffin made of black wood with a gold-inlaid lid. As they step near to it a prismatic wall of light appears around the coffin.

“I know how to deal with this,” Lakima says and he casts an Anti-magic shell. As he steps near the coffin, the wall of light winks out of existence (this was a GM ruling by me, the rules in Swords & Wizardry are not clear on whether this would work. Later editions specifically stated that anti-magic shell would not dispel prismatic sphere). Lakima tells Aldus to open the coffin and inside they find an old corpse wearing a jeweled crown. Around the neck of the corpse is another strange key that looks like the stone key they found earlier, but this one is made of translucent crystal. Aldus grabs the crown and the key, yanking the head off of the corpse in the process. They search the coffin but do not find anything else. Once Lakima and everyone step well back from the coffin the wall of prismatic lights winks back into existence.

Not finding a new exit from the room, Lakima uses the wand of secret door detection and locates another secret door. This one opens into a rough-hewn hallway of more primitive construction. They follow the hallway for a fair distance with Grasshopper checking for traps and Lakima using the wand to look for secret doors. Lakima finds a secret door but they discover that it will not open even when a concealed lever is pulled. Eathwund uses his giant strength and breaks the stone door off of its hinges.

Another hallway heads north from this door and the hallway they were in continues on to the east. They decide to move north. Grasshopper finds several more pit traps in this hallway and Lakima discovers a secret door in the wall right beside a pit trap. They open the door and Grasshopper checks the dead-end passage beyond. He spots a trap in the floor but he is unable to disable it.

“Can you hand me that long pole?” Grasshopper asks.

Lakima hands over the pole and Grasshopper uses it to tap hard on the floor. He sets off the trap and yellow-poisonous gas begins to fill the chamber from holes in the ceiling. The secret door also slides shut.

“How do we get by this?” Grasshopper asks.

Lakima tells everyone that he has an idea. Wielding his Staff of Power, he tells Grasshopper to trigger the door. Everyone else moves back. When the door opens Lakima uses the telekinesis ability of the staff to pull the gas into the hallway and push it down into the bottom of the pit (GM ruling again, would telekinesis work on a gas?). He then uses the wand to find a secret door at the end of the hallway. Grasshopper checks the door and finds that it is locked. The lock is a slot in the wall of the right size for the stone key. But the stone key, when inserted, does not open the door.

“We need another key,” Grasshopper says.

Leaving the gas at the bottom of the pit the group heads north and finds another room full of gas. This chamber is full of billowing black gas that blocks their sight and seems held in place by invisible walls of force. Lakima again uses the staff and pushes the gas aside so that they can cross the room to an opening. A stair leads down and then they find a small opening leading into the bottom of a pit. Grasshopper tries to climb up out of the pit but he finds the walls slick with moisture. Using a grappling hook attached to a rope he can climb out and help everyone else up.

They find themselves in a hallway that leads into a chamber. Strewn about the chamber are six or seven skeletons holding broken weapons and shields. An alcove to the south leads up to a black stone altar on which rests a skull.

“Oh boy,” Eathwund whispers.

“This could be the lich,” Lakima whispers back.

Cautiously, the group enters the chamber. The skeletons do not animate. While the rest look about the room, Grasshopper collects the weapons and throws them to the bottom of the pit (GM including several magic ones). They see that the skull has a shiny, silver medallion resting on its forehead. Lakima checks the room for secret doors. Grasshopper checks for traps. The entire group moves toward the skull. Grasshopper uses his sword to pick up the medallion and tosses it into the open bag of holding. Domago casts detect evil but does not find any. Lakima checks for magic and does not find any.

Opening the bag of holding, Lakima reaches in and pulls out the medallion. He examines it and finds it is covered with the holy symbols of gods of law. He puts it back in the bag.

“I think I know what happened here,” Lakima says, “These adventurers killed the lich and put this medallion on its head so it could not rise again.” Then Lakima puts the medallion on the skull once more. “We had better put it back.”

Lakima uses the arrow of direction and asks for the location of the key to the door they found. The arrow points back in the direction they came. The group wearily retraces their steps. Part way back he uses the arrow once more. It now points north.

“I will pray,” Domago says. He casts Locate Object and leads the group back to the alchemy lab they entered earlier. Domago points under one of the stone urns.

Eathwund lifts the urn and underneath they see another key and a leather glove. This key is made of ivory.

“Strange that there is only one glove here,” Grasshopper says and then he picks up the key with his bare hand. Grasshopper feels a wrench at his very soul and cries out in pain. He feels tremendous exhaustion as a part of his soul is drained. Domago rushes to check Grasshopper.

“I think it will pass once you rest,” Domago says.

“I know,” Grasshopper says nodding.

With the key in hand, the group makes their way back to the locked door. Lakima has to use another charge of the Staff of Power to get by the gas trap which still functions. Finally, Grasshopper inserts the ivory key into the lock, and the door slides to one side.

They see a short hallway leading to a room with diagonal walls. There is a large altar covered with a black cloth. A single skull rests on the cloth. In the chamber they see a large wooden chest with a dead body slumped over it.

“You’ve come to rescue me?” Lakima hears a strange, young voice in his head.

Lakima calls out asking who is there.

“Watch out – it will kill you,” the voice says, “I can help!”

Lakima tells everyone what he hears. The skull rests unmoving. The group steps into the chamber and suddenly the skull flies up into the air and spits into four separate skulls all with the same appearance. The corpse staggers to its feet and draws its sword.

“Look out!” a voice says in Eathwund’ head as the corpse swings a glowing sword at him. Eathwund easily parries it.

Grasshopper races forward and delivers an open-handed blow to a skull but it just bounces off. Aldus attacks with his sword. Aelshara moves up and swings a sword at a skull. Only Aldus can do any noticeable damage to one of the skulls.

“I think you need to use your most powerful magic weapons,” Aelshara cries out.

One of the skulls casts a spell and Lakima finds that he cannot hear what he is saying. He races back out of a zone of silence into the hallway. Lakima then conjures an earth elemental to attack the skulls. In the tight space, Aldus, Grasshopper, Eathwund, and Aelshara all swing their swords at the flying skulls trying to avoid each other and trying to avoid being crushed by the huge earth elemental. Grasshopper is bitten by a skull and he feels poison entering his body.

“Watch out,” he warns, “Their bite is poisonous!”

Domago casts neutralize poison on Grasshopper. By this time Eathwund has chopped down the animated corpse and it collapses in a heap. He hears the voice in his head calling out from the sword asking him to pick it up and wield it. Promising him fame and fortune.

Domago casts Protection from Evil 10-foot radius and steps forward forcing the skulls into the corner of the room. The earth elemental continues to swing its fists trying to connect to the flying skulls – hitting on one occasion. In the lull in the fight, Lakima waves his arms to get Aelshara’s attention. She races through the area of silence to Lakima. Lakima holds open the bag of holding and pulls out the censer of commanding water elementals.

“Summon a water elemental!” he says to Aelshara.

“We have to attack, the elemental is not succeeding on its own,” Eathwund yells. Aldus and Grasshopper nod grimly and all three move back into range of the skulls and attack. One skull flies up high and casts a beam of death at Lakima but he manages to leap to one side. Aldus connects with one skull smashing it against the wall and it crumbles into bone chips falling to the stone floor. Aelshara finishes the conjuration and a water elemental rushes into the chamber joining the fight. The elemental briefly slashes at the earth elemental but then Aelshara gets it under control. With the water elemental joining the fight, they are able to destroy one skull after another until all are gone. With relief, Aelshara dismisses the water elemental and Lakima dismisses the earth elemental.

Domago takes a flask of holy water from his belt to pour on the remains of the skulls but he finds that the water has gone bad. Everyone finds that the potions and water they have been carrying have gone foul.

“My healing potions!” Aldus shouts, “Nooo!” he cries as he sniffs a rancid potion.

Domago uses the decanter of holy water to pour everyone clean water and he pours more on the remains of the skulls. The skulls burn up into ash.

“Pick me up and wield me,” the voice says in Eathwund’s head.

“No!” Eathwund says.

The voice then begins tempting Aldus.

“Do you think it is okay?” Aldus asks Lakima.

“I think it is cursed,” Lakima says. He detects that the sword is powerfully magical. Domago tells Aldus that it is not evil.

“I am taking it,” Aldus says and he bends over and picks up the sword. He stands stock still for a moment while everyone waits in anticipation.

Aldus and Deathdealer

“I’m fine,” Aldus says. He sheaths the sword and mumbles as if conversing in his head with the sword.

Grasshopper examines the chest and finds that the lock looks like it might be opened by one of the strange keys. He tries the bone key and it does not work. But the ivory key opens the lock. Inside they find bags of treasure, scrolls, and a dozen bottles of poison. All of the loot (and the poison) is put in the bag of holding.

“We are no closer to finding the entrance to the river Styx,” Lakima says in frustration.

“My sword says it knows the way,” Aldus says. “It says its previous owner was in a group of adventurers who identified the way.”

Aldus explains that the sword says that the long-dead adventurers entered the dungeon looking for the lich’s treasure. The group's priest identified the portal in the chamber of pillars as being a gateway to the underworld so they avoided it.

The adventurers set out again retracing their steps and returning to the chamber of golden pillars. As Lakima walks up to the archway the stones begin to glow again.

“I don’t suppose the sword knows the way to open it?”

Aldus shakes his head.