Tomb of Horrors – Chapter 1 Wrap-up

Little did the Blackhawks Talons know, but they were a couple of encounters away from completing chapter 1 in the first leg of the Tomb of Horrors. Of course with Bairn the runepriest still off helping out Puff and Anuk the druid gone off to track them down in her loping wolf-form, the group was a little unprepared for what lay ahead of them.

While inspecting the room that seemed to be part mausoleum and part arboretum, three zombie eladrin knight burst out of their cairns along with an undead firbolg. This, of course, happened after the ivy growing along the walls in the other couple sections of the room mounded up into a roughly humanoid shape with a single eyestalk ending in a reddish looking gem for an eye.

Highlights of the Zombie-Ivy Battle

• The firbolg hit like a sonofabitch
• The DM’s dice were hot or cold, very little in-between
• The Ivy Beast was a pain in the ass with an 8 square reach
• Kafka the Wizard bounced at the brink of death from a Drain Soul attack for several rounds getting better then worse until finally breaking free of the hold
• Had the DM not been rolling cold dice the party would have died
• The DM is not fond of his Vegas casino-used dice

Once done with the monsters that had been set to guard in the room and putting the 4 intact cairns from the entire garden left (before the undead burst out of them) back into place, the Talons came upon the double doors that were depicted in the magical tapestry that Anuk had inserted the key into the lock of. The doors stood slightly ajar, so the key obviously worked.

Once inside the room they were met with an enormous magical construct. Kafka determined that it was channeling the absorbed magic from the feywild to something else. They weren’t sure what, but he was sure that dismantling it would stop it. His wizards sight showed him where the key component of the construct was and he plucked the magical staff from it, causing the construct to collapse in on itself.

Puff reappeared shortly after with news. Anuk was just outside of the area of the Garden helping to care for some of the pixie refugees who were injured fending off the attacks of more planar slavers that ambushed them as they left the Garden area. With the destruction of the construct and the release of the curse on the Garden, fey from across the areas nearby have been showing up to help with putting the Garden of Graves back to its former state.

The party is welcome to help with this, but Puff also brings the news that Bairn was taken captive by the slavers that attempted to enslave the pixies. The closest place that Puff can think of that they might go with a Feywild oddity like a dwarf would be a nearby carnival. As soon as the Talons wish to leave, Puff has agreed to show them the way to the carnival. After all, his people owe their lives to the Lady of Fur and Fangs (his new name/title for Anuk the druid).

Game Quote of the Night

You can have my soul, but you can’t have my body.

said when the wizard stunned by the Drain Soul was missed several times in a row by attacks…

Tomb of Horrors: Log and Quotes

Sunday the group delved further into Chapter 1 from the Tomb of Horrors. It also produced a decent number of good game table quotes. For those simply interested in the Game Table Quotes, scroll to the bottom. The rest of this is an adventure log to help the group’s memory from one game to the next.

Blackhawk’s Talons – Tomb of Horrors Chapter 1-1

Having completed the challenge of the water serpent (to get a platinum key), the beetle woman (to get past the sundial challenge) and the mad wraiths (in failing the sundial challenge the first time), the party took refuge in the Haunted Game Room. They had defeated their ghostly opponents at the game and succeeded in disarming the tables. They took their rest for the night in the room although nightmares tormented their sleep (game effect – they didn’t start with an action point).

Upon waking they walked into the next oddly-shaped room in the ruins formed from the cairn stones. The lights illuminating the room dipped low and when they came back up there were duplicates of the heroes mixed in with them. The fight broke out almost immediately with the party winning, but only after taking a few lumps (in a couple instances from their own teammates). Moving a lever found in the corner of the room, they heard a door opening somewhere back the direction they came from.

Going back to the tapestry room (part two of the sundial challenge) they discovered another secret door that had opened behind a tapestry. We left the night’s adventure with them camped outside the door leading into the next room in the ruins.

They also now have a printed copy of the poem in their possession. I am pretty sure one of them said they were writing it down.

Quotes from the Game Table

most are rated R this week… or at least PG-13

• Oh yeah, I take her goodberry.
• You killed something, so you explode… and then…
• He’s making the hole bigger.
• Should I use my big one?
• Just don’t do it next to my face anymore.
• You have to eat it the Blaine way, where you just shove it in your mouth.
• My boyfriend… a little gay.  I hate you all. (second sentence from said boyfriend)

Tomb of Horrors: Feywild Handout #1

In an effort to re-introduce non-political blogging into my writing and to give the game notes to my Sunday D&D Group, I am posting the handouts from the first chapter of Tomb of Horrors. The following poem was one they found as they entered the Garden of Graves in the Feywild. As it was originally printed in the Tomb of Horrors super-module, I take no credit for the quality of the poem. 😉

Count you the shadows, watch the sun,
The wise know where they stand;
While knowing not the time to shun,
The fools must find themselves undone.

Like lustful swain or panicked child
Who beg another’s gentle hand,
The fool delves heedless through the wild.
The wise are not so soon beguiled.

When darkness falls and dreams portend
The rising of a fearsome foe,
The fool, swift-striking, meets his end,
The wise know foe from friend.

Let art and image point the way,
Abandon all you think you know,
For common sense leads fool astray.
The key is simply this: Obey.

The wise must ever strategize;
They never play, unless to win.
They see the harm in comfort’s lies,
And ask to open weary eyes.

You’ve fought your way, you’ve risked demise,
To view the ivy heart within.
Now as the soul within you dies,
This knowledge is your only prize:
You’d never have come, were you truly wise.