NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

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NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

Post by Nox »

Hi!
Yesterday my players defeated Marcel de Tarascon!
The fight went out pretty well. I revised Marcel to 3.5 and I gave him nercrotic cyst and some other cyst spell. Our barbarian got touched and now he has the cyst (as well as 30 infamous damage)
Brujan and constable took part in the fight, but constable died instantly due to the death aura. I planned the ending of the fight different from the Canon version: when the glass shutters above the party in the middle of the fight, the ceiling collapses and blocks the exits.
I wanted to connect the NotWD to the adventure in har'kir, so I made some tomb in the cemetery Egyptian-like, as if the locals were in contact with har'kir folks.
I added some info about why Marcel is so obsessed with the scroll.
The scroll is an artifact, in fact my players tried to burn it but they were unable to(not specified in CANON). I made it a magic item, I still need to develop some kind of power beside the obvious prophecy. For sure it is a great source of magic/mystic energy.

I stated that Marais d'Tarascon was once a commercial point. People from har'kir reached Souragne by the Mist and started business with souragniens. Har'kir peoples managed to open a portal to reach Souragne through magic. Those exotic people brought to Souragne ancient and mysterious form of magic, cult and artifacts, and souragniens were interested in those kind of items. Since their arrival Marais d'tarascon grow in wealth, and Tarascon family took advantage of the situation. After some time something happened. The portal collapsed and
The Mist in the sea became more and more dangerous to travel and harkiran found the self trapped in Souragne.
With the lack of trading from harkir, Tarascon family lost many of his wealth.

Marcel wanted the scroll to re-open a portal to har'kir trough a ritual. At first he was searching for the scroll with his brother just for his own greed. He wanted to bring his family name back to his old splendor. With the portal he could have become richer and with those magic items from Har'kir even common folks would have been more wealth. But once he found the scroll he felt that there was more than gold in that scroll, he started seeking his power. Then he died by zombies and the story starts.

Once the players came into the tomb with the scroll, Marcel started the ritual. With the power of the scroll he could've opened the portal and reach har'kir.
At the end of the fight, right before the final blow I had Marcel run away down some stairs into an ancient chamber below the mausoleum of the final fight.
Players followed.
There were laying an ancient altar, Marcel spook some word of the scroll of Hyskosa and the barbarian land the final blow. As soon as he strikes, the body of Marcel starts to shutters and ruinously become a cloud of cinder, which start to flow circular above the top of the altar. The portal is created.

Now this portal will lead to the adventure "tomb of horrors", a classic from 1st Edition. I located this particular tomb into an ancient pyramid in har'kir.
There will be no way out of the tomb unless they kill acererak, the lich.


The barbarian who fought marcel got hit by cyst and actually suffer 30 hit point of vile damage (50% of his max hp, impossible to heal unless the healing is made into a sacred area).
The rest of the party is fine.

I need to get rid of Brujan, they asked him To go with them and now they are trapped into the mausoleum together. How could I do it?
If he follows them into the tomb of horror, he will die as soon as possible. But he would not enter the portal for any reason, his house is where he is right now.
Probably they will resurrect constable gremin as well since they have a resurrection scroll. If this happens I will need to get rid of him as well.
The best solution is either kill them both(if they enter the tomb of horror with the party) , or find a way to let them out of the mausoleum without letting the players any chance to get out of the mausoleum (my player tends to do the opposite of what is clearly the way I thought things. "There is a portal right in front of you." "ok, let's dig our way out of this mausoleum". Pleas stahp).
Brujan is injured by the fight with marcel, I could say he's slowly dying but I feel i am forcing it. I'd rather prefer to let them live their life in the city.

What changes could I make to the hexad to make adventures more linked toghether? I feel them like random event around the world with nothing in common.

Let me know what you think about the change I made to NotWD and everything else!
Thanks all in advance!
Last edited by Nox on Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

Post by Hamiclar »

Really great change to canon of the module. The use of hints of what is next of great. The tomb of Marcel does have the Egypt feel to it. I was going to use the zombie lord as is with a flesh creature from book of vile darkness. The tomb of horrors sounds great do you have the module or the boxed set? I was debating on running that later really look forward how your group deals with that place. Regarding the two extras have the portal separate them from the group or possibly have them arrive alone or into two groups. Have the one infected turn and possibly get the others also before destroyed by your heroes. I really love doing a rehaul making just as intense as before. Did you modify your zombies at all?

My group found a ceremonial hammer in their journey under ground which stood out with its Eyption markings with the thief being able to decipher the name Anktetopot, in room with six stars carved into wall but the writing faded out. I just started mine we play twice a week now so its should be fun seeing how this plays out. I have all the terrain and figures to run the battle scenes. I'll post them after next session.

On the link part, possibly have them leave the tomb and run into the Vistani and their wagon stuck in the sand.
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

Post by Nox »

Hamiclar wrote:Really great change to canon of the module. The use of hints of what is next of great. The tomb of Marcel does have the Egypt feel to it. I was going to use the zombie lord as is with a flesh creature from book of vile darkness. The tomb of horrors sounds great do you have the module or the boxed set? I was debating on running that later really look forward how your group deals with that place. Regarding the two extract vras have the portal separate them from the group or possibly have them arrive alone or into two groups. Have the one infected turn and possibly get the others also before destroyed by your heroes. I really love doing a rehaul making just as intense as before. Did you modify your zombies at all?

My group found a ceremonial hammer in their journey under ground which stood out with its Eyption markings with the thief being able to decipher the name Anktetopot, in room with six stars carved into wall but the writing faded out. I just started mine we play twice a week now so its should be fun seeing how this plays out. I have all the terrain and figures to run the battle scenes. I'll post them after next session.

On the link part, possibly have them leave the tomb and run into the Vistani and their wage n stuck in the sand.
I am glad you like the changes!

I have the module for the tomb of horror. I was looking for the boxed set but in my country is hard to find.

If you are interested I could write my campaign down in the veranda. About the tomb of horror I can send you a pm or write it down here about how they deals with it.


I have an option(two actually) : if players resurrect the constable I will have constable and brujan enter the portal and arrive divided0 as you suggested. I will make some checks to see if they go mad during the time they will be alone in the tomb. If they go mad they start to fight each other and whoever will survive it will be hard to tell if he retain his sanity or not.
If the players do not resurrect the constable he will turn into a zombie and follow them in the tomb. Constable zombie and brujan will be divided from the rest of the group and brujan will fight with his former friend. The party will find brujan seriously injured and partially mad they will not be able to heal him.
I'll have the bartender at Marais become sort of mayor for the city and after the event of the NotWD he hire some guards for the city.

I Modified zombies a little, making them more durable and harder to hit. Not much else, I did not put any special ability since the revised zombie lord Marcel proved to be enough of a challenge for the party. The barbarian is torn a part from vile damage and he will not be able to heal for a long time from this wound since they now will enter the tomb of horror, an unholy ground in which they will not be able to heal his bile damage. Honestly I could have added many more minions coming out from the walls, to have a challenge for the cleric and the wizard , since they were almost always out of range.

Where did you get the terrain?
I like the idea of thy e ceremonial item, I could steal it for the tomb.
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

Post by Hamiclar »

sounds brutal like your last thread I read for yours. I'll read for sure if you post. I plan on posting but I need my group to make through FOG before I commit to writing I am just keeping summaries for now. Terrain wise, I use Tera clips which I got off ebay I have all the variations, so I am looking forward to setting up the Tomb of Pharoh, and cemetery of the NOTWD. I should be able to get both the old and new set up along with the inn and a shack for example of house size when the army of the dead comes at the end and the Inn with its fence.
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

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Hamiclar wrote:sounds brutal like your last thread I read for yours. I'll read for sure if you post. I plan on posting but I need my group to make through FOG before I commit to writing I am just keeping summaries for now. Terrain wise, I use Tera clips which I got off ebay I have all the variations, so I am looking forward to setting up the Tomb of Pharoh, and cemetery of the NOTWD. I should be able to get both the old and new set up along with the inn and a shack for example of house size when the army of the dead comes at the end and the Inn with its fence.
yeah, i'm not very kind earthed.
If they destroy the body of constable (quite cruel, but since the events of NoTWD i would consider it wise) he would not come back as undead.
Once they enter the portal I'll have the players roll a d6 to chose 1 of 6 of the possible destinations for themself (once they enter the portal there is 6 different place where they can find themself). From there they will start the tomb of horror, probably divided (But not too far from each other). I'll put the NPC(s) in a different location.

In my Tomb of horrors on each wall of the tomb there is a dark crystal (defended by a magic trap, see below) which collect the soul of whoever dies in his vicinity. This prevents any resurrection. Those souls are collected by those crystals and are sent to the one in the final chamber. If any of the PC/NPC dies in the tomb his soul will be free only if this crystal will be destroyed(Note that the crystal is quite powerful, and we have a pc possesed by a demon who eat souls. This will be an interesting moment). After the crystal is destroyed the souls will be free and the body of anyone who died can be resurrected.

The magic trap: This trap is simple and effective, developed by me, feel free to use it in your own adventure if you want :diamabel:!
Dark crystal trap:
Triggered by touching the dark crystal.
Rearm: automatic and instant.
This trap is made by a really vile magic. Each time a creature is hit by this trap his own soul is tainted by corruption.
Effect: On touch, for a brief moment, the crystal shines and glow with a dim light and emits a warm and comfortable heat. This heat is the creature's own life force, which is being rip off from his own very soul.

1st touch: Creature become fatigued, no save.
2nd touch: Creature become exausted, no save.
3rd touch: Creature body covers in deep cut, his skin start to rot and desiccate, and finally dies; Fortitude DC 9: The creature do not die, but drops immediately to -9 HP.
4th+ touch: as 3rd, but DC increases by 2 each time.

This trap should be enough to convince your player not to mess with the crystals.

So to recap the options and possibilities for the NPCs:
1) Destroy constable body
-PC and Brujan enter the tomb of horror
-Brujan go mad when alone and lost in the dark of the tomb (50%). PC finds him wandering heavily injured in the dark recesses of the tomb. He
could die or be saved.
-Brujan keep his sanity (50%), He gets injured or die. In the first case the PC can help him and put him in a safe room untill they defeat acererak.
2) Leaving the constable body to rest
-PC and Brujan enter the tomb of horror. A little later Constable rise as zombie and enter the tomb.
-Brujan Fight against the constable but get mad (30%).
-Brujan fight against the constable but retain his sanity (70%).
-Brujan will surely win the fight (cleric lvl 5 against zombie level 5), but will be injured. He'll die anyway later unless they leave him in a
safe room to recover him after defeating acererak.
3) Resurrect the constable
-PC and NPCs enter the tomb of horror.
-Constable go mad and attack the other (you can guess why he's the one who go mad)
-PC encounter them at the end of the fight. The fight will be fair (i'll make a sheet for each character and play a fight on my own to see
who would win). PC will have time to do a single action which could eventually turn the result of the fight. In any case one of them will die.
The other will be seriously injured and will not be able to follow them without causing problems. If the PC chose to keep the survivor with
them, he will cause problems untill he dies. If they leave him in a safe room he will survive.
-If they choose to save the mad constable, once out he will leave them, and they will hear about strange murder (possible new
adventure)
-If they choose to save Brujan, once out he will thank them, and tells them that he must go back to Marais. They can go back to
marais d'Tarascon and meet him again if they want.
-I dont know how to make this happen: Brujan and Constable go back to Marais without entering the tomb of horrors and live their life "happy ever after". I
want the PC to know that brujan and constable are safe and sound in their city, but i dont want them to be able to join them (to be sure they enter the
tomb of horrors). Some ideas?

Thanks, i'll check those terrain out!
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

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Nox wrote:Now this portal will lead to the adventure "tomb of horrors", a classic from 2e. I located this particular tomb into an ancient pyramid in har'kir. There will be no way out of the tomb unless they kill acererak, the lich.
The Tomb of Horrors? The S1 module? Only exceeded by 'Isle of the Ape' for TPKs of high level characters?
Or do you mean the 3.5 Revised Tomb? Not quite as deadly - no insta-death/no save traps and a Lich instead of a Demi-lich, but still not fun.

If these PC's only just completed (low level adventure) NotWD they are in for a very very very bad day. :|
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

Post by Hamiclar »

you have the original the revised one it brutal than you have the return to tomb of horrors. I have both the boxed set comes with the original adventure I lucked out! The 1st one is pretty brutal you may want to check into it. The adventure has a real high % to TPK.
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

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To be honest my players are veterans, but irruent.
They run into things, I want them to learn that this is not always the best solution.

Yeah, they are low level, but my tomb of horror is revised for their level for what concerns DCs and monsters.

Said that if you think it is too much too early I can skip this to later on, I could place it in darkon, near Necropolys, connecting the tomb to Death (In the prolog is told that acererak is so powerful that he hides secrets to Death himself and that gave me the idea to connect him to the darklord Death.

I have both the s1 and the revised 3.5 . For now I only read the 3.5 version. I will read the s1 in the next days and decide which one could I use.

For what I Have read 'till now it doesn't seems to be impossible to get out of it, just challenging.
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

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I'd leave it than, maybe they don't find the mummy but enounter its guardians as they path a way out or the other option, to decypher the writing on the walls to who or what is discussed as being placed here by the writings in Akiri with some faded out with the sands of time.

I ran a underground library last time I ran TOD. It was dedicated to Set and had prints leading out which were later to discovered to be isu. The place she had discovered the greateness of Set and the libraries past as way to overthrow Anketopot. I really enjoyed explaining the rise in heat in tomb as they went closer to the surface than when I left it I described nothing but sand with the village in the distance. Are you going to have the tomb in Har Akir or Sebua I was debating on having them already joined when my PC arrive there with a option to go into tomb after the module adventure for QOR which features a tomb with a mummy wizard. The nomads will bring the other priestess which will be there if the group returns after the encounter in TOD.
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

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Hamiclar wrote:I'd leave it than, maybe ...
You mean that you would play it, or that you would remove it and play it later on in the campaign?

Just to be clear, they have little to no equipment (yeah, they have a couple of scroll of resurrection, many healing potions, food and stuff, but they have almost no magic item; I plan to give a single magic item to each player at the beginning of the next session. A ghost will show to them, thanks for freeing his tomb from the taint of evil Marcel and give them 3 items as reward).
I wonder if they need something else, or if they need something particular.
For what i can remember in Tomb of horror there are some puzzles that can be solved with items, but you can find those items right in the tomb. Tell me if i'm wrong.
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

I've never read or played Tomb of Horrors, but the one thing everyone seems to know about it is that it's a PC meatgrinder. Scaling it down to low-levels seems to be doing it a disservice.

I do like the mausoleum as portal to Har'akir. that's a cool way to link what otherwise are VERY disparate adventures.

The way I like to link the GC is to have Kargat agents sprinkled throughout, to show that Azalin is interested and trying to push things forward, even if he can't be there.

If you want a blunt force way to sent the shaman and constable back home happy, just do it. The group can't get out of the mausoleum, everyone must go through the portal. PCs get to Har'akir, NPCs get sent home by the whims of the dark powers. If need be, do a "cut scene" (describe the two NPCs coming home, with the understanding that the PCs don't actually know this, and it's for the benefit of the Players only..)
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

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Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:I've never read or played Tomb of Horrors, but the one thing everyone seems to know about it is that it's a PC meatgrinder. Scaling it down to low-levels seems to be doing it a disservice.

I do like the mausoleum as portal to Har'akir. that's a cool way to link what otherwise are VERY disparate adventures.

The way I like to link the GC is to have Kargat agents sprinkled throughout, to show that Azalin is interested and trying to push things forward, even if he can't be there.

If you want a blunt force way to sent the shaman and constable back home happy, just do it. The group can't get out of the mausoleum, everyone must go through the portal. PCs get to Har'akir, NPCs get sent home by the whims of the dark powers. If need be, do a "cut scene" (describe the two NPCs coming home, with the understanding that the PCs don't actually know this, and it's for the benefit of the Players only..)
thanks for the advice, it could be the first time i use a cutscene ^^
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

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Nox wrote:To be honest my players are veterans, but irruent.
They run into things, I want them to learn that this is not always the best solution.
I didn't mean to insult you or your players. Apologies if I did. :(
Said that if you think it is too much too early I can skip this to later on, I could place it in darkon, near Necropolys, connecting the tomb to Death (In the prolog is told that acererak is so powerful that he hides secrets to Death himself and that gave me the idea to connect him to the darklord Death.
A better idea I think. By that time the PC's will be much more seasoned with nasty things which suits ToH much better.
I have both the s1 and the revised 3.5 . For now I only read the 3.5 version. I will read the s1 in the next days and decide which one could I use.

S1 is a lot harder. Insta-death/no save traps everywhere. There is a reason it has a lot of pre-gen characters in the back.

Another possibility if you are going for the old classics, and given the Har'kir angle, maybe the old I3-5 series Desert of Desolation would be useful. Very 'Egyptian' themed, designed for levels 5-7, and written by the Hickmans as well. I3 - Pharaoh appears to have what you need - mazes, ghosts, curses, mummies, etc. Probably best to skip I4-I5 as they can get a bit too 'high fantasy' for RL at times, and the whole DoD campaign could overshadow the GC you are running.
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

Post by Nox »

DustBunny wrote: I didn't mean to insult you or your players. Apologies if I did. :(
Dont worry, you did not, I got what you mean. I just meant to inform that we play D&D since a long time and I suppose that they could survive it, but i might prove to be wrong ^^ . After all my career as DM started an year ago and my judgement is far from perfection :azalin: !
DustBunny wrote:A better idea I think. By that time the PC's will be much more seasoned with nasty things which suits ToH much better.
Probably you are right. I will delay the ToH. I'm just really courious to play it and see their choices and reactions.
DustBunny wrote: S1 is a lot harder. Insta-death/no save traps everywhere. There is a reason it has a lot of pre-gen characters in the back.

Another possibility if you are going for the old classics, and given the Har'kir angle, maybe the old I3-5 series Desert of Desolation would be useful. Very 'Egyptian' themed, designed for levels 5-7, and written by the Hickmans as well. I3 - Pharaoh appears to have what you need - mazes, ghosts, curses, mummies, etc. Probably best to skip I4-I5 as they can get a bit too 'high fantasy' for RL at times, and the whole DoD campaign could overshadow the GC you are running.
I still have to read the S1 module, but i'm wondering if there is some hints that would let the players avoid those traps, or if those are just there and the players will activate them no matter what. Consider that we do not have a rogue in our party, just a barbarian, a mage and a cleric.
The Desert of desolation sounds interesting! I'm gonna check it out right now. Is the DoD campaign long? what about the I3? I want to spend max 3 session(16 hour) on this adventure, if this is not the case I will just avoid it, and put them in the desert at the beginning of Touch of Death.

Thanks for everything as always!
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Re: NotWD and hexad revised + questions?

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Nox wrote:The Desert of desolation sounds interesting! I'm gonna check it out right now. Is the DoD campaign long? what about the I3? I want to spend max 3 session(16 hour) on this adventure, if this is not the case I will just avoid it, and put them in the desert at the beginning of Touch of Death.

Thanks for everything as always!
The original Desert Desolation was 3 x 1e modules (I3, I4, I5) which was rolled into one of the 'MegaModules' when 2e came out.

If you leave out I4-5, and stick with 'I3 - Pharaoh' it should be doable. You can skip the desert travel to the tomb as they could arrive at the pyramid right away. Meeting the pharaohs ghost and exploring the funerary temple would cover session 1, and sessions 2-3 with the tomb proper. I thought of it because you mention that the 'portal' closed for some reason. In I-3 the river source dries up because of the pharaoh's death curse, what if the source for that river was Sourange via a portal/mistway which closed due to the curse?

The main adjustments would be maybe making this pharaoh a pre-Ankhtepot one or maybe some sort of lesser official so you dont mess with the lore too much, and reduce some of the magical goodies.
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