Long forgotten tales speak about the so called Tomb Of Horrors. It had many names in the past as far as you can recall but this is the one that is usually used while describing this unsettling place that fuels the nightmares of the explorers. It's autumn, orange leaves decorate the forests of Faerun, and it's time for the annual expedition. The Lord Maren of the city of Preston is gathering once again explorers for a delve into the tomb. Everybody knows about the dangers of the place, thus this is an expedition made solely of volunteers, whose goal is to explore the dungeon, gather as much information about it and, if possible, eliminate the evil that lies within. You're one of those explorers, and you're part of the First Expedition along with 3 other mighty adventurers.
You have little information on the place you're going in. No one has returned from there yet, and it's said to be a maze full of traps and mighty protective spells. It is also said to be the lair of a demilich named Acererak but no one has yet confirmed this. You understand that because of traps your best course of action would be investigating as cautiously as possible without triggering anything. Even the smallest thing could be deadly.
No one actually goes even to the surroundings of the tomb thus you don't have any information about the entrance, but its location.
After a week or so since your departure from Preston you arrive at the place that is said to be the location of the Tomb. As far as you can see there is nothing unusual with the place. The forest you were in left place to a plain and in front of you appeared a hill. It's flat topped, about 200 yards wide, 300 yards long, and 60 feet high. Only ugly weeds, thorns, and briars grow upon the steep sides and bald top of the mound. A big number of rocks is present atop of the hill. As far as you can see there is no sign of an entrance of any kind.
For clarity and ease of reading all OOC comments and questions must be put in spoilers like this one. When your character performs an action put it between asterisks *like this*. It's better if you choose a color for your character and keep using that color while speaking. Thanks.
Falmo is a cold-eyed, surprisingly skinny halfling. He has short, brown hair, and grey, lifeless eyes that seem to look through you without truly seeing you. He's wearing studded leather, and has two rapiers strapped onto his belt and a shortbow on his back, along with a shortsword and an assortment of daggers. He will stand off to the side of the hill, crossing his arms and observing his companions. You sense he's not ready to trust the capabilities of his companions (or really anyone's capabilities other than himself). His posture might even be slightly intimidating if he was a few feet taller. As it is, it would look slightly ridiculous except for the cold look in his eyes. For the remainder of his life this adventure, I plan on using this color for his speech.
Btw, I spent a little of my starting gold on the studded armor, an extra rapier, a shortbow, and a few vials of basic poison. Just wanted to let you know how those items showed up in my inventory :).
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Lumiere is a blonde-haired beautiful and graceful human woman in her early thirties. She wears a simple white robe as she travels, with some adventuring essentials, such as a bag of provisions, a lantern, and a short blade tucked neatly into a scabbard. She walks with a enlightened step as the smile on her face seems to brighten the world just a little bit.
"So this is the dreaded location that I have heard about." She says to the others."The light shall pierce this darkness here and help us find the truth. All will be well."
OOC: If everyone's okay with it, I guess Lumiere will take a more scouting lead. She is more of an agile character than strong and front-line.
I sidle up to my companions settling my armor and shield. I whisper a prayer of thanks to Vandria for a safe trip to this place and ask for a blessing on our ventures.
"It is being good we made it here safe. Are you being good to investigate hill together? I see no door or open space." I pan my vision casually over the clearing but try to pick out anything unusual.
"Ah, before I am forgetting, this " I take out a diamond the size of a pinkie nail from my pack "is not for taking. It is being for revivify. If you take and you die, you stay dead, yes?"
Jerigg stands proudly with gleaming copper red scales and blood red plate. His shield has the symbol of Vandria Gilmadrith emblazoned on it. He looks forward to discovering new things about this place and these people. While most of his gear appears to be in excellent condition, the robe he wears over his armor seems a patchwork of colors and shapes.
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Ubogri is a fairly short half-orc (5'2") with blue gray skin and unkempt, short, black hair and long tusks. He has a thin build, and carries himself easily. His eyes are calculating and untrusting. While the others are looking around, he says, "I'll see if there are any tracks which might tell us something."
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
You start carefully exploring the hill and its surroundings and the first thing that Ubogri notices is a series of tracks leading to northern part of the hill. Tracks of humans, dwarfs and other races along with some horse ones. Ubogri starts following them and they take him to a cliff side. the northern part of the hill is made of crumbling gravel and sand. A low stone ledge overhangs this eroded area, and shrubs and bushes obscure it from observation at a distance. In the same moment Ubogri arrives at the cliff, Jerigg and Falmo carefully poke their heads from the top. They've searched the upper part of the hill with no luck but they, as well, arrived at this hillside .
Ubogri notices immediately that the sand is unstable, it collapsed recently and it might collapse again. On the other hand Jerigg notices that the sand covers a multitude of rocks sticking out from it a bit. Some of the rocks seem to be too perfect to be natural.
The hillside is big, so if you intend searching it you will have to tell me where do you intend to do it: middle, left or right. (You can even choose to divide the group and examine all the locations at the same time)
Jerigg starts poking around the rocks and the sand nearby and, after a bit of time, a small mass of sand and gravels starts falling towards Ubogri. He easily avoids the small rocks and looks at the place Jerigg poked. The sand that fell revealed three rocks, one of which is on top of the other two, forming something that looks almost like a doorway. There is not enough space to see the inside of it, but it looks like with some work and time you'd be able to clear the debris.
"You, dragonborn," Ubogri says to Jerigg after scowling at him about the small avalanche he caused, "move those rocks. I'll cover you in case something pokes its head out." Ubogri readies an arrow and will attack if anything should happen to show itself as a danger while Jerigg is working.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Falmo will look inside the entrance, searching for any signs of danger (or traps). Perception: 19
Whoops, that's actually a 17 :)
I'm assuming Falmo's out of combat role in the party will basically be a trap detector, as I have +7 Perception and Reliable Talent, so I can never get under 17. Rogues . . . Combat wise, I'm a mostly melee combatant, but definitely not a tank.
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Falmo looks inside the small space that you managed to clear but sees only darkness ahead of him. Only the beginning of the corridor is visible because of the sun passing trough the opening. Clearing enough to enter will take you an hour.
"Perhaps one should check with a light." Lumiere says as she offers her lantern, lighting it and handing it to Falmo. She will then offer to help with clearing the entrance.
OOC: It's a Lantern of Revealing, so will show any invisible things while within its light.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Falmo looks at you distrustfully before taking the lantern and scanning the entrance, waiting for something to come out of the depths. If he needs another Perception: 16
"Thanks."
I love how the two scouting characters both don't have darkvision . . . (Finally, I don't have to use Reliable Talent to actually do anything)
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Bright, brilliant colors are to be seen everywhere, the stones and pigments undimmed by the passage of decades. The floor of the corridor is a colorful mosaic of stone, with a distinct, winding path of red tiles about two feet wide snaking its way south down the corridor. No stonework can be seen on the walls or the ceiling twenty feet above, for some sort of cement or plaster has been smoothed over all of these surfaces and then illustrated. The scenes show fields with kine grazing, a corpse with several wolves in the background, workers of various races and strange human-animal mixtures--pig-human, ape-human, and dog-human-going about a various tasks. Certain of the frescoes show rooms of some building--a library filled with many books and scrolls, the door of a torture chamber, and a wizard's work room. There are chairs, windows, boxes, bales, doors, chests, birds, bats, spiders, and all manner of things shown on the walls.
On the right two jackal-headed human figures are painted so as to appear to be holding a real bronze chest that protrudes from the wall.
An hour has passed and you've cleared enough sand to get trough.
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Long forgotten tales speak about the so called Tomb Of Horrors. It had many names in the past as far as you can recall but this is the one that is usually used while describing this unsettling place that fuels the nightmares of the explorers. It's autumn, orange leaves decorate the forests of Faerun, and it's time for the annual expedition. The Lord Maren of the city of Preston is gathering once again explorers for a delve into the tomb. Everybody knows about the dangers of the place, thus this is an expedition made solely of volunteers, whose goal is to explore the dungeon, gather as much information about it and, if possible, eliminate the evil that lies within. You're one of those explorers, and you're part of the First Expedition along with 3 other mighty adventurers.
You have little information on the place you're going in. No one has returned from there yet, and it's said to be a maze full of traps and mighty protective spells. It is also said to be the lair of a demilich named Acererak but no one has yet confirmed this. You understand that because of traps your best course of action would be investigating as cautiously as possible without triggering anything. Even the smallest thing could be deadly.
No one actually goes even to the surroundings of the tomb thus you don't have any information about the entrance, but its location.
After a week or so since your departure from Preston you arrive at the place that is said to be the location of the Tomb. As far as you can see there is nothing unusual with the place. The forest you were in left place to a plain and in front of you appeared a hill. It's flat topped, about 200 yards wide, 300 yards long, and 60 feet high. Only ugly weeds, thorns, and briars grow upon the steep sides and bald top of the mound. A big number of rocks is present atop of the hill. As far as you can see there is no sign of an entrance of any kind.
For clarity and ease of reading all OOC comments and questions must be put in spoilers like this one. When your character performs an action put it between asterisks *like this*. It's better if you choose a color for your character and keep using that color while speaking. Thanks.
(Here's a description of my character)
Falmo is a cold-eyed, surprisingly skinny halfling. He has short, brown hair, and grey, lifeless eyes that seem to look through you without truly seeing you. He's wearing studded leather, and has two rapiers strapped onto his belt and a shortbow on his back, along with a shortsword and an assortment of daggers. He will stand off to the side of the hill, crossing his arms and observing his companions. You sense he's not ready to trust the capabilities of his companions (or really anyone's capabilities other than himself). His posture might even be slightly intimidating if he was a few feet taller. As it is, it would look slightly ridiculous except for the cold look in his eyes. For the remainder of
his lifethis adventure, I plan on using this color for his speech.Btw, I spent a little of my starting gold on the studded armor, an extra rapier, a shortbow, and a few vials of basic poison. Just wanted to let you know how those items showed up in my inventory :).
Check out my Extended signature here
Class Guides: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Bard General Guides: PvP
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Lumiere is a blonde-haired beautiful and graceful human woman in her early thirties. She wears a simple white robe as she travels, with some adventuring essentials, such as a bag of provisions, a lantern, and a short blade tucked neatly into a scabbard. She walks with a enlightened step as the smile on her face seems to brighten the world just a little bit.
"So this is the dreaded location that I have heard about." She says to the others. "The light shall pierce this darkness here and help us find the truth. All will be well."
OOC: If everyone's okay with it, I guess Lumiere will take a more scouting lead. She is more of an agile character than strong and front-line.
Current Player In: The Guild as Elsara Deepmoon
I sidle up to my companions settling my armor and shield. I whisper a prayer of thanks to Vandria for a safe trip to this place and ask for a blessing on our ventures.
"It is being good we made it here safe. Are you being good to investigate hill together? I see no door or open space." I pan my vision casually over the clearing but try to pick out anything unusual.
"Ah, before I am forgetting, this " I take out a diamond the size of a pinkie nail from my pack "is not for taking. It is being for revivify. If you take and you die, you stay dead, yes?"
Jerigg stands proudly with gleaming copper red scales and blood red plate. His shield has the symbol of Vandria Gilmadrith emblazoned on it. He looks forward to discovering new things about this place and these people. While most of his gear appears to be in excellent condition, the robe he wears over his armor seems a patchwork of colors and shapes.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Whoops
Perception 3
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Starting off the rolling strong!
Falmo will also make a Perception check, looking around for possible threats or entrances: 9
Forgot about Reliable Talent, so this would actually be a 17.
Check out my Extended signature here
Class Guides: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Bard General Guides: PvP
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Ubogri is a fairly short half-orc (5'2") with blue gray skin and unkempt, short, black hair and long tusks. He has a thin build, and carries himself easily. His eyes are calculating and untrusting. While the others are looking around, he says, "I'll see if there are any tracks which might tell us something."
Survival: 22
I just realized searching for an entrance would probably be Investigation, not Perception: 9
Check out my Extended signature here
Class Guides: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Bard General Guides: PvP
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Investigation16
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
You start carefully exploring the hill and its surroundings and the first thing that Ubogri notices is a series of tracks leading to northern part of the hill. Tracks of humans, dwarfs and other races along with some horse ones. Ubogri starts following them and they take him to a cliff side. the northern part of the hill is made of crumbling gravel and sand. A low stone ledge overhangs this eroded area, and shrubs and bushes obscure it from observation at a distance. In the same moment Ubogri arrives at the cliff, Jerigg and Falmo carefully poke their heads from the top. They've searched the upper part of the hill with no luck but they, as well, arrived at this hillside .
Ubogri notices immediately that the sand is unstable, it collapsed recently and it might collapse again. On the other hand Jerigg notices that the sand covers a multitude of rocks sticking out from it a bit. Some of the rocks seem to be too perfect to be natural.
The hillside is big, so if you intend searching it you will have to tell me where do you intend to do it: middle, left or right. (You can even choose to divide the group and examine all the locations at the same time)
"Somethink is not being right here."
I poke the unnatural looking rocks in the middle with my spear.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Jerigg starts poking around the rocks and the sand nearby and, after a bit of time, a small mass of sand and gravels starts falling towards Ubogri. He easily avoids the small rocks and looks at the place Jerigg poked. The sand that fell revealed three rocks, one of which is on top of the other two, forming something that looks almost like a doorway. There is not enough space to see the inside of it, but it looks like with some work and time you'd be able to clear the debris.
Lumiere will be on watch and making sure there isn't anything in the overgrowth nearby where the group is working to ensure no nasty early surprises.
Perception: 11
(Starting well with them rolls...)
Current Player In: The Guild as Elsara Deepmoon
"You, dragonborn," Ubogri says to Jerigg after scowling at him about the small avalanche he caused, "move those rocks. I'll cover you in case something pokes its head out." Ubogri readies an arrow and will attack if anything should happen to show itself as a danger while Jerigg is working.
Falmo will look inside the entrance, searching for any signs of danger (or traps). Perception: 19
Whoops, that's actually a 17 :)
I'm assuming Falmo's out of combat role in the party will basically be a trap detector, as I have +7 Perception and Reliable Talent, so I can never get under 17. Rogues . . . Combat wise, I'm a mostly melee combatant, but definitely not a tank.
Check out my Extended signature here
Class Guides: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Bard General Guides: PvP
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Falmo looks inside the small space that you managed to clear but sees only darkness ahead of him. Only the beginning of the corridor is visible because of the sun passing trough the opening. Clearing enough to enter will take you an hour.
I shake my head and chuckle, "Half-men are being funny."
I pull out my crowbar and start to carefully dig around the rocks.
Jerigg's purpose in life is to safeguard others. Besides, if I don't stand next to the bad guys, how you gonna get your sneak attacks?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
"Perhaps one should check with a light." Lumiere says as she offers her lantern, lighting it and handing it to Falmo. She will then offer to help with clearing the entrance.
OOC: It's a Lantern of Revealing, so will show any invisible things while within its light.
Current Player In: The Guild as Elsara Deepmoon
Falmo looks at you distrustfully before taking the lantern and scanning the entrance, waiting for something to come out of the depths. If he needs another Perception: 16
"Thanks."
I love how the two scouting characters both don't have darkvision . . . (Finally, I don't have to use Reliable Talent to actually do anything)
Check out my Extended signature here
Class Guides: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcerer, Bard General Guides: PvP
Currently playing in: Quest for the Shunned City, Coliseum of Conquest, DragonDenn's Dragonlords, Shipwrecked on Fugue, Tomb of Annihilation, Razor's Lost Mine of Phandelver, The Lost Kenku & One Grung Above
Currently DMing: Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Coliseum of Conquest—The Arena (Sometimes)
Bright, brilliant colors are to be seen everywhere, the stones and pigments undimmed by the passage of decades. The floor of the corridor is a colorful mosaic of stone, with a distinct, winding path of red tiles about two feet wide snaking its way south down the corridor. No stonework can be seen on the walls or the ceiling twenty feet above, for some sort of cement or plaster has been smoothed over all of these surfaces and then illustrated. The scenes show fields with kine grazing, a corpse with several wolves in the background, workers of various races and strange human-animal mixtures--pig-human, ape-human, and dog-human-going about a various tasks. Certain of the frescoes show rooms of some building--a library filled with many books and scrolls, the door of a torture chamber, and a wizard's work room. There are chairs, windows, boxes, bales, doors, chests, birds, bats, spiders, and all manner of things shown on the walls.
On the right two jackal-headed human figures are painted so as to appear to be holding a real bronze chest that protrudes from the wall.
An hour has passed and you've cleared enough sand to get trough.