Encounter Contest 2: Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

[Elves]

We did the first encounter contest and got two entries, let's see if there's enough people to do another. If not it was a one-time thing.

Explanation
This is a contest in the vein of Iron Chef.

The goal is to design an exciting game encounter. Go as far as possible from "an ogre in a bare stone room" -- put unique opponents in cool and dynamic settings. The person who creates the most challenging and memorable encounter wins.

Sources
All official sources are allowed, which includes Dragon and Dungeon magazines.

Each entry should include:

1) Name and EL. Title your encounter with a name and the encounter level (EL). For example, Bandit Attack! (EL 1). Calculate the EL with this tool (https://ion.uwinnipeg.ca/~afrey/dnd/calculator.html) (SRD mirror (https://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20encountercalculator/)).

2) Context. Where can GMs use this encounter? Where, why and when is it likely to occur? You can also include fluff text here if you want.

3) Environment. Describe the area where the encounter is likely to occur, including dimensions, terrain features, traps, etc. You don't have to include an actual map — although you're welcome to!

4) Creature(s). Describe the creatures the PCs will interact with.

Stats — This is the preferred statblock format. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IfvqsKHT7jBy5bbsrBzo7_ODZ-F0gPAcerddrRQPCow/edit?usp=sharing) (Link a Google docs page or use this forum-fitted version (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25516311&postcount=11).) You don't have to provide a full statblock if it's not needed (for example, if a creature is from a book, with only its feats changed).
Tactics — What are the creatures’ objectives? What tactics do they use? What do they do on their turns? At what point, if any, will they run away?

Customized and unique creatures are highly encouraged. Be familiar with the rules on this page (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/improvingMonsters.htm). Many people aren't aware of the nonassociated class levels rule, the "adding special abilities" rule, or the fact that monsters with class levels use the elite array with no extra CR increase.

5) (Optional) Adaptation. At the bottom of your entry, you can talk about how to make your encounter easier or harder, or how to scale it for lower- or higher-level PCs.

6) Citations. Please cite more obscure content, such as magazine content, second party content, and so on. Thanks to online database tools you don't have to cite most stuff.

Feel free to include any other information that's important to your encounter.
When you're done, send your entry to me in a private message.

Power Level: Your encounter should be able to challenge a well-optimized party of the EL. Balance it for players who read this forum, rather than a party made up of Tordek, Lidda, Jozan and Mialee.
Each person who volunteers to judge will score each entry from 0–5 on 4 categories, for a total score of 0–20.

1. Creatures. How well-crafted and creatively built are the creatures?

A high score is for custom-made opponents with interesting builds, template combinations, etc. Creatures taken straight from the book get a low score, not an average one.

Other forms of creature creativity can include a synergistic combination of creatures, or creative tactics, even if the creatures themselves aren't customized.

Even if a creature is customized, it might not be well-crafted (for example, a creature with a template that raises its CR while actually making it worse), but don't detract points simply for using "too many templates", etc.

2. Environment. Does an interesting environment enhance the fight? This includes features of the map such as terrain, room layout, traps, and interactive objects.
0: No environment mentioned in entry.
1: Environment significantly detracts from encounter (opponent uses ranged attacks but the setting is a 20' x 20' room).
3: Environment serves encounter adequately.
5: Environment makes the encounter much more interesting, synergizing with the creatures and/or giving PCs relevant strategic options.

Actually posting a map is optional. A text description is just fine.

3. Challenge. Is the encounter an adequate challenge for well-optimized characters of the EL? Is it an unfair challenge even for extremely optimized characters of the EL? Is it an interesting challenge that players will have to strategize to beat? Does it provide a reasonable reward?

Be slow to detract points for being too hard. We're trying to make challenging scenarios — being hard is good, as long as it's beatable.

4. Flavor. How well does the entry use the prompt? Does it have a fun fluff intro or tell a story? Is the scenario coherent, or does it not make sense?

Unlike Iron Chef, there's no problem with brainstorming ideas in the thread if you want to. No one will get lower marks because someone already mentioned their idea.


Contest Theme: Curse of the Mummy's Tomb

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/83/d6/13/83d613a03203d81238313215ea2e246c.jpg

🪦 Your encounter must take place in a tomb.
🪦 It must include a mummy or a creature with the mummified template (Libris Mortis).
🪦 It must include a curse that affects those who profane the tomb, steal its treasures, or some similar offense. This might be a unique environmental effect, or it might be a trap, a special ability of the mummy, or something else.

Who can put a fresh spin on a classic trope? Send players running in terror in this second edition of...Encounter Contest.

Deadline
Let's see if we have any entries by the end of the month.

Past Contests
1. The Dragon's Hoard (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?647599-Encounter-Competition)


-----

Entry Entrant loky1109 Total Place
The Failed KingsElves 17.5 17.5 1st
Who Let the Cats Out?Elves 15.5 15.5 2nd
The Temple of Last WordsEurus 13.5 13.5 3rd
The Tomb of HrallkunTohron 10 10 4th
Curse of the Serpent TombBeni-Kujaku 9 9 5th

[loky1109]

Let's see what I can do.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Odds are, I'll judge again. I may rummage around my books to see what I can find, but more than likely, I'll just judge.

[Elves]

I got an entry idea for this so seeking a judge

[AvatarVecna]

Oh dang I've actually got an entry idea for this.

[Elves]

Oh dang I've actually got an entry idea for this.
Care to share?

I have 3 ideas I haven't chosen between:
- cat mummy based on Egyptian mummification of cats
- bog mummy based on the tollund man, who was thrown into a bog as a ritual sacrifice to a god
- natural ice mummies on a cursed glacier, perhaps near an unholy artifact that caused the nearby dead to rise

[AvatarVecna]

Care to share?

I have 3 ideas I haven't chosen between:
- cat mummy based on Egyptian mummification of cats
- bog mummy based on the tollund man, who was thrown into a bog as a ritual sacrifice to a god
- natural ice mummies on a cursed glacier, perhaps near an unholy artifact that caused the nearby dead to rise

Mine is less interested in the mummy and more interested in the curse - specifically, making it an actual problem for the players. The main issue I'm having is that 1) getting it to work proper requires more than one encounter, and 2) it doesn't really care about mummies? It's largely a low-level dungeon, so a lvl 3-4 party gets pretty far in, mostly dealing with just traps and the like - maybe a few monsters but more infesting vermin and the like rather than actual defenses. They reach the mummy, and it's very explicitly an encounter they're not ready for. The mummy and their honor guard combine into the kind of encounter where "victory" means "escape". Which is fine, adventures are designed on the assumption such encounters happen about 5% of the time.

The basic mechanical concept, and the trick to the curse: the mummies guards are all lycanthropes and entomanothropes whose base animals are specifically designed to be as useless as possible, reverse-optimized to be very over-CR'd. The base animals/vermin are extremely small and weak for their HD, their physical stats are trash, they're just large enough to infect the PCs but that's it. They've even been adjusted to use the alternate array, so that two of the base animal's physical stats are two points lower than usual. This is not to make the combat manageable for the PCs despite the very high CR they're facing - even with their awful combat abilities, there should be too many of them and them just too strong (despite reverse-optimization) for the PCs to even think they have a chance. This is to make getting infected a fate worse than death.

The party escapes, but they all got scratched - twice each. They survived the damage easily, and had to roll saves vs diseases, but it's not like that's unexpected - they were fighting mummies after all. Each of them has contracted lycanthropy and entomanothropy. Each one has spontaneously gained something like 5 animal HD where they don't pick the feats, 2 vermin HD where they don't get any new feats to pick for themselves, an intelligence penalty from entomanothrope, and LA +4. Their hybrid and animal forms seem to make them categorically worse, physically. They have DR 5/silver, some HP, and some trash feats, but for the most part, their builds are absolutely ****ed, and so is their ability to gain XP. Their ECL shot up like 11 points over the course of a few d20 rolls. They're effectively level 4 characters in capabilities (slightly more HP, but the game is so rocket-taggy), but mechanically they're ECL 15. The lowest CR they can fight to get XP is CR 8, which they will have to fight with 2nd lvl spells at best. And each one will give 375 total XP for the party to share. An encounter that should still be a "pull out all the stops" only trickles the XP in.

They didn't quite reach lvl 5 in this dungeon, due to running away, which means none of them have Remove Curse. Their only chance is to scrape together enough cash to pay a priest to cast Remove Curse on them during the most dangerous period of time (the full moon), which will be a difficult sell since animal and vermin HD aren't great for power-leveling social skills. More likely, they'll need to pay for a CL 12 Remove Disease or Heal spell, and 12th lvl clerics aren't exactly common, nor do they have much reason to be selling spellcasting services instead of choosing how to apply their great cosmic power on behalf of the king, nor do they have much reason to meet with a group of low-level randos who bit off more than they can chew.

[AvatarVecna]

Animal
Human Commoner 1 infected with Lycanthropy (weakened Octopus advanced to 5 HD). CR 3.

Pre-race physical stats: 8/9/10. Post-race physical stats: 10/15/10. Lycanthropy adjustment for hybrid/animal form: +0/+4/+0. Human commoner gains four feats, including Weapon Finesse, Iron Will, and two others chosen by DM; these feats should ideally boost the accuracy of the infecting attack. Skills are low in number and not particularly valuable to PCs outside Listen/Spot. Octopi tend to feel alien to humans and tend to be characterized in alien ways, usually with malicious undertones. Expect that octopus lycanthropes will tend towards evil alignments.

Vermin
Human Commoner 1 infected with Entomanothropy (weakened Giant Worker Ant). CR 2.

Pre-race physical stats: 8/9/10. Post race physical stats: 8/9/0. Entomanothropy adjustment for hybrid/vermin form: -2/-2/+0. Human Commoner gains Track as a bonus feat. Skill points are gained, but no class skills at all. Vermin in general tend to get viewed negatively by society, while ants tend to fall into mindless swarm stereotypes. Expect that ant entomanothropes will tend towards Lawful and/or Evil.

Mummy
Human Commoner 1 (Mummified Creature). CR 3.



By-The-Numbers, your typical five-man band will be advised to run away by the time there are 6 of each -thrope.

[Tusen]

I had an idea for the mummy but am having issues bringing it together into a cohesive whole, not to mention the curse. Coming up with something RAW is beyond my skill level and I'm not sure how to do balance a curse otherwise, and haven't had any neat ideas anyway. I'll be happy to share my partial idea once the contest is over though.

[Elves]

I had an idea for the mummy but am having issues bringing it together into a cohesive whole, not to mention the curse. Coming up with something RAW is beyond my skill level and I'm not sure how to do balance a curse otherwise, and haven't had any neat ideas anyway. I'll be happy to share my partial idea once the contest is over though.

Go ahead and share your idea. Judges shouldn't opine but otherwise there's no problem with brainstorming.

@Vecna that reminds me of something we mentioned in the disc recently. Nar fiendbond makes players half-fiend (+4 la) so is the worst spell a villain can use, and there's a grass that makes you a vampire, which a villain could force feed to PCs...

It doesn't sound like your idea needs multiple encounters. Just condense it into one. Hard part is the fluff...octopodes and giant ants is an odd combination.

[Tusen]

Go ahead and share your idea. Judges shouldn't opine but otherwise there's no problem with brainstorming.


The general idea I had was just based on that the mummified creature template can be applied to monstrous humanoids, and it has no mention of losing special abilities or the like. So I wanted to make a mummified doppelganger. Alter self doesn't remove supernatural abilities unless they rely on a body part, and to me mummy rot (since it's actually a curse and disease kind of combo thing) doesn't rely on a body part. It can also be delivered via any natural attack.

I know there's some contention over whether unarmed strikes are natural weapons or not, but I tend to land on the side of them being natural weapons. They're improved by Improved Natural Weapon, and you have all the lines in spells that read "...natural weapon, such as an unarmed strike" although I know relying on it would probably cost me points. I was going to look into the rules to see if nonlethal strikes could transmit diseases or if they needed to deal actual hp damage. Either way the doppelganger was going to pretend to be someone sealed inside the tomb. An inscription on the heavy (and thus slow to open) door into the tomb would have a poem about beauty trapped within or the like. The doppelganger would read the surface thoughts of the party as they read that, and adjust its form to match their desires as best it could. Combine that with a high bluff check and it was going to pretend to be captured in a trap or the like.

One the party frees them, they act weak. Stumbling around and such. Oops I just stood on your foot (secret roll for mummy rot). Oops I fell over and accidentally hit you on the way down (secret roll for mummy rot), etc while leading them deeper into the tomb. Letting them take some ability damage hopefully before they notice something is wrong and the fight begins. Getting them in a corridor where their movement is restricted and a bulky other creature can help block them. I wanted to go mummified doppelganger totemist for the whole stacking a fair few natural attacks to get a whole lot of mummy rot rolls, but totemists rely on a constitution score to be able to soulmeld so I couldn't do that. So I was just going to go invisible fist monk instead. Forcing the players to burn some see invisibility (not much given the probable CR of the encounter being around 9) while a large unkillable + fast (the variants) zombie acted as a meat shield and some other ~CR4 creature was used to pad it out. It was going to be a contrast where the mummy is slow and the zombie fast, which is not normally expected. I was going to do the finishing touches after coming up with a curse but couldn't quite get it to work.

[AvatarVecna]

Go ahead and share your idea. Judges shouldn't opine but otherwise there's no problem with brainstorming.

@Vecna that reminds me of something we mentioned in the disc recently. Nar fiendbond makes players half-fiend (+4 la) so is the worst spell a villain can use, and there's a grass that makes you a vampire, which a villain could force feed to PCs...

It doesn't sound like your idea needs multiple encounters. Just condense it into one. Hard part is the fluff...octopodes and giant ants is an odd combination.

Honestly they're mostly examples, and that's basically the exact reason why. They're fairly optimal, as far as reverse-optimization goes, but it's hard to justify. The Octopus more than the ant, but still the ant. One thing that I'm still unsure of, and trying to find support, is if making somebody an octopus lycanthrope gives them the aquatic subtype, whether for all forms or just the hybrid/animal forms. If so, it gets actually deadly under the right circumstances...but I can't find any support for it.

[Eurus]

🪦 It must include a curse that affects those who profane the tomb, steal its treasures, or some similar offense. This might be a unique environmental effect, or it might be a trap, a special ability of the mummy, or something else.

When you say "unique environmental effect", are you talking about something printed in a book, or something custom?

[Elves]

When you say "unique environmental effect", are you talking about something printed in a book, or something custom?
Something you invent, you're the DM. Remember that DMs can also "add any sort of spell-like, supernatural, or extraordinary ability to a creature."


Honestly they're mostly examples, and that's basically the exact reason why. They're fairly optimal, as far as reverse-optimization goes, but it's hard to justify. The Octopus more than the ant, but still the ant. One thing that I'm still unsure of, and trying to find support, is if making somebody an octopus lycanthrope gives them the aquatic subtype, whether for all forms or just the hybrid/animal forms. If so, it gets actually deadly under the right circumstances...but I can't find any support for it.
A society that revered were-creatures and mummified them isn't far fetched, and at that point these just happen to be the ones in the tomb. Maybe therianthropy and entomanothropy ran rampant through the society resulting in weird mixes like this. "The Tomb of the Changers". Or maybe the therians and entomanothropes were opposing tribes and the creatures with both of them were the result of a battle where both sides got infected with each others' curse.


[snip]
Wouldn't the doppelganger still be wearing its mummy wraps in the different form?

Any gear worn or carried by the creature that can’t be worn or carried in its new form instead falls to the ground in its space. If the creature changes size, any gear it wears or carries that can be worn or carried in its new form changes size to match the new size.

You could dump the doppelganger idea and simply have a mummy who wears a disguise and pretends to be living. In a desert setting, which is thematic for mummies, it could blend in just fine wearing robes and a headscarf to cover its whole body.

You could even keep the doppelganger idea, since the change shape does give you +10 disguise to pretend to be a different form.

Mummified creatures do keep all special abilities so you could read through other monstrous humanoids and giants until you find cool synergies: https://web.archive.org/web/20161101214255/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/lists/monsters&tablesort=2b

[Tusen]

Wouldn't the doppelganger still be wearing its mummy wraps in the different form?



To be honest I think that would depend on the DM/judge and their personal setting. Are the mummy wraps something the mummified body is wearing? Or are they an integral part of the mummified creature's body now? The specific circumstance that I see it mattering in is if the wraps are somehow integral to its existence and yet are counted as clothing anyway, since otherwise it can just change its outfit or be wearing something more usual for its disguise.

Honestly it's an idea I might use in a different context completely (just for myself, not for the competition). Some kind of mummy doppelganger used to spread mummy rot in a town while looking like some other kind of creature. Could be part of a con to convince people to change to a different religion, to de-stabalise the local government or anything like that. However that's beyond the scope of this competition. I'll probably give it another whack when I have some time and come up with some meat shields to pair with the doppelganger (since 6HD at CR8 is kind of painful) and whack at the curse a bit, or add this idea to my vault of 'things to pull out' and try to find some other synergies I like. I just really liked the idea of hidden mummy and it gelled well enough with doppelganger, since they have low natural armour so gain a fair bit from it being set to +10 and such.

There's some things I can think of but their CR is far beyond what I normally play so making the encounter would be out of my comfort zone, and I know they aren't really original ideas. I have a few other strands to follow up when I give it a whack next.

[Eurus]

Alright, I sent in a thing. No idea if I'm doing this right...

[Elves]

Alright, I sent in a thing. No idea if I'm doing this right...
Since I'm not judging this round I shouldn't look...

But I did anyway and it looks great. :smallwink: Thanks for entering 👍

I notice you're the first to include a map. I should do that for mine, makes it easier to understand.

[Elves]

Okay we're up to three entries, which means we have enough for a contest. Looks like judges are what we have a shortage of this time.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

I'm at least available to judge. I'm not sure if there is anyone else, but one is enough for a contest.

[Elves]

Got another entry. Deadline for entries is September 1st.

Bump 8/31: Posting entries tomorrow unless someone has a WIP and wants more time (post if so).

[Eurus]

Well, I'm excited to see it, hopefully soon?

[Tohron]

Um, did something happen to the OP?

[Beni-Kujaku]

Um, did something happen to the OP?

He went into the tomb of an ancient pharaoh, got cursed, and will only return in two millenia as a powerful lich.

[Elves]

I thought a week's delay would give people who had mentioned entering time to submit but apparently not. Will post results when back at my desktop

[Beni-Kujaku]

Day 22: Elves is still not back to their desktop. Rumors start spreading that it has become sentient and left the country.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Day 36: The people have started looking up to the stars in hope of divining when Elves will get back to his desktop. First estimations are dismissed by the hopeful, as they yield a two-years delay.

[Eurus]

Of all the possible ways this could have gone wrong, I didn't predict this one.

[Remuko]

Elves is posting elsewhere on the website. Are their messages open? Maybe someone should try messaging? Tho maybe theyre still not at their desktop and are making those other posts from mobile or something.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Elves is posting elsewhere on the website. Are their messages open? Maybe someone should try messaging? Tho maybe theyre still not at their desktop and are making those other posts from mobile or something.

I sent him a private message, let's see if he reads it.

[Elves]

Traveling right now, have not forgotten about this

[Elves]

🪦 Happy Halloween 🪦

On this spooky night, the mummies are emerging from their tombs.
Let's see what we have lurching towards us, and roll Will saves or succumb to their despair...

Curse of the Serpent Tomb (EL 10+) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/153AT730LW4AZD53Y7HdgxFB_Z9s7w_kmcOTV2LE2BDY/edit?usp=sharing)
Stop a mummified sarrukh from returning to full power.

The Failed Kings (EL 12+) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GNTW2w2zorhgkQxhl3be_JOuDXzL7-U7BLNho-vjufg/edit?usp=sharing)
Ancient bog bodies rise from the depths.

The Temple of Last Words (EL 14) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aA0G3JbBykjgsFlkU_Dabi_pN6bUNyjF_2ydo-EuB-4/edit?usp=sharing)
The incorrupt body (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_mummies) of a saint still watches over his abandoned temple.

The Tomb of Hrallkun (EL 11) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n5bNBKvP2msoxeFhsC3YvDU0llj4oHaGJS0qp-iu6us/edit?usp=sharing)
A devious gnome has a few tricks left to play on any who rob his tomb.

Who Let the Cats Out (EL 6+) (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kCaHsQk9qgD20OBFYWY3I9c1np4mige1M4TB8hSbW8A/edit?usp=sharing)
Egyptians gave their favorite pets the honors of a proper burial.

[Remuko]

incoming...

(edit: wait one sec actually)

been a very long "sec".

[Elves]

been a very long "sec".

Some seconds are longer than others... >_> I was going to post on Halloween but then got called to a party and things got busy.


Alright! Hiatus is over, results are in. We have some great stuff and I trust time has not dulled anyone's excitement.

Open for judging! Contest ends when two judges have posted opinions and there's no one else who intends to judge.

[loky1109]

For a while I thought about band of Raggamoffyns, but I didn't fount enough inspiration.

[Elves]

Well...the one guy who said he would judge hasn't logged on in two weeks, so...anyone else?

[loky1109]

Maybe I. After IC.

[loky1109]

Okay, I plan to start reading tomorrow.

[loky1109]

Sorry for delaying, I'm ill now.

[Tohron]

The contest title is appropriate. It certainly feels cursed.

[loky1109]

I will try to be brief.

I like yuan-ties. But it all looks very brief. Yeah, you made some work about Sarrukh and Anathema, but it doesn't look enough. You have no stat blocks, tactics barely mentioned, synergy... well yuan-ti have some synergy with themselves. I give you 2 points.
Okay. This part is short, too, but you gave players some tactical possibilities aside from a head-on attack. 4 points here.
Challenge looks underwhelming in my eyes. Especially given the fact PCs knew against who they would fight. And I can't say the fight will be too interesting. Plus, you didn't give any adaptation options.

Does it provide a reasonable reward?
"The PCs can have the treasure of the yuan-ti nest." isn't enough description.
1.5 points here.
It's short, but I understand what happened here and why. It's good.
Now about not so good. First, I didn't see "tomb". You call it "a tomb and a laboratory," but just calling isn't enough. Yes, you have the mummy, but... it just stands still and does almost nothing "effectively paralyzed". What happens if I change it for lich? I'd be glad to say nothing, but it's worse - with lich all scene makes more sense in my mind. Suddenly I like how you showed the Curse. Taking regular creatures' SA and calling it a curse is an interesting move. While it can make some issues if there are many yuan-ties in the game.
Overall 1.5 points.

Total: 9 points. Encounter has potentially interesting ideas, but it is too brief and looks unfinished.

I see you made good work. I can take this, read one-two times, and play. All I need - to select between options.
Creatures are different, have synergy between, have unique pieces, and bog mummies' idea is unique itself. There are several easily fixable issues with rules, but it's just a quibble. I give you full 5 points here.
Force the PC to go dive into water is a powerful move. It's a very unusual environment (but very hard to manage, too). But beyond that, you give me almost nothing.
Yes, underwater encounters are cool, but if I can describe it with one word "underwater" and numbers "150 feet across and 30 feet deep", it looks too simple.
I give you 4 points.
Challenge is very customizable. This, of course, requires the master to have some skills, but it's clearly advantageous. The Curse is another cool thing. I very much like anything that turn-off sudden "scythe-PA-natural-20-oops" issue. Plus, you can't win this encounter with "just hit them again". You need to think.
And reward. It isn't just 100500 gold. It's an ancient bronze weapon and armor, ancient jewelry and so on. And this:

Iron and steel items, such as the cauldron, may be damaged and corroded, requiring up to half of their value to be put into repairs in order to function again—reducing the item’s value accordingly—which can let you include items that would otherwise exceed the treasure budget.
I like it.
4.5 points.
We have a story behind the encounter. It can be one-shot, or part of a long campaign. But I have a nit-pick. Bog mummy in the lake?

A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay further if kept in cool and dry conditions.
Bog mummies are preserved by staying in peat that perfectly drying them out. Idea of swimming mummies is... nonsense. It's the fault of Skip Williams, but you could fix this somehow.
Otherwise... You used the mummies (while in the water), you used the curse (very clever!), I even can say there is sorta "tomb".
4 points here.

Total: 17.5 points Well done!

Shadows are just shadows. Mummy has class levels, but not very original.
2.5 points.
Temple is a slightly interesting place. With traps, curse, difficult terrain, etc.
4.5 points.
I'm slightly confused here. On the one hand we have monk mummy plus five shadows plus curse. On the other hand... the main threat - mummy - could be eliminated with a single skill check DC 30. I don't think it is a good design. Other than that, the challenge could be interesting.
3 points.
Story behind the encounter is interesting. We have a mummy, we have some curse (I like it as sorta trap, but it didn't look curse for me), but we don't have a tomb.
Give you 3.5 points.

Total: 13.5 points. Good small temple with its specific flavor.

Creature selection is... weird. Five Mummified Whisper Gnome Sorcerer 1? Why? Trap buffs are interesting, but can't fully save the day.
2.5 points.
This is the good part. Whole encounter in fact is placed inside one big trap. And it synergy with creatures well.
Give you 4 points.
This isn't EL 11. Ceiling trap is interesting, but isn't very dangerous. Mummies really can't kill anybody of this level and can't live more than round. Pseudo incorporeality via Xorn Movement doesn't help. Treasure is well described, but I see the main challenge is to get it in 500 seconds.
I can give you only 1 point here.
It's flavor, there are mummies, there is a tomb, there are no curses (apart from Mummy Rot which doesn't count for me). I have no problems with the encounter's logic.
2.5 points here.
Total: 10 points. I like this encounter, but it is too out EL.

Cats! I like cats! It's frustrating that a priest is unfinished. Other creatures are well done. Tauric human-lion is cool! I really like the Summon Feline spell chain!

Give you 4.5 points.
I like using of Handle Humanoid very much! Neat idea! I want to see more description of the tomb interior - at least how big the tomb is?

4 points.
We have helix if death here. More cats are on the freedom - more successful Handle Humanoid checks - more cats become free. Plus it is technically a stun-lock. PCs aren't able to do anything but to open sarcophagi.
Treasure is interesting and I like it isn't just gp, but some specific unique items.

Give you 2 points here. It looks more dangerous than you think.
It's perfect! Cat tomb, cat mummies, car curse! Curse that is not just "you suck," but useful in the same encounter!

Full mark here - 5 points.

Total: 15.5 points. Very thematic. Nice catch!

[Beni-Kujaku]

Thank you for judging! No dispute here.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

I have an update from Elves, who has stated that he is no longer active on these forums.


Loky, thanks for judging! Speaking as a contestant, I’m grateful for the time you put in to read and consider our stuff.

A whole season passed us by waiting for this contest to finish. That was a bummer (and the first part of the wait was my fault), but we got it done.

It's best to have at least two judges, but since no one else has volunteered, we’ll treat these scores as final. If you have disputes, please message them to ThriceDeadCat, who's been kind enough to post this for me, not to Elves. Then we’ll do the reveal!

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Looks like there was a dispute!


We have one dispute:

One small thing. You said:

“Bog mummies are preserved by staying in peat that perfectly drying them out. Idea of swimming mummies is... nonsense.”

Bog bodies were put in the water -- see this image:

https://images.saymedia-content.com/.image/ar_4:3%2Cc_fill%2Ccs_srgb%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_aut o:eco%2Cw_1200/MTgyNzczOTQ3OTIwODE5NTUy/secrets-of-the-mummies-and-the-importance-of-bogs.jpg

My understanding is that the water of a peat bog is anaerobic which prevents bacteria growth and also acts as a vinegar-like preservative.

Other than this, no disputes.

But it doesn’t change the outcome, so let’s have the reveal below!



Final Scores and Reveal

1st Place: “The Failed Kings” by Elves
2nd Place: “Who Let the Cats Out” by Elves
3rd Place: “The Temple of Last Words” by Eurus

~ Runners-Up ~

4th Place: “The Tomb of Hrallkun” by Tohron
5th Place: “Curse of the Serpent Tomb” by Beni-Kujaku


Honored to take 1st & 2nd, congrats to Eurus on a strong 3rd, but every contestant here brought a cool idea, so thank you all for submitting. And with that, the sarcophagus closes!


The Future

I’ve quit this forum due to a disagreement with the mods, so I won’t be posting any more contests. However, anyone who wants to post more is free to.

I encourage you all to join the unofficial community Discord server:

https://discord.gg/ehGFz6M3nJ

Which is also where you can find me if you want to reach out.

— Elves

[loky1109]

I looked at topic more carefully and yes, my understanding wasn't correct. Bog mummies aren't dry. But!
Bog mummies are always inside the peat stratum. About your image. It's first phase, burial of the body. After this body will sink into moss and is preserved there.