Tomb Of Horrors!!

[kikesp24]

hello! well, last weekend we played tomb of horrors, it was awesome... actually we didn´t advance a lot.. we discover the entrances, our rogue almost dies in the falling roof trap, and we bypass the closing room.. as we entered the ¨real entrance¨ we noticed the walls and the red tiles in the floor... we were kind of suspicious so we didn´t follow them.. we found all the pit traps. so no one got hurt from them.. we found de portal and the demon statue, but I found the secret door.. for our surprice.. a mutant gargoyle, it was a harsh combat.. our cleric died without taking any action and our Dwarven Def (150 + o - Hp) was reduced to 16hp... finally some scorching rays after we destroyed it- well now that you know what happened to our party last session i want to ask for some advice... as my second PC i want a paladin5/kensai4.. it can´t be human... so i was thinking about a no LA aasimar, a Hellbred (it´s really cool, i never seen it before, besides that all my PCs alway are like the ¨bad guy of the party¨ it will be nice to play one.. and i was thinking about a warforged/dragonborn.. but i need de sourcebooks and any other advice will be awesome!
o and we found acererak riddle.. it´s kind of hard to interpretate so if anyone can help it would be much appreciated

[Darrin]

o and we found acererak riddle.. it´s kind of hard to interpretate so if anyone can help it would be much appreciated

The most horrible part of that adventure is undoubtedly experiencing Gygax's attempt at poetry... it would make a Vogon proud.

Actually, when I ran Tomb of Horrors, I thought the opening riddle would be absolutely worthless, but I was shocked out of my skull when the PCs actually managed to dig out several clues from it.

I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say this:

The riddle does contain helpful clues in it. HOWEVER, keep in mind it was written by Acererak, and he deliberately designed his tomb to KILL YOU.

Good luck.

[Combat Reflexes]

I have DM-ed the Tomb of Horrors twice, so I should be able to answer all your questions. However, that would be spoilers. Believe me, the Tomb of Horrors is best without foreknowledge

Oh, and the rhyme is utterly useless. My players burned it, both in and out of game :D

[Scarlet-Devil]

Sounds like you got farther than my party did in our first session (everybody died, didn't find the secret passage to the mutant gargoyle...). Interestingly, my party had virtually no trouble with the gargoyle fight; my character, the half-dragon hexblade, cursed him right off the bat, the psion mind-thrusted him, the druid hit him with a flame strike or something, and then I finished him off with my fell sabre, without much damage taken. No, I'd say the dungeon itself is the greater threat .

[Coidzor]

Truly, that gargoyle is the most epic gargoyle this side of Goliath.

What in particular are you asking for advice for in regards to builds though?

[DMOffgood]

Wondering if anyone might help in decoding Acererack's cryptic poetry once and for all:

Go back through the tormentor or through the arch,
And the second great hall you'll discover.

(Seems to indicate that the concealed door behind the fresco of the torture chamber painting (3A) and the arch at the end of the hall (5) both eventually lead the party to the Hall of Spheres (10))

Shun Green if you can, but night's good color is for those of great valor.

(Everyone universally feels this means to avoid the green demon faces (6), the "if you can" implying that they might be difficult to avoid by somehow pulling you in. But what about 'night's good color?' Is that meant to be blue or black? BLUE is indicated on the arch, and I would think that the coded sequence to imply night would be YELLOW (day) followed by ORANGE (dusk) and then BLUE (night). But unfortunately the module says the sequence is YELLOW-BLUE-ORANGE, which is seemingly only reached by trial and error and has no interpretable pattern. Other relevant 'Night" colors in the module are the Bright Blue sphere in (10) (which in 3.5 hides a domination attempt by a disembodied brain) and the Black Sphere which leads to the Chapel of Evil (14).

If shades of red stand for blood, the wise will not need sacrifice aught but a loop of magical metal - you're well along your march.

'Shades of Red' seem to imply both the red runes on the floor in the Entry Hall (3) and the Red Sphere in the Hall of Spheres (10). A party first reading this would no doubt become obsessed with the first red thing they see, which is the runes in the floor, that lead them to the first Arch (5) and the first Green Devil (6). I presume this line actually refers to the Chamber of Three Chests (13), which is reached by entering the Red Sphere in (10) and contains nothing but horrors and one lame treasure, a magic ring of +1 protection. So clearly the wise should know that they are well along their march and that by avoiding the red sphere they will sacrifice finding a ring? Or that if they are wise they will eventually sacrifice this ring to the slotted Secret Door in the Chapel (6C) and therefore be along their march.

Two pits along the way will be found to lead to a fortuitous fall, so check the wall.

The first easy one, two of the many pits in the tomb can be fortunate to fall into, since checking the wall carefully will reveal secret passages in two of them.

These keys and those are most important of all,

Just flavor text - despite their being keys to find?

and beware of trembling hands and what will maul.

Beware the effects of the fearsome corridor (18) (others think this refers to tapestries) of and the Gargoyle or the Juggernaut?

If you find the false you find the true
and into the columned hall you'll come,

I guess this refers to the false door at 23A which leads (eventually) into the real crypt (as opposed to the false one (18A). But since there are other false doors in the crypt this kind of seems misleading.

and there the throne that's key and keyed.

The Throne Room (25) has a key hidden in the throne and can be 'keyed' itself to open and reveal a secret passage to the true crypt?

The iron men of visage grim do more than meet the viewer's eye.

Is this the iron statues in the false treasure room (30)? Is this just saying they have a hidden purpose and need to be interacted with to reveal a passage?

You've left and left and found my tomb and now your soul will die.

This seems to refer to making two lefts once you enter that passage to reach the true tomb...


I also could use some help with the message on the Gargoyle's collar:

Look low and high for gold to hear a tale untold, The archway at the end, and on your way you'll wend.

It seems to simply be a clue to the proper rune code for the arch at the end of the entry hall (5), especially considering that anyone who reached the gargoyle room probably used the "tormentor" route instead of the arch to reach the second hallway. And yet, I don't see how 'low and high for gold' has anything to do with the arch, or what the meaning of 'a tale untold' is. I'm aware there is a golden step in the staircase in the Wondrous Foyer (28), a gold sphere held 'high' in the Hall of Spheres (10) that leads to The Three-Armed Statue (11) where the party can obtain a gem of seeing.

Thoughts?

THank you for the time and thought!