Quotes from theTomb of Horrors

[Wraithy]

without giving away the whole adventure, what would you have NPCs say about said tomb to adventurers before they enter?
was the NPC an adventurer themself who barely survived it? are there local stories of those who died in it?
what sort of hints could you give your players without ruining it for them?

[goat]

Have them meet a lawyer at the local village who makes his living writing the wills for adventuring parties going near it.

[martyboy74]

You could have some people who have memorized the traps at the beginning of the tomb and go in for the loot of the dead adventurers.

[reorith]

most of my npcs are jerks that mislead pcs so something along the lines of "actually, the tomb of horrors is full of gold and pralines. the great necromancer acerak built it to stash his unholy assortment of confections" would be alright by me
they'd also give the pcs bad advice like "tomb of horrors isn't actually that difficult" or "you'll be fine if don't take a light source" or "monk is an alright class."

also, i'd have one random old guy that delved the tomb of horror back in hi youth and will describe the burning plague module instead.

[TheLogman]

"Don't, just don't, leave now, never return, I went in my with cohorts and followers, my friends and life-long pals, I was the only survivor, I ran, just ran, and forgot all the memories, I suggest you do the same, best decision of my life."-Modus Brackeus- Sole survivor of a delve done ten years ago

"Best way to survive that terrible place? Don't go in."-Richard Gregory-A veteran rogue who barely escaped when he saw his comrades die.

"I've had most the Traumas erased by Psions-for-hire, the only thing I still remember? The hardy, gung-ho paladin, who swore an oath to destroy the place, the one who we most believed in, he was the first to go.."-A Sorcerer whose name was lost due to one too many alter-memories, member of an attempted delve years ago.

"We thought we were so clever, we tried to destroy the place outright. I mean really, we all know the place is dangerous on the inside, safe on the outside. I was part of a squad of Druids, we were sent by the high council to wipe that abomination off the map. We made progress until the dark ones came. Days of casting, day and night, gone! But we didn't stop, we were young, foolish, we kept on, some of our companions were moles and badgers, and we tried again. Those poor men never saw their companions again. Months past, and any work that was done was erased as if it has never happened. That place is unbeatable, invincible, and impossible, you cannot outwit it, you cannot destroy it, give up now."-Velouius, an elf Druid who was sent to destroy the Tomb 100 years ago. The Demons guarding it got fed up with the work the Druids were causing, and killed them all. Velouius was the only survivor.

Those should paint a bleak enough picture of doom and destruction. They don't give away much, except the last one. Try to use enough NPC's that the players say: "Oh wow, this place looks nasty, but these are just NPC's, we are PC's and Optimized ones at that! Let's go in!" If they bring 100 10 foot poles and several thousand followers, power to them, but the look on their face when their character goes "VOIP" will be worth it.

[MartinHarper]

How about an adventurer who has survived an individual trap and escaped? So, if there's a trap that turns your hair purple, have a purple-haired human working in the local bar. Or whatever.

[daggaz]

most of my npcs are jerks that mislead pcs so something along the lines of "actually, the tomb of horrors is full of gold and pralines. the great necromancer acerak built it to stash his unholy assortment of confections" would be alright by me
they'd also give the pcs bad advice like "tomb of horrors isn't actually that difficult" or "you'll be fine if don't take a light source" or "monk is an alright class."

also, i'd have one random old guy that delved the tomb of horror back in hi youth and will describe the burning plague module instead.

hahahahaha! ahahahhahaha! I am so going to use this idea in my games from now on!

[dfpiii]

"actually, the tomb of horrors is full of gold and pralines"

Fantastic. There are so few praline-themed adventures.

[Xefas]

"The Tomb of Horrors has demons in it. Demons that live there. You realize that demons crave nothing more than the greatest evils imaginable, right? And so they left the Abyss, a plane of utter soul-scarring terror, in preference to this place. Don't you get it? The incarnate primordial suffering of all existence wasn't evil enough when compared to the Tomb."
~Appropriately Named Guy

I've never read/played the Tomb of Horrors, but I get the gist of it, and this is a quote from one of my own NPCs to the party slightly changed as to incorporate your context.

[Yeril]

"I rememba' that place, I went in with some pals once, we didn't get far, we were lucky. Fosco Bleaker was is name, a good traps man gathered up a bunch of us Adventurers for a delve, He had the great idea to use magic so he could walk across the walls and avoid traps on the floor. T'was a good plan but didnt work out well for him, about 40 yards down the first hallway we all left to wash the bits of halfling out of our hair."

[lord_khaine]

"noone has managet to beat the tomb at its own game yet, if you want to have a chance of getting out alive you have to think outside the box"

[Wraithy]

Fantastic. There are so few praline-themed adventures.

agreed, someone needs to fix that one day

[Randalor]

"Rocks fell, everybody but me died"

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't one of the first traps essentially "Rocks fall, everyone dies *or takes an arbitrarily large amount of damage*"?

[goat]

Set up "The magnificent Marco's scrying theater!".

He's got a big mirror on the wall, and he pays adventurers to fail their will saves when he scries on them.

Then for paying customers, he'll scry on some adventurers so that they can watch them and their party for a while as they travel through the tomb.

Of course, you can only see 10 feet away from them, so there's plenty of chance for 'off-screen' action, and sudden, unexplained death.

[bugsysservant]

Fantastic. There are so few praline-themed adventures.

God, your DM must suck. Sometimes seems I play nothing but.

[Azerian Kelimon]

"We 5 went in, Rurik the Psychic warrior, Valorous the Fighter, Zyphod the Beguiler, that little Kobold, and me. Only me and the Kobold got away."

Typhero the level 18 conjuration specialist. Guess which Kobold I'm talkin' about? That should tell enough to any informed player, while it leaves the PC's confused. If that doesn't scare them, make an emissary of the Planar Cartographic society appear, and tell the wizard that they only have a map of the first 3 rooms. And those guys have been everywhere and every adventurer knows of 'em.

[Solo]

That makes no sense. "That little Kobold" could destroy the Tomb with his eyebeams! Eyebeams! And if he didn't have eyebeams at the time, he could just retroactively give himself eyebeams to blast the tomb with, eyebeams that disintegrate stuff and turn it into candy!

[ArtifexFelicis]

"What Tomb of Horrors? I no nothing bout any tomb, now leave me alone!"
--Old squire to a paladin who watched his liege fall rather harshly and and killed quickly.

"If I buy you a round of drinks, promise me you won't go near that death trap?"
--Bartender who had seen too many good people die.

*Laughter*
--Local prostitute when inquired about any survivors of the Tomb. Still young, so there have been none in her lifetime.

"I have some instructions, I managed to survive a little bit of the Tomb before a companion had to drag me out. It'll only cost 10 gold for it, if you want it. I've been trying to map out the damn tomb. If you survive, come back to me."
--Con Artist. If the PCs DO buy his instructions, they are effectivly the first couple traps of the Tomb exquisitely detailed and for some reason about 5 feet further back then they really are or in "disrepair."

[Belial_the_Leveler]

"Don't go in there. I abandoned my attempt to explore it after the 342nd time I died. Getting The Prize was alot easier."
--Dankan

[kemmotar]

Set up "The magnificent Marco's scrying theater!".

He's got a big mirror on the wall, and he pays adventurers to fail their will saves when he scries on them.

Then for paying customers, he'll scry on some adventurers so that they can watch them and their party for a while as they travel through the tomb.

Of course, you can only see 10 feet away from them, so there's plenty of chance for 'off-screen' action, and sudden, unexplained death.

Wouldn't that count as pretty good horror movie?

also:
"I did go there with a couple of my fellow adventurers...i used to be a wizard you know...i gated stuff and did batman cheese...It was quite silent...the skulls and bones of lesser adventurers didn't bother us...the silence of the tomb was unnerving...until it was broken by the terrifying screams of my party...then it was silent again...
Why am i farming this field? After that i was never again able to bring myself to face another monster...it reminded me of...
AAAAHHHHHHHHh the screams...the blood...the terror"
*random NPC the pcs were talking to runs away screaming before falling unconscious a few feet away...*
Yes he failed his insanity check when faced with the tomb of horrors...yes it counts as a call of cthulhu game in there

[SoD]

''That tomb there? Sure I can help ya out with it. I remember hearing some advice a while back...what was it...I'm sorry, I suffer from slight monetary-deprivated amnesiea.''
''You mean?''
''Yeah. Give me money, and I'll give you the best information you'll ever get on it.''
*PCs give away reasonable amount on money*
''Alright, old man. What's the information?''
*counts money* ''Best information on how to survive that thing? Leave. Leave now and pretend you never heard of it.''

[Shatteredtower]

There are times I'm tempted to introduce a dotty old NPC named Mrs. Wiggins, Acerak's former cleaning lady, into my games.

"Buncha' young hooligans, always foolin' around with the waste disposal..."
"Meant to warn the furnace man about the loose floor... oh, well..."
"At least the ironing was easy. No problem there..."
"Took all night to get that blood off the ceiling! There were choice words about that."
"A shame about the doorman. Got a bit too slow in his old age, and... well..."

[Angel in Black]

Even in the official Dungeon Survival Guide, the best advice Wizards can give is "don't and say you did." Does anyone else find that funny?

[Azerian Kelimon]

It ain't that hard. I HONESTLY completed it. The group was of 8 people, a swordsage (Me), a Lady's Gambit crusader, an Illusionist Wiz, a psion, a Rogue, a Druid, a Battlefield Control spiked chain fighter, and an artificier. We did it, with everyone but me, the wiz, and the psion down from the last fight. We got 10 times the WBL of a char of our level (can't remember which) as prize on the immediate next adventure.

[Foolosophy]

It ain't that hard.

it ain't that hard but you had a group consisting of twice as many characters as normally assumed and this included several classes (archivist, swordsage, crusader) that are considered to be quite a bit better than their nearest core equivalents...yeah therefore the ToH must be a piece of cake ;)

[skyclad]

"No I can't help you! That would be cheating, this tomb is supposed to be the ultimate test of your abilities!"

-Gary Gykax

[Azerian Kelimon]

People usually discuss the tomb with 32 chars or more. We made it with a fourth of that. It ain't THAT hard.

And it was an artificier, not archivist.

[Blasterfire]

Ok, this thread made me look into the adventure, and now I want to run it with my local group. Can t actually be run with a group of 4-6 level 9 characters?

[Azerian Kelimon]

Yes, if one of them is Pun-Pun.

[SurlySeraph]

Ok, this thread made me look into the adventure, and now I want to run it with my local group. Can t actually be run with a group of 4-6 level 9 characters?

If you power-game insanely, are madly paranoid, and use lots of OOC knowledge, you can do it. You know the rule that in Call of Cthulu, books are only there to kill you? ToH is like that, except replace "books" with "floors." If not with "objects."