
Tomb of Horrors is an adventure module written by Gary Gygax for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) role-playing game. The module is dated 1978 and 1981.
Plot summary[]
Tomb of Horrors is set in the World of Greyhawk, a AD&D campaign setting. In Tomb of Horrors, the adventurers encounter a number of tricks and traps while attempting to penetrate the tomb of a dead wizard. As the scenario begins, the players are told that the evil wizard Acererak is said to linger in his ancient tomb in undead form. Originally a powerful lich, he has (unbeknownst to the players) become a demi-lich, a more powerful form of undead that has transcended the need for any physical body apart from its skull. Player characters must survive the deadly traps in the tomb and fight their way into the demi-lich's elaborately concealed inner sanctum to destroy him once and for all.
The module is divided into thirty-three encounters, beginning with two false entrances to the tomb, and ending with "The Crypt of Acererak the Demi-Lich". Example encounters are the "Huge Pit Filled with 200 Spikes" (section 20), or encounter 22, "The Cavern of Gold and Silver Mists": "The mists are silvery and shot through with delicate streamers of golden color. Vision extends only 6'. There is a dim aura of good if detected for. Those who step into the mist must save versus poison or become idiots until they can breathe the clean air above ground under the warm sun." The module ends with the destruction of Acererak, without any postscript.
Trivia[]
- In the book "Ready Player One", the virtual copy of Tomb of Horrors is revealed to be the hiding place of the Copper Key on Ludus