Dungeon World: Crypts of the Carrion King

[Christopher B]

Dungeon World: Crypts of the Carrion King

How much danger can one four-room dungeon possibly contain? You're about to find out in this week's installment of the free-to-use Dungeon World series!

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[Slycne]

Wow that's one harsh little dungeon, it's like you channeled Tomb of Horrors into a smaller space. Love it.

 

[Windu23]

I may have rather poor reading comprehension, or just bad intuition, but how exactly is the secret door next to the statue opened?

But as to the dungeon as a whole, I must say that just reading the description scared me in a way I haven't been in a very, very long time. Especially with how many cog combinations deposit the player in a coffin.

 

[dragontiers]

That is a highly deadly dungeon. Just out of curiosity, is there a specific game system you are using for these? It sounds like generic D&D, although there are some things I haven't previously heard of. If it's mentioned in a previous article, I apologize. Also, I didn't see a recommended level for the adventure, although since it includes a level 21 Lich, I'm assuming it's around there.

I do have a few minor mechanical questions as well.
1)With the teleport trap on the door, what happens when a second player puts in the same combination? Knowing the people I play with, they would assume that the first person to disappear put in the "correct" code and try to duplicate it.
2)I didn't see any mention of the Lich's phylactery. At first I figured it would be with the rest of the treasure, but as he attempts to destroy the treasure before dying, this seems unlikely.

Otherwise, that is one spectacular dungeon, especially in such a small space.

 

[Therumancer]

Not bad, the title "Dungeon World" make me think of the D20 Hardcovers by that name (with the Larry Elmore covers). I have the first two.

The quality of that adventure would depend heavily on the GM. If it was run like Gary Gygax allegedly ran Tomb Of Horrors it could be fun. If the PCs were forced to do things in the obvious fashion, it's mostly a random PC shredding device.

Tomb Of Horrors basically having been an adventure that combat prowess was a non-factor with so it was intended to kill uber- characters who were strong due to nothing but outright statistics, guided by very linear thought.

According to the "Return To The Tomb Of Horrors" boxed set, the thing was easily beaten by one of EGG's original gamers (playing Robilar) who simply showed up with an army of orcs (minions of a high level character) and used them to Kamikaze all the traps and tricks and then pretty much walked in, brushed all of Acerak's loot into a Bag Of Holding (surving only a couple of combat roads for that) and left. The same basic feat having been performed by people using monster summoning spells numerous time (mentioned outside of the boxed set) and the same strategy seems like it would work here for a lot of this adventure (at high levels summoning kobolds with Monster Summoning I is a great way to test treasure in obvious places or find traps... by having them walk ahead of the party or whatever. They're evil, so who cares?).

No relevence to this, but in a seperate report (I think from Dragon Magazine) Tomb Of Horrors can apparently be beaten within 6 combat rounds, maybe less. It's protection against ethreal/astral travel being that X number of demons appearing every so often. However the actual tomb isn't THAT big and Acerak is both visible and vulnerable from the Ethreal plane, pronouncing Holy Word from the Ethereal being an instant kill apparently. So pretty much if you've got a whole party of that level, the "most efficient" way is simply to cast Ethrealness, walk down to Acerak's room, one shot him, and then return to the Prime Material and polish off whatever demons showed up, if your like a 15th level party that is still relatively fresh they are going to get pwned pretty hard. Then you just grab the loot, and leave.

 

[stonethered]

Seven, faceted obsidian stones bearing runes. I believe you said three were square(cubed?)

Makes me think of an integral part of any such adventure.


And that sphere of oblivion behind the ilusonary door sounds deadly. How could people possibly see that coming? I'd want to get some good hints from the locals before going anywhere near this place.

 

[Slycne]

That is a highly deadly dungeon. Just out of curiosity, is there a specific game system you are using for these? It sounds like generic D&D, although there are some things I haven't previously heard of. If it's mentioned in a previous article, I apologize. Also, I didn't see a recommended level for the adventure, although since it includes a level 21 Lich, I'm assuming it's around there.

They are specifically written to be somewhat system independent. They are resources which you should feel free to adjust slightly to fit your campaign, setting or system.

And that sphere of oblivion behind the ilusonary door sounds deadly. How could people possibly see that coming? I'd want to get some good hints from the locals before going anywhere near this place.

That's certainly a tough one. It makes for an interesting moment. You've just finally figured out the lock on this door and now it's closing in front of you. You've already found a number of traps. Do you risk letting it close and hoping the door doesn't reset to a new code or barrel into a room without checking for traps?

 

[Christopher B]

I may have rather poor reading comprehension, or just bad intuition, but how exactly is the secret door next to the statue opened?

No real trick to it as written. (It could be as simple as a swinging door.) However, I heartily encourage individual DM's to embellish upon what's been written... >

 

[Christopher B]

That's certainly a tough one. It makes for an interesting moment. You've just finally figured out the lock on this door and now it's closing in front of you. You've already found a number of traps. Do you risk letting it close and hoping the door doesn't reset to a new code or barrel into a room without checking for traps?

It's as if you were in my head when I wrote that section.

As for editions, Slycne's already said it, but I'll reiterate: these are written to be compatible with "old school" D&D-based games (OD&D, Basic, AD&D, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry, etc.) but otherwise to be mostly generic. Level-wise, I have a tendency to mix up levels in my own games, allowing players to determine for themselves when they've been (or might soon be) out-gunned. That's more or less the same approach I took with this piece.

 

[Christopher B]

1)With the teleport trap on the door, what happens when a second player puts in the same combination? Knowing the people I play with, they would assume that the first person to disappear put in the "correct" code and try to duplicate it.

And any character doing so will promptly find him-/herself deposited into the same sarcophagus. I'd recommend that, if this occurs, each subsequent "newcomer" increases the damage for the teleportation by another 1d6 (and causes an additional 1d6 damage to any character(s) already in the sarcophagus, and increases the amount of suffocation damage each character suffers by an additional 1d6 per round).

Or, if you don't want it to be that deadly, you can have characters shunted to the next lowest or highest sarcophagus.

2)I didn't see any mention of the Lich's phylactery. At first I figured it would be with the rest of the treasure, but as he attempts to destroy the treasure before dying, this seems unlikely.

Coming from a pre-second edition perspective, it wasn't something I considered. If necessary for your game, I recommend you have it embedded at the core of one the fake sarcophagi.

Otherwise, that is one spectacular dungeon, especially in such a small space.

Thanks!!!

 

[Christopher B]

Wow that's one harsh little dungeon, it's like you channeled Tomb of Horrors into a smaller space. Love it.

That was the vibe I was going for - thanks.

 

[Christopher B]

Seven, faceted obsidian stones bearing runes. I believe you said three were square(cubed?)

Makes me think of an integral part of any such adventure.

;D

And that sphere of oblivion behind the ilusonary door sounds deadly. How could people possibly see that coming? I'd want to get some good hints from the locals before going anywhere near this place.

Given a larger space, I probably would have included some "local color" to cover this sort of thing - you know: locals telling rumors of madmen returning from the Crypts raving about friends being sucked into nothingness, that sort of thing.

Also, some of this should be on the players' shoulders, by using things like "contact higher plane" spells, or even something as simple as a 10' pole.

 

[solidstatemind]

Also, some of this should be on the players' shoulders, by using things like "contact higher plane" spells, or even something as simple as a 10' pole.

ROFL. At the risk of exposing my age, playing the original 'Tomb of Horrors' with the fixed sphere of annihilation, that sounds eerily similar to what happened.

Long story short: Halfling rogue says "let me poke in there with my pole..." Hurr hurr hurr, jokes all around...

He whips out this telescoping thing-a-ma-jig and pokes, and has to make a save vs. death to avoid going with it, makes his save and...

"Yeah... I wouldn't recommend trying Door #1."

Ahhhh, good times...

 

[George Palmer]

WOOOO! MORE MORE! I know what Im messing around with this weekend