Killing Acererak

[Scott]

Has anybody ever seriously ran this adventure and had the party kill the demi-lich?
+5 weapons, vorpal blades, power word kill pronounced from an astral or ethereal magic-user, etc.
I just can't see a party in the level range (none listed, but based on the pre-gens) doing it. It's possible, but I can't see the players figuring it out. more likely I see outcomes like the party getting killed trying to fight it, or pulling a Robilar or Tenser and scooping up as much of the loot as possible and then running, or poking the skull into a portable hole or something.

[amalric]

The only time I ran it, the party would have been lucky if they got halfway through, they were so decimated by the traps and encounters. They left and never returned.

[geneweigel]

Geez, I han't thought about it in years. It was the all evil campaign with Taylor DMing it around 1985. I recall my character Bishop Shrill the Unfair a deformed 14th level EHP of Nyarlathotep using up everything in his bag of tricks on it. I recall sending in prisoners then looking for more prisoners, My character didn't die but all three of his church henchmen (2 clerics and a fighter) were disintegrated when we confronted the demi-lich. Even though all the evil PCs survived, it was a big burn though as most of the characters lost about 2 years of gain from weekly playing on that adventure. This essentially ended* the campaign.

*A few years later(87?), my brother revived my Shrill character for one last adventure the search for a lost city that was the reason for the creation of the Bright Desert. We didn't find much but warrens of ghouls, I commited my character's wealth to restoring the city as a stronghold and he basically retired there. I cooked up a map came up with a new name and spent the rest of his days digging out an old canal to the sea...

[GT]

Well, I mentioned this on another thread but I don't think my group ever made it all the way through. As I recall, a paladin and m-u fell to fiery death in the lava trap--nobody reacting fast enough to save them! That pretty much demoralized the party and sent them packing! I think Woodstock, Yokon and Kato were all in on that adventure, but they left with everybody else (smart guys!) ^__^ I think today, I could send my four original characters from my campaign and they would be equipped enough and high enough level to make it through.

[maraudar]

After getting our backsides handed to us by Acererak we decided a strategic retreat was in order. Once what was left of our group made it back to civilization we began an in depth investigation into how we could take out the lich and hopefully restore our friends. Minor side note there, some of things we found that could have useful to restore our friends turned out to have been left behind in the tomb among the possessions of our MU...

The adventures and quests that it took about 5 years in game time to complete. In the end we faced Acererak again, higher levels, better equipment and much better planning saw us get our backsides handed to us again by that damn floating beastie.

Our sadistic DM had decided that we stirred Acererak up so much during our last visit that he had become curious about how the world had progressed since his time. Needless to say while we were adventuring and growing stronger he was wide awake learning new spells and ways to make us as miserable as possible.

Dealing with Acererak took almost a year and a half real time to complete and we never did get everyone back. Hell of a time for us and the start of a downward spiral for my fighter character Sand who was becoming very unpredictable and less trustworthy to the group.


Maraudar

[geneweigel]

Just going through the module the past few days and I remembered totally wrong a few years ago. Where I posted above about the evil campaign.

It was the all evil campaign with Taylor DMing it around 1985.

I didn't do the evil campaign in TOMB OF HORRORS...

originally.

It was a redo for a laugh without Taylor as DM but as a player. It was the other Tim DMing it for a challenge and as a gag.

For Taylor as DM originally, I actually ran 3 characters the first time who weren't evil but all chaotics.

The 1/2 ogre and duergar duo with a hobbit fighter thief that joined them. That hobbit character I later used to join a totally new campaign by a first time DM that was juvenile and ultimately ridiculous so I forgot about him being in TOH.

Its practically the same group from the campfire drawing with the 1/2 ogre over the glow of the fire with the exception I didn't use my "Beatles" character. It was prior to him joining that group.

[Scott]

The only time I ran this adventure the party got TPKed before reaching Acererak. The adventure started with a party of 3 or 4 high level characters. The last surviving PC pressed on solo, feeling he needed to get something for his troubles. He ended up being killed by the exploding gem. He thought the charred bones, etc. were a trick to scare the party away from a really good treasure. The dead PCs' players were still under the impression they would be resurrected. I remember their cries of, "Don't pick up the gem! Don't pick up the gem!", as I described the room and showed the illustration.