Page 219 - Tales from the Yawning Portal

clean and visible, as an oval diamond, with two flat and
polished sides, very clear, and about 1 inch in diameter You see what is obviously some form of temple area.
by a quarter-inch thick. It will operate only twelve times, There are scenes of normal life painted on the walls, but
then shatter. the people have rotting flesh, skeletal hands, worms
eating them, and so forth. Yet there are also depicted
12. TRAPPED FALSE DOORS
various religious symbols of good alignment. There is
In four locations in the tomb, there are false doors
which screen a spear trap. When one of these doors is a mosaic path leading between four rows of wooden
opened, a spear will shoot out, and the door opener or pews that face the worship area. In front of the pews, a
someone standing nearby is subject to be struck. De- wooden railing divides the room. South of it is an altar in
termine at random, if need be, which character is the front of a tiered dais, on which sits a wooden chair.
target. The trap has a range of 60 feet, has a +11 bonus
to hit, and deals 9 (2d8) piercing damage. If the door is
closed and reopened, another spear will fire. The mech- If the characters move farther into the room so they can
anism can be jammed by a character who uses thieves' see the features in the south end, continue:
tools and succeeds on a DC 20 Dexterity check.

13. CHAMBER OF THREE CHESTS The chair is nicely carved and padded but seems
When the party enters the illusory crawlway hidden by unremarkable. On either side of the dais are large,
the red sphere, they will come to an apparent dead end, free-standing large brass candelabras each holding five
but a successful DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check re-
white candles. In each corner on the southern wall is a
veals the presence of a secret door.
large white pottery urn stoppered with a brass and wood
The character who opens the door will fall to the floor
10 feet below due to a tilting stone at the mouth of the plug. Sprawled on the floor near the west wall is human
crawlway, taking falling damage (a mere annoyance, but skeleton in black chain mail that is badly rusted and dam-
it erodes the strength of the party). aged. The skeleton's outstretched arm points to a stone
Three large chests are affixed firmly to the floor; the archway set in the wall. The opening is filled with opaque,
western one is gold (plate covering iron), the center one
bright orange vapors.
is silver (plate over iron), and the eastern one is of oak
bound with thick bronze bands. Each is about 4 feet
long, 2 feet wide, and 3 feet high. Aura. A casting of detect evil and good or a paladin's
Gold. Opening the gold chest releases a swarm of use of Divine Sense identifies the chapel as a conse-
poisonous snakes that slither out and attack next crated place. (What a puzzle! Could the demilich actu-
round. They continue biting until all are killed. ally have been of good alignment?)
Silver. Inside the silver chest is a clear crystal box Pews. Simple examination indicates that all of the
(worth 1,000 gp) that holds a ring of protection. Some- benches have hinged seats. If a character examines ei-
one who succeeds on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) ther of the pews in the front row before opening the lid,
check while examining the box and the chest notices a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals
the box is set into the chest bottom. When this box is that the hinges on this pew are larger than the ones on
lifted from the supposed bottom of the chest, eight darts the pews in the other rows.
will fire upward, and the one or two characters leaning Gas Trap. The hinges on the front pews are larger
over the chest so as to be in the line of fire will take ld4 and stronger because they include rods that are con-
attacks each if they are exposed to the path of these nected to valves inside the pew. If the seat on either of
missiles. The darts have a range of 60 feet, a +11 bonus the front pews is lifted up, a cloud of poison gas fills the
to hit, and deal 3 (ld6) damage on a hit. The trap mecha- whole room in 2 rounds. A character caught in the gas
nism is under the crystal box and can't be disabled with- must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or
out first removing the box. become poisoned for 48 hours.
Oak. When the lid of the oak chest is opened, an ani- If the hinges are noticed and then disassembled,
mated giant skeleton (see appendix B) will be instantly requiring 1 minute and a successful DC 15 Dexterity
teleported into the room, and it strikes with surprise. check using thieves' tools for each hinge, the trap can't
trigger. A failed check results in no progress at the task,
14. CHAPEL OF EVIL
but if the check fails by 5 or more, the trap goes off ex-
After passing through the illusory black sphere the plosively, blowing the lid open.
party will have crawled along the small tunnel until Treasure. The back pair of pews have 4,000 sp each
reaching the end, only to find it is solid stone. It requires hidden therein, the next pair have 3,000 ep each, and
a successful DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check to find the pair closest to the trapped pews have 2,000 gp each.
the secret door at the end of the passage- no form of Altar. The centerpiece of the chapel is a block of
magic will detect it, save for a gem of seeing. If the char- strange material that glows with an inner light of opales-
acters open the door and enter the room, read: cent blue. (If the altar is specifically targeted by a detect
evil and good spell, it registers very faintly as a dese-
crated object.) If the altar is touched by living matter, a
lightning bolt spell (save DC 15) will streak down the

CHAPTER 7 I TOMB OF HORRORS
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