The Pharaoh's Tomb

The delvers emerge clumsily through the door of an upright sarcophagus, like Mr Benn, into an Egyptian burial chamber. Before them is a large, pink, sticky-looking troll in a baggy white one-piece garment. He is quite bald, wears wire-rimmed spectacles, and looks very surprised, having just opened the sarcophagus's door. "How on Earth did you all fit in there?" he enquires. (The delvers, of course, have never heard of Earth, or Egypt, but that is where they are.) Needless to say, the elevator door has disappeared behind them.

There is a heavy green-stone sarcophagus in the centre of the room, numerous chests spilling with gold, trinkets and fancy goods, and a single exit passage, 5' high and steeply-angled upwards. The troll is 10' tall, so he obviously had to do some wriggling. His head brushes the ceiling. Presumably he lit the sconces that are casting such eerie shadows about the room.

The place is maybe 15' square and contains 3 magical items (excluding the sarcophagus), none of which appear magical or indeed work at all while on Earth. Wizardly delvers quickly suss that their own items and spells aren't working either. There is an inscription in hieroglyphics on the wall (see right - and click here for a larger version suitable for handing to the players): if asked, Mahatma can translate this as "Accursed be the gold of thieves" - which he dismisses as stuff and nonsense, especially since he is not a thief but an independent people's liberator. He doesn't understand the last bit of the inscription.

"You would be demons of the tomb, then, is it?" says the troll. In due course, he introduces himself as Mahatma Candy, a troll who has travelled thousands of leagues from Asia to, uh, retrieve these goods for the greater benefit of all. Starting with him. He offers the delvers a finger each to chew - he can grow more in minutes, being a toffee troll - but warns that it needs a lot of chewing. Experimental delvers will find that this is indeed so: though the toffee tastes terrific, they will be unable to speak better than a mumble for the rest of this level as they work to separate their jaws before another chew. (By the end of it, their jaws will be so strong that they will be able to support their own weight with their teeth.)

Mahatma intends to load up with gold and jewels (to the tune of 5,000 GP); delvers may do as they wish. If they take treasure, each must note how much - no maximum, but anything over 3000 GP per delver will necessitate taking heavier items rather than just light gems. Delvers declaring they are searching may make an L3SR on LK each turn to find one of the items or (only if searching walls) the panel. Resolve ties on die-roll. When they have all been found, the delvers will intuitively give it up as a bad job.

After one hour, the entrance will be blocked by a falling slab of stone. (If the delvers didn't work out that they shouldn't spend too long in here from looking at the hieroglyphics, I have no sympathy for them.) Anyone still there who does anything but run for the passage, instantly, will need to make an L2SR on LK to get out in time. Otherwise - tough luck. The slab is 5' thick and no amount of pick-axing will get through it. Trapped delvers have a total of twenty man-turns of air. If they find the panel in this time, they may escape...

The panel is 2' square, 6' above the floor opposite the entrance. It slides open when the right bit is accidentally touched and is undetectable otherwise. Beyond is a shaft of like dimension, angling up at 45 degrees for 60'. It is completely smooth. Climbing up it will take one turn and 3 L2SRs on DEX; failing any results in a swift slide and 2D6 hits (armour counts, but with no warrior bonus). (A portion of that turn may remain, according to which SR was missed.) At the top is a level area 4' long with an Aladdin lamp at the end. Rubbing it whilst on Earth will indeed release a genie, who will grant ONE wish. It mustn't be a bundle deal, nor for more wishes. Afterwards, the lamp will remain with the delver but the genie is gone forever. On the delver's own world, the genie business won't work - but the lamp may be called upon to light at any time and will never run out.

Bird Statuette	Allows the holder to communicate with the dead - any corpses present must answer his questions if they can. Each question costs 1 point of IQ, which will return at a rate of 1 per day.
Serpent Armband	Coils around the biceps and won't come off. Wearer overnight grows retractable fangs in roof of mouth which delivers a poison bite like Spider Venom (also D6 damage). L3SR on DEX needed to bite average opponent during normal combat: GM may adjust level.
Bandages	A corpse wrapped in these will not decay; used on a live subject, they produce suspended animation until removed. They also protect from fire, water and any other non-magical, non-impact damage.

The central sarcphagus is made of jade, 4" thick, carved with all kinds of gruesome scenes. It's obviously preposterously valuable, but wholly immovable. To even tilt the lid to slide off requires a combined ST of 500 - no way can it be lifted back. (Mahatma's ST is 400 for these purposes.) Within is a bronze coffin with a bas-relief of some exotic island beach. Lifting the lid is not hard. Inside is a bottle, a book and a scroll. The book is the Egyptian Book Of Almost Everything There Is Know - it will not survive the transit back to the delvers' world. (If you happen to have the book, "Almost Everything There Is To Know", you can dish it out to the players at this point; if not, the relevant information from it is included later on.) The note reads, in hieroglyphics: "Ha! Fooled you all, you morbid, fawning, boring sods! I'm alive and well and living off the insurance in Barbados with Cleo!" Mahatma does not think the note was meant for tomb-robbers. The bottle has a rubber bulb for a stopper. It can only be picked up when the bulb is depressed, when it weighs only a few WU. Otherwise it weighs several tons. The pharoah seems to have placed it here to give the coffin an authentic heavy feel. It is unbreakable (and works on Earth as well as on the delvers' world).

At the top, 50' up the steep passage, is a 15' square antechamber. It was clearly filled with ingenious traps - there are slabs, spikes and spears all over the place, many coated or tipped with bits of pink goo. Mahatma explains that there are distinct advantages to being made of toffee.

If the delvers search, the one making the lowest level of LK SR finds the last unsprung trap: the floor falls in beneath both feet, dropping eight inches before two metal plates slam across. These should have amputated the delver at the shins, but the edges are rusted. The delver takes D20 hits - only appropriate armour counts. A further D6 hits take effect each round until freed, which requires someone to make an L5SR on ST (Mahatma's toffee fingers are no use for this). Only one person may try each round. After one full turn, the mechanism makes a last effort and gives up the ghost: if the delver fails an L1SR on LK, this last twitch is enough to cut off his feet. (Anyone trying to prise open the trap at that point must also make an L1SR on SP or lose D6 fingers at one DEX per digit.) Mahatma can Candy-close the wounds, but the delver will need to be carried, left in the elevator for future levels, and may do no more adventuring for several months. With wooden feet, the delver will stand 6 inches shorter and travel half as fast.

The long passage leading out from the antechamber comes into a huge hall 300' across, 200' 'forward', whose front (opposite the delvers) and two side walls slope inwards towards the pyramid's apex, disappearing into darkness. In here the curse takes effect.

Each delver who took treasure (anything from the burial chamber) is attacked by an inky black cloud barely distinguishable from the darkness. Its MR is 50 + 1 per 10 GP of treasure stolen. Each cloud fights only its own target. Other delvers may assist the victim, but since the creature ignores them, only its target's hits count in combating its own. If it scores hits, they affect only its victim, whilst points scored by assisting delvers take full effect on the cloud. If the delver is killed, his wailing soul emerges as a black cloud, to join the other guardians in the darkness above; no reincarnations allowed. Mahatma can handle his nemesis alone, but it will take him 3 rounds, at which point he will certainly help others.

Throwing down the treasure will have no effect - someone else could pick it up; but if the delver flees back into the passage, the cloud will follow only as far as the antechamber. Here the treasure may be dropped to dismiss the cloud - though obviously it will return if the delver picks it up again. Alternatively, throwing the goodies into the cloud will also work - the treasure will be teleported back to the treasure chamber; this does not diminish the MR, however, and the cloud will continue to fight until the delver has none of the treasure left.

Anybody daft enough to search in here will be attacked by a refreshed cloud (even if treasureless!) every turn - even a quick shufty around this huge chamber will take one turn. There are skeletons of other thieves about, which may have the odd Magic Item or gem about them on an L2SR on LK per turn.

The delvers emerge into sunlight on sand, overlooking the Nile from the east. Mahatma is for setting off home with his spoils, but will, on request, guide the delvers towards the Leaning Tower of Giza [cough], where he has heard there is a magical elevator shaft... The Tower is distantly visible amongst the pyramids. They will, of course, have to cross the Nile.

At the banks, it is evident that the waters are swarming with hundreds of crocodiles (MR60 each, and in the water 6 could get at a human-sized character at once). There are no boats and no trees. It's much too far to jump and the delvers can't swim laden with treasure, or in armour, even if they wanted too. If the delvers are getting nowhere, Mahatma may utter: "Oh, if only there were some way of finding out these monsters' weakness and turning it against them" - etc. The delvers should eventually think to look up Crocodiles in the Book of Almost Everything There Is To Know, which will inform them that crocodiles have immensely powerful jaws when it comes to closing their mouths, but the muscles for opening them are feeble. They should work out that they can ride across on Mahatma Candy's back, the crocodiles being rendered harmless after one bite of his toffee because they can't open their gobs. Mahatma will look like a slimy apple core after his dip, but he's cheerful. He'll wave bye-bye at this point and find some shade to reshape himself in.

Obviously can't have an Egyptian scenario without a sphinx. As the delvers wander through the pyramids to the Tower, they pass a huge statue sphinx (looking oddly like Quikpiss - perhaps it's the tie), who asks them a riddle: "What is greatest at its birth and death, and smallest in its middle-age?" (A shadow; shortest at noon, etc.) Anybody guessing it is granted one wish (like the genie's). After that they will reach the elevator door in the Leaning Tower.

Jumbo Compendium	Notes.
Introduction	Cheap, contrived set-up to get the players going.
1. The Rainy-Day Puzzle Dungeon	Animal alphabet fun and some magic items up for grabs. Eat yer heart out, Sesame Street.
3. The Kare Bears Dungeon	A sickly-sweet theme park in which all is not as it seems.
4. The Dungeon With No Name	High-stakes shoot-out in the Wild West, with Flint Eastwood, Duck Halliday, etc.
5. The Dungeon's Dungeon	What other dungeons have nightmares about. An unavoidable sequence of traps and obstacles.

The Jumbo Compendium 5-In-1
Bumper Dungeon Fun Pack!

2. The Pharaoh's Tomb

The Jumbo Compendium 5-In-1 Bumper Dungeon Fun Pack!

2. The Pharaoh's Tomb

The Jumbo Compendium 5-In-1
Bumper Dungeon Fun Pack!