Tomb of Nyarlathotep (7975585)

7/21/2019 Tomb of Nyarlathotep (7975585)

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Tomb of Nyarlathotep

Adventure Description: Summoned from across the multiverse a small

group of heroes must enter an ancient pyramid and prevent the Elder God

Nyarlathotep's return to power.

An HP Lovecraft themed 5th Ed. D&D adventure for characters level 1-2

Written By: Brian Seligman; with many thanks to HP Lovecraft and all

others that have contributed to The Cthulhu Mythos.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US)

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

There is no wepay or paypal associated with this work. If you feel that it gave you value, then please buy

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Conrad (order #7975585)



Please read and familiarize yourself with

the adventure completely before running

it using the Dungeons and Dragons 5 th

Edition rules from Wizards of the Coast.

Tomb of Nyarlathotep was written as a

stand-alone first to second level

adventure for the CthulhuCon Film

Festival in San Pedro 2015.

Italics are meant to be read aloud or

paraphrased.

DM Background:

Ancient Egypt, 1700 BC

The Shoggoth Glp’Glp’whoEE (make a

shallow gulp-gulp-rising whistle), who

became a follower of The Elder God

Nyarlathotep after the Shoggoth

rebellion against the Elder Things, was

diminished after Pharaoh Khasekhemre

Neferhotep I crushed the last attempt to

bring about Nyarlathotep’s return by

Nophru-Ka. Glp’Glp’whoEE wandered

the farthest reaches of the desert before

discovering an isolated shrine dedicated

to Isis and containing The Shining

Trapezohedron.

Craving the warm and chaotic touch of

its former master Glp’Glp’whoEE ate the

former inhabitants, touched the

primordial energies and summoned its

master.

Nyarlathotep seeks souls to feed The

Shining Trapezohedron in order to

regain his power and has cast small

statuettes designed to summon victims

to his lair through the mirror, hopingsome will end up in the hands of future

victims upon the Prime Material Plane.

The Egyptian Goddess Isis has

witnessed the events in her defiled

temple with horror but dares not raise an

open hand against Nyarlathotep.

Instead Isis has directed the statuettes

into the hands of our heroes, in the

hopes that they can banish Nyarlathotep

and stop him from creating a future of

horrifying fear and destruction

throughout the multiverse.




Players’ Introduction:

As you eagerly await an adventure

worthy of you a courier from the local

messenger service arrives and presents

you with a package.

Opening the package at your leisure you

find a small statuette. Jade and flecked

with gold it seems to shift continuously,

defying your senses to identify what it

could be a representation of. Glowing

golden runes adorn the base, upon

examining them you feel a twist in your

gut; the scene dissolves away and you

find yourself standing on a low hill in a

vast desert. The only feature in view is a

gold capped alabaster pyramid

stretching 200 feet on a side, its smooth

white sides sloping up 120’ above you.

Two continuously shifting statues, as

large as a tall man, flank steps leading

up several stairs to an alcove in the

otherwise smooth and unbroken wall. A

platform above the stairs contains a 3

foot tall lever on the ground next to an

indentation in the stone.

DM’s Notes:

The pyramid has 4 sides, each 200’

long. Attempts to climb the sides require

a DC 30 Athletics check per 20 feet, the

stone is polished smooth as glass with

small bits of slippery sand occasionally

blowing across the surface.

Doors are controlled by levers to the

side of them. When a real lever is pulledit will make clacking sounds as gears

turn and the stone slab door will slide

away. The doors are a foot thick.

False doors have levers which do not

click and stone slabs that are immobile.

Secret doors push in and then to the

side when found.

1 Entry Hall:

With a clacking and deep rumble the

stone door slides open to reveal a

passageway going down into the

darkness.

Allow the party to create light sources if

needed then continue.




Finely worked alabaster stairs lead

down a passage which has oddness to

it, as if none of the corners are quite

right angles. Bizarre mosaics on the

perfectly clean and dust free walls

depict some sort of a conflict between

large blobs and giant winged flowers as

well as a tall dark man with hidden

features lurking in the shadows.

2 Pit:

Any character actively looking with the

“Detect Traps” ability may make a DC

13 Arcana check to notice the magical

illusion covering the pit. If spotted the pit

is easily bypassed by a ledge on the

edge of the corridor.

If they do not notice, the lead

character(s) fall into a narrowing oil

walled pit. Close to the bottom a

smacking will be felt and a clacking

sound heard as the character’s feet are

trapped in a series of slanted blades.

Victims may be pulled out with 20’ of

rope and appropriate strength for their

weight, but the blades will slice at their

feet.

Victims with any sort of footwear will

take 1d6 damage and their footwear will

be destroyed.

Victims with no footwear will take 2d6

damage and suffer the effects of “Lose a

Foot” on the Lingering Injuries table,

Dungeon Master’s Guide (DMG) pg. 272

3 Central Chamber

The heavy door rumbles to the side,

revealing a circular chamber with a

domed roof and mosaics of Humans

being sacrificed by huge blobs on a

snowy landscape before a gibbering…

thing… that seems to be sucking

shadows of them into a series of

strangely shaped putrescent maws.

Two doors lead out to your Right and

Left but the way is blocked by a nest of

asps that slither towards you with a hiss.




The four asps are “poisonous snakes”

per page 334 of the Monster Manual

The Secret Door to the North at one of

the maws can be spotted with a DC 12

perception check.

The false door to the East contains a

magical trap that can be detected with

the Detect Traps ability and a DC 14

Arcana check. A Dispel Magic or similar

spell will disarm the trap for 10 minutes.

If the lever is moved while the trap is

active all characters in the Central

Room must succeed at a DC 15

Wisdom check or be stricken by Short

Term Madness. Roll on the table found

in the DMG pg. 259.

The door to the West is a standard door.

4 Stairs to Tomb

As you delve deeper into the Earth two

long flights of stairs lead past twisted

mosaics of blobs fawning over a

featureless black Human man in an

Arctic scene with offerings of strange

beings that look like winged flowers

having their violet fluids spilled on the

white snow and frozen tundra as they

are torn apart and broken bits flung

before the dark man.

The false door at the end of the hall is

merely a distraction.

The secret door can be found with a DC

13 perception check.

5 Nyarlathotep’s Tomb

As you peer into this chamber you see it

is dominated by a stone sarcophagus in

the center of a richly furnished and

sandalwood scented room. You also

notice dozens of cats hissing at you.

The two Swarms of Cats will defend this

chamber to the death. Use the statistics

for Swarm of Rats on Monster Manual

pg. 339 but any character that is

scratched must succeed at a DC 12

Constitution save or come down with a

fever in 24 hours that gives them the

Incapacitated condition for 72 hours

following onset.




Since the adventure is unlikely to last

that long it is suggested that the DM just

grin evilly and/or snicker while noting the

affected victims’ names.

The small 2’ diameter “cat tunnel” leads

to area 8.

The furnishings include 2 teak tables

worth 15 gp each, 4 jade cat statues

worth 5 gp each and a silken ‘bedroll’

with a feather pillow worth 20gp.

6 Stairs to Intersection

The mosaics on the walls as you ascend

up the stuffy stairwell depict scenes of

ever shifting entropy, confusing and

sickening to your mortal being.

7 Intersection

Four twenty foot deep passages lead

from a four way intersection to four

doors, including the one you entered by.

The mosaics on the walls show four

civilizations being destroyed and sinking

beneath the oceans. Two are of

advanced frozen cities inhabited by

strange tentacled creatures falling into

the waves, below one a titanic form of a

winged humanoid with tentacles coming

from its sleeping face. The other two

corridors are filled with jungle

landscapes sinking and what appear to

be flying ships manned by beautiful but

terrified Humans fleeing from once

towering but now crumbling cities oncontinents sinking into the oceans.

8 Litterbox

The door rumbles open to reveal a

trapezoidal room with and oily floor and

3 doors leading out from each wall. An

overpowering scent of cat droppings

emanates into your nostrils.

The floor of The Litterbox is covered by

a Grey Ooze, Monster Manual pg. 243.

Nyarlathotep and Glp’Glp’whoEE do not

need to defecate, but the cats do. The

Grey Ooze is here so nobody else has

to clean up after them. It will attack

anyone that enters the room.




Once the Ooze is defeated the

characters may examine the 2’ tunnel

leading from a grated platform in the

corner to the Tomb in area 5 or examine

and try the false doors at will. There are

no mosaics in here; the ooze ate them

for the small metal content in the tiles.

9 Log Trap

A DC 14 Detect Traps – Perception

check will reveal this door is a spring

loaded trap.

If the lever is pulled:

Instead of rumbling to the side the door

falls into the floor and releases a spring

loaded log!

The log is +2 to hit anyone in the

corridor between locations 9 and 10; if it

hits the log will do 1d10 to each target.

10 Stairs to Foyer

As you climb the stairs leading higher

into the pyramid the mosaics show a

bulbous translucent blob murdering the

inhabitants of a temple devoted to a

brown skinned female Human of

extreme beauty. The priests, mostly

female, seem to have been dissolved by

the blob’s shifting form as it carried out

its slaughter.

11 Foyer

The walls of this room glisten and shine.

Mosaics show a group of adventuring

heroes with unfinished features but

resembling YOU incapacitated on slabs

of stone while shadowy copies of

yourselves feed the gibbering beast you

saw pictured in the domed chamber

below.

A shimmering bronze pillar stretches

from floor to ceiling in the far Right

corner of the room.

The Shoggoth Glp’Glp’whoEE has

surrounded the pillar and will attack

anyone that comes close by engulfing

them.

Use the statistics for the Gelatinous




Cube on page 242 of the Monster

Manual. Glp’Glp’whoEE is not confined

to a cubic shape, it may take any form

as a bonus action but may not change

size and changes do not affect its

statistics including its hit points, which

remain the same in all forms including

damage taken.

The Secret Door can be discovered with

a DC 14 perception check. When it is

slid aside a hollow passage and a

ladder leading to the trap door at area

12 will be revealed.

12 Nyarlathotep’s Chapel

Raising the lid of the shaft a swirling

chartreuse and puce light fills the air.

Reflecting off the golden interior walls of

the capstone, the sickly light reveals a

featureless dark man wearing an ornate

golden silk loincloth and a golden

headdress hanging down the sides of

his head, where a face ought to be but

isn’t.

The swirling light is emanating from a

Shining Trapezohedron backlighting the

dark man with its diseased and

nauseating swirls of color as it spins on

end.

A voice in your head says “Ah, my

sacrifices have arrived”.

Nyarlathotep has recently arrived back

on this plane. He is weakened but still a

god and can not be beaten by force of

arms. The key to his banishment is the

destruction of The Shining

Trapezohedron.

When the first character enters the room

Nyarlathotep will use his Dominate

Person ability to turn them on their

fellows. It is the most fun for him to

watch them knock each other out

chaotically; then he can feed The

Shining Trapezohedron their souls in

peace at his leisure with the proper

rituals.




Nyarlathotep

AC: 15

Hit Points: Infinite while The Shining

Trapezohedron remains, see below

Speed: 40

STR: 20 DEX: 20 CON: 20 INT: 20 WIS: 20 CHR: 20

Telepathy

Dominate Person: As an action

Nyarlathotep may Dominate Person, as

the spell, except he does not need to

concentrate and so may have more than

one person dominated at a time.

Wisdom DC 14

Trapezohedral Healing: At the beginning

of his turn a puce and chartreuse beam

of light will pass from The Shining

Trapezohedron into Nyarlathotep

healing all his wounds. It is very

important to describe this clearly so the

characters can make the connection.

If Nyarlathotep takes more than 40 hp in

one round then he will be forced from

his Dark Man form into a shapeless blob

with pseudopods and sickly maws for

the remainder of the encounter. Nothing

else changes.

The Shining Trapezohedron

The key to stopping Nyarlathotep, the

Trapezohedron is the link between him

and the primordial chaos where his main

power currently resides.

As a large enchanted crystal object The

Shining Trapezohedron has:

AC: 13

Hit Points: 30

If the Shining Trapezohedron is broken

read or paraphrase the following:

As The Shining Trapezohedron shatters

a blast of puce and chartreuse light

bursts out and then implodes, pulling

Nyarlathotep, his raiment and the

remains of The Shining Trapezohedron

through itself into the entropic realms of

primordial chaos.

As the sickly glow fades, a golden light

emanates from the capstone of the

pyramid filling the chamber. A beautiful

tan skinned woman appears before you

wearing a golden circlet and a slinky

gown of translucent silk.

Looking kindly upon you she says in a




captivating voice that echoes around the

chamber “I am Isis. You have my

gratitude for cleansing my temple and

ending the threat of Nyarlathotep. His

plan called for sacrifices to release his

fellow Old Ones upon the multiverse. I

redirected his invitations to you in the

hope that he would not consider young

mortals a real threat. You have done as

well as I had hoped.If you wish to return home simply tap the

statuettes that brought you here three

times. You shall carry my blessing from

this day forward.” Isis then smiles at you

and fades back into golden light before

vanishing. The statues you carry have

stopped shifting and now look like each

of you, the shifting runes at the bottom

now read “[PC name], Isis thanks you”.

Isis’ Blessing is a “Blessing of Magic

Resistance”, see DMG pg 228

The statuettes will return the characters

home from Isis’ Temple as advertised

but will not function in that way again,

though they will remain as described

otherwise.

If the characters examine the pyramid

after Isis’ return they will find the

mosaics have transformed to show

mighty wizards and priests performing

miraculous feats of magic.

If the characters try to tear apart the

gold capstone they will first feel guilty,

as a warning. If they persist in damaging

it the heretic(s) involved will suffer Isis’

wrath and be struck dead, no save, no

resurrection possible. The treasure from

area 5 is theirs to keep.

If the characters kill each other while

Dominated read or paraphrase the

following:

After the failure of the heroes sent by

Isis to cleanse her temple Nyarlathotep

fed their tortured souls to The Shining

Trapezohedron and summoned his

fellow Great Old Ones, unleashing Eons

of terror and chaos upon the multiverse.




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Tomb of Nyarlathotep (7975585)