Random reasons for robbing a Tomb - table entries needed

[scalydemon]

For AFS 7 (fanzine), the best entries (in my opinion) will get put in a d20 table and published. Thanks if you want to add ideas. Preferably a 2 sentence block of text.

Random reasons for robbing a Tomb

1. A hidden artifact, 'The Skull of Hastur' is rumoured to be buried with the corpse of the infamous Sorcerer Krigeon Akhbede. It needs to be destroyed at all costs.
2. Great wealth in the form of silver enscripted ingots is rumoured to be buried with the remains of the controversial Vicar Noladameous. It is unknown what the enscriptions mean or represent.

[coffee]

3. "It belongs in a museum!" But actually the piece (crown, amulet, whatever) will complete the museum's magical defenses, preventing thieves from getting in and the more boisterous artifacts from getting out!
4. The sword of my family is said to be there. My father carried it in years ago, and never came out; I want it back.


Also, because I must:

Not-so-random reason A) "You really can't take it with you, so I'm having that."

[ritt]

5. The Specter of an infamous serial killer haunts the area and kills a child each year on the last day of Summer. It can only be permanently destroyed if you find his body and have a virgin, a prostitute, and a eunuch each simultaneously pour a vial of holy water (Each blessed by the cleric of a separate deity) into the skull's mouth.

6. Racial trouble broils in the area. The elves can prove their right to settle outside of the woods only if they can get evidence that at least one of the founding Princes of Olde was half-elf. You can tell by slight differences in the shape of the skull.

7. In his final days the brilliant novelist Lord Winterfire grew bitter, driven nearly mad by the constant grousing of his fans, and thus he swore that the last book in his magnum opus would be buried with him.

[scottenkainen]

8. Previous tomb robbers set off a huge, complex trap that, like a deadly Rube Goldberg machine, is threatening the entire nearby town and has to be shut down at the source.

[sepulchre]

9. For the 'corpse trade', the doctor pays well.

10. To interrupt a ceremonial ritual, thievery being the enticement.

[scalydemon]

Wow, some great stuff so far. Thanks! There are some creative minds on this board.

[Keps]

You were hired by a non-lawful person. They pay better anyways.

[ritt]

12. The Ancients of the Forgotten Empire used an odd mix of chemicals to embalm their dead. How odd? After thousands of years of decomposition and mixing with mildew and scarab droppings the dust of their mummies is now an hallucinogenic drug. Some of the more decadent nobles will pay up to 100 gold for the mummy of cat, 200 for the mummy of child, 500 for a grown man.

[greentongue]

11. The Signet Ring was buried with Lord Nezzeltath after the Battle of Castfire and the family's property can only be claimed by the bearer of the ring.

[krusader74]

14. Menippus of Gadara had always heard stories that his ancestor Thales of Miletus made a fortune trading options on the olive harvest. But Thales buried his wealth and died without telling anyone its location. Menippus wants your help to perform the Nekyia ritual in Thales's tomb in order to raise his spirit from Hades and learn the location of the buried treasure. He's offering your party 50% of any treasure that's found.

[jcstephens]

Collection of "Essential Saltes" for necromantic resurrection, if you're into that (or willing to do a job for someone who is).

[premmy]

Either a PC or an important NPC has been cursed by the Malediction of Sepulchral Repose. It inflicts a horrible lingering fate-worse-than-death, and can only be broken by the victim sleeping in a sarcophagus that originally held a Hero/Wizard/Warlord/Villain/Mummy/whatever of great renown. The party must either go into the tomb, liberate the sarcophagus, and bring it back with them; or escort the victim into the tomb, evict the sarcophagus's current occupant, and stand guard while the victim sleeps.

[DungeonDevil]

The local regime, despotic and morally degenerate, can't exact enough taxes from the downtrodden, overtaxed peasantry, so they cause the local tumuli and crypts to be desecrated for whatever they contain. Thereafter the ghosts of the dead decide to exact their own revenge on the defilers...

[krusader74]

Before she died, Voodoo queen Marie Laveau told her followers that if they wanted her to grant them a wish, then they should draw an X on her tomb, turn around three times, knock on the tomb, and yell out their wish. If it was granted they had to return to the tomb, circle their X, and leave Laveau an offering...

...A true story actually. Here is a photo of her tomb...



...lots of Xs, none of them visibly circled though!

[krusader74]

The patriarch of the Order of the Chapeaux in the Free City of Greyhawk recently began excavating the ground on the southern slope of the hill upon which is built the Basilica of Saint Cuthburt of the Cudgel. The goal is to find the tomb of Saint Cuthburt and recover his mace. Unexpectedly, the excavation has uncovered a Necropolis, a city of the dead, underneath the Basilica. The patriarch now asks for a team of brave explorers to enter the Necropolis in search of the Cudgel.

(Based on the real world Vatican Necropolis.)

Others on these boards can no doubt provide more details on the origin of "Saint Cuthburt", but here is a brief publication history from the early issues of Dragon:

* Dragon #2: Gary Gygax mentions Saint Cuthbert in the serialized story "The Gnome Cache."
* Dragon #67: Gygax stats Saint Cuthbert in the article "The Deities and Demigods of the World of Greyhawk."
* Dragon #100: The Mace of Cuthbert may have been hidden on "real world" Earth, possibly in a museum in London, to keep it safe from evil forces.

[krusader74]

The Bishop of St. Praxed's Church has ordered the desecration of the tomb of his predecessor, Gandolf, because Gandolf "cozened" him and usurped his chosen burial spot.

(Loosely based on the poem The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church by Robert Browning.)

[skars]

"Just one more Job," He said. "It will be a cake walk," He said. All the gold I can carry, but I gotta bring him back a toe...with paint on the nail?

[krusader74]

The titan Prometheus shaped the first human couple out of mud, and Athena breathed life into them. The couple became the father and mother of mankind. The couple named their first daughter Zellandine. Prometheus asked the gods to her christening to bestow her with gifts. Aphrodite bestowed her with great beauty, etc. Eris, who was not invited, crashed the party and cursed the girl to die. Only the god Hypnos had not yet bestowed Zellandine with a wish yet, so he tried to reverse Eris's curse, but could only do so partially: Instead of dying, Zellandine will sleep for 10,000 years, or until a worthy hero kisses her and wakes her up. Zellandine was laid to rest in the Nekromanteion, in a glass coffin. Are you courageous enough to enter the Hellmouth, find the coffin and awake the sleeping beauty?

[Red Baron]

Tacked to the door, an elegant slip of paper reads "loot me".

[Todd]

An artifact must be returned to a hidden crypt to cure a horrible supernatural pestilence.

A new temple was erected above the tomb and it cannot be consecrated until the tomb is purified of an evil that dwells within it.

The tomb is actually the control room of an ancient machine that has mysterious activated and wracked the surrounding area with strange tremors and freak storms.

[magremore]

Astro Zombies. Outside of Kaum, a fiery object has crashed into the catacombs of the ruined city of Nieur. The dead are rising and harrowing the town. A party has been organized to find the source and end the curse.

Swan Song. The faltering, once-renowned adventurer Stackrin has returned to Lyke, the village of his youth, and raised a band of young followers to raid the ancient Tombs of Do’gahs, the site of his first expedition some thirty years ago. There he had discovered a secret door in its northeast corner only to be beaten back by a gruesome, moaning thing. Three months ago, Stackrin finally encountered a sage who knew of such a beast and told him that its brainpan houses a stone-like gland that if harvested will allow its possessor to wield the power of life and death itself.

Sacrifice Games. Every three years a male and female between the ages of fifteen and seventeen are chosen at random to be marched out to the countryside, handed a waterkskin, a pointy stick, and a half dozen torches, then sent ceremoniously into Éhcilc’s Tomb, a seemingly endless subterranean maze overrun with creatures of the night. The ostensible goal is to return with the Whim Stone, a supposedly unique crystal-blue gem said to possess magical powers that will, among other things, end the Sacrifice Games.

Braineaters. The mad wizard Oznog is keeping a pair of mysterious monsters in his dungeon and requires a constant supply of human or humanoid brains to feed them. Besides being mad, Oznog is moody and miserly. He will bargain shamelessly, and if he already has any sort of supply at all he will walk away from a deal. On the other hand, a rare treat such as fresh elf brain is sure to fetch 100–400 coins.

Dawn of the Dead Ringers. Strange things are afoot at the Circle Kairn where the worshippers do not seem to be returning the same as they arrived. There are rumors that the Kairn priests are replacing people with dopplegängers under their control. Is it true? Are they plotting to take over the village of Dodgenhammer? If so, why? Boils and boggarts, d**ned if you know. You and your friends decide to scavenge some tombs for whatever valuables you can find and get the hell out of Dodgenhammer.

[krusader74]

Two more reasons for robbing a tomb, for which I've already written scenarios on these boards...

One. You work for the Inquisition. You are currently serving as an attaché to Baldwin, who's just won the (first) battle of Ramla, September 7, 1101. Your job is to investigate the Jewish catacombs under the city, where the prophet Samuel is buried. There are reports that an Arabic manuscript of the Kitab al-Azif, perhaps the original, is hidden somewhere in Ramla. As a reminder: The Latin name for this book is The Necronomicon! (I sketched this scenario in the thread on Adventuring in the time of the Crusades.)

Two. You're at Glastonbury Abbey. A monk at the Abbey has just died. He requested to be buried under a pair of entwined apple trees at the edge of the forest that surrounds the Abbey. While digging his grave, 7' below the entwined apple trees, you find a large stone slab. You flip the stone over to reveal an iron cross with a (Welsh) inscription: "Here lies buried the famous King Arthur with Guinevere his second wife in the isle of Avalon." Below the stone is a dark pit leading down into catacombs. (I wrote this scenario up detail, including maps, in a post called King Arthur's Tomb in the thread on Gottam Cnihtas. There are additional notes here.)

[Punkrabbitt]

A necrophiliac noble hires Our Heroes to bring him a freshly-interred body.

[scalydemon]

Wow, I like all the variance in responses on this. Thanks, between here and the Hyperborea board and google + B/X community I am getting quite a great list.

On a side note AFS 7 article submissions I am setting an October 1st deadline in hopes of getting it out as a Halloween issue. Much more detail can be found here hyperborea.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=433

AFS 7 will feature cover art by Stephen Fabian!

Thanks

[skars]

It was said that a vibrating square in the center of the tomb will send you to the realm of the dead, but you must ring the bell and light the candle.

[scalydemon]

Just reading back through these in detail as I am starting to put things together for the zine. There are more submission guidelines and info here including a sneak cover peek hyperborea.boardhost.com/viewtopic.php?id=433 if anyone has anything else to contribute to AFS 7, deadline is Halloween 10/31/15, thanks

[tkdco2]

You learned one of your family's long-lost heirlooms has been taken here.

On a less serious note...

The orcs stole your underwear and hid it here somewhere.

[Deleted]

That's where the gold is.

[ritt]

* The Thieve's Guild has made an example out of a burgomaster who refused to take bribes... by sealing his young son alive in one of the lower tombs. Can you find the child in time?

* The ancient machines that pump out water and methane and pump down air are starting to fail. Flooding and/or fire in the tombs would be a major archaeological tragedy as well as a religious crisis to certain influential sects that believe in the eventual physical resurrection of the dead. Escort a dwarf down there so he can replace some gears. How hard could that be? Unknown to Our Heroes the gears are solid mithril (Only thing that can take the pressure without weighing hundreds of pounds), word has gotten out, and thieves are laying in wait.

[mindcontrolsquid]

-A wealthy merchant offers the party a reward of gold for the retrieval of his brother, an erstwhile adventurer. It is said that he yet lives within the dread tomb, driven raving mad by the horrors he has witnessed...

-The party learns the location of the Golden Skeleton of Exalos, said to be the gold-plated and gem-encrusted remains of a once-mighty king. Perhaps there is yet life in those old bones...