I think the sphere is partially downplayed so the party doesn't go crazy with it, although there is some work involved
At work atm, but I'll dig through the pile after I get home and my son wakes up to get you an issue #.
I may be wrong but I think it is in A Gathering of Winds (Dungeon 129) when the party opens Icosiel's tomb.
I think that if you tweak Kyuss' spell list, (of particular, while under the effects of a time stop spell), you could use a wish/limited wish to obtain a Rod of Cancellation for use in destroying the sphere.
Thanks for the help guys. I'm looking forward to coming up with something a bit more unique. I may just make the travel to the area of hell where the sphere is into a more interesting encounter. I don't want to derail too far down a hellish excursion though.
Anyone know of a good encounter I could base it off of?
Personally I thought snagging it from Tomb of Horrors was inspired. Admittedly if you and your players have never played Tomb of Horrors then it might not really have much meaning but for most of the old timers around here they where probably there when somebody lost an arm to that trap.
I bet its the single most famous trap in all of D&D.
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Personally I thought snagging it from Tomb of Horrors was inspired. Admittedly if you and your players have never played Tomb of Horrors then it might not really have much meaning but for most of the old timers around here they where probably there when somebody lost an arm to that trap.
I bet its the single most famous trap in all of D&D.
Agreed. :)
I guess those of us who didn't get through all those modules are in the dark.
Short of getting the PDF, can someone give a brief description of the Sphere's situation in the original dungeon? I've been thinking of using part of Maure Castle or Castle Greyhawk as a housing for the thing instead, but not sure how to set it up so there is some flavor to it and it's not just greater teleport in, snag the thing with the Talisman, and gate out.
Any other ideas for how to use the sphere? Might Lashonna have gotten her (mental) claws on it, and the PCs having the talisman allows them to take it away? Or have the big K himself wielding the thing, only to be thwarted when a PC shows up with the Talisman?
It's too darn powerful to allow it in your game for very long, but since Allustan told them to hold on to the Talisman way back at 3rd level, it's kind of a weird red herring if you don't do anything with the Talisman.
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You can see a picture of it here, on the cover of Dungeon #116.
Spoiler treatment seems silly at this point, but here 'tis anyway:
A close friend of mine ran this adventure in college and one of his players lost their unmentionables after sticking them in the devil's mouth. True story.
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Just an idea I am kicking around using to get the sphere into the game.
Just my thoughts for what they are worth.
A close friend of mine ran this adventure in college and one of his players lost their unmentionables after sticking them in the devil's mouth. True story.
A bit to much beer at that session I take it. I mean I've heard of beer goggles but this is a little over the top for beer goggles.
I guess those of us who didn't get through all those modules are in the dark.
Short of getting the PDF, can someone give a brief description of the Sphere's situation in the original dungeon? I've been thinking of using part of Maure Castle or Castle Greyhawk as a housing for the thing instead, but not sure how to set it up so there is some flavor to it and it's not just greater teleport in, snag the thing with the Talisman, and gate out.
Any other ideas for how to use the sphere? Might Lashonna have gotten her (mental) claws on it, and the PCs having the talisman allows them to take it away? Or have the big K himself wielding the thing, only to be thwarted when a PC shows up with the Talisman?
It's too darn powerful to allow it in your game for very long, but since Allustan told them to hold on to the Talisman way back at 3rd level, it's kind of a weird red herring if you don't do anything with the Talisman.
There is a free 3.5 update of the tomb of horrors on the wizards site and I'm pretty much certain that it includes the sphere of annihilation trap.
IMC, the PCs obtained the sphere after destroying the unlife vortex, which exploded and then collapsed in on itself, forming the sphere. It seemed to make sense to me, with the unlife vortex being an immensely powerful gate to the negative energy plane, and with spheres being created from negative planar material. They won't have much of a chance to use it because I have three wormdrakes circling the top of the tower, each with the ability to use the gate spell 1/day.
That's a great idea! I've been thinking about this problem and wondering how to introduce the sphere. My players won't catch the historical reference any more than I would have. I'm too new to the game, and most of them have just played in homebrew worlds.
I like the idea of creating the unlife vortex from the sphere too. Maybe Lashonna tracked it down too, or Mother Maggot. They got there first and took the sphere back to Alhaster. That way the players can still teleport to the place where the sphere is supposed to be, and find it missing. Tensor can be shocked, "It was there yesterday!?!" and the players can worry about who out there has the sphere and when it might be used against them. This will also explain why there might be some rods of cancellation (or whatever the anti-sphere rod is) around to curb the PC's uber-powerful artifact. The bad guys had been using it already and were prepared if the thing got out of control. Of course now there might need to be another talisman of the sphere around...
Thanks for the nice ideas.
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Personally I thought snagging it from Tomb of Horrors was inspired. Admittedly if you and your players have never played Tomb of Horrors then it might not really have much meaning but for most of the old timers around here they where probably there when somebody lost an arm to that trap....I bet its the single most famous trap in all of D&D.
You mean THIS TRAP? (illo from Dungeonscape; made me laugh, anyway...)
There's a reason beardoes and grognards like me buy 10' poles...
Owner - Johnny Scott Comics and Games
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In our game, we got the Sphere along with the Talisman (sort of). The Talisman, once we figured out how to make it work, actually created the Sphere. Now, this may seem overly simplistic, and it gave us access to the Sphere very early on. However, we hit a snag during research (our DM made one very slight change to the RAW):
After researching the item we learned one little thing: Unless you actively control the Sphere, it will slowly move toward you each round and there is no way to turn it off. Basically, if you fell asleep, the Sphere would eventually get close to you and destroy you within a matter of minutes.
This led to us waiting to activate it until we absolutely needed to and, even then, we were afraid of what would happen after we used it. When we finally activated it during the Kyuss battle, it worked wonderfully in slowing him down. Unfortunately, my character (who controlled it) had to spend an action every third round making sure the Sphere didn't come back and hit me and/or a party member.
After the battle, we had a heck of a time getting rid of the Sphere. We eventually had to give the Talisman away to a high level wizard who was able to suppress the Sphere with an anti-magic field.
I know this doesn't help with a side adventure for finding the Sphere, but thought it was an interesting take on giving the party access to the Sphere and ensuring it wasn't abused...
As written, a Sphere of Annihilation is static, unless you attempt to move it (success means it moves where you want it, failure means it moves closer). Check out the DMG: "A sphere of annihilation is static, resting in some spot as if it were a normal hole", and "If a control check fails, the sphere slides 10 feet in the direction of the character attempting to move it".
The idea of linking the unlife vortex and the sphere is a good one. Just be aware of how your group may tackle Alhaster, and whether that makes your plan any better. For example, we started this last adventure only last week, and the group went straight for Lashonna's mansion, and straight into the dungeons there. In that 3-4 hour session, they already found the unlife vortex and have busted it for good, having cleaned out pretty much everything except the Pit Fiend (they haven't found that bit yet). I'm not 100% sure if they still plan to get the Sphere yet, but I do know they don't expect to go to the Spire just yet (they figure they have up to a week - one player was heard to say "may as well keep using the mass heals, I don't expect to be seeing Kyuss today!") So if they do want the Sphere, I'll use the plan I outlined earlier to let them do a quick retrieval while still making it a bit more exciting than teleport in, roll a few Int checks, then teleport out. I guess if I'd linked the Sphere to the Vortex, they would have been forced to deal with the Sphere quicker than they wanted, which given they basically get it for free isn't actually such a bad idea...
Personally I thought snagging it from Tomb of Horrors was inspired. Admittedly if you and your players have never played Tomb of Horrors then it might not really have much meaning but for most of the old timers around here they where probably there when somebody lost an arm to that trap....I bet its the single most famous trap in all of D&D.You mean THIS TRAP? (illo from Dungeonscape; made me laugh, anyway...)
Ugh - thats the worst picture of it I have ever seen.
There's a reason beardoes and grognards like me buy 10' poles...
After Tomb of Horrors I never touched another object in D&D again. I always play sorcerers and summon things to touch stuff for me.
I still get the shakes when I think about that adventure...and I have already been through years of therapy for the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder brought on by The Tomb.
LOL, um, I hope that was humor.
Good news is, the sphere is not too deep in the dungeon, so I can have the party teleport outside and have to do just a bit of investigation/delving without having to run a huge, distracting sidequest.
Having the sphere come into being as a result of the Unlife Vortex's destruction is also a great idea, and I may use that instead. That solution actually seems far less contrived than "now you've seen the teleport painting of the sphere, you can go get it whenever you're ready for it." Having Lashonna have already nicked it from the Tomb of Horrors is also good. Both of these approaches make it into a lucky coincidence that the PCs found the talisman and were smart enough to hang on to it, rather than just another part of a big pre-final fight buff session ("let's assemble every tool that could possibly take Kyuss down"). That, in turn makes the ending more heroic. I like it.
Agreed. :)Personally I thought snagging it from Tomb of Horrors was inspired. Admittedly if you and your players have never played Tomb of Horrors then it might not really have much meaning but for most of the old timers around here they where probably there when somebody lost an arm to that trap.
I bet its the single most famous trap in all of D&D.
Next to the misty portals and the crown and scepter trap in the same module.
My brother ran the game back in the day and wiped out the party with that trap. Half the group jumped trough and vanished while the other half went trhough the misty portal and lost all of their gear. Not knowing what else to do, they followed the rest of the party. POOF!
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Hey! Don't forget the tilting corridor over the lava-pit!
Years ago, we lost a monk, who being fooled by the audible glamer of people running away, proceeded to run full-speed down the corridor.
This was in the 1st edition days, and our DM allowed Raise Dead to work with Contingency spells.
The monk fell into the lava and died, only to be raised (in the lava) and die again.
Imagine this: The monk runs with blinding speed down the hall into the darness...
"ARRGH!" a long silence follows, then "ARRGH!"
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Agreed. :)Personally I thought snagging it from Tomb of Horrors was inspired. Admittedly if you and your players have never played Tomb of Horrors then it might not really have much meaning but for most of the old timers around here they where probably there when somebody lost an arm to that trap.
I bet its the single most famous trap in all of D&D.
Next to the misty portals and the crown and scepter trap in the same module.
My brother ran the game back in the day and wiped out the party with that trap. Half the group jumped trough and vanished while the other half went trhough the misty portal and lost all of their gear. Not knowing what else to do, they followed the rest of the party. POOF!
The crown and scepter......AAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! Don't Touch them!!!!
God that was a killer dungeon!FH
Next to the misty portals and the crown and scepter trap in the same module.My brother ran the game back in the day and wiped out the party with that trap. Half the group jumped trough and vanished while the other half went trhough the misty portal and lost all of their gear. Not knowing what else to do, they followed the rest of the party. POOF!
While I agree that the module if full of some famous traps I think the Sphere of Annihilation one is still by far the most famous.
For one thing its one of the first really nasty insta-kill traps in the module. Players got this far and they generally got this far their first session.
Thats important because there might well not be a second session. If this was a one off then there is a good chance you never managed to get the gang together and play again.
If it was not a one off then chances are right around this encounter your long standing campaign began to fall apart. Long time players are suddenly dead - no saving throw, and the full implications of what is going down is all of a sudden dawning on the horrified DM, who knew this was tough but had not really realized the full implications of what playing the module would entail.
This in turn helps make the trap famous - Its not just the number of players this trap killed, its the number of whole campaigns that where destroyed right about here that makes the trap such a memorable one in the collective consciousness of old time D&D players. I mean back in those days it could take three years of weekly 8 hour sessions to make 10th or 11th level - and then out of the blue your dead, no hints that your in real danger, no warning and no save.
wasn't there a riddle saying not to choose the green door? i mean, that's a hint right? RIGHT??? :)
wasn't there a riddle saying not to choose the green door? i mean, that's a hint right? RIGHT??? :)
Lol. I'd forgotten about that. I wonder how many DMs where stuck trying to lamely defend their actions using that hint as an excuse?
For Eberron flavour purposes, I am thinking of ruling that spheres of annihilation are contained little manifest zones of Mabar (Eberron's negative material plane equivalent). It's the nature of maifest zones of mabar that they shrink down into little sphere-sized regions: rather like a 4-d bathtub vortex.
For Eberron flavour purposes, I am thinking of ruling that spheres of annihilation are contained little manifest zones of Mabar (Eberron's negative material plane equivalent). It's the nature of maifest zones of mabar that they shrink down into little sphere-sized regions: rather like a 4-d bathtub vortex.
Just for the record, I don't believe Sphere's have anything to do with the negative energy plane. They are holes in existence, not energy in any form.
