Tomb of Curses

Tomb of Curses is a 6th to 8th level adventure written by Paul Wolfe (from a concept by/and Sean Conners, depending upon the credits. Art is by David Fisher (including cover and cartography) and Scott Ackerman (including cartography). The publisher is Dragons Hoard Publishing.

Disclosure: I have an editing credit on this product.

This adventure was written as a perk for the Indigogo campaign that brought about the original run of Angels, Daemons, and Beings Between, which I have written about that elsewhere.

This adventure is a sort of funhouse ride that combines the lethality of The Tomb of  Horrors with the gonzo ethos of Dungeon Crawl Classics. At the time it came out, I believe it was the highest level DCC module in existence. It is certainly deadly, and fun. Although the adventure start is more than just kind of railroad-y, a clever judge can easily alter this so that the PCs are the cause of their own pain. As a cold start for a one-shot adventure, though, the current start is more than adequate.

If you read the review at Die Hard Game Fan, you might think that the background is problematic. I tend to think of it as being more like the work of Michael Moorcock. No matter how much you think you know about how the multiverse works, it turns out you're wrong. I would also like to direct you to the review of Megan R, who is a Featured Reviewer at DriveThru RPG: "The actual Tomb itself is mapped out and described well. It is very much a 'puzzle dungeon' - if you or your players do not care for such things, find something else. Most of the puzzles are pretty deadly and clues to solve them are limited (I'm finding many hard to figure out even with the book in front of me...), you may wish to add clues or allow the players to roll for hints. Plentiful use is made of random tables and teleport spells, it can all get quite confusing... but played in the right spirit, this has the potential to be a blast, a fun adventure (provided you are not too attached to your character)."

Overall, I really like this adventure. Yes, it is gonzo. Yes, it is deadly. But it is also survivable by clever PCs who think before they act. It is worth playing, but you can always use it as a one-shot adventure if you imagine your players might be unhappy with the effects on their PCs (which may include sudden and irrevocable death). In the inevitable comparison to The Tomb of Horrors, I would say that The Tomb of Curses offers less of a slog, greater player agency, and more fun. I think that this is partly because the two adventures use different systems, and partly because adventure design has changed over time. Be warned that your mileage may vary!

The adventure includes patron write-ups for the Three Sisters and Agars, the Petty Demon. Both are effectively demi-patrons, in the Agars is not strong enough to grant patron spells, and the Three Sisters can only interact as though "When Cast on Other" column using the patron bond spell. On the plus side, the module includes a permission to use these patrons in other products, reproducing the text from the Angels, Daemons, and Being Between tome.

Hell hath no fury like an ex-wife scorned, and Uth'Pentar has eight of them.

For some, even death cannot trump the need for revenge. Prey to a vicious curse, the party must walk a careful path  through an other-dimensional tomb to win their freedom. Can they survive the centuries-long, multiverse-spanning vendetta of Uth'Pentar's wives long enough to escape?

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