Okay, if the guy who can cast third level spells at will and can hit you with two Power Word Kills in one encounter is a simulacrum, I don't want to know how the real Acererak was in his prime.
Necro'ing this, but well, the real Acererak was the boss of Tomb of Horrors. IF you actually encountered him (There was a fake in the ToH as well, a zombie gussied up to look like a mighty Lich), then he really only had one attack. He would use it on the strongest member of the party. Instant Death, No Save, no resist, nothing. He straight up eats your fucking soul and you die with nothing short of a max power Wish Spell being able to bring you back.
@@antimatterstudios8395 Kinda? I mean the 'real' Tomb was the whole thing, it's just that the whole of the Tomb of Horrors was one big grift by Acererak. He made the whole thing himself as a way to lure in dumb adventurers so the insane logic breaking puzzle traps would kill them and he could eat their souls for sustenance and get a bunch of free magic items from their corpses.
@@canaryinacoalmine1759 I Demi pitch needs a phylactery for their soul, to stop it from going to the afterlife. They must feed this phylactery souls in order to maintain both it and their own soul. A Demi litch if formed in two ways. The first is that a litch fails to feed its phylactery and degrades into a Demi litch. due to the Demi litch description of Acerac for seeing his own degradation, this might be an inevitability rather than a possibility, likely caused by the phylactery slowly failing. These Demi Litches are lesser than litches The second is the path pioneered by acererak, where becoming a Demi litch is used a the next step in a litches undead evolution/life. This involves taking the litches skull and turning it into their phylactery. Important to know is that if a phylactery is destroyed the litch will not reform if defeated, with a Demi litch only having a phylactery for a physical form (their skull), their phylactories destruction cause’s the end of their immortal life, thus The original Acererak is gone for good.
I would like to thank you MrRhexx. I have been a subscriber for quite some time. My DMing has improved drasticly since watching your videos, your eye for detail is amazing! Thank you again and please keep it up!
This is great I have really wanted to run TOA for a while, this gives a lot of valuable context to the adventure. Even if the party never encounters this information, when you describe things equipped with historical context it makes the world feel more complex and real. I would probably drop in a book the party could find in Mezro from that tentacle gator's cult where they recorded their visions.
I'm running a heavily modified tomb right now and the party is very close to meeting Artus. This is a prestige game of the same characters that I took through Storm King's Thunder. So my group is familiar with Artus. Could not be more stoked to have more lore a cram into my lore gun for this event. Always love your content thank you.
Aha I had a game that went from storm King's thunder to tomb of annihilation as well but the party accidently set the death curse in motion so they had to shift gears to face the supernatural threat first.
Oh man that's cool. Ya mine is heavily modified I'm doing sort of a Bermuda triangle thing where they thought it would be Chult but it's actually an island of that exists in between worlds plenty of undead and aberrations. Way less civilization (easier on me as a DM).
@@slickrickard That's smart. Yea, no this game happened very early in Storm King's so it was chaos to try and go from the spine of the world to chult. And rather than explore they blitzed to find the city asap. Unfortunately the party died on the fourth floor due to bad luck and player exhaustion cause the dungeon really kicked their teeth in between rough fights and bad rolls. Ironically their mapped time actual had them perish very nearly lined up with the starting time the ToA book says for how long the death curse has been going.
looking at the art of the forsaken one, am I the only one thinking Zargon from the lost city module (B4) and considering another name for the adventure is the lost city of omu
TheBayzent I agree. There are modules and campaigns always set in either grasslands, mountains, and forests. There is so much that can de done with jungles and combo it with deserts.
This actually helps me out a lot. I tried to run this module as a first-time DM and there were a lot of dots that just weren't connecting and a lot of lore that I didn't feel like I could incorporate organically. This actually gives me a lot of context so I can work on having things feel less shoehorned in. Thanks!
@@killereye Kangaxx literally fights like Acererak in Tomb of Horrors. Both pull out the exact same shit of spamming Soultrap, but since BG didn't have that they used Maze, but the effect is the same (only Soultrap victims never come back)
I've got another little fact of lore for you, regarding the fate of the original Acererak: In the 3.5e book "Tome of Magic" they introduce vestiges, a kind of being who died under such strange conditions, that it was thrown out of the normal bounds of the multiverse. They can now only have sensual experiences inside the Multiverse, by forming pacts with its inhabitants and then entering their bodies and grant the host powers in return. Acererak ist listet as one of those vestiges and explained to have become such a being upon his defeat within the Tomb of Horrors. He had attempted to become one with the Negative Energy Plane and succeeded far enough, that the pull of the plane prevented his soul from drifting to the afterlife, but since it could not enter the Negative Energy Plane either, it remained expelled from the Multiverse. If this lines up with the lore from other sources, I don't know, but the sourcebook is an official one.
Professor Rhexx, I just want to say thank you for being consistently excellent over the years. Even when I was a junior in high school, I looked forward to every one of your videos on Skyrim and the rest of the Elder Scrolls. I’m a senior In University now and you are by far my favorite channel on RU-vid because nobody makes lore videos like you. Thank you.
Yes as I sophomore I deeply enjoyed staying up past 11 learning about dragons then dragonborn later the gods and now the planes i always tried to go to bed before 11 but now I go to bed at twelve I hope you enjoy a permanent retirement ten year and much more knowledge
@@leobracken2316 I don't have enough friends that would be interested in playing D&D nor do I have enough time? This allows me to be able to experience the world of D&D but not actually play and I really appreciate that.
@@muffinman8744 ok. I was trying to say "I was surprised that someone would like Raid" but I'm not sure I worded that very well. Also I'm pretty certain I misunderstood your comment. Sorry if I seemed rude or something.
Dear Lord, I thought you were corrupted by the Lich of Raid, it is said he bought and persuaded many a kingdom to bow before his knee, you must resist or all is lost.
Found out I indeed just watched these video's without subscription, sorry! Real weird since I almost watched every video, so good on you for reminding me! :)
2:10 what...? The story of the simulacrum was a small little adventure. And TOH has a sequel called Return to the Tomb of Horrors which continues on into the 4e Tomb of Horrors which is a continuation of that where it explains why Acererak survives (I won’t spoil it here in case anyone wants to look) This is a cool theory/self made lore but cannon wise he’s just very *very* difficult to kill because of tendencies to become a vestige. As for why he’s a ArchLich and not Demi-lich, I think that has to do with Demi-Liches being nerfed as a weaker form in 5e. Also 5e seems to have done a soft reboot on him as well hence no mentions of his history other than Oerth
Acererak can't be aan Aarchlich, because those "were good beings during their life" ( Monster Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn, p.90). So Acererak must be lich or demilich. Proof: forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Demilich
Yeah, Rhexx does some awesome videos, but sometimes they are way off base. Lots of non-canon stuff here. Also, the very different Tomb of Horrors for 4e pretty much established that Acererak had been downgraded from the vestige he was in 3e to demilich again.
Bastian Schöls He is described as an ArchLich in TOA meaning that WOTC changed the meaning. (Vecna in MTOF is also described as an ArchLich) Personally I like define the good ones as ArcLich and very powerful Liches as ArchLich for this edition. But yeah that’s just another contradiction in 5E. I suspect this is because Demi-Liches have been downgraded in 5E yet Acererak is supposed to be a more powerful than normal lich.
@@sanddry738 the demilich article in the MM also states that demilichs who seek this path as Accererak did are slightly more powerful than normal liches
My very first game was Tomb of Horrors, 2nd edition: I spent about an hour making a first level character and set out for the tomb, only to encounter a lonely goblin on route. Who then won Initiative, Critically Hit with an arrow, and rolled Max Damage... ending my adventure before it even begun!
I want to say thank you so much for your videos, it helps me with building for my campaigns, and my wife and I enjoy your content immensely! Keep up the amazing work! P.S. I haven't been that scared by an intro since Dead Space
Dude, you have an incredible level of skill at taking in all this story related information and presenting it in an such an interesting and entertaining way. I havent played D&D for a while (I was a second edition player), and you make me really want to play again. Please keep up the great work, and consider doing some DragonLance and Ravenloft stuff!
I always find it interesting that a lot of people who grew up on 2e either love or hate 5e. Most seem to love it. I grew up on 3e so 5e was a disappointment to me as it was extremely flat, streamlined, and changed the dynamics of all power to be 100% on the side of players. And the change in player base mentality has been extremely difficult. You'll find players these days find even the possibility of death to be offensive and a sign of a bad DM.
Thanks so much for this video! I had modified the story of acerak that he stole the tech for the soulmonger from baphomets tower of science (really pale night’s tech) and the king kong aspect of ubtao went to investigate. The whole simulacrum event makes it so much better!
I might be remembering wrong here, but didn't the spell plague (or was it Karsus's Folly?) result in the negative energy plane ceasing to exist? And now we only have the shadowfell. If so, what happened to the tower?
@@Trapsarentgay133 Pretty sure the Spell Plague was caused because another god killed an old version of Mystra, not the one we've got today, and it was waaaaay later than Karsus's Folly
@@Trapsarentgay133 Karsus' folly was a different event altogether and had nothing to do with the Spell Plague.It took place a -long time- before the Spell plague. Karsus used his magic to assume the mantel of Mystara, the original goddess of magic. Mystara then killed herself to get her power back from Karsus and became Mystra (the current goddess of magic from 2nd or 3rd edition onward I believe). Mystra then imposed limits on magic so spells of higher then 9th level could no longer be cast. MrRhexx has a video on Karsus' Folly. The Spell Plague is a 4th edition thing and quite recent in Forgotten Realms Cannon History. (the past 150 years or so). The Spell Plague was caused by the god Cyric tricking Tyr into killing Mystra. This caused Magic to go haywire for a while (and Shar stole half of the weave of the magic as well i believe. The part for Shadow Magic). The Spell Plague for Cannon history only ended 10 years prior to the Start point of 5th Edition and was ended with the reforming of the new Tablets of Fate by Ao.
Honestly, I'd say this adventure was better than Curse of Strahd. They're both solid, but Strahd's strength is that it's heavy on the narrative - everything is interconnected, all tied back to Strahd. It's also the module's greatest weakness, because of how poorly laid out the bits and pieces of the adventure are. ToA doesn't have that problem. Everything is almost beautifully laid out and compartmentalised, with enough references where it's needed to flesh stuff out. ToA was peak 5e, in my humble opinion. Everything after that was subpar, in some cases outright atrocious. *cough*Dragon Heist*cough*
@@olivercharles5581 I mean, where to start? It's not a heist, it's Waterdeep: Benny Hill. Waterdeep: Scooby Doo chase. It has an extremely weak and unconnected start that pigeonholes players into the position of innkeeper. It asks the characters to metagame and investigate an extremely mundane "mystery" in spite of having zero reason to, then actively puts obstacles to impede their investigation (sometimes completely shutting down an angle of progression they may take). It wastes a tonne of space on multiple paths for the sake of replayability, when each path boils down to a linear (and rather mediocre) list of encounters - that culminate in a what's most likely going to be a nearly impossible to win battle. And that's not even mentioning all the villain lairs that as written, the characters will never visit. But don't fret though: this is only a problem if you play the game as-written. You're gonna have to go against the book in some instances, such as being much more lenient and perhaps a little pushy in the Fireball chapter - maybe you can play the city officials off as lazy instead of iron-fisted, leading to them hiring the party instead of hindering them. You're also gonna have to ask the players to work into their characters a desire to cooperate in the whole "running an inn" things, as its somewhat integral to the narrative. There's a decent amount of good advice on r/WaterdeepDragonHeist pertaining to shaping it up into a better adventure. Don't get me wrong, it has fantastic potential: it certainly has the most unique premise in comparison to other modules. It's just really poorly executed. Oh, and the maps are shit. Like, I get some people like to copy them and stuff, but there's no denying how much a sense of place Mike Schley's cartography lends to adventures like ToA.
Tahu Nuva my party got the Inn and named it Boo’ze. It was our favorite part of the adventure. It’s an ok module. The players need to be creative and the dm needs to be adaptable.
@@cfed95 Which is great! I'm not saying that you can't get a good adventure from it (I recently got a fantastic game out of Descent into Avernus, which holds many of the weaknesses WD:DH has), but as a module on its own it's extremely poorly written. For example, my characters expected to actually be heisting - and when presented with the "opportunity" to run a tavern, had pretty much the reaction the Terminator would have if you asked it to play beach volleyball.
I finished playing this last October. I started bringing my little brother to play at our local comic book shop, and over a year and a half later, we were able to wrap it up. He and I are the only ones who survived start to end, (those who didn't die had to leave town or whatever. typical adventure league stuff.) He got Ras Nsi's sword.
Dear Rhexx, First, I couldn't watch your video about Storm King's Thunder because you put Tomb of Annihilation stuff in it. Now you make an entire video about Tomb of Annihilation that I can't watch! Despite this I've liked the video and I'm even leaving a comment, so please don't kill me with frost giants. Sincerely, Meg Arrowroot.
omg. the way this guy half way chuckles though sentences is just annoying... I know its probably a social mechanism you developed from poor social skills, but super annoying. Just narrate the info man.
I bought and played the PC game return to tomb of horrors. And it was so bugged and would keep crashing that after making it through once I never went back.
It's so hard to forget how folks at WoTC are so good at creating worlds and lore, Adventures that (even if badly made like Elemental Evil) have repercussions on the lore, it's also so easy to just look at a Faerun map and ask yourself " What is the Tortured land, the Turnback Mountains and the White Peak?" It's so interesting to read up on equally as a DM or a player. A DM can look up one of these names and create a quest with most likely enough material to make an interesting story, A player that knows that their quest takes place there can acquire information to create a very interesting PC with a purpose in these lands or a connection.
Hey man I love your videos but where did you get the information about dragon bait and artus cimber freezing. I love to do a one shot with my group about that
Uhh... I don't know where you're getting this about Acererak being a simulacrum of the original. Yes, there was an adventure that featured a simulacrum of Acererak (The Prisoner of Castle Perilous, 2007), but the original Acererak never died. His phylactery was destroyed, but because of wizard fuckery, he endured in the Negative Energy Plane and it is generally assumed that the outcome of that adventure (Return to the Tomb of Horrors, 1998) was that his essence was dispersed, but would eventually return. I mean, it's not like he's about to go blabbing about it to the characters and make a big deal out of it, but it's still not really an accurate piece of lore. Otherwise, very good info. I am so glad that someone else brought up Ras Nsi's history. He's not treated very well at all by the adventure. I had to totally revise him. Same thing with Artus Cimber. I had to tie his story more closely to the adventure. I wish I had known about the Heart of the Wild storyline before I ran the adventure! Thanks for the video!
Thank you so very much for this video, this is exactly the kind of information I was looking for in my post-TA campaign that is running. Instant subscription
A nitpick but I Beleive Ubtao was a primordial. During the war between the God's and the primordials, he betrayed his kind and then granted divity and dominion over chult for his help.
