Chapter 3: Construction of Horrors - Infernal Machine Rebuild

Chapter 3: Construction of Horrors. The Tomb of Horrors is one of the most legendary dungeons in the multiverse. Shaped by the demilich Acererak as a testing ground for would-be heroes-and as a place to steal the souls of those heroes whose skills where found wanting-the tomb has claimed countless lives over millennia, and even some of the most hardened adventurers would think twice about entering those deadly halls. But by going back into the past, the characters have a chance to explore a version of the Tomb of Horrors that few have ever seen, and to engage one of the world's deadliest dungeons on their own terms. Background According to legend, Acererak was a tiefling fathered by a balor named Tarnhem. In his youth, he studied spellcasting under Vecna, and has since become an archmage of surpassing evil. While researching the means to achieve lichdom, Acererak built a number of dungeons and tombs, including his famed Tomb of Horrors. Those dungeons were created partly as a means to draw out and defeat those adventurers driven to seek and destroy him-and partly to claim those adventurers' souls to feed his phylactery. Even after Acererak eventually became an archlich whose dark plots would threaten the world, he left behind the Tomb of Horrors as a monument to his greatness. But in its earliest stages, the tomb was a very different sort of place. By traveling to the Tomb of Horrors in the past, the characters arrive with the place still under construction. The artificer Moghadam serves as the tomb's chief architect, overseeing its construction in initial areas dug out by enthralled umber hulks and refined by master artisans. As part of the unprecedented levels of magic used to create the deadly traps in the Tomb of Horrors, Moghadam has installed several of the missing components from the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad at the site. These components are used to draw magical energy from the life force of creatures sacrificed on Acererak's orders-including the ar...