Chapter 5: Tomb of the Nine Gods - Tomb of Annihilation

Chapter 5: Tomb of the Nine Gods. Acererak built the Tomb of the Nine Gods not only to house the remains of Omu's trickster gods, but also to slay interlopers. However, few today even know the tomb exists, and thus it remains an enigma. Rare are the tavern tales that lure adventurers to its gates, and its horrors remain undocumented in the libraries of Candlekeep. The reason for this is simple: not one person who has entered the tomb has lived to tell the tale. History of the Tomb As the characters plumb the depths of the Tomb of the Nine Gods, they'll learn snippets of its grisly past. Rise of the Tomb After Acererak murdered Omu's gods, he enslaved the Omuans and forced them to carve a grand tomb under one of the cliffs surrounding the city. The archlich devised brutal trials for each burial chamber, and sprinkled riddles and illusions throughout to deceive intruders. When the building work was done, he fed his slaves into the death trap to test its efficacy. The archlich turned some of his victims into undead and flesh golems, then locked them inside the tomb to serve as guardians. Acererak then resumed his wanderings. In Acererak's absence, the tomb snared adventurers from faraway lands and harvested their souls to feed the archlich's phylactery, which remained hidden on another plane. Every few decades, Acererak returned to tinker with his dungeon's traps, add treasure to its vaults, and reap a bounty of hoarded souls. His planar wanderings have influenced the tomb's mishmash of architectural styles, and have populated it with strange and deadly monsters. Nourishing the Atropal On one of his journeys through the cosmos, Acererak stumbled upon an atropal (see appendix D). He brought it to Toril, ensconced it in the cradle of his tomb, and began feeding it necromantic energy, hoping to transform it into a deity: one able to claim dominion over death. Unleashed on Toril, the newborn death god would glut itself on life until none but the dead walked the world. T...