Tomb of Nyarlathotep

Adventure Description: Summoned from across the multiverse a small

group of heroes must enter an ancient pyramid and prevent the Elder God
Nyarlathotep's return to power.

An HP Lovecraft themed 5th Ed. D&D adventure for characters level 1-2

Written By: Brian Seligman; with many thanks to HP Lovecraft and all
others that have contributed to The Cthulhu Mythos.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US)
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/

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Please read and familiarize yourself with

Craving the warm and chaotic touch of

the adventure completely before running

its former master GlpGlpwhoEE ate the

it using the Dungeons and Dragons 5th

former inhabitants, touched the

Edition rules from Wizards of the Coast.

primordial energies and summoned its

master.

Tomb of Nyarlathotep was written as a

Nyarlathotep seeks souls to feed The

stand-alone first to second level

Shining Trapezohedron in order to

adventure for the CthulhuCon Film

regain his power and has cast small

Festival in San Pedro 2015.

statuettes designed to summon victims

Italics are meant to be read aloud or

paraphrased.

to his lair through the mirror, hoping

some will end up in the hands of future
victims upon the Prime Material Plane.

DM Background:

The Egyptian Goddess Isis has

Ancient Egypt, 1700 BC

witnessed the events in her defiled

The Shoggoth GlpGlpwhoEE (make a

temple with horror but dares not raise an

shallow gulp-gulp-rising whistle), who

open hand against Nyarlathotep.

became a follower of The Elder God

Instead Isis has directed the statuettes

Nyarlathotep after the Shoggoth

into the hands of our heroes, in the

rebellion against the Elder Things, was

hopes that they can banish Nyarlathotep

diminished after Pharaoh Khasekhemre

and stop him from creating a future of

Neferhotep I crushed the last attempt to

horrifying fear and destruction

bring about Nyarlathoteps return by

throughout the multiverse.

Nophru-Ka. GlpGlpwhoEE wandered

the farthest reaches of the desert before
discovering an isolated shrine dedicated
to Isis and containing The Shining
Trapezohedron.

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Players Introduction:

DMs Notes:

As you eagerly await an adventure

The pyramid has 4 sides, each 200

worthy of you a courier from the local

long. Attempts to climb the sides require

messenger service arrives and presents

a DC 30 Athletics check per 20 feet, the

you with a package.

stone is polished smooth as glass with

Opening the package at your leisure you

small bits of slippery sand occasionally

find a small statuette. Jade and flecked

blowing across the surface.

with gold it seems to shift continuously,

defying your senses to identify what it
could be a representation of. Glowing
golden runes adorn the base, upon
examining them you feel a twist in your
gut; the scene dissolves away and you

Doors are controlled by levers to the

side of them. When a real lever is pulled
it will make clacking sounds as gears
turn and the stone slab door will slide
away. The doors are a foot thick.

find yourself standing on a low hill in a

False doors have levers which do not

vast desert. The only feature in view is a

click and stone slabs that are immobile.

gold capped alabaster pyramid

Secret doors push in and then to the

stretching 200 feet on a side, its smooth

side when found.

white sides sloping up 120 above you.

1. Entry Hall:

Two continuously shifting statues, as

large as a tall man, flank steps leading
up several stairs to an alcove in the
otherwise smooth and unbroken wall. A
platform above the stairs contains a 3

With a clacking and deep rumble the

stone door slides open to reveal a
passageway going down into the
darkness.

foot tall lever on the ground next to an

Allow the party to create light sources if

indentation in the stone.

needed then continue.

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Finely worked alabaster stairs lead

feet.

down a passage which has oddness to

Victims with any sort of footwear will

it, as if none of the corners are quite

take 1d6 damage and their footwear will

right angles. Bizarre mosaics on the

be destroyed.

perfectly clean and dust free walls

Victims with no footwear will take 2d6

depict some sort of a conflict between

damage and suffer the effects of Lose a

large blobs and giant winged flowers as

Foot on the Lingering Injuries table,

well as a tall dark man with hidden

Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) pg. 272

features lurking in the shadows.

2. Pit:
Any character actively looking with the
Detect Traps ability may make a DC

3. Central Chamber

13 Arcana check to notice the magical

The heavy door rumbles to the side,

illusion covering the pit. If spotted the pit

revealing a circular chamber with a

is easily bypassed by a ledge on the

domed roof and mosaics of Humans

edge of the corridor.

being sacrificed by huge blobs on a

If they do not notice, the lead

snowy landscape before a gibbering

character(s) fall into a narrowing oil

thing that seems to be sucking

walled pit. Close to the bottom a

shadows of them into a series of

smacking will be felt and a clacking

strangely shaped putrescent maws.

sound heard as the characters feet are

Two doors lead out to your Right and

trapped in a series of slanted blades.

Left but the way is blocked by a nest of

Victims may be pulled out with 20 of

asps that slither towards you with a hiss.

rope and appropriate strength for their

weight, but the blades will slice at their

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The four asps are poisonous snakes

white snow and frozen tundra as they

per page 334 of the Monster Manual

are torn apart and broken bits flung

The Secret Door to the North at one of

the maws can be spotted with a DC 12
perception check.
The false door to the East contains a
magical trap that can be detected with
the Detect Traps ability and a DC 14

before the dark man.

The false door at the end of the hall is

merely a distraction.
The secret door can be found with a DC
13 perception check.

Arcana check. A Dispel Magic or similar

spell will disarm the trap for 10 minutes.
If the lever is moved while the trap is

5. Nyarlathoteps Tomb

active all characters in the Central

As you peer into this chamber you see it

Room must succeed at a DC 15

is dominated by a stone sarcophagus in

Wisdom check or be stricken by Short

the center of a richly furnished and

Term Madness. Roll on the table found

sandalwood scented room. You also

in the DMG pg. 259.

notice dozens of cats hissing at you.

The door to the West is a standard door.

The two Swarms of Cats will defend this

4. Stairs to Tomb

chamber to the death. Use the statistics

As you delve deeper into the Earth two

for Swarm of Rats on Monster Manual

long flights of stairs lead past twisted

pg. 339 but any character that is

mosaics of blobs fawning over a

scratched must succeed at a DC 12

featureless black Human man in an

Constitution save or come down with a

Arctic scene with offerings of strange

fever in 24 hours that gives them the

beings that look like winged flowers

Incapacitated condition for 72 hours

having their violet fluids spilled on the

following onset.

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Since the adventure is unlikely to last

advanced frozen cities inhabited by

that long it is suggested that the DM just

strange tentacled creatures falling into

grin evilly and/or snicker while noting the

the waves, below one a titanic form of a

affected victims names.

winged humanoid with tentacles coming

The small 2 diameter cat tunnel leads

to area 8.

from its sleeping face. The other two

corridors are filled with jungle
landscapes sinking and what appear to

The furnishings include 2 teak tables

be flying ships manned by beautiful but

worth 15 gp each, 4 jade cat statues

terrified Humans fleeing from once

worth 5 gp each and a silken bedroll

towering but now crumbling cities on

with a feather pillow worth 20gp.

continents sinking into the oceans.

6. Stairs to Intersection

8. Litterbox

The mosaics on the walls as you ascend

The door rumbles open to reveal a

up the stuffy stairwell depict scenes of

trapezoidal room with and oily floor and

ever shifting entropy, confusing and

3 doors leading out from each wall. An

sickening to your mortal being.

overpowering scent of cat droppings

emanates into your nostrils.

7. Intersection

The floor of The Litterbox is covered by

Four twenty foot deep passages lead

a Grey Ooze, Monster Manual pg. 243.

from a four way intersection to four

Nyarlathotep and GlpGlpwhoEE do not

doors, including the one you entered by.

need to defecate, but the cats do. The

The mosaics on the walls show four

Grey Ooze is here so nobody else has

civilizations being destroyed and sinking

to clean up after them. It will attack

beneath the oceans. Two are of

anyone that enters the room.

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Once the Ooze is defeated the

bulbous translucent blob murdering the

characters may examine the 2 tunnel

inhabitants of a temple devoted to a

leading from a grated platform in the

brown skinned female Human of

corner to the Tomb in area 5 or examine

extreme beauty. The priests, mostly

and try the false doors at will. There are

female, seem to have been dissolved by

no mosaics in here; the ooze ate them

the blobs shifting form as it carried out

for the small metal content in the tiles.

its slaughter.

9. Log Trap

11. Foyer

A DC 14 Detect Traps Perception

The walls of this room glisten and shine.

check will reveal this door is a spring

Mosaics show a group of adventuring

loaded trap.

heroes with unfinished features but

resembling YOU incapacitated on slabs

If the lever is pulled:

of stone while shadowy copies of

Instead of rumbling to the side the door

yourselves feed the gibbering beast you

falls into the floor and releases a spring

saw pictured in the domed chamber

loaded log!

below.

The log is +2 to hit anyone in the

corridor between locations 9 and 10; if it
hits the log will do 1d10 to each target.

A shimmering bronze pillar stretches

from floor to ceiling in the far Right
corner of the room.
The Shoggoth GlpGlpwhoEE has
surrounded the pillar and will attack

10. Stairs to Foyer

anyone that comes close by engulfing

As you climb the stairs leading higher

them.

into the pyramid the mosaics show a

Use the statistics for the Gelatinous

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Cube on page 242 of the Monster

Shining Trapezohedron backlighting the

Manual. GlpGlpwhoEE is not confined

dark man with its diseased and

to a cubic shape, it may take any form

nauseating swirls of color as it spins on

as a bonus action but may not change

end.

size and changes do not affect its

A voice in your head says Ah, my

statistics including its hit points, which

sacrifices have arrived.

remain the same in all forms including

damage taken.

Nyarlathotep has recently arrived back

on this plane. He is weakened but still a

The Secret Door can be discovered with

god and can not be beaten by force of

a DC 14 perception check. When it is

arms. The key to his banishment is the

slid aside a hollow passage and a

destruction of The Shining

ladder leading to the trap door at area

Trapezohedron.

12 will be revealed.

When the first character enters the room

Nyarlathotep will use his Dominate
Person ability to turn them on their

12. Nyarlathoteps Chapel

fellows. It is the most fun for him to

Raising the lid of the shaft a swirling

watch them knock each other out

chartreuse and puce light fills the air.

chaotically; then he can feed The

Reflecting off the golden interior walls of

Shining Trapezohedron their souls in

the capstone, the sickly light reveals a

peace at his leisure with the proper

featureless dark man wearing an ornate

rituals.

golden silk loincloth and a golden

headdress hanging down the sides of
his head, where a face ought to be but
isnt.
The swirling light is emanating from a

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Nyarlathotep

The Shining Trapezohedron

AC: 15

The key to stopping Nyarlathotep, the

Hit Points: Infinite while The Shining

Trapezohedron is the link between him

Trapezohedron remains, see below

and the primordial chaos where his main

Speed: 40

power currently resides.

STR: 20 DEX: 20 CON: 20 INT: 20 WIS: 20 CHR: 20

As a large enchanted crystal object The

Telepathy

Shining Trapezohedron has:

Dominate Person: As an action

AC: 13

Nyarlathotep may Dominate Person, as

Hit Points: 30

the spell, except he does not need to

concentrate and so may have more than
one person dominated at a time.
Wisdom DC 14

If the Shining Trapezohedron is broken

read or paraphrase the following:

Trapezohedral Healing: At the beginning

As The Shining Trapezohedron shatters

of his turn a puce and chartreuse beam

a blast of puce and chartreuse light

of light will pass from The Shining

bursts out and then implodes, pulling

Trapezohedron into Nyarlathotep

Nyarlathotep, his raiment and the

healing all his wounds. It is very

remains of The Shining Trapezohedron

important to describe this clearly so the

through itself into the entropic realms of

characters can make the connection.

primordial chaos.
As the sickly glow fades, a golden light

If Nyarlathotep takes more than 40 hp in

emanates from the capstone of the

one round then he will be forced from

pyramid filling the chamber. A beautiful

his Dark Man form into a shapeless blob

tan skinned woman appears before you

with pseudopods and sickly maws for

wearing a golden circlet and a slinky

the remainder of the encounter. Nothing

gown of translucent silk.

else changes.

Looking kindly upon you she says in a

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captivating voice that echoes around the

otherwise.

chamber I am Isis. You have my

If the characters examine the pyramid

gratitude for cleansing my temple and

after Isis return they will find the

ending the threat of Nyarlathotep. His

mosaics have transformed to show

plan called for sacrifices to release his

mighty wizards and priests performing

fellow Old Ones upon the multiverse. I

miraculous feats of magic.

redirected his invitations to you in the

hope that he would not consider young
mortals a real threat. You have done as
well as I had hoped.
If you wish to return home simply tap the
statuettes that brought you here three
times. You shall carry my blessing from
this day forward. Isis then smiles at you
and fades back into golden light before

If the characters try to tear apart the

gold capstone they will first feel guilty,
as a warning. If they persist in damaging
it the heretic(s) involved will suffer Isis
wrath and be struck dead, no save, no
resurrection possible. The treasure from
area 5 is theirs to keep.

vanishing. The statues you carry have

stopped shifting and now look like each

If the characters kill each other while

of you, the shifting runes at the bottom

Dominated read or paraphrase the

now read [PC name], Isis thanks you.

following:

After the failure of the heroes sent by

Isis Blessing is a Blessing of Magic

Isis to cleanse her temple Nyarlathotep

Resistance, see DMG pg 228

fed their tortured souls to The Shining

Trapezohedron and summoned his

The statuettes will return the characters

fellow Great Old Ones, unleashing Eons

home from Isis Temple as advertised

of terror and chaos upon the multiverse.

but will not function in that way again,

though they will remain as described

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