10/14/2021

I have run the Delian Tomb several times over the years. It was an adventure created online by Matt Colville. I like this adventure, it is simple and easy to run in a single evening.

Seth Harris has a free version of the Delian Tomb that is available on DM’s Guild. He has added more flavor text and made small changes to the adventure.

Once I got my 3D printer, I decided I was going to create my take on this dungeon. I wanted it to be simple and fit into a single container so it would be easy to transport. What I made follows:

The first part of the adventure has the party arriving at the entrance and finding the guards. Two more goblins are on patrol in the area. If the PCs don’t encounter them here, they will join the fight in the offering room. The trees are made with air dry clay, Styrofoam ball cut in half and coated with PVA glue and oatmeal. I got that idea from Frank D. Crafter. The bigger bushes are similar to the trees and the small bushes are 3D printed. The cave entrance is 3D printed as well.

While running this dungeon, I would only have the parts the PCs can see on the table. All of the parts have internal clips so I can snap them together quickly and add the scatter pieces. The dungeon tiles are all from Hero’s Hoard, except the archway tiles. I made those by combining elements together myself from the Hero’s Hoard tiles.

Stairs lead down to the offering room. In the center of the room is a stone basin that the offering to the Delian Knight would be made. The left wall has the relief of the Delian Knight fighting the goblins. The wall of the right has the Delian Oath written on it. The goblins have brought two wooden tables into this room and they are using the basin as a fire pit. They would be cooking an animal when the PCs arrive (they might think it is the kid!).

When the PCs move into the hallway, I would have them make a DC 15 perception check to spot the blood on the walls/floor from the trap. The goblins are too small to trigger it but the Bugbear in the next room wasn’t. This would give you the option of reducing the bugbear hit points if the PCs struggled in the last fight.

The bugbear is here with some goblins. I added a Goblin shaman as well (who else is going to preform the ritual?) as well as a simple stone alter for the sacrifice. In the corner is a cage with the child in it. Depending on the PCs, you have the option to add or remove goblins here as well.

Reciting the oath (or giving your word) to the statue opens the secret passage to the real tomb. I like the idea of the PC that did the oath now feels something different about them. They know they have a new calling to do good and fight evil.

As the PCs enter this room, the party sees four lit braziers that have a magical fire that produces light but no heat. The PC who recited the oath feels that this place is sacred and shouldn’t be robbed. That PC does feel that the sword that is displayed in the center of the room is for them in their upcoming fight with the forces of evil. If anyone in the group opens a casket looking for treasure, four skeletons rise from the caskets as the secret door slides shut. If the PCs kill the skeletons, the door slides opens but the sword will lose its magic.

Since it is for a one shot, probably with new players, I will supply them with pre-generated character sheets. I have made male and female miniatures for each character so the player can be either.

From Left to Right: Dwarf Cleric, Wood Elf Ranger, and Human Cleric.

High Elf Wizard, Halfling Rogue, and Silver Dragonborn Sorcerer

Finally, the Tiefling Warlock and the Human Fighter

Here are all of the tiles, scatter terrain, and miniatures in the container. I also have little bags of polyhedral dice to hand out to the player if they don’t have any dice. If the player says they don’t own any dice, they get to keep the dice at the end of the night.

On top of that stuff goes the ground board (cardboard and foamcore) and the folder with the character sheets.

I can just throw that in the trunk of the car when I go to the game store to play.

It took a while to get all of this done while working two jobs, but now that I have more free time I plan on getting more stuff printed out. While I never plan on printing out or making anything huge like Wyloch did with the Tomb of Horrors. That was awesome to see come together!

Keep on gaming!