: 38 In the article 'Open Grave' by Bart Carroll and Steve Winters for the 'D&D Alumni' column in Dragon #371 (January 2009), the authors interviewed Bruce Cordell about the Return to the Tomb of Horrors adventure, where he revealed that he developed the origins of Acererak 'as a persecuted tiefling child to his development as a wizard and priest of Orcus, to his creation of his tomb that was actually a test to winnow souls'. When the project neared completion, he slew every worker, excavator, and consecrating priest who had assisted in the temple's construction.' The article notes that the result of Acererak's work was the dungeon crawl detailed in the Tomb of Horrors module. Cordell's article 'Return to the Tomb of Horrors' in Dragon #249 (July 1998) mentions that 'While alive, Acererak built an unholy temple to a now deceased power. One of the areas in the Tomb is a 'Chapel of Evil', described as 'obviously some form of temple area - there are scenes of normal life painted on the walls, but the people have rotting flesh, skeletal hands, worms eating them, etc.' : 5 The adventure described him as 'a human magic-user/cleric of surpassing evil' who took the steps necessary to preserve his life force as the lich, Acererak.' : 10 The boxed set adventure Return to the Tomb of Horrors (1998) by Bruce Cordell included a small booklet titled 'The Journal of the Tomb', which notes that the character Desatysso discovered that Acererak 'owed much of his power' to Tenebrous. Acererak / ə ˈ s ɛr ə r æ k/ ə- SERR-ə-rak was a powerful wizard who became a lich, and later a demilich.Īcererak first appears in the original Tomb of Horrors adventure (1978) by Gary Gygax as the main adversary.

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