Updated Sunday Campaign Report

Been awhile since we've been back into the Tomb of Annihilation. Hoping to get back into it and wrap it up eventually. Since ran two more sessions of my Innistrad adaptation and Mike's been running a campaign in his longstanding campaign world for D&D and we've all been having a great time playing in it, playing characters living on the borderlands of an expansive continental empire that is actively trying to conquer the disorganized remaining independent bits of the lands most of the PC's are from. I'm especially enjoying playing my Storm Sorcerer PC, finding it to be the most evocative and fun sorcerer subclass in 5e, and playing as kind of like the Flash, changed after being struck by lightning and "blessed by Thor".

Also agreed to co-advise a D&D club at school. We're mostly using various AL adventures to ease kids with various levels of experience with the game into it. They work well for our after school time frame and for the purpose of the club. Hoping some of the kids get into DMing and take the lead a bit more in the club but we all seem to be having a good time so far.

The Innistrad campaign was built around the second session, in which the failed saving throw from session one (the virtually impossible one) led to the transformation of the PC's into Kafkaesque bugs. Actually inspired by the Home Movies rock opera...

So they all turned into bugs. Then they had to escape their hometown by the Dark Sea as their friends and neighbors chased after them with brooms throwing rotten fruit and rocks while a wandering Knight attempted to slay the "monsters". The PC's staying in the cathedral got the bishop's support in helping them with the terrible curse and in rescuing the rest from fearful mob. They then decided to find the Archbishop of the Church of Avacyn in the capital city of Gavony. So they hit the road, making their way with a few minor encounters to Gavony, on the outskirts of which they discovered the Archbishop had left toward Stensia in the West in a crusade of sorts against some of the vampires found there. So they followed. As they passed a small village (the party mostly crept around settlements and by the sides of roads, trying to avoid contact with those who might misjudge them) they noticed the Knight from their town of Varno arriving. They decided to try to ambush him when he left. In the ensuing fight two of the PC's died as did the Knight, and a commotion ensued in the town where the sentries noticed the end of they battle and the death of the Knight and his horse.

We left off there and decided at the following session today that one of the PC's (Vaughn the Fighter) had actually only been maimed, losing a wing in the fight. The other player decided to make a new character - a bard, from the Gavony region, who decided she would investigate these creatures after calming down the scared villagers, and she ended up joining the bug party, leading them toward some mines she knew of to the south, but they quickly became lost. They then stumbled into a Kobold mining operation (used the Marrow Mines from Jon Sawatsky's Prepared! A dozen adventures for fifth edition, 2016). Eventually they negotiated a retreat out of the Kobold mines and fled back toward the Gavony River, running into the bounty hunters Heiko, Hank, Huck, and their faithful hound. They PC's slew the bounty hunters, discovering that they were themselves the monsters the hunters were seeking. They then made their way to the river ford to the town where the Archbishop was supposed to be staying, and surrendered themselves to the guards and (hopefully) into the Archbishop's protection, and we left off there.

Quick Summary Into the Tomb and Happy Days in Nephalia

Sessions 20 & 21 of Tomb of Annihilation

Managed to get a bit behind, here are three weeks of play over a little over a month or so, I think. The party managed to get Adran killed in their third (or was it fourth?) assault on the Yuan Ti temple complex. He ended up getting zombified by the Yuan Ti so the other party members had to kill him again to open up their escape route. They managed to hang onto Ras Nsi's spellbook but had little other loot with them as they fled once more through the underground lake, hiding to rest a bit in the poison fungus cave and within the lake itself. The Yuan Ti nearly killed Vorn but the construct survived with one hit point before getting to the bottom of the lake and regenerating. They in fact waited long enough that the Yuan Ti fled out the front at about the same time the party was fleeing out the back, Ras Nsi deciding his losses had been severe enough already that he did not want to sit around waiting to be attacked again. Shaun the kobold also decided he had had enough of risking his life with this mad band of explorers, and joined the kobold tribe, and began working to convert them to the faith of the fire god. Another elf wizard, following after his friends with the Company of the Yellow Banner, also joined forces with the party (replacing Adran).

They then decided to enter the tomb. I'll try to avoid spoilers here, but they did manage to clear out the zorbo god's tomb and obtain the magic item, and they also retrieved a skeleton key. They soon after found a passage to the second level through a secret door (Sembian Sam the ranger/rogue was back with the party for week 21) and they got into a battle with a good portion of the tomb's undead maintenance crew along with a tomb guardian construct, and the head of the undead maintenance crew was also there. By looting his office they discovered a substantial amount of lore on the history, design, and purpose of the tomb and the soulmonger. After some more battles with wights and tomb guardians they also found (and clouded/fouled with mayonnaise from the alchemy jug) the scrying pool used by the tomb dwarves to keep tabs on the Tomb, and prepared to continue their delve...

This past weekend tried something different, as we were missing a couple of regular players, notably including the player of the ranger/rogue. And I have not yet read the new AL rules, and I think we want to keep our ToA game AL legal (or if we don't we should all at least have a chance to weigh in on it). So I started running a mini-campaign I'd sort of sketched out, using the skeletal Innistrad setting released for free by Wizards of the Coast awhile back - mostly I wanted something human focused and I liked the human variants used there, and the Nephalia region seemed to work for what I had in mind. As the coastal trading region, I figured they also had ties to other places if player want to make characters from elsewhere and I imagined Innistrad being kind of like a Romania/Bulgaria type region on an inland coast with mountains along the other borders. Instead of a saltwater connection to the outer world like the Bosporus, I decided it would be a freshwater sea with a river passing through a land to the south that does border on a larger saltwater sea, controlled by what was known as the "Old Empire," a mash-up of Tokugawa Japan and the Byzantine Empire that had once dominated Innistrad (and still dominated international trade and contact with the outer world) but had pulled back after the rise to dominance of things like vampires, werewolves, and other monstrosities and left the people of the region largely to their own devices. The campaign would start in Varno, a trading town in coastal Nephalia of 4-5,000 or so. Creating PC's, half of the players made local clergy (two clerics and one acolyte who was actually a warlock), along with a fighter who was a wandering mercenary now protecting a rogue from a merchant family who were relatively recent arrivals in town, and a noble wizard with close ties all the local power brokers. Trying to simplify the world's religion, I said the official clergy basically served and worshiped various angels who seemed to have lately pulled back from the world, but there were cults following darker powers. They also all came up with an NPC each was tied to, following a suggestion I had read on shared world building that was indeed quite helpful for grounding everyone in the setting.

It turned out that a local magnate named Ikazizzle (perhaps Snoop will soon appear as well) with a substantial estate (including several honey producing bee colonies) outside of town had just revealed himself as the leader of a cult dedicated to a bee headed deity. This caused consternation amongst the official church leadership as several locals seemed swept up in it. There were also some missing people, including a merchant from the Old Empire, a child admirer of the warlock PC, and a beekeeper (who did not work for the cult leader, apparently).

Leaving town to investigate the Ikazizzle property, the several PC's were attacked by a pack of jackals. After killing several jackals, they retreated back to town, deciding to go to the manor the following day. The next day they ran into a jackalwere mourning the loss of his pack, and they had another fight on their way to the manor. The noble character had a long chat with the lord about religion and other topics while the clergy were directed to wait with the horses in the stables. Feigning interest in the new religion, the noble wizard was presented with a tract to take home. The party then returned toward town, and managed to follow the tracks left by the jackalwere they had killed, which led them to the body of the missing beekeeper. One mystery solved! Back in town, research in the church library led to the discovery of the bee headed god Beezleblix as a demon referred to in old texts, and the party decided they needed to find out just what might happen at the mystery rite of this "diety" happening the next night at midnight.

They didn't spend much time observing, and were soon attempting to interrupt the rites as they found the other two missing people tied to posts near where Lord Ikazzizzle was presiding. In the course of the ensuing battle they killed several cultists who turned out to be local citizens, along with a giant bee and two bee swarms. Ikazzizzle surrendered, and his quasit familiar disappeared. The bejeweled head of Beezleblix flashed during the ceremony and the party a felt a sense of unease as it did so, but nothing had appeared to happen, and they marched their captive with them back into town to turn over to authorities who could hopefully deal with him, while the merchant from the Old Empire was returned to his colleagues for a small reward. The great bee head was also stripped of jewels and precious metals before being burned. Then they bedded down for the night, gnawed by worries about whether the local authorities would actually take their side against Lord Ikazizzle, and about all the local citizens they had been forced to slay while rescuing the captives...

Snakes Again

Session 19 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 7, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 7 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 6, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent - unconscious at start of session from sleep gas toward end of last session
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 6, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 6, Mercenary from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 6, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter (Eldritch Knight) 6, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper - missing this session, slips away again during the night, this time without Kandy
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 6, Traveling up from Snout of Omgar in far southern Chult, following rumors of source of death curse.


NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
Cormyran Kandy, a rival archaeologist and former lover of Sembian Sam, had been hired by the Red Wizards but now working with the PC's.
Ras Nsi, ruler of the Yuan Ti of Omu, wasting away from death curse but with spells and minions still quite powerful.

 Sometimes players will surprise you. After messing about in front of the Tomb of the Nine Gods last session, summoning a demon and fighting with gargoyles watching over the obelisk near what appears to be the entrance (it still hasn't been investigated all that closely by the party) they returned to the kobold hall to lick their wounds and get in another long rest with the reptilian allies. Sam disappeared over night, and the rest of the party after breakfast discussed their options, and the decision was made, in light of the Yuan Ti ambush two days before, to dispense with Ras Nsi and the rest of the Yuan Ti rather than leaving them behind as they entered the Tomb, despite their apparent deal with Ras Nsi. I really hadn't expected this, but still had my Yuan Ti note cards ready to go so was reasonably prepared.

Since they had to cross the swamp Farout enacted the water walking ritual again. At about the point where they would leave the swamp they noted a mount of vegetation they had not noticed before. Going closer to investigate, the druids Farout and Are discovered it was shambling mound that began to attack! The single CR 5 monster was swiftly dispatched by the party, however, and they continued on their way, this time to the rear of the Yuan Ti complex. As they entered the courtyard with the tunnel they noted a snake moving rapidly down into it. They let it go, but Farout then cast pass without trace to make the party sneakier than usual. They moved quietly through the tunnel, using darkvision spells for the Tortle and the human to avoid using a light source (and I forgot about Kandy, she must have been holding onto whoever was in front of her). They then took a right turn, with water walking still being active they made their way across the underground lake. They found a cave along the way with a body in it that was covered in some kind of mold, and Varis retrieved a key from the body using mage hand to avoid disturbing the mold. They then came to a shore area with a door that they checked out, opening the door to encounter a room with several nests for Yuan Ti and at least a couple Yuan Ti watching the door from around corners to the north and south. There was some shouting for reinforcements heard among the Yuan Ti.

So the party left Vorn to hold the door closed and the rest of the party then continued quietly back over the lake to the throne room, noting a boat again parked there. Agatha pushed ahead, glancing in to note four ghouls hanging out around the throne. She signaled Varis to come forward and made and exploding motion and he let loose with a fireball that instantly dropped two of the ghouls, and Agatha charged in and quickly chopped down the other two and managed to sit on the throne before the rest of the party entered the room. Their attention was drawn to the long hallway across the throne room with closed double doors at the other end of it that Are, Darius, and Adran knew led to what had appeared to be a large assembly area and ritual space. Agatha and Shummp led the way down the hall, while Shaun, Adran, Varis and Kandy hung back a bit watching down the hall from the throne room. While Agatha led a charge into the Yuan Ti assembly area a door opened behind Shaun in the throne room through which appeared Ras Nsi. They had a few words before Shaun summoned spirit guardians that singed Ras Nsi but they dropped after Ras Nsi blasted Shaun with a blight spell. Shaun survived and used his next action to run away.

Again they party found themselves split fighting enemies on two sides. Vorn soon arrived but so did a couple Yuan Ti malisons in snake form who had followed through the lake. Several remaining malisons, purebloods, and a broodguard fought the party from the big central room with the blood pool and snake statues. Magic used was interesting, Farout summoned a giant snake but it was made into a friend by the Yuan Ti so he dismissed it. Ras Nsi countered a wall of fire from Varis and a fireball from Shaun, and polymorphed Vorn into a rabbit. Adran used vicious mockery to kill the rabbit and bring Vorn back and Vorn got turned into a rat next. Adran was himself hit by a fireball and bit by a yuan ti in snake form and fell, and nobody could stabilize him before he died, only the second PC to die so far in this party. Are put up a good fight with the snakes while most of the party was engaged down the hall. When Agatha came charging back after Ras Nsi he retreated back into his chamber to teleport to the large room where there was still a battle going with some Yuan Ti and he was able to start unleashing magic at the party from 30' up on a platform overlooking the room. After the snake failure Farout had summoned a couple dire wolves who were more helpful but they were eventually overwhelmed. A fireball took out Shaun and Farout but the snakes in the throne room were killed in time for Are to reach them to revive the other healers. Agatha made her way back after Ras Nsi, climbing up after him and he teleported away again as the last of his minions in the fight were dispatched. The party then decided to use Leomund's Tiny Hut to hopefully get an hour's rest before pursuing any remaining Yuan Ti further and we stopped for the day. Ras Nsi might use discretion and the respite given to slip away with any remaining followers, but on the other hand Are found and took his spell book while digging through the pillows in his chamber, and it's probably kind of important to him to have a spell book...

Misadventure in Front of the Tomb of the Nine Gods

Session 18 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 7, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 7 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 6, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent - unconscious at start of session from sleep gas toward end of last session
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 6, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 6, Soldier from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 6, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter (Eldritch Knight) 6, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 5, Traveling up from Snout of Omgar in far southern Chult, following rumors of source of death curse.


NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
Cormyran Kandy, a rival archaeologist and former lover of Sembian Sam, had been hired by the Red Wizards but now working with the PC's.

This will be a short post, as we took the regular amount of time but the party triggered a couple optional encounters that made this a little more combat heavy than anticipated, although I basically opened the session with them being ambushed by Fenthaza of the Yuan Ti, so we did have a combat I expected take up the first hour and a half or so. I was a little concerned they were behind in XP and they ended the previous session telling Ras Nsi how Fenthaza was trying to usurp him, so it made sense she would gather her supporters to prevent the PC's from entering the Tomb of the Nine Gods. I also decided she had figured out they were the ones responsible for the loss of the Amulet of the Night Serpent just over a month ago back in Port Nyanzaru and she did not want them also stealing away with the Black Opal Crown.

This time the party was attacked out in the open with several Yuan Ti (including Fenthaza) firing on them from higher ground in a building and on a causeway while other Yuan Ti and Broodguards (and a Girallon Zombie - I realized I hadn't had one of these appear yet and I hadn't used my Girallon mini yet either so it had to happen!) moved into melee range at ground level. Heavy rain did interfere with the effectiveness of ranged weapons on both sides, however. The two half-orcs' players arrived a few minutes late after the party's response to a request they surrender and turn over the cubes was a fireball from Shaun and combat had begun, so their arrival was simultaneous with that of a Yuan Ti Abomination that showed up in support of Fenthaza.

Fenthaza's plan to snipe at the party from afar was countered when Are turned invisible and changed into a dire wolf to seek out Fenthaza. Soon they were engaged in combat and Fenthaza was backed up by Sev who the party had recently found chained in a Yuan Ti slave pen only to discover he was both mad and a Yuan Ti himself. Are was close to falling when the other party members had overcome the other Yuan Ti and were finally able to come to her assistance. After this fight, the party decided their best course of action was to spend the rest of this day hanging out with their kobold friends and try the Tomb again the next day. They briefly considered taking out Ras Nsi now that he probably had very few followers left but the sense that they had made a deal with him that they were bound to honor won out, and they were themselves still uncertain of their ability to take on Ras Nsi in his lair.

The next day they made their way to the black obelisk in front of the tomb, noting some gargoyles above a somewhat more gradually ascending cliff face above what appeared to be an entrance to the tomb, a smaller passage to the east and an overgrown area to the west by the side of the cliff. The obelisk had a message from Acererak on it, and Agatha couldn't help but poke it with her axe. As she did so she noted some shifting about by the gargoyles above. So she poked it again, and the gargoyles swooped down to attack. After the party dispatched the gargoyles, the two half orcs enlisted Vorn and Are in helping them knock down the obelisk... they were successfully, though it ended up falling on top of Are. Then a Nalfeshnee demon appeared where the obelisk had just stood!

This was an interesting fight. This was a CR 13 monster and the average party level was about 6, with Vorn a CR 7. I knew the number of PC's with everyone there (plus Vorn and Kandy) gave them a chance, but it was actually a rout, the demon fell quite swiftly. Other than on his saving throws the demon rolled poorly (and it had three attacks per round at +10!), and despite being disadvantaged due to fear Shummp hit the demon several times with his magic sword for substantial amounts of damage while he was himself missed at least five times. He definitely felt the demon's bite when one got through, though. Probably one more hit from the demon would have dropped the half-orc and nobody else was doing nearly as much damage so perhaps it was not quite so one sided as it felt (although Darius and Are basically spent the entire fight trying to get her out from under the obelisk so here the demon was helped a bit by an environmental obstacle as well), but it still seemed kind of weak, considering the challenge rating and how tough these things are in the earlier editions. After running several fights with the Yuan Ti this season, I'm finding magic resistance in this edition is usually not providing all that much of a benefit - spells like magic missile or that require a to hit roll get through despite the resistance, and here the lightning resistance turned out to be much more helpful to the demon than did the magic resistance.

Next session (not for a couple weeks though) will probably feature actually entering the Tomb!

Puzzle Cube Retrieval

Session 17 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 7, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 7 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 6, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent - unconscious at start of session from sleep gas toward end of last session
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 7, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 7, Soldier from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 5, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter (Eldritch Knight) 5, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult

PC's Not Present:
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper - unconscious after inhaling sleep gas toward end of last session
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 5, Traveling up from Snout of Omgar in far southern Chult, following rumors of source of death curse.


NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
Cormyran Kandy, a rival archaeologist and former lover of Sembian Sam, had been hired by the Red Wizards but now working with the PC's - unconscious from inhaling sleep gas last session.
Ras Nsi, Chief of the Yuan Ti of Omu

Messengers kept running to Ras Nsi as he awaited developments on the apparent invasion of the Fane of the Night Serpent, home of the Yuan Ti of Omu. They were increasingly distressed, Yahru, his wiliest advisor was missing, and the latest report suggested his champion, Sekelok, had fallen to the intruders. They reported a golem of some kind wreaking havoc, along with a great deal of magical destruction and multiple orcish or half-orcish warriors. It was time for Ras Nsi to take personal command - he could already sense Fenthaza whispering to others of his failure to defend the Fane. With two of his personal ghoul attendants accompanying him, he slithered through the complex to the hall near the storeroom where the fighting had been heaviest. Dead snake men and broodguards lay all around. Of the intruders the only sign were a human and an elf - and they were still inside. Snaru, one of his loyal snake headed followers, suggested that the back door to the store room had slammed shut, but after that they had noted movement in the storeroom; perhaps one of more of the intruders had been left behind. Of the flanking party sent through the other entrance to the cavern leading to the back entry to their complex, nothing had been heard - Fenthaza, who just showed up full of criticism for the disaster, could be entrusted with investigating their fate and the disappearance of the golem in that direction. Ras Nsi would deal personally with whatever was left in the storeroom. Sending his ghouls in the lead, he followed after nothing immediately attacked them. They flanked the exit behind Ras Nsi as he activated his flame-tongued sword and slithered around the store room, eventually running into an elf trying to hide behind some crates. He tried talking to the elf about surrender, but the elf began chanting words of magic but Ras Nsi was quicker, slashing the elf twice before getting hit by a blast of thunderwave. A rather weak attempt, Ras Nsi could sneer, slashing again at the elf and dropping him. This elf, too, appeared to have survived, and was hauled along with the others to his throne room. On the other elf, the snakemen discovered the eight cubes - Ras had just recently grabbed the other to keep it out of the hands of a band of Red Wizards that appeared to be heading toward interfering with whatever Acererak was using the Tomb of the Nine Gods for, and Ras was charged with preventing that from happening. It also appeared that these intruders were not Red Wizards - had they taken the cubes from the Wizards? That would make for a formidable force. Questioning would have to wait until the intruders had recovered enough to provide answers, in the meantime, now that Fenthaza had confirmed the deaths of the flanking party and Ras Nsi's pet hydra in the cavern, they would retreat their forces back from the cavern, and collapse the tunnel connecting the store room to the lake. Then they would conduct the ritual, they needed more snake men, the tribal delegation who had just brought tribute would serve that purpose, though they would have to sacrifice their remaining slaves.

Oddly, when they awakened  the next day and Ras Nsi questioned them, it was the human who spoke for them, not one of the elves. He was full of arrogance and bluster - and claimed they were essentially a band of treasure seekers. In that case they could serve as slaves until the next sacrifice - which should be soon, these three might be too dangerous to keep around for long. They were chained in the slave pits to await their fate.

Soon after, the alarm gong began ringing again. The rest of the intruders had returned, including the golem that had caused so much trouble; Ras Nsi again slithered out of the throne room to face them - they would first send in their new batch of purebloods along with some of their few remaining broodguards. After lobbing some fireballs and other magic back and forth through what remained of the poison distillery, the intruders eventually retreated behind a magical wall of fire that incinerated four purebloods. They had already lost another four along with four broodguards in the fighting, the metal and wood golem took a massive beating but retreated out before the wall of flame was cast. Two half-orcs were again in the thick of the fighting, it was unclear exactly how many were further back in the cavers, apparently another elf, and could that be a kobold tossing fireballs? As one of the last remaining snake headed Yuan Ti retreated from the flames, one of the half-orcs charged out from the flames as well, chopping him down. Ras Nsi attempted to knock that half orc out of the fight with a powerful casting of blight, but was dismayed to see the half orc take it and remain standing. The half orc then dove back into the flames, and when the flames dropped the enemies had again disappeared.

Returning to the throne room, he discovered the other intruders had also escaped, seizing the eight cubes they had brought with them along with their gear and the tribute recently arrived from the tribal delegation - and there was some good stuff in there! Still, they had not taken the last cube - Ras Nsi still had that one. The boat in the underground lake was gone as well - at least they knew how they had escaped. His forces, however, were getting dangerously low. Sending a party out to pursue might only weaken him further - waiting for them to return for the last cube might be the best option. Perhaps they might even be willing to bargain for it, if they were indeed the mercenary force described by the human warrior and not actually seeking the death of Ras Nsi (most of Chult would rejoice at his death, he well knew).

The next day the female half orc who had been blasted by the blight spell the previous day came knocking at their front door looking hardly worse off for it, offering to meet Ras Nsi and cut a deal. The human had returned as well. One of the Yuan Ti scouts stationed outside the entrance called out a warning that there was an invisible member of the treasure hunting band nearby. Fenthaza and Snaru accompanied Ras Nsi out, and the human pointed out that Fenthaza had helped them escape and asked them to kill Ras Nsi! Fenthaza cursed at the foreigners and slithered away in protest, but Ras Nsi knew the intruders were being truthful. The kobold then arrived, and suggested Ras Nsi disease was caused by the death curse, which was itself apparently caused by a device Acererak had hidden in the Tomb of the Nine Gods. As they were entering the Tomb to turn off or destroy this device, Ras Nsi would benefit from them doing so. If they were not successful, Ras Nsi would eventually succumb to the magical disease. If they agreed to enter the Tomb, stop the death curse, and no longer disturb the Yuan Ti, Ras Nsi was willing to give them the last remaining cube. The bargain struck, the outlanders left for the Tomb and Ras Nsi went to deal with Fenthaza...

Five Hour Fight

Session 16 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 6, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 6 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 6, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent - unconscious at start of session from sleep gas toward end of last session
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 6, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 6, Soldier from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 5, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter (Eldritch Knight) 5, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 5, Traveling up from Snout of Omgar in far southern Chult, following rumors of source of death curse.

PC's Not Present:
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper - unconscious after inhaling sleep gas toward end of last session


NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
Itch, the kobold who introduced party to kobolds of Omu.
Cormyran Kandy, a rival archaeologist and former lover of Sembian Sam, had been hired by the Red Wizards but now working with the PC's - unconscious from inhaling sleep gas last session.

This is kind of a tough one to write up, as we had a pretty much continuous combat encounter that took place over five hours of real time, actually more as it was a continuation of the battle from last week as the Yuan Ti sounded the alert throughout their temple complex in response to Shummp's picking a fight with a Yuan Ti minion after half the party was immobilized by the sleeping gas. Shaun quickly brought Agatha out of it with a lesser restoration but he has only so many spell slots to go around. While Agatha shrugs off the near fatal pertrification from the basilisk, Shump, Vorn, Darius, and Varis are largely able to assist her in downing the basilisks, the broodguards, and their Yuan Ti minder before retreating back down the hall as they hear a commotion to their north of forces gathering and Shaun and Are note movement in the halls below as they hide with the unconscious party members down a side passage back toward the store room where they had defeated a giant talking snake last week. However, as the others retreat down the passage to join the others they are noticed by a snake headed Yuan Ti accompanied by two large muscular humans. He both threatens them (from afar) and suggests surrender as their most logical course of action. Shummp charges is intercepted by one of the humans, who turns out to be very tough. The other human is sent for reinforcements while the snake head retreats down the hall to fire his bow at Shummp, who soon retreats after taking massive damage and is replaced by Vorn, who chases the human and the snake headed Yuan Ti further down the hall way, past an intersection and he ends up cut off as reinforcements charge down through the intersection...

In the meantime, Farout the Tortle runs into a kobold (Itch) as he wanders around Omu, wondering where the magical T Rex killers he had lately been associating with had gone. The kobold showed him the secret tunnel they had disappeared into, suspecting that his friend Shaun may have run into some trouble down there. Farout then made is way through the wreckage from last week, making his way up the hallway the Yuan Ti were now running down from the other direction, but he had the presence of mind to cast pass without trace so he was hidden and could observe and choose his moment for getting involved, as does so as the reinforcements arrive, summoning a wall of water to smash them before they get into the passage. As they recover (still not noticing the hidden turtle creature) they split three ways, some going through the passage to the room where Farout was hiding to flank the party, while others go to face them head on, while the human minion goes after Vorn and the snake headed guy, who disappear through a door after Vorn finishes smashing the first human to pulp and continues after the next enemy in front of him.

Farout then changed into a spider and got ahead of the Yuan Ti flankers, joining the some of the party in the cave behind the store room. Are stood ready to close and lock the door behind them but much of the party was still scattered holding off enemies in the passage to the store room or the store room itself. Farout summoned a pack of eight wolves to help defend from the flankers a couple seconds before those Yuan Ti came into the cavern from the only other exit. The wolves proved very effective, with their pack tactics doing fairly massive amounts of damage per round. A few more enemies trickled in that way during the fight but the main action was down the hall way to the store room, as a massive scaly Yuan Ti with a big shield and a loud voice took command and dove through the door as Are was paralyzed with indecision about whether or not to close the door as Varis was still in the storeroom, now beset by two additional Yuan Ti (several others had died in front of these). Vorn was still cut off, attempting to fight his way back down the tunnel, fighting one or two enemies at a time in the close confines of these Yuan Ti tunnels was going fairly well for the construct, as the Yuan Ti damage per round was just barely exceeding Vorn's regeneration per round. Shaun attempted to revive Sam but ended up (perhaps it was the will of her diety, Kossuth?) reviving Adran instead.

Since the party had only had a short rest and a couple tough encounters prior to that they had already burned through most spells and Agatha was out of rage. Soon the fighters had burned through their action surges and second winds and other abilities and remaining healing potions were being burned through as well. The big scaly fighter guy eventually was dropped, but then more snakemen started to arrive. Are charged forward in dire wolf form, snapping at one, only to take a couple bites and slashes in return that not only knocked her back into her elf from but then dropped her as well. Adran used his new animate dead spell on a dead Yuan Ti and sent it shambling down the hall. Darius attempted to blast the Yuan Ti with a firebolt as he moved up next to the fallen Are and dropped one, but he was then dropped himself by a couple arrows from another Yuan Ti after the zombie was ripped apart by a broodguard who just arrived. And Vorn had nearly made it back when more enemies arrived! At this moment Agatha slammed the door shut and spiked it in place, and the remainder of the party retreated down the tunnel to the back entrance, leaving Adran to shove a crate in front of the entrance to the store room while he tried hiding behind another. Vorn then turned around as Varis seemed to be behind him and went out the other entrance; the snake men were at this point glad to let the construct go...

Thinking from the Yuan Ti perspective they kept feeding in more troops and losing them along with a couple senior leaders, they are feeling nearly as chewed up as the party with notably less intelligence on their enemy than they party does on the Yuan Ti... it will be interesting to see their attitude to the PC's going forward, but they do have prisoners now to pump for information... and one of Are's acts in the tunnel was to take the puzzle cubes off Sam for safe keeping (Sam is now the "safe" one, being carried out by Agatha). Now that the snake men have Are, they also have all the puzzle cubes...

Under the Palace

Session 15 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 6, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 6 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 6, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 6, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 6, Soldier from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 5, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter (Eldritch Knight) 5, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper

PC's Not Present:
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 5, Traveling up from Snout of Omgar in far southern Chult, following rumors of source of death curse.


NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
Itch, the kobold who introduced party to kobolds of Omu.
Cormyran Kandy, a rival archaeologist and former lover of Sembian Sam, had been hired by the Red Wizards but now working with the PC's.

Sembian Sam and Cormyran Kandy follow after the party, finding a pile of bodies (some headless) dumped beside a shrine dedicated to a zorbo diety. They also note from hiding a kamaran feasting on the bodies, a giant bloated snake that had already apparently consumed one or two, and a man with snakes for arms talking to another snake about how somebody had apparently killed the Red Wizards and taken their cubes. They waiting for the snakes and the cat to move along before approaching the shrine and reuniting with the party. Everyone then got in a long rest and they move on after the Yuan Ti who had apparently taken the zorbo puzzle cube, as the party now has the other eight. Itch shows up in the morning to comment on the damage done to the shrine, and the party denied responsibility, blaming the Red Wizards and Yuan Ti. Itch mentioned the Yuan Ti being dangerous, and mentioned again the nearby back entry into their lair when the party mentioned that they were looking for the last cube that appeared to have been taken by the Yuan Ti.

Entering the palace quarter through an opening in the wall Shummp, Sam, and Agatha led the way stealthily ahead of the rest of the party. To the left they noted an opening to a courtyard that appeared to have had some traffic into it, and they investigated, thinking it in the neighborhood of the secret entrance. They noted some large snakes hiding in the vegetation growing in the courtyard. Agatha immediately raged and charged to attack the nearest snake and the others followed as the two farther snakes turned into men with the heads of snakes and pulled out bows while the snake Agatha was attacking bit her. Shummp, Agatha, Sam, and Kandy combined to kill the one snake as the rest of the party moved up; Vorn charged in to smash a more regular size snake that came out of the bushes to bite Agatha as well. As the rest of the party closed in another snake man quickly fell and then they chased down and slayed the last before he had a chance to get away. In the fighting, Sam stumbled past and noted a hole behind some bushes leading into a passage into the earth.

They soon reorganized and made their way down through the passage, with Sam taking the lead using his blessing from Saja N'baza to see in the dark. The first few party members rolled high on their stealth roles and they noted lights ahead and closed in on four Yuan Ti broodguards, foul creatures transformed from regular humanoids to serve the snake men. In the surprise round and the two rounds immediately after the party dropped the broodguards, with a third level shatter from Adran being particularly effective (he rolled high damage while the broodguards rolled poor on their saves), though the party got a bit scattered and the shatter sunk a rowboat and caused some bells on the boats to ring... drawing the attention of the hydra living in the lake! It popped out of the water near Shaun and Varis, severely injuring the cleric. The half-orcs then charged it, doing a substantial amount of damage, killing a head and causing two more to appear. Varis then starting throwing firebolts to prevent the head growth, but switched to a lightning bolt one round and there was a seventh, and eventually an eighth head. As most of the party battled the hydra, several noticed someone open a door across the cavern and stare in surprise (with wide snake-like eyes) at the commotion. Soon Sam, Kandy, and Darius were on the Yuan Ti pureblood, with Darius grappling him to hold the snakeman in place while the others pummeled him and he called for help from his minions who started to shuffle forward from the room behind him. Darius then shoved him back and unleashed a burning hands spell to hit the zombies and inadvertently cause some explosions in the flammable poisons stored in the room as well, unleashing a cloud of toxic gas. The snakeman soon dropped and Shummp moved forward to engage the zombies after finally dropping the hydra (Varis eventually used a flaming sphere to pin it between the sphere and the party, which was an effective tactic though the monster had taken a substantial amount of damage by that point as well). Shummp took some poison damage from proximity to the toxins as he attacked the zombies but eventually the zombies fell and the gas cleared out. As the party checked out the room full of poisons to see what had survived Are noted a stopper in a brass jug and pulled it out, releasing another gas. Fortunately the party members in range made their saves and everyone retreated from the room again. Shaun used a prayer of healing to patch up the damaged members of the party, and both during and after the fight Are used most of her spell slots on cure wounds to help members of the party as well. They felt well enough restored to work their way back through the unworked cavern the last broodguard had started making a run toward and they closed to door to the poison lab behind them. Adran led this time, a bit ahead of the rest and he was quite stealthy, and came upon nine slaves (humans, albino dwarves, and goblins) holding sticks and shovels as they rested by a fire, watched by three broodguards and full fledged Yuan Ti with a human torso and head and a snake tail instead of legs. The party quickly dispatched the guards, looting the Yuan Ti, but it took some work for the party to convince the slaves to leave, but finally they talked them into leaving through the passage the party had entered. The vain Yuan Ti who was in charge had a key that opened the door leading out of the cave system into a worked stone room. Sam led the way in and was attacked by a talking snake who asked him who he was and what he was doing... Darius tried to have a conversation with the snake as it held Sam in his coils, but Sam yelling "Kill it!" led the half orcs to charge in with Kandy and between their efforts the snake was soon dead, with Sam injured. Shaun was able to help with Sam's injuries, and they hauled the dead snake back into the cave, locking the door behind them after looting a bit from the store room, locking it behind them; nobody was able to come up with a use for the crates of bronze bares, however... They then proceeded to have a snake roast for lunch, getting a short rest in.

After their break, they continued through the store into a more worked passage, following to the left as the passage started sloping up, and they found their way into a room full of relief carvings of Yuan Ti and Dendar the Night Serpant, and they didn't miss either the small holes in the walls or the button in the Yuan Ti's crown in one of the reliefs. Adran of course pressed the button, unleashing a gas that knocked out Sam, Kandy, Agatha, and Adran himself. The conscious party members quickly scrambled to pull the unconscious party members back down the hall way they had entered through. Then they heard a searcher above and some comments about how somebody had set off the gas. Slapping the unconscious party members and pouring water on them did not seem to help; Shaun, fearing for his life with more protection, cast a lesser restoration on Agatha, waking her. Shummp then decided that he would yell back at the searcher above, causing some further running and yelling. We left off as the party began to engage three broodguards backed up by a Yuan Ti and two basilisks, with a third of the party still unconscious and many spell slots expended, and then a gong sounded in the distance, somewhere further off in the Yuan Ti lair...

Red Wizards Make Rough Day for Pets and Hirelings

Session 14 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 6, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 6 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 5, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 5, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 5, Soldier from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 5, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter (Eldritch Knight) 5, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult

PC's Not Present:
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 5, Traveling up from Snout of Omgar in far southern Chult, following rumors of source of death curse.
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper


NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
River Mist and Flask of Wine,  quite capable cat person sister and brother who are associates of the Zhentarim, hired by party as guides for a share of treasure found on expedition.
Kakarol, chief of the kobolds of Omu, sleeps on a pile of treasure (mostly copper but PC's are contributing to upgrading his hoard in exchange for a place to stay and help in navigating their way through Omu). Hopes the "dead wizard" he serves will fulfill a promise to change him into a dragon in exchange for loyal service from the kobolds in maintaining the shrines of Omu.
Cormyran Kandy, a rival archaeologist and former lover of Sembian Sam, had been hired by the Red Wizards but now working with the PC's

After the battle with the Red Wizard and the apparently interloping Yuan Ti, the party sees their tortle companion Farout head into the swamp while the others confer with Kandy, who shares that the Red Wizards have retrieved three cubes from further south, they determine that they may have overlooked a shrine near where the wizards were attacked by a large force of Yuan Ti after setting up their first camp in the city. She also shares that there are at least three of the wizards remaining (a fourth has been lost for a couple days) along with a handful of thug hirelings. The party decides to press forward to retrieve the cube from the shrine they know about before the remaining Red Wizards find it.

On their way, they find an abandoned campsite with a letter left for someone with that expedition; apparently they were searching for the puzzle cubes as well and the letter shares some details of their use. After leaving the camp site, the part notes that Kandy and Sam have disappeared together, and the rest of the party rolls their eyes and continue marching along. Approaching from the north, they find the back of a shrine with relief carvings of a large tentacled frog like creature fronted by a pool of water on the other side of the building to the south. Agatha moves ahead of the party to scout and tosses a rock into the pool which immediately starts to churn as she charges forward to investigate. As she stands by the pool an enormous Froghemoth rises from the pool and begins slamming her with tentacles. Shummp rushes forward to assist; Are throws up a wall of wind to protect the rest of the party, which maneuvers to keep their distance and attack at range. Darius moves into thrown weapon range to attack with his handaxe that returns to his throwing hand via eldritch magic while Are drops her wall and turns into a crocodile and leaps into the pool to attack, but misses with her bite but is in turn bitten by the froghemoth, turning her back into her elf form treading water in the pool. Agatha and Shummp attack the tentacles as the only part of the beast within reach; as a result it stops grappling them, instead choosing to slam with its tentacles, the half orcs then jump into the pool to better engage the creature. Are summons crocodiles, while Darius gets swallowed by the froghemoth as it flicks its tongue out to draw him into its mouth. Adran unleashes his favorite spell, shatter, for a second time on the froghemoth, killing two of the four recently summoned crocodiles and injuring Shummp in the process. Fortunately the beast had little fight left in him, and Shummp landed a killing blow while hanging with one arm from a tentacle, allowing Darius to free himself from the now inert monster as it slowly submerged. Agatha climbed out next to a statue of a frog and found a stone key, which turned out to be what opened the shrine door. The challenge of jumping above the spike floor was solved by Are turning into a frog, and the party soon retrieved another puzzle cube and left to rejoin their kobold friends.

The next day started with the party correlating the information obtained from Kandy with that of the kobolds (who again warned the party to not use the puzzle cubes to enter what they learned is the Tomb of the Nine Gods but to instead stick around and keep paying the kobolds for lodging). They then determined the shrine that had probably not been looted yet by either the party or the Red Wizards, unfortunately the kobolds told them it was right next to Yuan Ti HQ. So they cautiously set out, hoping to cross over just before the swamp narrowed back into a river. They found crocodiles - lots of them relaxing on a rare sunny day. They used Vorn to mostly cross a 100' section of swamp holding a rope over his head that the party could secure to a building on the other side. Then they carefully crossed the rope, with the hadrosaur following the Are the druid, who was first to cross. The hadrosaur splooshing through the swamp attracted the attention of several crocodiles, and three chomps later it provided lunch to the crocs and a distraction allowing the rest of the party to cross without further issue. They then made their way to the last shrine.

There they walked right into the Red Wizards who were standing in front of the shrine! The half-orcs were in the lead, but Varis was first to react after the lead Red Wizard (who had a creepy half young/half old face, who cast something defensive on herself. Varis unleashed a lightning bolt that I was surprised by and forgot to have a Red Wizard counter. The half-orcs charged through the wizards' minions, taking some opportunity attack damage to engage two of the wizards. Shaun unleashed a fireball but I remembered to counter that one. Then one Red Wizard went invisible while another misty stepped away from the half orcs. Agatha got hit with a blight spell. Are summoned a pair of dire wolves and turned into one herself. The minions started dropping, as did the misty stepping wizard. Then a fireball exploded in the middle of the bulk of the party - the invisible wizard! (Greatly invisible, as he did not reappear). The cat guides and Darius were badly hurt, all managing to fail one of their best saving throws. Are's other pet, a young velociraptor, got broiled. She became very sad. Darius actually dropped to play dead. Shummp then had an incredible round whacking at the lead Red Wizard with his magical sword - negating the stoneskin the wizard cast at the start of the encounter! With his action surge he hit four times, rolling two critical hits, and the wizard crumpled before him, dropped to exactly zero hit points (probably should have cast false life instead!) Agatha then picked up the wizard and charged in the direction of the invisible one, who negated another fireball Shaun attempted to cast. Agatha threw the downed wizard in a direction she thought the remaining wizard might be but didn't hit anything. The wizard turned out to be standing right next to Agatha and she stabbed out blindly in reaction to the wizard trying to dash away and she connected, causing the wizard to drop the invisibility. The wizard then cast another fireball, hoping to drop the scary half orc but only managed to blow up Darius and the two cats who were seriously injured by the previous fireball. Darius would recover, the cats River Mist and Flask of Wine sadly were burned to a crisp. Varis finally finished off the wizard with another lightning bolt. On the wizards the party found some standard supplies, a couple healing potions, a bit of gold, and an invisibility scroll along with three puzzle cubes.

The party then found the shrine had been cleared out but not by the Red Wizards. It looked like the path taken by several large snakes from the shrine led to the north - the direction of the Yuan Ti lair.

Cubes and Kandy

Session 13 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 6, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 5, Traveling up from Snout of Omgar in far southern Chult, following rumors of source of death curse.
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 4 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 5, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 5, Soldier from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 3, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter (Eldritch Knight) 3, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult

PC's Not Present:
Varis, High Elf Wizard 6 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 5, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent

NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
River Mist and Flask of Wine,  quite capable cat person sister and brother who are associates of the Zhentarim, hired by party as guides for a share of treasure found on expedition.
Kakarol, chief of the kobolds of Omu, sleeps on a pile of treasure (mostly copper but PC's are contributing to upgrading his hoard in exchange for a place to stay and help in navigating their way through Omu). Hopes the "dead wizard" he serves will fulfill a promise to change him into a dragon in exchange for loyal service from the kobolds in maintaining the shrines of Omu.
Cormyran Kandy, a rival archaeologist and former lover of Sembian Sam, now in league with the Red Wizards?

It starts with the kobolds very upset with the damage done to Wongo's Shrine last session; there was a rather unnecessary use of a shatter spell that knocked over a statue. Varis, Adran, and Vorn head off to help the kobold's restore the shrine. The rest of the party agrees to clear our some Grungs from the shrine of the Grung diety to help make the kobolds' work easier. Farout, the new druid, makes their travel through the swamp go easy by ritually casting water walk over the party and they take the long way around the perimeter of the swamp near the cliffs on the east side of the city. While moving through a flooded and somewhat overgrown section of the city they note a vine with pretty yellow flowers as Sam's whip starts screeching out a warning in his head. The party stops to figure out what the danger is and Are realizes the yellow flowering vine is a dangerous predatory plant, a yellow musk creeper! Agatha charges ahead to get clear, then two decaying yellow musk zombies erupt out of the swamp beneath the party as the flower spews out a pollen causing the cats, Farout, and Darius to desire nothing more than to move as close as possible to the pretty, sweet smelling flowers. Shmoop starts desperately whacking at the plant while others attack the zombies. The plant lashes out at one of the cats but misses, Sam and Agatha start to target the plant, while River Mist and Darius recover. The plant then blasts out another shot of pollen but it has less effect this time, and the zombies are quickly dispatched, before Shaun finishes off the plant with a blast of holy light it gets a pretty good lash into Flask of Wine.

The party then notes a little bit further along across a wide open expanse of water what appears to be a shrine covered in frescoes of frog like creatures. As they approach, the heads of several green and one red frog creature pop up on the roof while a gold frog creature riding a hadrosaur and several more green ones start advancing from around the other side of the shrine. Are casts animal friendship quickly on the hardrosaur while Agatha rages and charges forward, leaping onto the back of the dinosaur to start grappling the Grung leader; several other Grungs then start stabbing at Agatha who has advanced far ahead of the rest of the party. The red Grung on the roof casts some sort of spell, Sam discovers it was spike growth as he attempts to move up and jams his foot on a spike growing out of the swamp. Shaun then clears the growth and most of the Grungs on the roof who are firing at the party with bows with a fireball; Farout follows that with an animal summoning of two bears on the roof and two crocodiles in the swamp. The tide rapidly turns in the party's favor despite a couple more waves of Grung reinforcements; eventually the remaining Grungs decide to retreat after their chief dies at Agatha's hands. The party then moves into the shrine, finding piles of treasure stacked in corners throughout and writings telling the story of the trickster god Nangnang the Grung which Are is able to decipher with Sam's help. The doors further into shrine are locked, and a message says to Darius finds a fine looking spear and takes it outside to discover that is is merely a crude stick, then he returns into the shrine and notes the instruction to bring Nangnang his gifts so he takes the spear forward and the door opens for him, revealing Nangnang's puzzle cube beyond, which Sam grabs after checking for traps.

The party then makes their way back to the kobold lair, with the hadrosaur still following Are. The next day, they start working their way south down the causeway to find another shrine, worrying a bit about running into the Red Wizards who they know are clearing shrines on the south side of the city. They solve the puzzle and maze (somewhat and not without multiple party members taking damage from the dart trap) to find I'Jin's puzzle cube; Are, the cats, and the hadrosaur are all hanging out in front of the temple while the rest of the party is inside retrieving the cube and getting shot up by poisoned darts; as they finally get the cube Farout misty steps through a small hole in the ceiling of the shrine and notes a Red Wizard and several accomplices moving toward the shrine, he calls a warning back down into the shrine and hides on the roof; Are and the cats remain unaware and run in fear when the Red Wizard and his party arrive and order them to leave the shrine. It turns out Cormyran Kandy is one the accomplices with the Red Wizard! She and Sam go back and forth a bit over who needs to turn over the puzzle cubes to whom and Kandy makes a threat about a fireball to smoke the party out and Shaun then fires one off at the Red Wizard entourage, surprising everybody! The tortle on the roof follows that up with a wall of water attack and the others advance (though Darius falls to darts in trying to cross the trapped puzzle floor, but Shaun patches him up again while moving through). Kandy takes a potion of invisibility and dashes away toward the swamp, with most of the party following that way, while Shummp charges after the retreating thugs south along the causeway; the Red Wizard himself falls quickly as everyone's preferred target. Just as Shummp closes with the last thug a creature with the body of a man and the head of a snake appears beside him and tries to cast a magical charm on Shummp, but he resists! Are then comes back into action atop her new hadrosaur pet along with River Mist and Flask of Wine and between them they take down the snake man and the thug. Sam and Kandy then arrange a truce as she appears by his side next to the swamp, and we leave off here until next time.

Dead Cats

Session 12 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 6, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 6 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 5, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent
Rainy Day, Cat Person Monk (Open Hand) 5, Chultan native
A New Arrival:
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 5, Traveling up from Snout of Omgar in far southern Chult, following rumors of source of death curse and in company of Hooded Lantern, intrigued by tales of unusually powerful T-Rex in Omu.

PC's Not Present:
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 4 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper 
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 5, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 5, Soldier from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 3, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter 3, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult

NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
River Mist and Flask of Wine,  quite capable cat person sister and brother who are associates of the Zhentarim, hired by party as guides for a share of treasure found on expedition.
Hooded Lantern, cat person hunter seeking to cap life of hunting wild beasts of Chult by taking down the King of Feathers, a mighty T-Rex that stalks Omu.
Kakarol, chief of the kobolds of Omu, sleeps on a pile of treasure (mostly copper but PC's are contributing to upgrading his hoard in exchange for a place to stay and help in navigating their way through Omu). Hopes the "dead wizard" he serves will fulfill a promise to change him into a dragon in exchange for loyal service from the kobolds in maintaining the shrines of Omu.
Cormyran Kandy, a rival archaeologist and former lover of Sembian Sam, now in league with the Red Wizards.

Waking in the kobold's lair beneath the old trading hall in Omu, Adran, Rainy Day, Shaun, Varis, River Mist, and Flask of Wine discuss the challenges the kobolds face in Omu with Kakarol. He describes a problem with the smaller dinosaurs that live beneath the nearby amphitheater that eat the occasional kobold and that the PC's would do him a great service by eliminating the pack of smaller dinosaurs (which turn out to be deinonychuses) found there. But they are advised to avoid the mighty King of Feathers, an unusually powerful T-Rex that also bases himself there but rarely bothers with eating a kobold, seeking larger prey; on balance the kobolds feel they may be better off with the King around and they can't imagine anyone actually managing to slay the King. So the kobold, two elves, three cats, and one automaton make their way toward the amphitheater, the others are left either scouting the city or watching out from a high point near the roof of the market hall.

The party maneuvers their way around the north side of Omu hoping to come at the amphitheater stealthily from an unexpected direction. On the way they note a black obelisk and a couple passages in the cliff side that they understand from the kobolds to probably be the entrance to the dungeon opened by the puzzle cubes from which it is said none of the adventurers who have entered have ever returned. They give it a wide berth on this outing and do not investigate more closely. Closing in on the amphitheater they spot a dinosaur eyeing them from a tunnel under the "grandstand." Battle is soon joined and the party emerges victorious, though River Mist is badly mauled and Shaun spends some spell slots getting her back to somewhat better health. No sign is found of the larger dinosaur other than massive piles of dung (which obscured the approach of one of the smaller dinosaurs) and massive footprints throughout the area. The party then descended into the tunnels beneath the amphitheater, smashing a few dinosaur eggs and finding a bit of treasure, including what turns out later to be a Helm of Telepathy that Adran claims. Exiting the far end of the amphitheater, the party spots the massive feathered T-Rex that can only be the King of Feathers eating the dinosaurs they had killed on the other side of the amphitheater. It also notices them and charges, blinking to close the distance through a misty step ability. The party feels somewhat safe hiding in the tunnel the King can't fit into until it spits a swarm of wasps at them that fly into the tunnel. The mobile monk Rainy Day moves out into the open to strike at the T-Rex then rapidly dashing away, Vorn and Adran also move out to battle, others pop out briefly or struggle with the wasps, River Mist and Flask of Wine are held up in back of the line in the narrow corridor and not eager to engage after getting pretty beat up in the previous fight. From fireballs, other spells, Vorn, and Rainy Day, the King takes a fair amount of damage and blinks away from Vorn (the others had all retreated into the tunnel) and appears near enough to charge at Rainy Day who stands by herself some distance to the north on the courtyard in front of the amphitheater. One bite drops the cat, who the T-Rex then swallows. Some of the party then start working their way back to the south side of the amphitheater but none saw Rainy Day fall (except Vorn, but the Shield Guardian is not very good at expressing himself). The King then retreats away to the north, the party glimpses him running behind some buildings while they stop to look for Rainy Day, most have taken some damage from the earlier fight or the wasps at this point and they have spent a fair number of spell slots.

While in the T-Rex's gullet, Rainy day makes two death saves, then fails one, then roles a one! She dies and begins to be digested by the King of Feathers. Rainy Day is the first party member to die since we started months ago. The player starts putting together a new PC. Felt kind of bad as Rainy Day wasn't acting foolishly, other than to be the only flesh and blood member of the party out facing the King of Feathers, and the exceptional mobility of the cat monk was countered in this instance by the equally exceptional mobility of the magical T-Rex.

The remainder of the party gathered, discovered a bloody patch where Rainy Day fell, and quickly made their way back to shelter with the kobolds, sharing that the smaller dinosaurs had been eliminated. The rested and licked their wounds the rest of that day; their watchers shared that there had also been some fireball explosions noted somewhere on the south side of the city that they assumed announced the activity of the Red Wizards of Thay searching for puzzle cubes.

The next day, upon stepping out of the kobolds' market hall on the way to checking out the nearest shrine, they stumbled into a Tortle, a being the kobold and elves had never seen before. "Hey, bro, it's all right, they look like adventurers," it said to Hooded Lantern the cat person hunter who was monitoring the party from cover with his short bow. trained on them The Tortle was a humanoid turtle man in tune with nature, but missing his beach now that he was deep in the jungle. The hunter he accompanied was on a quest to slay the King of Feathers, the mightiest Tyrannosaurus Rex in Chult. (Wanted to get the player back in as quickly as possible, figured this worked). They had also recently made their way down the waterfall and were on their way to the amphitheater to find the King. The party decided they could work together, and perhaps discover if Rainy Day still lived (though they feared she did not). The cat person hunter was quite sure of himself and insistent on tracking down the beast and he led the way as the party followed.  

They made their way back stealthily to the amphitheater and peering around the northern corner it was spotted resting. Hooded Lantern climber to the top of the amphitheater to get a good shot while Varis, Vorn, and Adran started moving through the tunnel to engage it from the south side. As this was happening, Farout the Tortle cast speak with animals and stepped out to tell the King not to worry, he'd be attacked but the Tortle would help him if it started going bad for him, the T-Rex stood up, flicked its tongue and looked around, and the cat hunter shot at him twice. At this point the party within the amphitheater tunnel was just halfway through, Shaun tried casting faerie fire but the King shook it off, then the King blinked away again and appeared up on top of the amphitheater near Hooded Lantern and took a bite, spilling the cat person's blood across the seats. The other cat people were quite irate about the loss of Rainy Day and the brother and sister landed many hit with their arrows. Adran tried to attack from below, hitting the bottom of the grandstand with shatter, causing a cave in the collapsed the north end of the tunnel but also pinning the dinosaur in a bit of a pit. The cat person hunter took advantage of the T-Rex's distraction hitting it a couple times with his short sword. Then the King bit again, and another cat person dropped. The King again misty stepped away from where he had been pinned while Varis and Vorn came out from the south end of the amphitheater. The turtle man then summoned lightning and warned the dinosaur to leave if it wanted to live, and it responded by telling the Tortle to leave it alone and spat another swarm of wasps at Varis as he moved in closer through the steady rain (it was hard to get an accurate shot from the far end of the amphitheater in the rain - it is often raining in Chult). As it steadily continued taking damage from the remaining members of the party (including the Tortle, who now started throwing lightning bolts at it, something about it's teleportation ability and wasp spitting did not seem entirely natural) it tried shifting away again, moving against Varis the evoker and Shaun the Kobold who had drifted in the fight a bit to the south. This time there were too many weapons and spells trained on it, however, and the King fell. Adran immediately started cutting into it to see if it held the remains of their friend, and after pulling out the half of a cat person that was the all too briefly known Hooded Lantern they found the partially digested remains of their friend in its stomach. In sadness they buried their friend nearby and made their way back to the kobold lair.

After a short rest, they then continued on to find the nearest shrine, which they were told was to a monkey god of some kind and that they shouldn't be troubled by the monkey shrieking.They did indeed hear (only in their heads) monkey shrieking as they passed two obelisks with monkey carvings on them that looked a lot like the psychic monkey creatures some of them had previously been ambushed by during a rest in the jungle. The one the shrine was dedicated to was apparently named Wongo. Going though the middle passage of the five entrances they discovered a statue of Wongo snarling, cupping both his hands and feet. The carvings told of Wongo's battle with Moa the jaculi after Moa revealed to Ubtao that Wongo was the one who had stolen his water for the thirsty people of Omu. It was clear that water should be poured into one or more of the statue's hands, and Varis picked the statue's left hand. And it turned out that was the correct decision, and a puzzle cube appeared! At the same time, a snarling voice called out for him to choose to fight or curse his friends, and Varis chose to fight. Then four su-monster monkey creatures appeared, and Varis and Vorn were both quickly stunned after doing quite a bit of damage to one of the creatures. Shaun then dropped that while damaging the others with a blast of radiance of the dawn. Adran followed up dropping another and the statue with another shatter spell, and the remaining two were also picked off before having a chance to recharge their psychic crush abilities. Now the party had two puzzle cubes; the Red Wizards likely also have at least two. And the party left off by once again returning to the kobold lair with some more bribes and apologies for the mess they had left in the shrine for the kobolds to clean up.

Arrival in the Lost City

Session 11 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 4 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper
Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 6, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 5 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 5, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian (Totem Bear) 5, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Rainy Day, Cat Person Monk (Open Hand) 5, Chultan native
New Arrivals:
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 5, Soldier from the North seeking wealth in Chult
Are, Moon Elf Druid (Circle of Moon) 2, Young refugee from overrun northern village, now travels in company of Darius Foreshot
Darius Foreshot, Human Fighter 2, Outlander/Hermit, Seeking fortune in Chult

NPC's:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.
River Mist and Flask of Wine,  quite capable cat person sister and brother who are associates of the Zhentarim, hired by party as guides for a share of treasure found on expedition.


Adran, Agatha, Rainy Day, and the Cat siblings were told by the lobsterfolk of travelers like them lost in the swamp, and they find Shummp, Are, and Darius. Shummp turns out to be an acquaintance of Agatha's and they join the party. Traveling back to meet Sam, Shaun, and Varis they find the other party members have struck out into the jungle to the south and they follow, figuring themselves to be about a day behind. Pushing themselves, one morning they catch the scent of a large quantity of smoked meat and find the three have spent the previous afternoon and this morning butchering and preserving the meat from a T-Rex they had killed the day before. They figure they are about four days out from the Lost City of Omu at this point, and after joining back together and getting to know the newly arrived explorers they strike off again to the south.

One day passes without incident (other than Are finding some dubious looking mushrooms), and the next day a giant spider tries to ambush the rear of the party but is driven off. The party also notes mountains and volcanoes to the southeast, the Peaks of Fire. The next day Sam and Agatha from the front of the party hear a discussion ahead in the forest about hoping to find some fresher meat. Striding ahead through the jungle Agatha walks into the open, discovering a number of human tribal warriors with blue triangles painted on their foreheads. She says "Hey, what's up," and the tribal warriors turn in unison and shout "Food!" Sam shouts a warning and before the cannibals have a chance to swarm and overbear Agatha most have been dropped by fireballs from Varis and Shaun. Agatha drops the last with a mighty blow to the face. That night, more giant spiders attempt to ambush the party and this time nearly succeed in hauling off Shummp but Adran stops the spider retreating off into the trees with Shummp's web encased body with a thunderwave spell that also manages to hit Shummp and drop him from 20' in the air (but also destroys the webbing). Shummp is not especially grateful, but is restrained from tearing Adran in half by timely healing spells from Are.

After completing their rest and traveling the following day, the party hears a waterfall and notes large quantities of steam rising from ahead in the distance. Rainy Day climbs a tree and sees a sunken city ahead in a vast crater, with a river running through and flooding the northeastern quarter of the city. Steam rises from further to the south where the river seems to drop again. Gargoyle statues watch from the rim of the crater above the city. The party rests, intending to investigate further near the waterfall in the morning.  Here several party members level up as we log some XP upon discovery of the city, including at least Are, Darius (who chooses the path of the Champion), and Varis.
The next day, they make their way to the waterfall, noting the nearest gargoyle. Shummp decides to poke it with his sword and it turns and attacks him! After a brief scuffle and a couple shatter spells the gargoyle crumbles; Varis notes other gargoyles have turned to look in the direction of the party but at this point make no other move. While Sam and Shaun discuss a strategy for moving into the city, whether to walk around the rim to the south or go into the ravine above the waterfall, Are turns into a flying squirrel (as her player points out, flying squirrels aren't truly a flying animal and thus fair game for a lower level druid shapeshifter) and launches herself down into the city, noting some crocodiles on her way down. Her guardian, Darius, decides he needs to follow and launches himself into the river and over the waterfall after her. Adran sees this and decides to be even more direct, leaping out from the cliff hoping to land in the pool of water 100' below. He takes a bit of damage but survives the fall, managing to actually hit the water. Are heals him when he swims to shore. The others follow more cautiously, with three cat people and Sam the rogue ably aiding the others in the climb down alongside the waterfall. They note a temple like building nearby in flooded part of the city on the way down and strike out for that after a lunch break on the shore by the waterfall. Sam leads the way but scampers back behind Agatha when he sees a giant crocodile in the water within the falling down walls of the temple enclosure. The giant crocodile then tries to bite Agatha but misses, and in the ensuing battle four additional regular crocodiles also attack the party but all are defeated and the party make their way to the front of the shrine, noting bird motifs and carvings. Adran recognizes the bird as an Eblis, a type of intelligent Chultan waterbird he had previously encountered. Making their way into the shrine, the party reads (thanks to Varis casting a comprehend languages ritual) a strange mythological account of Papazotl the Eblis' conflict with Nangnang the Grung. Both appear to be some kind of divine beings worshiped by the old Omuans. Solving a puzzle in the shrine the party recovers a small cube with the Eblis figure on it; the cube is magical but its purpose is not clear.
They decide to rest in the shrine and overnight nothing bothers the party, and the following day they move back to land, heading toward a large building to their west. They note T-Rex and Kobold tracks in the area near the building, and entering the building find a massive ruined market and a number of traps. Shaun sets one of releasing a swarm of wasps and runs outside and is face to face with another kobold! They talk a bit, Shaun relieves the kobold Itch's persistent itch and rash and he happily agrees to introduce the party to his boss, the mighty Kakarol, who sometimes thinks he is a dragon. Going into a cellar beneath the bazaar, the party finds a number of kobolds, including one resting atop a pile of treasure (Sam noting that it is mostly copper). They have an amicable exchange with the kobolds, who are happy to lodge the party in their lair in exchange for shiny coins, and the kobolds share information about the other factions in the city, notably the recently arrived Red Wizards, the Grungs near Nangnang's shrine, and the Yuan Ti in the ruined palace. They also note the back door to the Yuan Ti complex, and point out that the puzzle cubes are what gets people like the party into the dungeon set up by the dead wizard who says he will turn Kakarol into a dragon in the future for his service leading the kobolds in maintaining the shrines that house the puzzle cubes. Kakarol warns the party to not bother with them or the dungeon, as nobody has every come out of it but the puzzle cubes always return and more adventurers arrive only to also die within the dead wizard's dungeon. He also mentions that the Red Wizards have started collecting the cubes, but were set back a bit following a battle with some of the Yuan Ti. Rainy Day suggests hanging out with the kobolds and waiting for the Red Wizards to retrieve the remaining puzzle cubes.
And here we call it a day. Having a kobold in the party turns out to be very advantageous in Omu.

From Tyrannosaurus to Tyrannosaurus

Session 10 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:

Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 4 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper
Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (Light of Kossuth) 5, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 5 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma

Associates:
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.

Absent Characters:
The three PC's and the two guides below absent themselves after the battle with the t-rex zombie that ended the last session while Sembian Sam catches up, as the guides and some of the party worry about leaving their gear and watercraft under the protection of the lobsterfolk they recently met and decide to return to the lakeshore.  It is felt that Sam can successfully guide some of the party to check out the Heart of Ubtao and rejoin the rest at the lake.
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore) 5, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian 4, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Rainy Day, Cat Person Monk 4, Chultan native

NPC Guides:
River Mist and Flask of Wine,  quite capable cat person sister  and brother who are associates of the Zhentarim, hired by party as guides for a share of treasure found on expedition.

 The Journey
Traveling one long day gets the remaining three party members to the Heart of Ubtao at dusk, they see it all day looming above them and rotating slowly, a heart shaped chunk of earth and rock with a large petrified tree on top and a flight of stairs from the top to a cave in the side. When they get right below the heart an elf appears in the cave and calls down to them, asking their business and noting an elf (Varis) in the party quickly invites them up to parley. She does not offer a way up, so Shaun pulls out the griffin figurine and they use it to fly up. The elf introduces herself as Valindra Shadowmantle, formerly of Luskan. She inquires into the party's business and discovering their interest in the death curse suggests they are looking for the Soulmonger, a magical device responsible for the death curse that some powerful entity hid in the ruins of Omu after killing all the former inhabitants of the once powerful city state. She also suggests that the device is hidden within a trap of sorts built to kill the adventurers who come looking for it. Valindra also tells the party that she is herself hoping to find the Soulmonger to study it and to hopefully deactivate it, and hopes the party may help her with it. She mentions that there are other interested parties seeking it as well, including the Red Wizards of Thay. She tells them all this in a dank cave full of books and maps whose most notable feature is a large iron cage that she casually mentions is for those she finds less forthcoming with their knowledge. Shaun, examining her closely, gets a very unpleasant feeling about Valindra and starts edging back toward the cave entrance. The party takes leave of Valindra, Sam somewhat reluctantly putting down some of the books and maps he has started poring over, noting they only have a few hours of flight left on the griffin and they fly back to the lake through the night after briefly checking out the petrified tree on top of the Heart that they surmise is full of bats.
 After returning to the lake the party rests for a day fishing and waiting for Vorn (who is on foot but homing in on Varis' location) and the others. Vorn returns, but the others don't, eventually partway through the second day they decide to continue on, as Sam gets quite agitated about Cormyran Kandy's progress; they figure they can mark their path for the others to follow once they leave the river. While traveling upstream, they miss the southwest-most take out point and end up traveling further east than intended and turn around, finding a good takeout point at dusk. As Varis hops out to pull the canoe up onto the bank he is attacked by a swarm of quippers! Bleeding profusely, he struggles onto shore while Sam and Shaun desperately try to ram the canoe aground. They eventually succeed and all survive the encounter with the fish.
The next day they find the path left by Cormyran Kandy and the Red Wizard expedition. They follow in the footsteps of the Thayans, who appear to be about a week ahead. Over several days they close the distance by a day or two and find some remnants of the Thayans - occasional dead goblin porters and discarded food containers along with some blasted undead and dinosaur remains. They party also has encounters of their own with zombies, man eating plants, and dinosaurs. Notably, they also run into a pack of Su-Monsters who find then in camp one night, Sam's whip alerting him to one staring down at him from a tree directly above! Giving a warning to the party and attacking the Su-Monster with his bow the Su-Monsters attack back with their psychic crush abilities, most of the party brushing it off but Sam takes two hit and falls to the ground stunned and seriously hurt. Fortunately the fifth level casters are unharmed and they shoot down the Su-Monsters before their psychic crushes recharge to take out more party members. At another point, they party find an ankylosaurus and leave it alone only to immediately after stumble into a zombie ankylosaurus; Varis blasts it with a lightning bolt but it continues into the jungle, also hitting the living ankylosaurus which comes charging back at the party. Using Vorn as a blocker/soaker for the damage from tail swipes, the party emerges victorious, only to run into more trouble later as three allosauruses hunt them, nearly killing Varis who briefly separates from Vorn in a tactical decision that backfires as the allosauruses move much faster than anyone expects. Eventually they prevail, which is good as these are dinosaurs they definitely could not outrun.
Finally, after a couple more days of travel and a battle with a wight and its zombie pack they stumble across a living tyrannosaurus rex that seems to have their scent; the party tries to hide but it keeps moving their way, Sam and Varis start shooting as it moves into range and it charges forward, taking some fairly substantial damage from ranged spells and weapons as it advances. Finally it bites Varis, knocking him out and swallowing him while tail swatting Vorn for a fair amount of damage. Shaun and Sam keep up the fire, and the might t-rex eventually topples; Shaun then climbs into the dead dinosaurs gullet, finding Varis' foot and tying a rope on to yank him out. Then we leave off; with just three PC's dividing the experience this session it totals out fairly high, Shaun gets to sixth level while the other two are just short, and they are just days away from where the lost city of Omu appears on their map.

Swamp

Session 9 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Lore - I was mistaken last week) 5, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent
Angry Agatha, Half-Orc Barbarian 4, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam - Catches up again to party after trying to make a go of becoming an entrepreneur running a plantation but decided lack of customers nearby may be a problem and rejoins party, somehow missing Sam on way down from plateau to swamp
Rainy Day, Cat Person Monk 4, Chultan native - Rejoined party after brief attempt with Agatha to rebuild an abandoned plantation
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 4 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper; Went back to find Rainy Day and Angry Agatha and currently absent
Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (light of Kossuth) 5, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 5 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma

Associates:
River Mist and Flask of Wine,  quite capable cat person sister  and brother who are associates of the Zhentarim, hired by party as guides for a share of treasure found on expedition.
Vorn, a Shield Guardian found in the jungle now under the command of Varis, who promised to eventually return the shield guardian to Wakanga O'Tamu in exchange for a spell book.

The party spends a little over a week marching and canoeing in and around the swamps of the Aldani Basin in central Chult. They start at the foot of the bluffs near Mbala and make their way along the edge of the swamp to Camp Vengeance on the Soshenstar River without incident, other than finding some remains of a recently eaten dwarven explorer. They find Ord Firebeard in charge once again, saying the previous commander had been recalled after the disaster of his expedition to the Mistcliff Mountains. Ord is relieved to hear of the defeat of the necromancer and offers the party good values on replenishing their supplies. Overall the Camp seems in better shape than on their previous visit, with fewer problems with undead. Ord also shares that an archaeologist named Cormyran Kandy had recently passed by, apparently leading an expedition of red robed Thayan wizards to the south. The entourage had included the wizards, several goblins, and a dwarf. Kandy left a note for Sam warning him not to interfere with the Thayans, who were dangerous and would be first to uncover the lost treasures of Omu.
Agatha left her collection of goblin masks at the Camp, Varis added some of the spells he had discovered to his spellbook, and then the party set off again with their canoes up the river, portaging around a waterfall just upstream from the Camp. There they encountered a faerie dragon who shared some information on the red wizards and the path ahead; the faerie dragon found the Thayans less congenial than the PC's. Soon they were deep in the Aldani Basin, and finding the main channel of the river became difficult in the swamp. They camped afloat, lashing their canoes together by a large tree. That night, a plesiosaur attempted to eat River Mist but Adran hit it with faerie fire and Agatha dove in after it, and the amphibious dinosaur was soon defeated while Shaun patched up Agatha and River Mist, who had both taken a beating. The next day the party was ambushed by a group of lizard folk tribesmen led by a shaman who summoned another plesiosaur to attack from behind. However, the shaman had no way of realizing that Varis and Shaun both now have access to the fireball spell, and the two surviving lizard folk were soon running away into the swamp. The party was not seriously inconvenienced by the lizard folk, but then went on to lose most of the day after losing track of the main channel of the river.
As the party got back on track following the river upstream they seemed torn on whether to check out the Heart of Ubtao or to make their way further south toward Omu as fast as possible. Eventually they decided to cut and portage their way through the swamp southwest to follow the chain of lakes of the headwaters of the River Tath further south. There they encountered Lobsterfolk, who pointed out the party was being stalked by a pack of dimetrodons, which worried them since those dinosaurs also ate lobsterfolk. So to help out the lobster men and themselves the party laid out some bait for the hungry dinosaurs and then ambushed them, slaying 12. The lobsters then shared that the red wizards had recently passed through the area after coming from the direction of the Heart of Ubtao. So the party made their way south through the lakes until deciding when they were probably nearest to the Heart of Ubtao to cut their way overland that way, the lobsters agreed to guard their boats on the lake until they returned. During the walk an assassin vine nearly killed the bard. The second night out the party was awoken by a loud stomping noise as another T-Rex Zombie approached! This one was full strength, but the party still has Vorn. Though the wizard dropped during the battle the dinosaur zombie was eventually defeated. It spat out 4 zombies in the course of the battle, which added to the challenge. After this battle we took a break until next week.