Marching Through the Mistcliffs

Session 7 of Tomb of Annihilation

The PC's:
Adran, Wood Elf Bard (Valor) 4, 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
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 3 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper
Shaun the Kobold, Cleric (light of Kossuth) 4, Criminal from streets of Port Nyanzaru, Zhent
Varis, High Elf Wizard 4 (evoker), acolyte of Oghma

Associates:
River Mist and Flask of Wine,  quite capable cat person brother and sister 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 finds notes left by the bird man necromancer about some sort of snake being name Saja N'Baza found to the southwest near the Mistcliff Mountains in an ancient structure known as Orolunga. They determine that it will be their next destination, as it will allow them to continue traveling in the heights with some relief from the heat of the jungles below and connecting with an enemy of the snake men and evil necromancers seems like a decent idea. However, on the first day out the party gets lost in a box canyon and find themselves back where they started, in the ruined town of Matalo. As it starts to rain the party discovers the headless body of the necromancer they had left in the temple is missing, so they search the ruins for what may have happened, Sam's whip of warning alerting them as a horde of zombies come bursting out of a decrepit granary. Behind the zombies a decayed looking birdman and another snake person lob arrows at the party. Shaun's turn undead is effective on most of the zombies but it's effect is quickly negated by Adran's horn of blasting, which misses one zombie that runs off into the forest but the others that survive are back in the fight. Adnan takes damage from zombies and arrows and hides behind the two cat folk guides who fire their own arrows into the zombies. Shaun follows up with a flaming sphere, and begins torching zombies. Once the zombies are sufficiently cleared out, Agatha accepts opportunity attacks to engage in combat with the snake man, another with the lower body of a snake and top half of a human. The wizard Varis blasts the decayed looking birdman from a hole in the side of the granary with magic missiles while he sends Vorn in to smash zombies; the birdman notices and smacks the wizard with a painful necrotic touch. As the barbarian shrugs off blows from the snake creature and one of the last remaining zombies the snake creature disengages and attempts to escape through the melee but is noticed by Adnan who hits and kills it. Rainy Day, Agatha, Varis, and Shaun's flaming sphere coordinate to finish off the undead bird creature. The sphere also sets the granary ablaze, and the party escapes after briefly rifling through the possessions of the bird and snake creatures to find a handful of coins on the snake man.
The next day the party avoids getting lost, traveling along the eastern slopes of the Mistcliff Mountains. After a couple days of travel the party startles a troop of flying monkeys from a tree; in reaction Adnan hits them with his horn of blasting and monkey bits rain down on the party and the tree the monkeys were in topples over. Fortunately, the horn does not explode. Later that evening as the party makes camp they are approached by Aarakocra scouts from the other side of the mountains, who are impressed by their feat of killing Rhilleg the necromancer but distressed that Agatha is still carrying his skull. They think the party might be on to something with their trek to Orolunga but are uncertain of exactly what sort of being resides there. The party is also warned to watch out for pterafolk, the ancient enemy of the bird people. The also give the party advice on navigating their way over an upcoming river gorge.
As the party closes on where Rhilleg's notes indicate where Orolunga is located, the party notes they are being observed from a distance by pterafolk, who they are familiar with from an incident shortly after their arrival in Chult on the outskirts of Port Nyanzaru. Ominously they make camp, and the following day note that they continue to be shadowed. Just after the party reaches an observation point that reveals a large ziggurat rising out of the jungle below, they hear a great deal of screeching from above and behind and look to see a number of aarakocra diving into combat with several pterafolk. Agatha immediately starts climbing and grabbing a rock to engage in combat with any pterafolk she can reach, and as a result soon the whole party find themselves engaged against the pterafolk. Adnan again quickly puts his horn of blasting to use, not worrying that Varis and Vorn are both in the area of effect; these time his luck with the notoriously unpredictable magic item does not hold, and it explodes, dropping him immediately along with one of the pterafolk that had already taken damage. Shaun heals him once only to see him drop again after a solid hit from one of the pterafolk flying by; the second time Shaun just uses a spare the dying cantrip to stabilize him. After a bloody brawl in three dimensions the party helps the aarakocra prevail and win the gratitude of the remaining bird men. Each of the party members is given a red feather that they are told by the chief will provide some use if they visit the ziggurat below.
(Note: both the pterafolk and aarakocra were random encounters, rolling both in succession made for what I thought was a interesting encounter).
The next day the party makes their way through the jungle to the ziggurat. Agatha tries to press through brambles and jungle growth blocking passage up the side of the structure while Adnan notices some pretty purple and orange orchids growing in the nearby jungle. Vorn is shuts down each time he tries to take a step up the stairs. Sam tries to puzzle out a way up and then they are shown the way by an orchid carrying chwinga forest spirit. On the next level the party finds a set of stairs that crumble away each time they set foot on it but they figure out that carrying the feather and the orchid together allows passage. Then they get to the snake covered stairs; same is especially grossed out, not liking snakes at all. They are puzzled on the next step when again a chwinga appears and shows them the rather unusual and gross method of slithering through the snake swarms using their orchids and feathers to  catch the attention of a snake they then swallow. Agatha and Varis find they are not able to pull of this odd maneuver and elect to stay behind; Adnan is struck unconscious after repeated failed attempts to swallow a snake but then Rainy Day does the maneuver for him and he returns to consciousness as he slithers up the steps. The rest of the party manages, even Sam who struggles mightily to overcome his distaste for snakes. At the top of the ziggurat, besides a great view of the surrounding jungle the party finds a shrine; inside they are transported to what may be another plane, place, or time. Saja N'Baza turns out be be a giant snake creature who warns the party that the source of the death curse lies in the ancient, now lost, city of Omu, which he is able to give an approximate location of on their map. He warns them that great evil is found there, both in whatever is stealing the souls of the people of Faerun through the death curse as well as Ras Nsi, now a Yuan Ti, who a hundred years ago raised an undead army to conquer Chult but failed, though the undead menace remains. They are told that the Yuan Ti of Chult serve Dendar the Night serpent, who seeks nothing less than the end of the world. They are charged with defeating Ras Nsi and the Yuan Ti as they seek to end the death curse, and to aid them Saja provides them with a number of magical charms. As the party leaves his presence, they find themselves rested and the sun rising at dawn.
The party decides to travel east to recover more of their gear from Camp Vengeance before going further south. On the way, they hope to investigate Mbala and whatever magic over life and death exists there that their guides have heard rumors of . They climb the hills and plateaus leading to Mbala from the west, finding some abandoned villages and farms on the way. In one, Agatha disturbs a nest of giant spiders that swarm out and attack. After the party defeats them we break until next time.