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.
Sunday, April 22, 2018
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)