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.