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.