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!