Updated Sunday Campaign Report

Been awhile since we've been back into the Tomb of Annihilation. Hoping to get back into it and wrap it up eventually. Since ran two more sessions of my Innistrad adaptation and Mike's been running a campaign in his longstanding campaign world for D&D and we've all been having a great time playing in it, playing characters living on the borderlands of an expansive continental empire that is actively trying to conquer the disorganized remaining independent bits of the lands most of the PC's are from. I'm especially enjoying playing my Storm Sorcerer PC, finding it to be the most evocative and fun sorcerer subclass in 5e, and playing as kind of like the Flash, changed after being struck by lightning and "blessed by Thor".

Also agreed to co-advise a D&D club at school. We're mostly using various AL adventures to ease kids with various levels of experience with the game into it. They work well for our after school time frame and for the purpose of the club. Hoping some of the kids get into DMing and take the lead a bit more in the club but we all seem to be having a good time so far.

The Innistrad campaign was built around the second session, in which the failed saving throw from session one (the virtually impossible one) led to the transformation of the PC's into Kafkaesque bugs. Actually inspired by the Home Movies rock opera...

So they all turned into bugs. Then they had to escape their hometown by the Dark Sea as their friends and neighbors chased after them with brooms throwing rotten fruit and rocks while a wandering Knight attempted to slay the "monsters". The PC's staying in the cathedral got the bishop's support in helping them with the terrible curse and in rescuing the rest from fearful mob. They then decided to find the Archbishop of the Church of Avacyn in the capital city of Gavony. So they hit the road, making their way with a few minor encounters to Gavony, on the outskirts of which they discovered the Archbishop had left toward Stensia in the West in a crusade of sorts against some of the vampires found there. So they followed. As they passed a small village (the party mostly crept around settlements and by the sides of roads, trying to avoid contact with those who might misjudge them) they noticed the Knight from their town of Varno arriving. They decided to try to ambush him when he left. In the ensuing fight two of the PC's died as did the Knight, and a commotion ensued in the town where the sentries noticed the end of they battle and the death of the Knight and his horse.

We left off there and decided at the following session today that one of the PC's (Vaughn the Fighter) had actually only been maimed, losing a wing in the fight. The other player decided to make a new character - a bard, from the Gavony region, who decided she would investigate these creatures after calming down the scared villagers, and she ended up joining the bug party, leading them toward some mines she knew of to the south, but they quickly became lost. They then stumbled into a Kobold mining operation (used the Marrow Mines from Jon Sawatsky's Prepared! A dozen adventures for fifth edition, 2016). Eventually they negotiated a retreat out of the Kobold mines and fled back toward the Gavony River, running into the bounty hunters Heiko, Hank, Huck, and their faithful hound. They PC's slew the bounty hunters, discovering that they were themselves the monsters the hunters were seeking. They then made their way to the river ford to the town where the Archbishop was supposed to be staying, and surrendered themselves to the guards and (hopefully) into the Archbishop's protection, and we left off there.

Quick Summary Into the Tomb and Happy Days in Nephalia

Sessions 20 & 21 of Tomb of Annihilation

Managed to get a bit behind, here are three weeks of play over a little over a month or so, I think. The party managed to get Adran killed in their third (or was it fourth?) assault on the Yuan Ti temple complex. He ended up getting zombified by the Yuan Ti so the other party members had to kill him again to open up their escape route. They managed to hang onto Ras Nsi's spellbook but had little other loot with them as they fled once more through the underground lake, hiding to rest a bit in the poison fungus cave and within the lake itself. The Yuan Ti nearly killed Vorn but the construct survived with one hit point before getting to the bottom of the lake and regenerating. They in fact waited long enough that the Yuan Ti fled out the front at about the same time the party was fleeing out the back, Ras Nsi deciding his losses had been severe enough already that he did not want to sit around waiting to be attacked again. Shaun the kobold also decided he had had enough of risking his life with this mad band of explorers, and joined the kobold tribe, and began working to convert them to the faith of the fire god. Another elf wizard, following after his friends with the Company of the Yellow Banner, also joined forces with the party (replacing Adran).

They then decided to enter the tomb. I'll try to avoid spoilers here, but they did manage to clear out the zorbo god's tomb and obtain the magic item, and they also retrieved a skeleton key. They soon after found a passage to the second level through a secret door (Sembian Sam the ranger/rogue was back with the party for week 21) and they got into a battle with a good portion of the tomb's undead maintenance crew along with a tomb guardian construct, and the head of the undead maintenance crew was also there. By looting his office they discovered a substantial amount of lore on the history, design, and purpose of the tomb and the soulmonger. After some more battles with wights and tomb guardians they also found (and clouded/fouled with mayonnaise from the alchemy jug) the scrying pool used by the tomb dwarves to keep tabs on the Tomb, and prepared to continue their delve...

This past weekend tried something different, as we were missing a couple of regular players, notably including the player of the ranger/rogue. And I have not yet read the new AL rules, and I think we want to keep our ToA game AL legal (or if we don't we should all at least have a chance to weigh in on it). So I started running a mini-campaign I'd sort of sketched out, using the skeletal Innistrad setting released for free by Wizards of the Coast awhile back - mostly I wanted something human focused and I liked the human variants used there, and the Nephalia region seemed to work for what I had in mind. As the coastal trading region, I figured they also had ties to other places if player want to make characters from elsewhere and I imagined Innistrad being kind of like a Romania/Bulgaria type region on an inland coast with mountains along the other borders. Instead of a saltwater connection to the outer world like the Bosporus, I decided it would be a freshwater sea with a river passing through a land to the south that does border on a larger saltwater sea, controlled by what was known as the "Old Empire," a mash-up of Tokugawa Japan and the Byzantine Empire that had once dominated Innistrad (and still dominated international trade and contact with the outer world) but had pulled back after the rise to dominance of things like vampires, werewolves, and other monstrosities and left the people of the region largely to their own devices. The campaign would start in Varno, a trading town in coastal Nephalia of 4-5,000 or so. Creating PC's, half of the players made local clergy (two clerics and one acolyte who was actually a warlock), along with a fighter who was a wandering mercenary now protecting a rogue from a merchant family who were relatively recent arrivals in town, and a noble wizard with close ties all the local power brokers. Trying to simplify the world's religion, I said the official clergy basically served and worshiped various angels who seemed to have lately pulled back from the world, but there were cults following darker powers. They also all came up with an NPC each was tied to, following a suggestion I had read on shared world building that was indeed quite helpful for grounding everyone in the setting.

It turned out that a local magnate named Ikazizzle (perhaps Snoop will soon appear as well) with a substantial estate (including several honey producing bee colonies) outside of town had just revealed himself as the leader of a cult dedicated to a bee headed deity. This caused consternation amongst the official church leadership as several locals seemed swept up in it. There were also some missing people, including a merchant from the Old Empire, a child admirer of the warlock PC, and a beekeeper (who did not work for the cult leader, apparently).

Leaving town to investigate the Ikazizzle property, the several PC's were attacked by a pack of jackals. After killing several jackals, they retreated back to town, deciding to go to the manor the following day. The next day they ran into a jackalwere mourning the loss of his pack, and they had another fight on their way to the manor. The noble character had a long chat with the lord about religion and other topics while the clergy were directed to wait with the horses in the stables. Feigning interest in the new religion, the noble wizard was presented with a tract to take home. The party then returned toward town, and managed to follow the tracks left by the jackalwere they had killed, which led them to the body of the missing beekeeper. One mystery solved! Back in town, research in the church library led to the discovery of the bee headed god Beezleblix as a demon referred to in old texts, and the party decided they needed to find out just what might happen at the mystery rite of this "diety" happening the next night at midnight.

They didn't spend much time observing, and were soon attempting to interrupt the rites as they found the other two missing people tied to posts near where Lord Ikazzizzle was presiding. In the course of the ensuing battle they killed several cultists who turned out to be local citizens, along with a giant bee and two bee swarms. Ikazzizzle surrendered, and his quasit familiar disappeared. The bejeweled head of Beezleblix flashed during the ceremony and the party a felt a sense of unease as it did so, but nothing had appeared to happen, and they marched their captive with them back into town to turn over to authorities who could hopefully deal with him, while the merchant from the Old Empire was returned to his colleagues for a small reward. The great bee head was also stripped of jewels and precious metals before being burned. Then they bedded down for the night, gnawed by worries about whether the local authorities would actually take their side against Lord Ikazizzle, and about all the local citizens they had been forced to slay while rescuing the captives...

Snakes Again

Session 19 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, Mercenary 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 - missing this session, slips away again during the night, this time without Kandy
Farout, Tortle Druid (Circle of Land - Beach) 6, 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.
Ras Nsi, ruler of the Yuan Ti of Omu, wasting away from death curse but with spells and minions still quite powerful.

 Sometimes players will surprise you. After messing about in front of the Tomb of the Nine Gods last session, summoning a demon and fighting with gargoyles watching over the obelisk near what appears to be the entrance (it still hasn't been investigated all that closely by the party) they returned to the kobold hall to lick their wounds and get in another long rest with the reptilian allies. Sam disappeared over night, and the rest of the party after breakfast discussed their options, and the decision was made, in light of the Yuan Ti ambush two days before, to dispense with Ras Nsi and the rest of the Yuan Ti rather than leaving them behind as they entered the Tomb, despite their apparent deal with Ras Nsi. I really hadn't expected this, but still had my Yuan Ti note cards ready to go so was reasonably prepared.

Since they had to cross the swamp Farout enacted the water walking ritual again. At about the point where they would leave the swamp they noted a mount of vegetation they had not noticed before. Going closer to investigate, the druids Farout and Are discovered it was shambling mound that began to attack! The single CR 5 monster was swiftly dispatched by the party, however, and they continued on their way, this time to the rear of the Yuan Ti complex. As they entered the courtyard with the tunnel they noted a snake moving rapidly down into it. They let it go, but Farout then cast pass without trace to make the party sneakier than usual. They moved quietly through the tunnel, using darkvision spells for the Tortle and the human to avoid using a light source (and I forgot about Kandy, she must have been holding onto whoever was in front of her). They then took a right turn, with water walking still being active they made their way across the underground lake. They found a cave along the way with a body in it that was covered in some kind of mold, and Varis retrieved a key from the body using mage hand to avoid disturbing the mold. They then came to a shore area with a door that they checked out, opening the door to encounter a room with several nests for Yuan Ti and at least a couple Yuan Ti watching the door from around corners to the north and south. There was some shouting for reinforcements heard among the Yuan Ti.

So the party left Vorn to hold the door closed and the rest of the party then continued quietly back over the lake to the throne room, noting a boat again parked there. Agatha pushed ahead, glancing in to note four ghouls hanging out around the throne. She signaled Varis to come forward and made and exploding motion and he let loose with a fireball that instantly dropped two of the ghouls, and Agatha charged in and quickly chopped down the other two and managed to sit on the throne before the rest of the party entered the room. Their attention was drawn to the long hallway across the throne room with closed double doors at the other end of it that Are, Darius, and Adran knew led to what had appeared to be a large assembly area and ritual space. Agatha and Shummp led the way down the hall, while Shaun, Adran, Varis and Kandy hung back a bit watching down the hall from the throne room. While Agatha led a charge into the Yuan Ti assembly area a door opened behind Shaun in the throne room through which appeared Ras Nsi. They had a few words before Shaun summoned spirit guardians that singed Ras Nsi but they dropped after Ras Nsi blasted Shaun with a blight spell. Shaun survived and used his next action to run away.

Again they party found themselves split fighting enemies on two sides. Vorn soon arrived but so did a couple Yuan Ti malisons in snake form who had followed through the lake. Several remaining malisons, purebloods, and a broodguard fought the party from the big central room with the blood pool and snake statues. Magic used was interesting, Farout summoned a giant snake but it was made into a friend by the Yuan Ti so he dismissed it. Ras Nsi countered a wall of fire from Varis and a fireball from Shaun, and polymorphed Vorn into a rabbit. Adran used vicious mockery to kill the rabbit and bring Vorn back and Vorn got turned into a rat next. Adran was himself hit by a fireball and bit by a yuan ti in snake form and fell, and nobody could stabilize him before he died, only the second PC to die so far in this party. Are put up a good fight with the snakes while most of the party was engaged down the hall. When Agatha came charging back after Ras Nsi he retreated back into his chamber to teleport to the large room where there was still a battle going with some Yuan Ti and he was able to start unleashing magic at the party from 30' up on a platform overlooking the room. After the snake failure Farout had summoned a couple dire wolves who were more helpful but they were eventually overwhelmed. A fireball took out Shaun and Farout but the snakes in the throne room were killed in time for Are to reach them to revive the other healers. Agatha made her way back after Ras Nsi, climbing up after him and he teleported away again as the last of his minions in the fight were dispatched. The party then decided to use Leomund's Tiny Hut to hopefully get an hour's rest before pursuing any remaining Yuan Ti further and we stopped for the day. Ras Nsi might use discretion and the respite given to slip away with any remaining followers, but on the other hand Are found and took his spell book while digging through the pillows in his chamber, and it's probably kind of important to him to have a spell book...

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!

Puzzle Cube Retrieval

Session 17 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) 7, Harper, bodyguard and long time associate of Sembian Sam
Shummp, Half-Orc Fighter (Champion) 7, 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:
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper - unconscious after inhaling sleep gas toward end of last session
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 - unconscious from inhaling sleep gas last session.
Ras Nsi, Chief of the Yuan Ti of Omu

Messengers kept running to Ras Nsi as he awaited developments on the apparent invasion of the Fane of the Night Serpent, home of the Yuan Ti of Omu. They were increasingly distressed, Yahru, his wiliest advisor was missing, and the latest report suggested his champion, Sekelok, had fallen to the intruders. They reported a golem of some kind wreaking havoc, along with a great deal of magical destruction and multiple orcish or half-orcish warriors. It was time for Ras Nsi to take personal command - he could already sense Fenthaza whispering to others of his failure to defend the Fane. With two of his personal ghoul attendants accompanying him, he slithered through the complex to the hall near the storeroom where the fighting had been heaviest. Dead snake men and broodguards lay all around. Of the intruders the only sign were a human and an elf - and they were still inside. Snaru, one of his loyal snake headed followers, suggested that the back door to the store room had slammed shut, but after that they had noted movement in the storeroom; perhaps one of more of the intruders had been left behind. Of the flanking party sent through the other entrance to the cavern leading to the back entry to their complex, nothing had been heard - Fenthaza, who just showed up full of criticism for the disaster, could be entrusted with investigating their fate and the disappearance of the golem in that direction. Ras Nsi would deal personally with whatever was left in the storeroom. Sending his ghouls in the lead, he followed after nothing immediately attacked them. They flanked the exit behind Ras Nsi as he activated his flame-tongued sword and slithered around the store room, eventually running into an elf trying to hide behind some crates. He tried talking to the elf about surrender, but the elf began chanting words of magic but Ras Nsi was quicker, slashing the elf twice before getting hit by a blast of thunderwave. A rather weak attempt, Ras Nsi could sneer, slashing again at the elf and dropping him. This elf, too, appeared to have survived, and was hauled along with the others to his throne room. On the other elf, the snakemen discovered the eight cubes - Ras had just recently grabbed the other to keep it out of the hands of a band of Red Wizards that appeared to be heading toward interfering with whatever Acererak was using the Tomb of the Nine Gods for, and Ras was charged with preventing that from happening. It also appeared that these intruders were not Red Wizards - had they taken the cubes from the Wizards? That would make for a formidable force. Questioning would have to wait until the intruders had recovered enough to provide answers, in the meantime, now that Fenthaza had confirmed the deaths of the flanking party and Ras Nsi's pet hydra in the cavern, they would retreat their forces back from the cavern, and collapse the tunnel connecting the store room to the lake. Then they would conduct the ritual, they needed more snake men, the tribal delegation who had just brought tribute would serve that purpose, though they would have to sacrifice their remaining slaves.

Oddly, when they awakened  the next day and Ras Nsi questioned them, it was the human who spoke for them, not one of the elves. He was full of arrogance and bluster - and claimed they were essentially a band of treasure seekers. In that case they could serve as slaves until the next sacrifice - which should be soon, these three might be too dangerous to keep around for long. They were chained in the slave pits to await their fate.

Soon after, the alarm gong began ringing again. The rest of the intruders had returned, including the golem that had caused so much trouble; Ras Nsi again slithered out of the throne room to face them - they would first send in their new batch of purebloods along with some of their few remaining broodguards. After lobbing some fireballs and other magic back and forth through what remained of the poison distillery, the intruders eventually retreated behind a magical wall of fire that incinerated four purebloods. They had already lost another four along with four broodguards in the fighting, the metal and wood golem took a massive beating but retreated out before the wall of flame was cast. Two half-orcs were again in the thick of the fighting, it was unclear exactly how many were further back in the cavers, apparently another elf, and could that be a kobold tossing fireballs? As one of the last remaining snake headed Yuan Ti retreated from the flames, one of the half-orcs charged out from the flames as well, chopping him down. Ras Nsi attempted to knock that half orc out of the fight with a powerful casting of blight, but was dismayed to see the half orc take it and remain standing. The half orc then dove back into the flames, and when the flames dropped the enemies had again disappeared.

Returning to the throne room, he discovered the other intruders had also escaped, seizing the eight cubes they had brought with them along with their gear and the tribute recently arrived from the tribal delegation - and there was some good stuff in there! Still, they had not taken the last cube - Ras Nsi still had that one. The boat in the underground lake was gone as well - at least they knew how they had escaped. His forces, however, were getting dangerously low. Sending a party out to pursue might only weaken him further - waiting for them to return for the last cube might be the best option. Perhaps they might even be willing to bargain for it, if they were indeed the mercenary force described by the human warrior and not actually seeking the death of Ras Nsi (most of Chult would rejoice at his death, he well knew).

The next day the female half orc who had been blasted by the blight spell the previous day came knocking at their front door looking hardly worse off for it, offering to meet Ras Nsi and cut a deal. The human had returned as well. One of the Yuan Ti scouts stationed outside the entrance called out a warning that there was an invisible member of the treasure hunting band nearby. Fenthaza and Snaru accompanied Ras Nsi out, and the human pointed out that Fenthaza had helped them escape and asked them to kill Ras Nsi! Fenthaza cursed at the foreigners and slithered away in protest, but Ras Nsi knew the intruders were being truthful. The kobold then arrived, and suggested Ras Nsi disease was caused by the death curse, which was itself apparently caused by a device Acererak had hidden in the Tomb of the Nine Gods. As they were entering the Tomb to turn off or destroy this device, Ras Nsi would benefit from them doing so. If they were not successful, Ras Nsi would eventually succumb to the magical disease. If they agreed to enter the Tomb, stop the death curse, and no longer disturb the Yuan Ti, Ras Nsi was willing to give them the last remaining cube. The bargain struck, the outlanders left for the Tomb and Ras Nsi went to deal with Fenthaza...

Five Hour Fight

Session 16 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) 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) 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
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.

PC's Not Present:
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper - unconscious after inhaling sleep gas toward end of last session


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.
Itch, the kobold who introduced party to kobolds 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 - unconscious from inhaling sleep gas last session.

This is kind of a tough one to write up, as we had a pretty much continuous combat encounter that took place over five hours of real time, actually more as it was a continuation of the battle from last week as the Yuan Ti sounded the alert throughout their temple complex in response to Shummp's picking a fight with a Yuan Ti minion after half the party was immobilized by the sleeping gas. Shaun quickly brought Agatha out of it with a lesser restoration but he has only so many spell slots to go around. While Agatha shrugs off the near fatal pertrification from the basilisk, Shump, Vorn, Darius, and Varis are largely able to assist her in downing the basilisks, the broodguards, and their Yuan Ti minder before retreating back down the hall as they hear a commotion to their north of forces gathering and Shaun and Are note movement in the halls below as they hide with the unconscious party members down a side passage back toward the store room where they had defeated a giant talking snake last week. However, as the others retreat down the passage to join the others they are noticed by a snake headed Yuan Ti accompanied by two large muscular humans. He both threatens them (from afar) and suggests surrender as their most logical course of action. Shummp charges is intercepted by one of the humans, who turns out to be very tough. The other human is sent for reinforcements while the snake head retreats down the hall to fire his bow at Shummp, who soon retreats after taking massive damage and is replaced by Vorn, who chases the human and the snake headed Yuan Ti further down the hall way, past an intersection and he ends up cut off as reinforcements charge down through the intersection...

In the meantime, Farout the Tortle runs into a kobold (Itch) as he wanders around Omu, wondering where the magical T Rex killers he had lately been associating with had gone. The kobold showed him the secret tunnel they had disappeared into, suspecting that his friend Shaun may have run into some trouble down there. Farout then made is way through the wreckage from last week, making his way up the hallway the Yuan Ti were now running down from the other direction, but he had the presence of mind to cast pass without trace so he was hidden and could observe and choose his moment for getting involved, as does so as the reinforcements arrive, summoning a wall of water to smash them before they get into the passage. As they recover (still not noticing the hidden turtle creature) they split three ways, some going through the passage to the room where Farout was hiding to flank the party, while others go to face them head on, while the human minion goes after Vorn and the snake headed guy, who disappear through a door after Vorn finishes smashing the first human to pulp and continues after the next enemy in front of him.

Farout then changed into a spider and got ahead of the Yuan Ti flankers, joining the some of the party in the cave behind the store room. Are stood ready to close and lock the door behind them but much of the party was still scattered holding off enemies in the passage to the store room or the store room itself. Farout summoned a pack of eight wolves to help defend from the flankers a couple seconds before those Yuan Ti came into the cavern from the only other exit. The wolves proved very effective, with their pack tactics doing fairly massive amounts of damage per round. A few more enemies trickled in that way during the fight but the main action was down the hall way to the store room, as a massive scaly Yuan Ti with a big shield and a loud voice took command and dove through the door as Are was paralyzed with indecision about whether or not to close the door as Varis was still in the storeroom, now beset by two additional Yuan Ti (several others had died in front of these). Vorn was still cut off, attempting to fight his way back down the tunnel, fighting one or two enemies at a time in the close confines of these Yuan Ti tunnels was going fairly well for the construct, as the Yuan Ti damage per round was just barely exceeding Vorn's regeneration per round. Shaun attempted to revive Sam but ended up (perhaps it was the will of her diety, Kossuth?) reviving Adran instead.

Since the party had only had a short rest and a couple tough encounters prior to that they had already burned through most spells and Agatha was out of rage. Soon the fighters had burned through their action surges and second winds and other abilities and remaining healing potions were being burned through as well. The big scaly fighter guy eventually was dropped, but then more snakemen started to arrive. Are charged forward in dire wolf form, snapping at one, only to take a couple bites and slashes in return that not only knocked her back into her elf from but then dropped her as well. Adran used his new animate dead spell on a dead Yuan Ti and sent it shambling down the hall. Darius attempted to blast the Yuan Ti with a firebolt as he moved up next to the fallen Are and dropped one, but he was then dropped himself by a couple arrows from another Yuan Ti after the zombie was ripped apart by a broodguard who just arrived. And Vorn had nearly made it back when more enemies arrived! At this moment Agatha slammed the door shut and spiked it in place, and the remainder of the party retreated down the tunnel to the back entrance, leaving Adran to shove a crate in front of the entrance to the store room while he tried hiding behind another. Vorn then turned around as Varis seemed to be behind him and went out the other entrance; the snake men were at this point glad to let the construct go...

Thinking from the Yuan Ti perspective they kept feeding in more troops and losing them along with a couple senior leaders, they are feeling nearly as chewed up as the party with notably less intelligence on their enemy than they party does on the Yuan Ti... it will be interesting to see their attitude to the PC's going forward, but they do have prisoners now to pump for information... and one of Are's acts in the tunnel was to take the puzzle cubes off Sam for safe keeping (Sam is now the "safe" one, being carried out by Agatha). Now that the snake men have Are, they also have all the puzzle cubes...

Under the Palace

Session 15 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) 6, Entertainer and Bagpiper from the cold northern forests, Zhent
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) 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
Sembian Sam, Human Rogue 5 (thief), Ranger 1, archaeologist, Harper

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.


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.
Itch, the kobold who introduced party to kobolds 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.

Sembian Sam and Cormyran Kandy follow after the party, finding a pile of bodies (some headless) dumped beside a shrine dedicated to a zorbo diety. They also note from hiding a kamaran feasting on the bodies, a giant bloated snake that had already apparently consumed one or two, and a man with snakes for arms talking to another snake about how somebody had apparently killed the Red Wizards and taken their cubes. They waiting for the snakes and the cat to move along before approaching the shrine and reuniting with the party. Everyone then got in a long rest and they move on after the Yuan Ti who had apparently taken the zorbo puzzle cube, as the party now has the other eight. Itch shows up in the morning to comment on the damage done to the shrine, and the party denied responsibility, blaming the Red Wizards and Yuan Ti. Itch mentioned the Yuan Ti being dangerous, and mentioned again the nearby back entry into their lair when the party mentioned that they were looking for the last cube that appeared to have been taken by the Yuan Ti.

Entering the palace quarter through an opening in the wall Shummp, Sam, and Agatha led the way stealthily ahead of the rest of the party. To the left they noted an opening to a courtyard that appeared to have had some traffic into it, and they investigated, thinking it in the neighborhood of the secret entrance. They noted some large snakes hiding in the vegetation growing in the courtyard. Agatha immediately raged and charged to attack the nearest snake and the others followed as the two farther snakes turned into men with the heads of snakes and pulled out bows while the snake Agatha was attacking bit her. Shummp, Agatha, Sam, and Kandy combined to kill the one snake as the rest of the party moved up; Vorn charged in to smash a more regular size snake that came out of the bushes to bite Agatha as well. As the rest of the party closed in another snake man quickly fell and then they chased down and slayed the last before he had a chance to get away. In the fighting, Sam stumbled past and noted a hole behind some bushes leading into a passage into the earth.

They soon reorganized and made their way down through the passage, with Sam taking the lead using his blessing from Saja N'baza to see in the dark. The first few party members rolled high on their stealth roles and they noted lights ahead and closed in on four Yuan Ti broodguards, foul creatures transformed from regular humanoids to serve the snake men. In the surprise round and the two rounds immediately after the party dropped the broodguards, with a third level shatter from Adran being particularly effective (he rolled high damage while the broodguards rolled poor on their saves), though the party got a bit scattered and the shatter sunk a rowboat and caused some bells on the boats to ring... drawing the attention of the hydra living in the lake! It popped out of the water near Shaun and Varis, severely injuring the cleric. The half-orcs then charged it, doing a substantial amount of damage, killing a head and causing two more to appear. Varis then starting throwing firebolts to prevent the head growth, but switched to a lightning bolt one round and there was a seventh, and eventually an eighth head. As most of the party battled the hydra, several noticed someone open a door across the cavern and stare in surprise (with wide snake-like eyes) at the commotion. Soon Sam, Kandy, and Darius were on the Yuan Ti pureblood, with Darius grappling him to hold the snakeman in place while the others pummeled him and he called for help from his minions who started to shuffle forward from the room behind him. Darius then shoved him back and unleashed a burning hands spell to hit the zombies and inadvertently cause some explosions in the flammable poisons stored in the room as well, unleashing a cloud of toxic gas. The snakeman soon dropped and Shummp moved forward to engage the zombies after finally dropping the hydra (Varis eventually used a flaming sphere to pin it between the sphere and the party, which was an effective tactic though the monster had taken a substantial amount of damage by that point as well). Shummp took some poison damage from proximity to the toxins as he attacked the zombies but eventually the zombies fell and the gas cleared out. As the party checked out the room full of poisons to see what had survived Are noted a stopper in a brass jug and pulled it out, releasing another gas. Fortunately the party members in range made their saves and everyone retreated from the room again. Shaun used a prayer of healing to patch up the damaged members of the party, and both during and after the fight Are used most of her spell slots on cure wounds to help members of the party as well. They felt well enough restored to work their way back through the unworked cavern the last broodguard had started making a run toward and they closed to door to the poison lab behind them. Adran led this time, a bit ahead of the rest and he was quite stealthy, and came upon nine slaves (humans, albino dwarves, and goblins) holding sticks and shovels as they rested by a fire, watched by three broodguards and full fledged Yuan Ti with a human torso and head and a snake tail instead of legs. The party quickly dispatched the guards, looting the Yuan Ti, but it took some work for the party to convince the slaves to leave, but finally they talked them into leaving through the passage the party had entered. The vain Yuan Ti who was in charge had a key that opened the door leading out of the cave system into a worked stone room. Sam led the way in and was attacked by a talking snake who asked him who he was and what he was doing... Darius tried to have a conversation with the snake as it held Sam in his coils, but Sam yelling "Kill it!" led the half orcs to charge in with Kandy and between their efforts the snake was soon dead, with Sam injured. Shaun was able to help with Sam's injuries, and they hauled the dead snake back into the cave, locking the door behind them after looting a bit from the store room, locking it behind them; nobody was able to come up with a use for the crates of bronze bares, however... They then proceeded to have a snake roast for lunch, getting a short rest in.

After their break, they continued through the store into a more worked passage, following to the left as the passage started sloping up, and they found their way into a room full of relief carvings of Yuan Ti and Dendar the Night Serpant, and they didn't miss either the small holes in the walls or the button in the Yuan Ti's crown in one of the reliefs. Adran of course pressed the button, unleashing a gas that knocked out Sam, Kandy, Agatha, and Adran himself. The conscious party members quickly scrambled to pull the unconscious party members back down the hall way they had entered through. Then they heard a searcher above and some comments about how somebody had set off the gas. Slapping the unconscious party members and pouring water on them did not seem to help; Shaun, fearing for his life with more protection, cast a lesser restoration on Agatha, waking her. Shummp then decided that he would yell back at the searcher above, causing some further running and yelling. We left off as the party began to engage three broodguards backed up by a Yuan Ti and two basilisks, with a third of the party still unconscious and many spell slots expended, and then a gong sounded in the distance, somewhere further off in the Yuan Ti lair...