Tomb of Annihilation: Episode 11
Death in D&D doesn’t have to be a negative thing. Even in an adventure like Tomb of Annihilation, where magical resurrection has been taken away. From a story standpoint, I was going to make death provide an opportunity for some more character advancement, and motivation for why these heroes were embarking on this dangerous adventure.
The Party:
(Jon) Zorel — Aasimar Paladin
(Terry) Elsbereth — Elf Ranger
(Matt) Grender — Human Wizard
(Stacy) Coberion — Halfling Sorcerer
The Path:
Baldur’s Gate, Cloakwood Forest
“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”
JK Rowling — Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
As far as the players were concerned, Alathar and Illiyum were dead. But the story had to go on. I didn’t want two new characters to suddenly appear in a contrived way that took the players out of the story. There had to be a reason that they worked together, and we should know a little bit about these new characters. I had seen in some discussions online that Cellar of Death from the DM’s Guild was getting highly recommended as a starting point for Tomb of Annihilation. My game had already started, so I didn’t get a chance to use it. But now that I had to introduce some characters, I figured this was a great chance to utilize the adventure.
I’ve mentioned that I often view my role as a DM like the“showrunner” of a fantasy series. Alathar and Illiyum dying was like the season finale where everyone wonders how the story will go on without them. And I was beginning a new season with a sort of backdoor introduction of these new characters by showing a flashback of these all new characters. The audience knows it will connect to the main storyline, but it’s unclear how exactly.
I had my players create four new characters; Zorel Duzan, an aasimar paladin whose god, Valandras sends him omens; Elsbereth Nai’lo, an elf ranger who was part of the Emerald Enclave, Coberion Kettlebank a halfling sorcerer looking for adventure, and Grender Struz, a human wizard mercenary for hire.
Cellar of Death then has everyone create an NPC together by answering questions one by one. We came up with:
Alyhandra, 190-year-old half-elf garment-maker. She was friends with Coberion as a child. She came from a wealthy, powerful family that she was trying to branch out from. Elsbereth was a wealthy family contact who was Alyhandra’s friend. As she got older, she started doing whatever it took to get her name well-known, hiring Grender as a trusted “fixer.” As she got into some shady dealings, she was assassinated by a rival. Her family turned their back on her, so her friends had to pay for the resurrection. Afterwards, they got Zorel to guard her faithfully.
Unfortunately, some months later, the “Death Curse” struck (as detailed in the start of the Tomb of Annihilation campaign), and anyone resurrected withers away once more. So this adventure began at Alyhandra’s funeral, where Syndra Silvane recruited the four adventurers to stop the curse, and perhaps save their friend before it is too late.
Syndra and some Harpers have tracked down a lich who they think they can get some answers from. The Harpers will assault the stronghold and take on the toughest opponents. But this new team of heroes can help out by sneaking into her cellar and snatching her phylactery away.
This group agreed to the plan, and were soon on their way to the mission. They were brought to the Cloakwood, where the lich’s lair laid. Zaldara, the Duchess of Rot, lived in a monolithic black tower that poked above the dense forest of the Cloakwood. They heard their signal, a war horn, telling them the assault was on. They had to get the phylactery quickly.
They skulked into a cave that led to the cellar of Zaldara’s. Zorel’s paladin powers were instantly helpful, as he used his Divine Sense to spot two skeletons lurking in the darkness. Coberion and Grender slung some cantrip spells at them and took them out before they could cause any trouble.
They stealthily continued forward, and Elsbereth came across a ghoul gnawing on an halfling’s arm near a cursed fountain of blood. They quickly disposed of it, and tiptoed around the unnerving decor.
More ghouls were found further up ahead, and the group found a spiral staircase heading up, where they could hear the sounds of the Harper’s battle. They hurried up, and continued exploring the cellar. They knew the phylactery was supposed to be a spellbook bound in human skin.
They stumbled into a room filled with rusty arms and armour, save for a round shield painted red. Zorel took it off the wall to examine it, but this caused two flying swords to come to life and attack them. As Elsbereth reared back her bow and shot at the two swords, the arrows went right past them and changed course towards Zorel. They were very confused. Grender saved the day by using some Magic Missiles to take out the swords. Coberion informed the group that Zorel must have picked up a cursed shield. Fortunately, he was operating as the “tank” of the group, so arrows being attracted to him wasn’t even that much a negative. Accepting of their fate, the group began to bond already.
The explored a bit more of the dungeon, dodging traps and slaying a few more creatures, until they came to a room with two thick pillars and a chest in the middle. Again Zorel’s Divine Sense helped them realize a spectre was waiting for them in the room, which brought forth a harrowing battle where it almost drained the life out of Coberion. Fortunately, Zorel took a few heavy hits for the team, and Grender’s Eldritch Blast once again obliterated an opponent just in time.
Coberion bypassed the trapped pillars and opened the chest, revealing the lich’s spellbook. They grabbed some treasure, quaffed some potions, and escaped the cellar to tell their contact that they had the spellbook.
They came out to see a gory scene. Many Harpers lay dead on the battleground. The leader of the Harpers, Remalia Haventree was injured in the assault, but elated to see the phylactery and thanked the characters. She then yelled to the lich to surrender. She teleported outside and saw the remnants of the force that opposed her. She refused to surrender and cast a spell on Remalia, throwing her in the air and knocking her out.
A lich was usually too dangerous for a group of adventurers this green, but they could see that she was already incredibly injured. They threw everything they had at her for one round of combat. It was still going to be difficult regardless of how hurt she was, so Zorel spoke up to intimidate her. He offered to give her the phylactery if she revealed what she knew of the death curse.
Zaldara sighed, and agreed. She stopped the fight, and told them what she knew. She said the only thing that could power a curse so terrible could be an ungodly necromantic device called a Soulmonger. Her research pointed out Chult as the likely location. They then let Zaldara go, and began to tend to the wounded.
Remalia and the surviving Harpers thanked the characters greatly for their actions. Soon, Syndra Silvane came by and offered to teleport them to Chult to help discover how to end the death curse. Since the four of them worked so well together, they decided to try it out.
I had heard a lot of positive things about Cellar of Death, and a lot of negative feedback on the unmotivated start from Syndra found in Tomb of Annihilation. Creating a character that all the characters know is a great way to start the campaign, and serves as a much better motivation than helping Syndra, who has no real tie to the characters. But I found the dungeon itself very lacking. It was boring and bland, and didn’t offer many interesting encounters. I think players would have way more fun just messing around in Port Nyanzaru, or being given a quest there that can lead them around the city.
Regardless, I had successfully introduced this new group of adventurers. I would now be able to skip ahead in time and find a way to merge the group so that all my players could have a character play, and continue the storyline of Tomb of Annihilation.
Previous: Episode 10
Next: Episode 12
