Tomb of Annihilation: Episode 15
I was getting more comfortable throwing situations at my players and not having any idea how they would react or forcing it to go in any direction. Instead of having a combat encounter plotted out, I could just have an enemy approach them with an interesting dilemma, and if the party thought combat was appropriate, they could follow their hearts. But if they wanted to try something else, that was also a valid option. Having the Red Wizards own some puzzle cubes already meant there were multiple ways your players could solve this little conundrum.
The Party:
(Jon) Zorel — Aasimar Paladin
(Terry) Harden — Dwarf Barbarian
(Matt) Grender — Human Wizard
(Stacy) Torven — Lizardfolk Monk/Druid
The Path:
Omu, I’jin’s Shrine, Papazotl’s Shrine, Nangnang’s Shrine
“I am content in knowing I am as brave as any best that ever lived, if not braver.”
L. Frank Baum — The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Omu was filled with varied encounters that made for a solid pace. After having brushes with death against the King of Feather or trying to solve a shrine, they got to enjoy the slower moments. The party was able to stop by a magical academy and find out the history of Omu — how Ubtao turned his back on his people for acting badly, how the nine trickster gods arrived, and then how Acererak slaughtered them all and built the tomb.
Someone else was tracking their progress, however. They party had been told to meet up with the Red Wizards by Valindra Shadowmantle, and they had so far shirked their responsibilities. It just so happened that they came across one of the Red Wizards, Yamoch, who was scouting around the city with two of his guards. Yamoch waved them down, coyly smiled, and said he’d been expecting them.
The party got very nervous right away. Red Wizards were evil and conniving, and the group was unsure of their ultimate plans. Yamoch beckoned them to come and meet the other Red Wizards and work out an alliance to their mutual benefit. Harden awkwardly agreed to this and they started walking south together. Grender was shooting beleaguered looks, and Zorel was on the verge of freaking out. He was trying to communicate with the group about whether or not this was a good idea, without letting the Red Wizards know.
Harden could feel the tension, and they were getting very close to the Red Wizard base, so he took action. His maul was still at Finde’s, so he swung his axe at one of the guards. Torven saw this and quickly swiped at the other, and Zorel and Grender unleashed some powerful spells to incapacitate everyone before they could raise an alarm. It seemed to work, so they hid the bodies, and tried to continue on looting the shrines without raising the ire of the Red Wizards again.
I’jin’s shrine came into view next. A harmless little almiraj was burrowing outside its namesake’s shrine, which freaked the party out a bitm but they trudged on.They had to traverse a dangerous puzzle floor, and Zorel offered to bypass it with a Misty Step spell. Instead though, since they had done quite well solving puzzles before, they tried to “outsmart” the puzzle. A solid Wisdom (Perception) check from Harden led to him spotting tiny holes in the wall where he surmised arrows or darts would surely pop out of. He decided to hunker in front of them with Zorel’s large shield and get the others to filter across slowly. Unfortunately, there were many other holes, and the party ended up stepping on many incorrect tiles and getting some poison darts shot their way. Still, they survived, then make their way through a trapped maze. They made Torven lead since he was the best at finding traps, and eventually recovered their third puzzle cube.
They wanted to avoid the middle of the city, as they were worried about Bag of Nails hunting them down there, so they skirted to the north side of the city and kept close to the cliff edge. They passed through a bazaar where they found a group of Kobolds who were in charge of resetting the traps around Omu. After a fierce battle where the group decimated the kobolds, Torven decided to communicate with their leader instead of killing him. He shook him down for information and forced him to reveal all the locations of the shrines around the city. Now they could plot out a smart course and not have to wade into any unnecessarily dangerous areas. Torven also made them reveal the progress the Red Wizards had made, and discovered they’d already found two puzzle cubes. It appeared a confrontation with them was inevitable.
They were now in the flooded area of the city, and had to swim to the next shrine, dedicated to Papazotl the eblis. After creeping past the crocodiles, they stepped into the shrine and found six statues in alcoves, and a pedestal with a riddle on it. The riddle read:
Comes with sunshine
Leaves with night
Hides in darkness
Does not bite
Always joined to its caster
Never strays from its master
Grender quickly surmised the answer was “shadow.” Torven waved his torch around to begin casting shadows, and soon they found a hidden tunnel behind one of the statues. They crawled in and found a strange grid, which Harden combined with the riddle to give a new message that read “cover eyes.” Zorel blindfolded each statue and another puzzle cube appeared.
They were revelling in their success so far. They were close to a waterfall, so they water was a bit tougher to swim through. On the eastern side of the city was another shrine, and that was their target now. Harden was a great swimmer, and he made it first. Musharib followed with no trouble at all. Torven rolled extremely poorly on his Strength (Athletics) check, and was swept away into the centre of the city, away from the group. Just like that they were separated into three different areas, and more vulnerable than any other time in Omu.
Grender was even less confident in his swimming abilities than Torven, so Zorel stuck by him to make sure he was safe. He grabbed him tightly, and then — THWOK — an arrow hit him square in the chest. Zorel looked down, and saw his name scrawled on the arrow’s shaft, looked up, and saw Bag of Nails camped out on a building, knocking a second arrow.
Grender and Zorel scrambled to get behind cover. THWOK. Another arrow pierced Zorel’s armour. Zorel had incredibly tough armour, and a shield that protected him against missile attacks, but he was still getting hit — hard. THWOK. One more arrow hit him in the neck, and he almost passed out from the blood loss. Finally, the two of them hid behind a building, and Grender was able to stabilize Zorel and heal his wounds. Zorel was angry, and determined to get his revenge on Bag of Nails. But now was not the time.
Torven was swept into the city, but finally caught himself and met a contingent of yuan-ti pureblood outcasts. They were disillusioned with Ras-Nsi’s power, and were forming a rebellion against him. If Torven and his party swore to protect them, they would show them a secret entrance into Ras Nsi’s lair — the Fane of the Night Serpent.
Everyone rested while split up, and eventually reconvened outside their original target, which turned out to be Nangnang’s shrine. The shrine was occupied by a litany of grung warriors, many of which were camped out on the roof. They were led by a lavishly dressed Chief Yorb, mounted atop a hadrosaurus. Yorb ordered a volley of attacks, as the grungs and the party entered a war of attrition. There were too many grung ranged attacks for the party to safely move to the entrance. Torven used some creative — but acceptable — cartoon logic and found some nearby reeds to use as an underwater breathing apparatus à la Disney’s Robin Hood. This allowed him and Grender to get close enough to the building, coax a couple grungs over, and use a Confusion spell to give Harden and Zorel an opening to get into a good position. A battle ensued, where Zorel cleaved the hadrosaurus and slew Yorb, while Harden screamed and raged and took on five grungs at once. Finally, they all made it into the shrine safely.
It took a while to figure out how to get the puzzle cube in the shrine. Musharib read to them the inscription “Whoever among you is the richest, bring me your gifts.” After some trial-and-error, they found if one, and only one, was holding one of the treasures found inside the shrine, then a locked door would open.
With that, they had their fifth puzzle cube. The party knew that the Red Wizards had procured two for themselves. That meant two more were left. They would have to hurry to beat the Red Wizards — or anyone else who was trying to find them.
Previous: Episode 14
Next: Episode 16
