Tomb of Annihilation: Episode 2
A great new aspect of D&D is dmsguild.com. It’s a marketplace filled with content made by D&D-lovers. There are sourcebooks, original adventures, classic campaigns, character options, and so much more. Because of all that content, they introduced the DMs Guild Adepts, who are handpicked designers known for releasing quality products. For each adventure starting with Tomb of Annihilation, they will simultaneously release their Guild Adept materials to give DMs like me a solid option to expand their campaigns. Non-adepts can still contribute great content of course, and my first purchase was one such product: Tomb of Annihilation Companion, by Sean McGovern.
The Party:
(Jon) Alathar — Half-elf Bard
(Terry) Harden — Dwarf Barbarian
(Matt) Illiyum — Gnome Wizard
(Stacy) Torven — Lizardfolk Monk
The Path:
Port Nyanzaru, Jungles of Chult
They had passed beyond the lands traveled by any but the very brave or the very foolish.
— James Lowder, The Ring of Winter
As the party confirmed their plans, they noticed an older man intently listening on their conversation. Illiyum recognized the eavesdropper as Volothamp Geddarm, the famous traveller and storyteller that he’d read about. “Volo” was selling his latest book, Volo’s Guide to Monsters. Volo was interested in their adventures, and introduced himself. Alathar embellished some tales of their heroics, which Volo “purchased the rights to”, and offered them a signed copy of his book at a discounted price.
The next day they made a list of things they had to buy for the Chultan jungles (a sturdy canoe, insect repellent, rain catchers, etc.) They just so happened to walk by the dinosaur races, and decided to join on a lark. Unfortunately, it was a total bust. Harden volunteered to race, eager for the chance to crush some dinosaurs. They picked Jungle Thunder, a young tyrannosaurus rex who was itching to race. Only a few seconds into the race though, Jungle Thunder acted out. Harden yelled back at the dinosaur, and it anxiously veered off-course. Perhaps they should have chosen someone with a softer touch. The race ended in defeat, and the party packed it in.
They got all of their gear, met up with the Zhentarim spy, Rokah, and the two tabaxi guides, Flask and River, and set out for Fort Belurian.
To learn how to use a sword, one must first master when to use a sword.
— R.A. Salvatore, Streams of Silver
Exploration into the jungle is a huge part of Tomb of Annihilation, especially the first half. Characters need to feed themselves, stay hydrated, try to not get lost, and avoid the many dangers found within. The adventure book gives a lot of rolls to navigate this stuff, but the bookkeeping became a bit tedious. And some aspects were unclear. Drinking from the river and not boiling your water is dangerous, but their guides obviously tell them this right away, so that danger is gone. And they bought raincatchers, which automatically filled with water from the rain, so water foraging was made perfunctory.
To make things easier, I bought the Tomb of Annihilation Companion, as it advertised “30 days of travel” that DMs could follow along with their players to keep a steady pace and not get too bogged down by bookkeeping and endless dice rolls. I’d give this a shot, and see if it worked for my group.
I stuck with this for the first few days of travel. The party foraged for food and found some of the interesting plants native to Chult. Later they came across a horde of zombies, and stumbled upon an abandoned camp with 20 gallons of fresh water (even further lessening the threat of dehydration).
On day three they found some dancing monkey fruit. Illiyum ate some, failed his Constitution saving throw, and began dancing uncontrollably. Seeing this, some pterafolk swooped down and tried to attack the adventurers. Finally, they would get a chance to show their muscle.
Harden swung at the enemies with his maul, Torven tried to claw and bite them, Alathar brandished his sword valiantly, and Illiyum continued to dance. I wasn’t sure yet how much their Zhentarim friends should participate at this point, so I let the players control the battle. Having non-player-characters (NPCs) doing all the heavy hitting in battle takes all that fun away from the players. If things got tense, I’d bring them in to help out.
But there was no need. They bludgeoned one enemy badly and the other quickly flew away. They kept this pterafolk as their prisoner, hoping her presence would help them avoid more attacks from the “terror folk.”
By the next day, they came across a strange sight. Past a small clearing, frost covered the ground and trees, as icicles hung from the branches, slowly melting under the hot Chultan sun. The group started looking around to see what could have caused this, when suddenly more pterafolk attacked. Spells flew out every which way as they fought back against the flying terrors.
The party was thrilled to get another chance to test their strength. The pterafolk tried to use flying to their advantage, so the spellcasters got to take over. Illiyum sprayed one with Fire Bolts, and once they were hurt enough, Alathar cast Sleep so they would drop bluntly to the ground to be finished off by Torven and Harden.
In her opinion, any encounter with the Zhentarim should be handled with a sword, not with diplomacy and bargaining.
— Elaine Cunningham, Elfshadow
They defeated a few enemies, including their prisoner who was trying to escape, when suddenly an explosion of icy power erupted from behind them. These ice blasts ended the threat as the source of this powerful magic came into view: Artus Cimber. Artus had been referenced in the previous adventure, and was the star of a novel set in Chult that a player had read (which worked for this campaign and didn’t spoil anything: we said these were rumours and stories his people had heard, so it just added to the intrigue of meeting the real Artus Cimber).
Artus, a rogue Harper agent with a taste for adventure and his companion, Dragonbait, a saurial from another plane who could only speak by “shouting” different odours, like lemon (for joy) and brimstone (for confusion), happily made the acquaintance of the characters. Artus said he was being chased by Frost Giants who wanted to steal his Ring of Winter for themselves. Meanwhile, he was trying to reunite with a lost love who disappeared along with the city of Mezro, and was heading for the ruins of Orolunga, where he heard an ancient “naga” resided who could provide some answers.
I had Artus do a few things for me. After they mentioned their quest, he told the characters a few of the places he’d visited or heard of that could be of some assistance. He mentioned a camp run by the Order of the Gauntlet near one of the main rivers who could help. They were good people, but they weren’t from Chult. Artus said he’d been hoping to speak with the grungs, the poisonous frog-people native to this land, before he got a tip to go to Orolunga. Maybe the grungs, who worship an old Chultan god, could help them more. Finally, he mentioned Kir Sabal, the home the Aarakocra, a peaceful race of birdpeople, who are enemies of the pterafolk. They held ancient wisdom within their safe walls.
I didn’t want to overload them with choice, but I wanted them to get an idea of what was in the jungle and how many options they could have. This worked great, because they had to take out the real map that the adventure book provides, and to try to come up with a plan using it. Based only on some rumours they’d picked up in Port Nyanzaru, and this meeting with Artus, they realized they had a few solid leads to follow to try and discover the source of the Soulmonger and stop the death curse.
As Dragonbait secreted a scent of freshly cut grass, he and Artus bid adieu to the adventurers and went on their way. The party seemed intrigued by all they had learned, but realized they didn’t need to make a decision right away, instead continuing on to Fort Belurian.
Following the Tomb of Annihilation Companion wasn’t terrible, and it allowed them to keep less track of food and water, but it lost something important. Part of the fun for me was that even I didn’t know what the party would encounter in the jungle. When I followed the “30 days of travel,” I was bound by a tight script. Ultimately, it wasn’t for me.
They continued up north. They met a desperate explorer tied to a tree covered in honey after he tried to swindle some batiri goblins. They found treasure, and bodies of other explorers littered along the jungle, killed in various unseemly ways. Soon they’d be out of the jungle, and into the Flaming Fist’s compound, but that didn’t mean things were going to get better for them.
