Tomb of Annihilation: Episode 24
Intelligent enemies let you do a little meta-gaming within reason. Since the creature is smarter than you, you’ll need to even the odds a bit. Using out-of-game knowledge to your advantage is a great way to do that as long as you remember to keep things fun. You’ll also find that talking your thought process out loud as a form of intimidation to your players can go a long way in showing how crafty and wicked these types of enemies truly are. “She gets a good look at you, and can tell you made Charisma your dump stat… so she casts Banishment. Please roll me a Charisma saving throw, and don’t be so predictable next time.”
The Party:
(Jon) Zorel, inhabited by Kubazan — Aasimar Paladin
(Terry) Harden, inhabited by Nangnang— Dwarf Barbarian
(Matt) Hexton, inhabited by I’jin — Gnome Wizard
(Stacy) Torven, inhabited by Wongo — Lizardfolk Monk/Druid
The Path:
Tomb of the Nine Gods — Vault of Reflection
“ …where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster.”
Mary Shelley — Frankenstein
Aasimar are afforded the opportunity to converse with their patron. Zorel had earlier asked his patron, Valandras, for clues on what to expect in the tomb, and received cryptic dreams in return. The first was about choking on wine, but the second involved being watched by ten creepy eyes. He wasn’t sure yet what it meant.
The party stood in front of the only remaining door that they hadn’t explored on this level . It had a round mirror, set with ten circular indentations. They began to set the ten crystal eyes into each socket, and they clicked in place. As they continued, their reflections became progressively unhealthier and decrepit. They lost hair and teeth, became skinnier, and started to look like skeletons or zombies.
The grinding vault door lifted upward, revealing a domed, candlelit room fifty feet high. The polished marble floor was so perfectly reflective that it created the illusion of standing at the entrance to a sphere. Nine alcoves filled with glittering treasure were opened up along the walls. In the middle of the chamber, a large spherical object hovered under a black silk drape twenty feet above the floor.
The skeleton key had to be somewhere near. Torven crept up slowly, looking around. Zorel was still getting used to the impulsive Kubazan, who urged him to run up to whatever was underneath the black drape and attack it. Zorel decided to have a little faith in his new spirit, and obliged. He ran up to it, as Torven pointed out that the skeleton key was hiding underneath the black drape. Zorel smashed the object with his sword. A great clanging rung out, and the black drape fell off to reveal the skeleton key hanging on to a big iron sphere.
At that moment, the iron sphere’s magnetic aura took over, and Zorel and Harden slammed against the bottom of the object. Their metal armour was magnetized to the sphere, and they were turned immobile. Torven tried to keep them calm as he and Hexton aimed their attacks. Before they could, they heard a rumbling come from above. A beholder shouted in Deep Speech “You are no match for Belchorzh the Unseen’s terrible eye rays!”
This vault was Belchorzh the beholder’s chamber. He had been rendered invisible thanks to a Wish spell from Acererak, and began to attack the party with his powerful abilities. Each turn three of his eye stalks randomly shot rays at the party as he hovered above the battlefield.
Within moments, Torven was unconscious from a sleep ray, and Zorel and Harden helplessly absorbed damage as they were still trapped against the iron sphere. Harden summoned his dao, Keshma, to help them in the fight, and she got to work protecting them.
Every turn Belchorzh shot out more and more rays. Hexton ran to Torven to wake him up, but Belchorzh tagged him with a slowing ray. As Keshma replaced the black drape, freeing Harden and Zorel, they were nearly killed by a death ray and a petrification ray. “What ugly, imperfect creatures you are,” Belchorzh mused.
It was a tense battle. Spells flew around like fireworks. Belchorzh was invisible, so it was hard to even find where to attack. She flew up and swung her maul around doing some modest damage. Hexton couldn’t target Belchorzh, but he could use area-of-effect spells and try to get the beholder caught up in the crossfire. He cast some devastating Fireball and Cone of Cold spells that worked perfectly.
The group tried to stay as close to Zorel as they could, as his Aura of Protection ability boosted their saving throws — and Belchorzh was causing lots of saving throws. Harden had awoken Torven, taken care of the skeleton key, and were chipping away blindly at the beholder. But Belchorzh finally hit Hexton with a paralyzing ray, temporarily taking his spellcasting out of the battle. Zorel tried to rush over to revive him, but succumbed to a petrifying ray and was turned to stone. Harden cried out for Keshma to do something.
Keshma used Harden’s final wish on a greater restoration spell and turned Zorel back into flesh. That gave enough power for the team to give everything they had and destroy the beholder. It dropped to the ground, finally visible, as an aberrant mess of guts and gore. The party breathed a sigh of relief, collected some treasure, and procured the skeleton key for this level.
“‘Will I remember this?’ ‘No. . . . You will be clay.’”
Isaac Bashevis Singer — The Golem
The group had fought hard and were rewarded with a rare long rest inside the tomb. Keshma bid them goodbye and left, as Hexton cast Leomund’s Tiny Hut to ensure a good sleep. Refreshed, they continued on to the next level of the tomb.
They descended to the fourth level, finding another of Acererak’s warnings.
At the bottom of the grand staircase, a resonant mechanical rumbling emanated from a dark shaft opening up in the middle of the chamber’s floor. Four cylindrical stone pedestals surrounded the shaft, each ten feet tall, five five feet wide, and featuring a tiny slot in its side. Squatting atop each pedestal was a large four-armed gargoyle.
Torven’s keen eye saw that each pedestal’s tile was embedded with a different metal — copper, silver, gold, and platinum. Harden tried to peer down the shaft from the balcony, while Hexton looked at the different paths they could take. Zorel was feeling brave though. He was clearly bonding well with Kubazan, and walked up to the gargoyles. He announced to the party to watch what he did, and then pulled out a handful of coins. He placed a copper coin in the copper slot, and continued around until he placed a platinum coin in the platinum slot.
Nothing happened, though they didn’t know if that was good or bad. Regardless, there was a hallway to the east, and Zorel wanted to see what was there. Harden followed, but didn’t place any coins himself into the slots. The gargoyles awoke and began defending the area, though ignoring Zorel. The team attacked back. Without adamantine weapons, their attacks weren’t very effective against the gargoyles. Hexton had a clever idea and used a Banishment spell on one, which ended up sending the gargoyle to the macabre oubliette that Torven had escaped from. Since the party was at full health, they managed to fend off the gargoyles even without adamantine weapons, and soon the floor was covered in broken bits of stone.
They explored the area around, and found a staircase that crept upwards. Torven led the way, coming to a stone slab that blocked the end of the corridor. Painted on the slab was the image of a gaunt male humanoid wearing a hooded cloak, its mask a face of stars. The figure’s withered left hand was raised with palm extended.
Torven and Zorel worked together to find traps, but couldn’t detect any. Nor could they find a way to open the door. Torven tried touching the hand on the image, but it didn’t do anything. Finally, he stepped back and tried to recreate the pose of the figure. Zorel gleefully saw that it worked. The slab sunk into the floor, revealing a dusty passageway beyond. Relief carvings on the walls depicted crowds of humanoids fleeing a black star in the sky, with rays of light extending from it to turn those they struck to dust.
They marched forward. The room was a bit of a maze, with oddly placed walls. Harden was first to notice in the central open space a gold crown topped with a glittering black opal resting on a marble pedestal. This was something Harden desperately wanted. It looked magnificent, and every dwarven instinct told him to grab it. But he also thought of himself as a wise leader, and this didn’t seem safe at all. The others explored around, and Zorel found a green stone face of devilish countenance protruding from the wall. Leaning his ear near it allowed him to hear a faint whisper emanating from it. Though he couldn’t understand it, it thoroughly spooked him, and he urged everyone to leave. Harden agreed, but finding a different exit to the west, ushered the party out that way.
They ran down the hall and came to a dusty room, empty except for an ornate, rectangular mirror mounted on the wall. Zorel was first to walk up to it. He saw his reflection in the mirror, and before he could act, he was gone in an instant.
The party screamed. Harden shouted at everyone not to go close to the mirror. Hexton responded to avert their gazes away from its reflection. Torven was sick of losing more team members and crumbled into a corner. After a few moments, Hexton told everyone to calm down, and he would use a ritual spell to learn more about this item’s properties. He carefully cast Identify on the mirror, and learned it was a Mirror of Life Trapping. At least Zorel wasn’t dead — he was merely trapped inside the mirror.
Acererak’s warning said “the mirror holds twelve.” Hexton’s spell let him know that if he spoke the name of someone in the mirror, they would appear and be able to communicate. He called out Zorel’s name, and Zorel appeared, as if behind glass. Harden and Hexton reassured him, saying they would get him out momentarily. Zorel had only been gone for a few minutes, but he was already panicking. He bade them to hurry.
Torven was very unhappy though. He said they didn’t know what else was in the mirror. They could accidentally release anything from there, not just Zorel. He lamented that he was sick of losing teammates. Grender, Illiyum, Alathar…
As he said “Alathar” a strange thing happened. The image on the mirror changed. Suddenly, a disheveled, fair-haired half-elf appeared in the mirror. His eyes were familiar, but his look was now wild and paranoid. But when he locked eyes with Torven, they recognized each other.
“Torven?” the figure said.
“Alathar?!” Torven replied.
Somehow, it was indeed Alathar.
Previous: Episode 23
Next: Episode 25
