Tomb of Annihilation: Episode 28
Some players are completionists. They want to open every door, search every corner, and hunt down every enemy that stands in their way. Sometimes they may not even mean to, they just believe that’s a smart and efficient way of playing D&D. But it can slow down gameplay. You need to be ready to encourage players to move forward. You should toss them some breadcrumbs to move the story along, rather than indulging in their every curiosity.
The Party:
(Jon) Alathar, inhabited by Shagambi — Half-Elf Bard
(Terry) Harden, inhabited by Unkh — 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 — Gears of Hate
“If the redeemed sing, presumably someone must write the songs.”
Charles Williams — Descent into Hell
The party had found their fifth skeleton key in the remnants of the destroyed stone juggernaut. There was much more to this level of the dungeon, but with the skeleton key in hand, finding an exit became the new top priority. They moved back as a group to the middle cog. They’d have to split up since someone would have to take over the cog movement from the control room.
Torven ran back to the panel as the three others stood in this pentagonal room. A pungent stench hung in the air, as a wild garden full of sickly plants and rotting compost dominated the area. Torven fiddled with the controls, and the room rotated, revealing two exits. At the same time, a sprinkler from above began spraying the room. The party shielded themselves from the rain, but it appeared harmless.
Alathar and Hexton went to the next cog room to the east, while up north was a small chamber that Harden decided to investigate. Thick green gas billowed out of the skull-shaped nozzles set into its walls. A rotting corpse clad in studded leather armour laid on the floor, mouth open and hands grasping its throat. Wrapped around one of its arms was a yellow band.
Another member of the Company of the Yellow Banner, thought Harden. These fellows couldn’t catch a break. Harden extracted a longsword with a dragon-shaped hilt from the doomed adventurer, and a pouch with six carnelian gemstones.
As he exited to reunite with Alathar and Hexton, the vegetation in the sickly garden came to life. The sprinkler had awakened the deadly plants. Three shambling mounds attempted to engulf Harden, who screamed for Hexton and Alathar to return. Hexton cast Evard’s Black Tentacles, which grappled the shambling mounds in place while the rest of the party dealt with the mess. Soon the vegetation was destroyed, and Torven was able to move the cogs in a way so he could accompany the group into the final room.
Five teak wardrobes stood against the ironclad walls of this chamber, each with a door bearing a carved image or scene. Puddles of grey slime covered parts of the floor. The room had two exits, including an adamantine portcullis blocking a passage to the north. Set into a metal plate above the portcullis was a row of five red crystals shaped like drops of blood.
I used the alternate version of this room, the Cog of Blood, from Tomb of Annihilation Companion, which focused more on interactions than combat. The party opened each of the five wardrobes and encountered an event from five different planes of existence. The met a rust dragon from Acheron, an arcanaloth from Gehenna, a monodrone from Mechanus, and Will-o’-Wisps from the Shadowfell. Each time they interacted with a creature from that plane, another red crystal above the portcullis lit up.
The final wardrobe led them to the Nine Hells. A devil clad in fine garb ushered them into a courtroom presided over by a devil judge. The party was to serve as the jury for a trial of a half-elf. The half-elf, Fathom, claimed to have been tricked into signing an infernal contract. Her sister had the death curse, and Fathom signed over her soul to the devils if they agreed to cure her sister. The devil pointed out that the standard practice for contracts of this type was that the devils had six days to cure the sister, but since she died of other means only three days later, Fathom was simply the victim of unfortunate timing. According to the devils, her soul belonged to the Nine Hells. The party tried to catch up on all the information, but the devils weren’t very helpful.
The devil’s advocate rolled his eyes and grinned, telling the group that their presence here was merely a formality. Still, they tried to speak to the half-elf. Fathom said her sister died mysteriously in a fire, and that the devils started it. The devil interrupted, saying they needed them to make a decision. Not only that, they began bribing them with gold and jewel so they could hurry to a verdict.
Alathar and Torven wondered about Fathom and what made sense to do for the greater good. Hexton asked to look over the contract, while Harden stomped his foot loudly and shouted at the devils. He would not be swayed away from true justice.
Alathar used a Charisma (Deception) check to outsmart the devil and threaten to find her innocent, but the devil shot back that finding Fathom innocent without a valid reason would cause a mistrial, and she would only get a chance at a retrial in nine years.
Hexton read over the contract, but parts of it were in the infernal language, which he couldn’t read. He got Alathar to stall the devils as long as he could, which Alathar was more than happy to oblige in with some very successful Charisma (Persuasion) checks. Torven and Hexton huddled, and got an idea. They asked the spirit in the ghost lantern if she could read infernal, and she in fact could. Together, they found a very tiny passage at the bottom that said if the sister died of anything other than the death curse, the contract was null and void.
They declared Fathom innocent, and the devils couldn’t help but admit how impressed they were with the heroes’ navigation of the infernal court system. With that, they were blasted back to the Tomb, and all five crystals were now lit up. This raised the portcullis and bade them forward in a new direction.
They came upon a hall of decay, where graven images of rotting corpses decorated the walls, and the floor was littered with tarnished coins, pieces of armour, broken shields, and other bits of scrap metal. Alathar and Torven stepped forward and all of their nonmagical equipment instantly decayed and corroded, becoming worthless. Hexton cast Detect Magic and saw across the hall that an iron bull’s skull gave off an aura of necromancy magic. Alathar smashed the skull, and the hall became safe for the rest of the group to traverse. They put on some new clothes and continued.
“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”
William Shakespeare — Macbeth
A staircase went downwards leading to the sixth level of the tomb. Green smoke billowed out from a bronze cauldron in the middle of this twenty-foot-high vaulted hall. Barely visible through the haze were three rocking chairs, several work benches heaped with haberdashery, a spinning wheel, and a rusty iron cage containing a prisoner. Galleries stood ten feet above the floor to either side of the room. They could see the doors set into the walls of the galleries were carved with geometric symbols.
The party realized this must be what the skeleton keys were for. There were five geometric doors for the five geometric keys, which meant they’d found them all. They were close to the end. Hexton stopped the group from moving forward for a moment.
I had purchased The Lost Treasures of Omu, so items like the Navel of the Moon came with magical powers instead of just being worth a lot of money. Before the party moved further into the room, Hexton used his Navel of the Moon to cast True Seeing so he could see secret doors. But it also gave him the ability to see into the Ethereal Plane, which was incredibly fortunate, because he caught sight of three creatures he hadn’t seen before. Three night hags were in the room but in another plane. Hexton now knew that these three hags were here, probably waiting to strike when the time was right. Now, the group would be able to carefully plan around that.
The party inched forward into the room. Before they could get far, three tiny figures waddled towards them through the smoky haze: a straw doll with rusty pins sticking into its body, a faceless child molded from clay, and a stuffed monkey with the lower body of a unicycle. The straw doll said, “You need to run away! The Sewn Sisters will be back any moment now!”
Everyone in the party was very skeptical of these play-things. It seemed like a clear trick by either Acererak or the aforementioned night hags. They questioned the straw doll, asking her why it was so dangerous for them. She introduced herself as Strawbundle, and the others as Clay No-Face, and Joho the monkey.
Strawbundle spoke in hushed tones about the hags. She said she and her comrades were made from the souls of children, and trapped in these forms. Everyone was keen to use Wisdom (Insight) checks to see if Strawbundle was lying, but the checks said that the dolls seemed genuinely terrified. Strawbundle then said the hags had been torturing a “lookie-like” in the cage to get more information on the party.
They slowly turned toward the cage. Harden let out a sigh. I think I know who’s in there, he murmured. They crept over to the cage, obscured by the green haze, and got a closer look. A heavy padlock secured the gate of the rusted cage, inside which a naked figure cowered under a bloodstained blanket. The figure looked eerily like their old party member, Illiyum.
Alathar whispered that he recalled a hag stealing a strand of Illiyum’s hair months ago. This had been her twisted plan. The figure was not quite Illiyum — it was shorter, scrawnier, and deformed. It looked like it was in pain. It was an abomination, said Harden. Alathar picked the lock, and Harden raised his maul high and smashed the clone to death. The room was utterly silent.
Harden broke the stillness by examining the cauldron and finding a bronze lid nearby which he placed on top. Soon the smoke dissipated from the room, as they returned to speaking with the hag dolls. Strawbundle said they’d help in any way they could. The skeleton gate was at the south end of the room, but to reveal each keyhole, they needed to go into the five rooms above and complete various trials.
She asked someone to take her with them. Everyone was still suspicious, but Alathar had been the friendliest with the dolls and stepped forward. He picked up Strawbundle, and she bestowed a charm on him — he could cast Etherealness as an action three times. Wow, Alathar exclaimed, they really are trying to help us.
The party eagerly scooped up the remaining dolls. Torven took Clay No-Face and gained the ability to not need to eat, drink or breathe. Hexton took Joho the monkey and was granted the benefit of a helm of comprehend languages.
They were nearing the end. What lay beyond the skeleton gate was their destiny. They could feel it. They’d complete the five trials, deal with the Sewn Sisters, and then see what awaited them on the other side. If they could make it that far.
Previous: Episode 27
Next: Episode 29
