Tomb of Annihilation: Episode 4
How harsh should you be to your players? We’ve signed an unwritten contract saying this campaign is going to be hard and involve some death. You can go “no holds barred” if everyone is into it. But people are going to be discouraged from completing the adventure if they are massacred at every turn. Finding the right balance for this adventure can only be done by listening to your players.
The Party:
(Jon) Alathar — Half-elf Bard
(Terry) Harden — Dwarf Barbarian
(Matt) Illiyum — Gnome Illusionist
(Stacy) Torven — Lizardfolk Monk
The Path:
Fort Belurian, Port Nyanzaru, River Soshenstar
Not all men were meant to dance with dragons.
G.R.R. Martin — A Dance with Dragons
The characters had their guide, Qawasha, and were ready to go. I’d hinted that the Flaming Fist commander, Liara Portyr, wanted to speak with them, and was hoping she’d be able to provide some side quests to get them exploring the map. But they wanted to get out of Fort Belurian right away. They asked me if there was a nearby ship they could hop on.
I hadn’t considered that they might travel by ship at this point. I thought they would travel south and get into some of the fun encounters down there. But Fort Belurian did indeed have ships coming by, dropping off supplies and reinforcements. So I said “sure” and brought them on a ship heading back to Port Nyanzaru. Something in my brain was triggered by this though.
There are lots of areas of interest to be found in Chapter 2’s “Locations in Chult.” I had given a skim to all of them, but had only seriously read and prepared for the ones I thought the characters might encounter at this point in the adventure. I had not thoroughly read the “Bay of Chult” yet, but quickly flipped to its pages as my players talked to each other about what they planned to do and buy once they were back in Port Nyanzaru.
Once I found the page and speed-read the passage, I knew they were in trouble. The picture kind of tells the whole story.
Before their barge could pull in to the harbour, a wave crashed over the bow of the ship and out emerged the enormous dragon turtle, Aremag. He began demanding tribute, beckoning the characters to throw in their gold for safe passage.
Because I hadn’t prepped this encounter, I didn’t have all the logic gaps filled out for this. Why did the crew not know about this? Why couldn’t they help? I hastily came up with some excuses and got them to help a bit, but made it clear the characters would have to interact in the encounter as well.
No one took this seriously. The minimum amount Aremag would accept was 2d4 x 50 gold pieces. I rolled a six, which I ever adjusted to a four once I saw how little they were putting in. The crew put 40 gp in, and Illiyum cast Minor Illusion to make it appear as though he had put another 50 gp in. Even with my adjustment, they were woefully below the minimum. Torven spoke with the great beast and tried to Persuade it to take less. He used ample flattery while speaking, which helped. But going by the book, since the bag appeared to have less than 100 gp, the check was made at disadvantage. They flaccidly tossed the bag over anyway.
Aremag got angry and shouted “MORE! MORE!” and sprayed the ship with blasts of steam and water. The players were getting frustrated and were not at all intimidated by this. I tried to show the crew acting very scared and pleading with these “rich adventurers” to do something. Alathar tossed a couple gold into another bag, but Harden had had enough and threw the bag overboard, as reef sharks circled the ship.
This did not appease Aremag. But the book doesn’t really go into what happens if the characters blatantly disregard his threats. What else could I do?
I killed them all.
OK, I didn’t kill them all. But I may as well have. I destroyed the ship they were on, and had them roll Athletics checks. Those who passed swam to the surface but lost all of their belonging, while those who failed did the same, but right beside a nice, big reef shark. They fought off the sharks, and made it to shore with no money, no Volo’s Guide, no canoe, no insect repellent, no anything. They kept their weapons and armor, though I destroyed Illiyum’s spellbook (too bad, he actually gave some effort with Aremag). And I made it clear that they essentially escaped death, and to be more careful in the future.
When the flood cometh it sweepeth away grain as well as chaff.
Howard Pyle — The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
I felt bad. I hadn’t prepped the Bay of Chult, and I think I would have been able to impart the gravity of the situation in a better way if I knew it was coming. But I did like that I couldn’t guess where my players would go, and that I too had to stay on my toes. Discovering new encounters simultaneously as players and DM is pretty fun. Either way, the adventure continued rolling along.
They sought the Merchant Prince that Syndra Silvane had been staying with, Wakanga O’tamu. Wakanga dealt in knowledge, lost lore, potions and scrolls. The players were embarrassed to be coming back to Port Nyanzaru without having made much progress. Illiyum lamented how he’d lost his spellbook to the sea.
Wakanga sensed there desperation. He pulled out a tattered, water-damaged journal of his own. The captivating prince said he would not let Syndra know about this minor transgression, if they could do something for him. In this journal he’d found, it mentioned a traveling companion of the author: a shield guardian named Vorn. Wakanga was very intrigued by this magical construct, and said if the characters made it their priority to get Vorn, find his “control amulet,” and return with Vorn, he would give them a powerful spellbook that would make the rest of their adventure much easier.
The party was interested, but Alathar rightly pointed out that they would have no chance of reclaiming Vorn or its lost amulet if their wizard had no spells to cast. His Persuasion worked on Wakanga, who gave a lesser spellbook that I quickly rolled some random spells for, and a new Volo’s Guide to Monsters.
With that, the party had to get a canoe and some other survival equipment with what little gold they could scrounge together. Then they set out south, canoeing down the River Soshenstar. Now we’d get a real chance to try out the random jungle exploration in Chult and see what worked for my players and I.
In order to rise from its own ashes, a Phoenix first must burn.
Octavia E. Butler — Parable of the Talents
I didn’t really enjoy using the Tomb of Annihilation Companion for random encounters. Instead, I used this spreadsheet that I found in the Tomb of Annihilation DM’s Facebook Group.
This thing was a godsend. It did all the rolls for you to give a snapshot of a random exploration through Chult. It gave 365 days worth of weather, navigation, and which encounters would pop up, based on which terrain the players were on. Players would just have to roll for whatever they were doing.
This worked better for my style of DMing. I wouldn’t be following a tight script, or basing it completely of rolls the moment before the encounters happened. I’d see which random encounters were coming the players’ way, and briefly plan for them (dropping tokens onto a map in Roll20, and thinking about what the characters would be doing right before the encounter). I could forecast the next 10 days or so of travel, guessing a few of the nearest terrains the players might switch to. Again, download it here.
So their exploration began in earnest. One thing from the Tomb of Annihilation Companion that I did use was connecting moments now with encounters that could come up later in the adventure. The first one they offered was of the Night Hag, Peggy Deadbells.
As the party was canoeing down the river, they came across a young Tabaxi surrounded by ghouls. She was stuck under a log, and tried to fend them off as she screamed for help. The party raced into action. Harden lifted the log, as Alathar, Torven, and Illiyum tried to keep the ghouls at bay. Qawasha even helped out, as he swore to rid the jungle of the undead. There were too many ghouls though, so once Harden got the Tabaxi free, he shouted for everyone to paddle the canoe away quickly. Alathar wanted to hop into the canoe while performing a flashy leap that could net him an extra powerful attack on the closest ghoul, so I had him roll Acrobatics. He rolled a 1! So he missed his footing completely and splashed pathetically into the murky waters. Fortunately, the rest of the party were able to fight off the ghouls that got closer, threw Alathar into the canoe, and escaped the battle.
The Tabaxi introduced herself as Ringing Bell, a guide-in-training from Port Nyanzaru that got lost in the jungle. She thanked the party, and mentioned she’d interacted with the Company of the Yellow Banner (more foreshadowing for later in the adventure). I added that she said the best adventuring groups have cool names, and that they should think of one, but they said is was too early for them to have earned a sweet name yet.
That night Ringing Bell transformed from a Tabaxi into a Hag. Her Stealth check was high, as she crept into Illiyum’s tent and plucked a hair from his head. But the spreadsheet said that night they were also encountering some Batiri Goblins. So I combined the two. Right as Torven was getting ready to switch his shift on the watch, his Perception was good enough to notice a battalion of goblins coming around the trees. At the same time, Peggy Deadbells, in full Hag form, crept out of Illiyum’s tent, cackling. Torven called out to everyone to defend themselves.
Finally the players got to have a fight where they could really test their characters. They used a bunch of their abilities, the fight was actually difficult, and it had some story context with the Tabaxi revealing herself as a Hag. The Hag didn’t participate in the fight, instead just taunting the party as she departed. Batiri Goblins fought in “battle stacks” where they piled on top of each other to form a sort of mega-goblin. I had the goblins split off into different groups — a ranged weapons unit, some as a battle stack, and the more powerful leader flanked by two subordinates. Goblins aren’t that smart, so this wasn’t some masterful strategy. But it gave a little variety and let the players assess the threats so they could try out different tactics based on their abilities.
Alathar put a Sleep spell to vital use, taking out a bunch of goblins threatening the group. Torven’s Hungry Jaws, and Monk abilities let him make a lot of extra attacks, but there were still so many enemies. Harden went into a Frenzied Rage and took the focus of the tall stack of goblins, while their leader almost killed Illiyum with one swipe of his scimitar. Qawasha raced to save him, and was almost killed himself.
Torven and Alathar were fighting off too many enemies, and didn’t have good ranged attacks at their disposal. It looked like the goblin leader might kill Illiyum off early in the adventure. Luckily, Harden threw a javelin that scored a critical hit, and killed the goblin leader with a devastating attack. They wouldn’t be rolling up new characters today.
The defeated the goblins and got a full night’s sleep. Their next stop would be at one of the interesting locations in the jungles of Chult. Hopefully, they’d be able to come out unscathed once again.
