Tomb of Annihilation: Episode 8
Get your players to tell you what they are looking for. My players were engaged in this hunt, and were adamant that they could find clues in Mezro that would point to where the Soulmonger was located. When they are describing specific actions, it shows how much more invested in the adventure they are. In Storm King’s Thunder, there was some aimless running around. In Tomb of Annihilation, my players have had a goal at every turn. Currently, that goal was searching for clues in Mezro — and they would not leave disappointed.
The Party:
(Jon) Alathar — Half-elf Bard
(Terry) Harden — Dwarf Barbarian
(Matt) Illiyum — Gnome Illusionist
(Stacy) Torven — Lizardfolk Monk/Druid
The Path:
Mezro
She would die as she had lived, with an ax in her hand and a laugh upon her lips.
George R. R. Martin — A Dance with Dragons
The Lost City of Mezro was an ancient place with a rich history. But how it stood as the players encountered it would be quite different. Its leaders, known as “the barae,” magically relocated the city to another plane to avoid destruction a century ago. The Mezro the party would see was actually an imposter — its riches plundered, its buildings sacked. The gold left behind were merely cursed coins that drove its owners mad. Even so, the city remained full of mysteries to be uncovered. The players used their Wisdom (Survival) checks to find it, and came upon the site in its full glory, only provided because I purchased the great supplement for this adventure, called Ruins of Mezro. A big plus was that a designer of Tomb of Annihilation, Will Doyle, also worked on Ruins of Mezro, so I knew it would fit in great.
They could see the four quarters divided by crumbling walls, a vine-covered temple shining proudly in the centre, and a mess of jungle overgrowth and flooded basins. Smoke rose from a peculiar shantytown slumped on stilts just outside the city walls. There was not much activity going on in the city itself, so they decided to stay stealthy. They warily climbed down with their canoe, hopped in, and began rowing.
Crocodiles swam by, but did not attack. The party decided to investigate the shantytown, called Promise, and arrived to find a contingent of Flaming Fist soldiers. The soldiers rudely harassed and tried to intimidate the party at first, but Harden confidently displayed their charter of exploration, while flexing his muscles. They’d be allowed to explore Promise, for now.
There weren’t too many places to go. Alathar ducked into the “Fortune & Glory” tavern to pick up on any rumours. Illiyum walked into the relic exchange store to learn more about Mezro. Harden and Torven went to the Lieutenant of Promise, to see if they could help the party learn more from Mezro’s past.
The Lieutenant, an imposing goliath nicknamed Brokenbarrel, wielded a huge axe called Widower. She didn’t have patience for treasure hunters. Brokenbarrel snapped at Harden. She was sick of hearing questions from yet another group of glory seekers. She said only her trusted warriors were allowed inside. The players didn’t know it, but she had been afflicted by the gilded fever, cursing her to try and hoard all of Mezro’s fake gold for herself.
Torven was not willing to accept this. He tried to use a Charisma (Persuasion) check to convince Brokenbarrel that they weren’t some random fortune-seeker — they were accomplished adventurers looking for clues to the death curse. Brokenbarrel perked up at this. If they didn’t care about gold, perhaps they could be useful. She slid Torven a note to meet her at a secret spot by the city walls, and then gruffly threw them out of her hut.
The party met back up at the tavern where Illiyum shared his discoveries. Rumour was that this wasn’t the real city of Mezro — it was hidden someplace else. Alathar heard that at night, the city shifted to the Feywild. Suffice it to say, things seemed very mysterious in Mezro.
Torven told them about Brokenbarrel’s offer, and they met her by the city walls. She saw the group, and figured they seemed capable. She said she’d allow them to enter the city if they destroyed the Children of the Crocodile cult who had recently inhabited the agriculture district. They worshipped a mudmaw crocodile, and were becoming a nuisance to her soldiers. She’d give them 3,000 gold if they did it properly.
Harden called for a Wisdom (Insight) check to see what she was up to, and rolled higher than the Charisma (Deception) roll I made for her. She was indeed up to something, but you don’t want to give away the whole game to your players when they’re looking to see if someone is lying. I kept things vague, but also wanted to reward them for successfully detecting her trickery. I said he sensed she had an ulterior motive, but that she did intend to let them into the city.
It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was full of unexpected places.
C. S. Lewis — The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The party figured this was the best deal they could get. They slipped into Mezro and began exploring. Qawasha asked the party where they should go, and the party said to forget about their deal with Brokenbarrel. They were going to explore Mezro for clues, and then get out before she realized they had no intention of looking for the Children of the Crocodile.
Will Doyle mentions on his blog, Beholder Pie, that he liked the idea of handing players a map right when they arrive and letting them explore. My player’s also seemed to like this, and picked out a curious-looking building that turned out to be the Library of Mezro. Illiyum’s background involved lots of researching in libraries, so he was happy to start digging into the tomes in the library. He rolled a high Intelligence (Investigation) check and got to work. Harden stood watch as Torven and Alathar looked around. They found some magic scrolls, then saw some words creep from the pages of ta book they were reading. Eventually they bumped into an insane wizard in the basement of the library. The wizard demanded a magic item from the two, settling on Alathar magic Ring of Water Walking, but they managed to talk their way out of it before it escalated.
When they came back, Illiyum had discovered something incredible. This whole time they’d been looking for the “Soulmonger” but no one they met ever seemed to have heard of it. Illiyum found a prophecy by one bara about another which said:
When the Soulmonger grinds,
and exiled Nsi wraps himself in serpents,
Death’s curse will grip the world,
From beneath the forbidden city.
Illiyum surmised that the “forbidden city” was Omu, lost years ago, but filled with history. Maybe if they found Omu themselves, they could find even more answers.
They quickly went to check out the Temple of Ubtao in the middle of the city, as it looked too tantalizing to ignore. It was a spectacular nine-story tower built from crystal and gold. They carefully peeled back the vines clinging to its surface. Alathar and Torven got caught under a magical spell as they gazed into the walls, receiving a vision of their heart’s desire. Harden ushered them safely in as they shrugged off the effects before they could be ambushed by wandering monsters.
They entered a hallway filled with statues of Mezro’s barae. Illiyum made them stick around as he tried to squeeze out every bit of history he could, but the others wanted to explore. They found a dark archway that began teleporting them randomly to rooms in the temple. Torven popped into a flooded cellar, Harden found an apothecary stocked with herbs and potions, and Alathar wandered into a priest’s bedchamber. Illiyum decided he would try the archway as well, and found the King’s audience hall. Its mosaic floor showed Mezro with tiny, illusory figures milling around in the business of their daily lives. Illiyum surmised that this must represent the true Mezro, hidden away somewhere on another plane.
They’d explored enough and began to leave, but were confronted by Brokenbarrel at the entrance of the temple. She was accompanied by six of her Flaming Fist soldiers. She bellowed that the characters had betrayed her by not confronting the cultists, and were under arrest. The party tried to talk, but Brokenbarrel was past reason. Her eyes narrowed as the gilded fever had truly taken over her mind. She ordered her soldiers to take them dead or alive as they advanced on the characters. The party sprung into action.
To great effect, they combined Qawasha’s entangle and Illiyum’s cloud of daggers with Alathar’s heat metal. The power of these three spells obliterated a contingent of the guards before they could get a good position on the team. Harden ran ahead and grappled Brokenbarrel to the floor, which was quite a feat as the goliath was much bigger and stronger than Harden. With her otherwise occupied though, Torven transformed into a raptor and attacked multiple times with gnarly bites and slashing claws. Alathar and Illiyum made quick work of the rest of the soldiers as Torven ripped Brokenbarrel to shreds.
The battle was over. Illiyum was eager to get out of Mezro, and begin a search for the Forbidden City of Omu. Harden convinced them that they may as well search Brokenbarrel’s hut for information before the soldier’s realized she was dead. They snuck their way back to the shantytown Promise and picked the lock to her hut, where they found a multitude of treasures. They stuffed their pockets, and escaped the city, but found most of the treasures disintegrated once they left Mezro.
They debated where to go next. The aarakocra they’d rescued from Firefinger, Nephyr, had mentioned that they’d be welcomed in Kir Sabal, a monastery located close to the south. The group agreed that was a good course of action. The aarakocra were trustworthy and lawful and allies were scarce in Chult. Perhaps they would have information they’d be willing to share too.
The set out down the River Olung, eager to find the next piece of the puzzle. They didn’t know where their ultimate destination lay, but they knew it had a name — Omu. They were certainly getting closer.
