Here’s the write up from our latest Tomb of Annihilation session, in which the death curse was mentioned for the first time.
Once the characters had escaped Firefinger, we started Rainforest Reckoning, the adventure I wrote for the Tome of Beasts 3 Lairs book and featuring a couple of creatures I designed for TOB3. I had a lot of fun drawing the battle map for the adventure on my Tact-Tiles and adding trees etc from Loke Battlemats.
Begin here with Session 0 – Caves of the Cockatrice
19th Eleint, 1495 DR (contd.)
Trapped inside the stone tower at the top of Firefinger by circling pterafolk, the characters decide the direct approach is best. Eysleigh summons the Green, then they all make a dash for the edge and jump off! As they start to fall, the druid activates his feather token so the characters can drift slowly down to the ground 300 feet below.
Four pterafolk swoop down to attack; one is Nrak, their scarred leader. Nanna kills one with a critical sneak attack, Rhamash kills Nrak, and Certes finishes off the others with magic missiles, allowing the adventurers and Wadamu to touch down safely at the base of the tower.
The party return to the gorge where they spot a Chultan man fishing in the River Tiryki. After making their way down to the riverbank, Certes chats to him in Chultan. The man’s name is Isoba and he is from a nearby village called Bukofa that is having trouble with the fey. After some discussion, the characters agree to accompany Isoba to his village.
That night, a four-armed girallon zombie charges into camp and attacks the sleeping Certes. After the zombie has been slain, Isoba tells the adventurers that the undead are on the rise throughout the jungle.
20th Eleint
The characters continue downstream to Bukofa. Mayifa, the village elder, explains that cutting down trees to make space to grow food has angered the fey. To start with, aziza played pranks on the loggers, but now a murderous negoogunogumbar (rainforest ogre) is killing villagers.
The party also hear tales of a mysterious “death curse” – people who have been brought back from the dead by magic are slowly wasting away.
21st Eleint
The adventurers set off for Emerald Cascade to confront the fey. En route, they visit the stump of the mahogany tree which led to the fey reprisals after it was felled. Here, a tiny talking deer warns them to turn around, before running off into the jungle. Eysleigh examines the stump and realises a dryad once lived inside the tree.
Reaching the glade, the characters follow the stream. When they go beneath a large kapok tree, a small group of aziza drop a terror melon on the group, frightening Eysleigh and Nanna. Certes is befuddled by the fey and jumps into the stream where he is attacked by a swarm of quippers. He casts misty step to reach safety, then fire bolts one of the aziza. The tiny faeries respond with a flurry of poisoned arrows and Certes falls unconscious. Wadumu stabilises the wizard and drags him into cover.
Eysleigh heals the injured aziza and appeals for calm. The aziza stop attacking, telling the characters that they should speak with Kabou, their leader.
Getting to Kabou involves crossing a slippery fallen log over the stream. Eysleigh casts resistance to help the others get across but falls in himself and has to be rescued from the quippers by Nanna and Rhamash.
As the character cross an area strewn with fallen trees, they are attacked by a territorial giant walking stick. After dealing with the huge insect, the group finally reach the anthills and miniature treehouses of the aziza.
Kabou, the aziza leader, insists that the adventurers climb up the kapok trees to his eye level. Certes decides not to risk a fall, but the others make it up. Kabou tells the group that when the villagers felled the great mahogany tree, the dryad living inside it threw herself in the river and was drowned. Her sister, Aminata, was distraught, and petitioned King Kashama, the Rainforest King, to avenge her death. The fey lord sent the aziza first, but when they were unable to stop the logging, he sent the negoogunogumbar. If the characters want to stop the ogre from harming the villagers, they will need to speak to Aminata who lives in a tree above the waterfall…
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Richard Green | Game Designer 