Tomb of Annihilation Session 1 – Voyage to Port Nyanzaru

Last night was the first session proper of my Tomb of Annihilation campaign and was a lot of fun. The PCs travelled “by map” from Suzail to Baldur’s Gate to the Bay of Chult, where they ran into Aremag the dragon turtle, before arriving in Port Nyanzaru.

I want the players to spend some time getting to know the city before heading into the jungle. Since the hardcover adventure doesn’t really have much in the way of mini-adventures in Port Nyanzaru, I used the AL module A City on the Edge for this session. This meant prepping four mini-adventures and not knowing which one they were going to choose, but I don’t like to make life too easy for myself!

Begin here with Session 0 – Caves of the Cockatrice

---

8th Flamerule, 1495 DR

The adventurers meet with Erlanther Copperwind, president of the Society of Stalwart Adventurers, at the organization’s headquarters in Suzail. Erlanther asks the party to travel to Port Nyanzaru in Chult to investigate sightings of Artus Cimber, who disappeared 100 years ago while searching for the fabled Ring of Winter. Artus was not only a famous member of the society; he was also Nanna’s mentor. The characters are given a letter of introduction to Wakanga O’Tamu, one of the city’s seven merchant princes, and an incomplete map of Chult.

---

14th Eleasias

The characters set sail from Baldur’s Gate aboard the Brazen Pegasus, captained by Ortimay Swift and Dark.

---

21st Eleasias

The Brazen Pegasus sails into the Bay of Chult and is confronted by the dragon turtle Aremag who demands tribute in exchange for safe passage. The ship’s crew fill a sack with gold and ask the characters to chip in. The adventurers are less than generous at first and the impatient Aremag slaps the ship with his tail, knocking Eysleigh, Nanna, Rhamash and Tharhul into the water. Eysleigh casts entangle to slow down the circling sharks and the adventurers can scramble back on board. They put more money into the sack until Aremag is satisfied, allowing the Pegasus to continue its journey.

On the docks at Port Nyanzaru, the characters are charged by an escaped deinonychus. Its owner, Atumba, is grateful that Rhamash only knocked the honker unconscious, and offers to buy the adventurers a meal later.

After the kerfuffle, the half-dragon harbour master Zindar greets the characters, pointing them in the direction of five faction representatives in the city who may be able to offer them work:

• Klevin Van’Sheran (Lord’s Alliance) is in his shop in the Merchant’s Ward
• Pock-Marked Po (Zhentarim) is in his hut in Old City 
• Screaming Wind (Emerald Enclave) is in the upper ledges of Malar’s Throat
• Alastar Bol (Order of the Gauntlet) is in his villa in the Market Ward
• Soggy Wren (Harpers) is usually at Kaya’s House of Repose in the Market Ward

The characters head to the Red Bazaar and get rooms at the Thundering Lizard. They have dinner with their new friend Atumba that evening.

---

22nd Eleasias

The party head to Goldenthrone in the Merchant’s Ward to look for Wakanga O’Tamu. The merchant prince is not at the palace, so they go to his villa and use their letter of introduction to get an audience. Wakanga is friendly but unwilling to give them any handouts, instead suggesting the cash-strapped characters find gainful employment. He does, however, give them a journal describing a wizard’s travels in the jungle and offers a reward if they can retrieve Vorn, the wizard’s construct, and its control amulet. 

Deciding they’d better find work, the characters go to Malar’s Throat where they meet Screaming Wind. The tabaxi explains that blighted jungle foliage is encroaching on the settlement, and undead and pterafolk have been menacing the community. A rescue party sent to bring back abducted villagers has gone missing.

The characters head into the jungle to see if they can identify the source of these threats. As they travel through the blighted forest, Eysleigh and Certes experience blurred vision after being bitten by a swarm of diseased insects, and the druid is poisoned by okuligbo weed. 

The path leads to an area of thorny bushes where a tabaxi and an elf are trapped. The elf cries out for help as she is pulled into the thicket, then a group of needle and twig blights attack the party. Certes casts sleep to knock two of the creatures unconscious, while Rhamash frees the tabaxi. Once the blights have been killed, the tabaxi Ashen Rock ­– the only survivor from the missing rescue party – thanks the characters, giving them a potion of poison resistance. He heads back to Malar’s Throat, and the adventurers press on.

Ahead is a clearing where four grungs are gathered around a stone block. They beckon furiously to the characters. Eysleigh approaches and is stabbed with a poison dagger, falling unconscious. The battle that follows goes badly to start with as Tharhul and Certes both go down too, but Rhamash revives Eysleigh, allowing the druid to heal himself and bring Tharhul round. After the grungs have been defeated, the characters examine the grungs’ unsettling half-moon shaped amulet.

Back in Malar’s Throat, Screaming Wind advises the party to take the amulet to Soggy Wren. She tries to translate the grungs’ scroll. The letter describes empowering the “gift” of the “mother patron”. Afterward, it is to be delivered to a “prince”. Other than that, she can’t make out anything else. 

The characters buy some insect repellent in the Market Ward then go to see Soggy Wren. Unfortunately, he is very drunk and mostly incoherent. Wren refers to the amulet as a “cursed thingamawhatsit” and asks the adventurers to bring him any others they find. Nanna examines the amulet; she believes it to be yuan-ti in origin.

With no paid job on offer from Wren, the adventurers go to Alastar Bol’s villa. The heavyset Order of the Gauntlet representative is clearly suffering from the heat but is pleased to see the characters, hiring them to go to the Old City to investigate stories of people going missing and reappearing as undead. His associate Derio was given the same task but hasn’t returned.

The party head to the Old City, passing beneath the two ziggurats at the entrance. After talking to the locals, they learn that several people have vanished, answering “the Call of the Dead”. Derio was last seen investigating some huts facing Executioner’s Run…

---

If you’d like to keep up to date with my Tomb of Annihilation campaign and other posts, please do join my mailing list – there’s a sign up form on the home page and subscribers receive a free Parsantium supplement. 

If you’ve already signed up and haven’t received a download link, please get in touch.