Here’s the write up from our second proper Tomb of Annihilation session. The PCs are in Port Nyanzaru and I’m running the mini-adventures in the AL module, A City on the Edge. We’ve now completed three of these and have two more to go.
This session I got to try out the zombies from the Tales of the Valiant Alpha Playtest . The monsters in ToV have an extra ability or two compared to their standard 5e counterparts and I enjoyed how the zombies’ Rotten Hold bonus action ability worked.
Begin here with Session 0 – Caves of the Cockatrice
22nd Eleasias, 1495 DR (contd.)
The characters approach the huts near where Derio of the Order of the Gauntlet was last seen. As Nanna goes to investigate the smaller hut, four zombies burst out, grabbing hold of the adventurers with their rotten claws. Eysleigh casts entangle to slow them down, and Certes casts thunderwave, but the undead are tough and it takes several blows to kill them. Inside the hut, the party find only manacles, dead animals, and severed limbs.
Nanna tries to pick the lock on the door of the larger hut but fails, triggering a poison needle trap. Tharhul charges and smashes his way inside. Nanna investigates the bookshelves, while Rhamash finds a letter that speaks of “dreams of the serpents” and a mysterious relic, signed by someone called Viplo.
Studying the diagram on the back of the letter, Certes uses mage hand to open a secret door into the ziggurat behind the hut, and the characters head down into an ancient temple. Nanna sets off another trap – a trio of giant pendulum blades – but manages to leap out of the way. The party proceed safely through a series of chambers and secret doors by having Nanna interpret the wavy lines on the walls and using Certes’s mage hand to trace the path.
The characters arrive at the Feeding Pit where Viplo has Derio and two other captives chained to the wall. Viplo pulls a lever, opening the rusty gates that hold back five hungry zombies!
Nanna and Rhamash lead the way into the pit, attacking the zombies, while Certes blasts Viplo with a fire bolt and a chromatic orb, killing him. As a zombie closes in on the captives, Eysleigh successfully distracts it, but soon finds himself surrounded by the undead.
First, Tharhul and then Certes stumble on loose debris and fall over as they come down the ramp into the pit, but soon pick themselves up and join in the battle. Rhamash finishes off the last two zombies, and the characters free Derio and the other prisoners. Certes uses his mage hand to pick up the trinket lying on the altar. It looks like the one the characters found on the grung altar. After Eysleigh has patched up the adventurers and the freed captives, they return to the surface.
Back in the Old City, the characters visit Pock-Marked Po and agree to enter tomorrow’s games in the Grand Colosseum under the team name the Bladefangs to try and win the gem known as the Oracle’s Eye. They escort Derio safely back to Alastar Bol and collect their reward. Finally, they visit Soggy Wren and give him the second trinket.
That night, Eysleigh dreams of a snake creeping onto his bed and whispering in his ear in a soft voice.
23rd Eleasias
The next morning, the characters compete in two challenges at the Grand Colosseum. The first is a dinosaur race through a circular obstacle course around the arena. They are racing against another team called the Green Vipers, also newcomers. Eysleigh and Tharhul are both good at handling their mounts and get them to dash ahead, but the Green Vipers are close behind. Fortunately, the others succeed in taunting and tripping their rivals, and Tharhul crosses the finish line in first place.
After the race, a Chultan woman named Nerissa approaches the group, offering them 30 gp for the trinket that holds the Oracle’s Eye if they win the games. She claims to be an ally of the Harpers and a friend of Soggy Wren’s. The characters decide to take it to Wren themselves.
The second contest is gladiatorial combat against a kenku mercenary named Slicer and his pet deinonychus inside a vine-covered cage. Eysleigh warns the others to keep well away from the Matabo vines as they are both poisonous and capable of lashing out.
Since casting damaging spells is prohibited, Certes draws his sword and becomes poisoned – he realises this is to do with the magical darkwood amulet found in the Caves of the Cockatrice he is wearing. Despite this setback, the characters win the bout, defeating Slicer quickly and then knocking out the deinonychus.
The merchant prince Kwayothe presents them with their prizes. They take the Oracle’s Eye to Pock-Marked Po and give the silvery trinket that held it to Soggy Wren. Wren vouches for Nerissa.
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Richard Green | Game Designer 