Here’s the write up from our fifth proper Tomb of Annihilation session. After running A Day at the Races last time out, I ran the second part of The Jungle Has Fangs trilogy, A Walk in the Park, this session.
I made a few changes to the adventure to get it to run how I wanted it to, adding in a couple of extra combat encounters. I enjoyed roleplaying Wadamu the grung guide too! We’ll finish the trilogy next time before getting started on Tomb of Annihilation proper.
Begin here with Session 0 – Caves of the Cockatrice
2nd Eleint, 1495 DR
The adventurers head to Malar’s Throat in search of the satchel shop selling satchels like the one carried by the yuan-ti who poisoned the racing dinosaurs.
As they cross over one of the district’s rope bridges, several children on the level above use fishing poles and hooks to steal items from the characters. Nanna manages to rescue the mysterious satchel, but they succeed in hooking Certes’s purse and Tharhul’s potion of healing. The kids run off with their prizes and the adventurers give chase.
Certes uses Windharrow to cast gust of wind and knock two of them over. This causes one to drop Certes’s purse, and it falls from the bridge. Luckily, Nanna reaches out and catches it before it is lost forever in the chasm! Eysleigh casts entangle to restrain the last thief and the speedy Rhamash retrieves Tharhul’s potion. Nanna tells the “fisherlings” they need to offer some information to make up for their larceny. She gives them 1 gp from Certes’s purse when they share directions to the satchel shop.
At the shop, the owner, a Chultan named Abwale Capaning, is evasive when questioned by the characters, and claims to be under the protection of the Merchant Princes. As they talk to him, Nanna notices a grung peering from behind the displays. When Nanna locks the front door, Abwale rings a bell, and three burly thugs arrive via the back door. Tharhul blocks the entrance to the shop, then Certes casts sleep which affects the shopkeeper, the grung, and Tyke, Tharhul’s pet velociraptor. Rhamash runs around the building and a scuffle takes place in the back room between the thugs and the characters. Meanwhile Nanna examines Abwale’s ledger, finding details of a sale of a satchel with the same mark as the one they found to someone called “Abebi”.
Unfortunately, the battle doesn’t go as planned and both Rhamash and Tharhul are knocked unconscious. The pair are healed by Eysleigh, Certes casts another sleep spell which takes out one of the thugs, then the characters beat a hasty retreat.
A few minutes after their escape, a grung named Wadumu approaches, offering to guide the group into the jungle, to the place where wanderlost is made. The characters arrange to meet him in the morning. They spend the afternoon purchasing rain catchers, insect repellent, and other jungle gear.
3rd Eleint
The characters set off with Wadumu on their first jungle expedition.
6th Eleint
The party enters the jungle and are attacked by giant centipedes. Tharhul is bitten and contacts shivering sickness but manages to shake it off by the morning.
7th Eleint
Heavy rain causes a flash flood, and the adventurers are swept away in a mudslide. Certes uses his magical darkwood bracelet to dimension door to safety, while Eysleigh summons Birdie the pteranodon to pull him out of the mud. The other scramble to safety and use ropes to climb a tree to the safety of a tunulunga (grung nest). That night, Wadumu tells the story of his tribe and how he was thrown out.
8th Eleint
Towards the end of an uneventful day of travel, the characters reach a village. Wadumu insists on going ahead alone to speak with the inhabitants. Suspicious, Nanna decides to follow him.
She witnesses the grung have a conversation with some human warriors before returning to the adventurers. Wadumu explains that he has told the villagers that the party are going to free them from the snake people. Nanna sends him back to ask the villagers to leave the front gate open.
That evening, the characters sneak into the village with Wadumu and witness a sinister ritual. Two Chultan humans hang over an altar, their last drops of life trickling out over the body of a green grung. A single yuan-ti pureblood is scraping wanderlost off the grung’s hide with a bone knife, into a wooden bowl.
As the characters advance, four drugged-looking human warriors move in to defend their mistress. Meanwhile, several grung skulk in the background. Wadumu makes his way round to speak to the grung, while Rhamash runs into melee to attack the yuan-ti. The pureblood’s evil spells both fail, and Rhamash and Birdie take her down as the others battle the tribesmen.
Once the characters have knocked their last two opponents unconscious, Wadumu reveals that he has learned from the other grung that wanderlost is made from a mystical union of yuan-ti venom and grung poison. The yuan-ti are attempting to bring Dendar the Night Serpent back to the Realms and have gathered in the ruined city of Bulubo to complete the unholy rites needed for this to happen. The creation and perfection of wanderlost is merely one component they need.
Wadumu is happy to lead the characters to lost city of Bulubo to put a stop to the yuan-ti plot. Surely fortune and glory await?
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Richard Green | Game Designer 