Here’s the write up from our latest Tomb of Annihilation session in which the characters arrived at Camp Righteous.
I enjoyed expanding one of the jungle encounters in Cubicle 7’s Uncharted Journeys into a larger swamp area for the characters to explore, and adding encounters with the swampgas bubble and arboreal grappler, a couple of fun monsters from Kobold Press’ Tome of Beasts books.
Begin here with Session 0 – Caves of the Cockatrice
27th Eleint, 1495 DR
It’s raining heavily as the party continue their journey to Camp Righteous with Isoba as their guide. That afternoon the rainforest gives way to a mangrove bog. Eysleigh spots wildroot, a plant that can be used to cure poison victims and harvests it. As the characters look for more wildroot, they are attacked by a swampgas bubble which envelops Eysleigh’s head, causing him to breathe poisonous fumes. Certes blasts it with a scorching ray and the ooze explodes, freeing the druid.
Eysleigh gathers more wildroot, but the party come under attack again – this time from a muddy earth elemental. Tharhul is knocked unconscious, but his companion Tyke comes to the rescue, scoring a critical hit after the elemental had been bloodied by the attacks from the others. The creature retreats beneath the waters of the bog and the characters escape the area for a short rest.
29th Eleint
An arboreal grappler grabs Isoba with its long, furry tentacles as he passes beneath a tree, and then carries him up its nest 80 feet above the ground. Rhamash and Tharhul climb the tree, Eysleigh summons Birdie, and Certes attacks from the ground with spells. Rhamash reaches the nest first but is grabbed by the creature.
When Birdie kills the grappler, Eysleigh casts entangle to stop the unconscious Rhamash and Isoba from falling. Tharhul heals Rhamash and Certes levitates Eysleigh 20 feet up to bring Isoba in range of his healing word.
30th Eleint
The characters arrive at the abandoned Camp Righteous which was built in the shadow of an 80 foot tall statue of a man with a crocodile on his back. Before he says goodbye to the party, Isoba tells them the story of Man and Crocodile.
The adventurers investigate the camp, starting with the animal pen which contains an axe beak fledgling. Tharhul casts animal friendship to charm the bird, then Eysleigh uses speak with animals to talk to it. After failing to learn anything useful, they let it go and it runs into the jungle to be reunited with its family.
The characters arrive at the abandoned Camp Righteous which was built in the shadow of an 80 foot tall statue of a man with a crocodile on his back. Before he says goodbye to the party, Isoba tells them the story of Man and Crocodile.
The adventurers investigate the camp, starting with the animal pen which contains an axe beak fledgling. Tharhul casts animal friendship to charm the bird, then Eysleigh uses speak with animals to talk to it. After failing to learn anything useful, they let it go and it runs into the jungle to be reunited with its family.
Rhamash and Tharhul climb the ridge the statue is built into, hoping to find a secret entrance. Meanwhile Eysleigh senses the group are being watched…
With no secret entrances found, the characters climb the plinth. Certes casts firebolt to burn away the cobwebs, then Rhamash and Eysleigh enter the 23 foot high tunnel between the statue’s feet. When Tharhul marches ahead of them, he triggers a concealed pit trap and all three characters fall in.
Rhamash climbs out and crosses to the far side where he triggers a blade trap. The kobold can’t figure out how to disable the trap and neither can Certes, but Tharhul realises he can wedge the blades by bashing in iron spikes. It takes him several goes, triggering the blades twice more, but eventually the room is made safe.
The next area is up a 7 foot high ledge and has a tiled floor marked with a 4 x 4 grid. Eysleigh summons the Green to cross the floor but the tiny plant weighs so little that it doesn’t trigger any traps. Certes casts mage hand and exerts pressure on the tiles, triggering a flame trap which incinerates the Green. More experiments allow Certes to identify which tiles don’t seem to set anything off.
Rhamash climbs on Tharhul’s shoulders so he can see the door on the ledge above, and realises it is marked with a similar grid, with four of the squares faintly lit. Certes joins them on the ledge and finds a glyph of warding which will trigger a thunderwave spell, shoving anyone on the ledge back onto the tiled floor and setting off the flame trap. Everyone falls back, then Certes triggers the glyph with mage hand.
After spending time experimenting with the door, the group remember the story of Man and Crocodile. Rhamash gets back on Tharhul’s shoulders, and they push the squares in the correct sequence to open the door to the treasury. By staying as Man and Crocodile (or Minotaur and Kobold), they are able to climb the spiral stairs without triggering any more traps and retrieve the alchemy jug resting on the top of the pillar.
When the party emerge from the statue, they find a welcoming committee waiting for them outside – three battle stacks of Batiri goblins and their leader…
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Richard Green | Game Designer 