Here’s the write up from our latest Tomb of Annihilation session, in which the adventurers continued exploring the ruined city of Mezro and finally met Artus Cimber. I used the excellent Ruins of Mezro adventure site by Will Doyle for this session.
Begin here with Session 0 – Caves of the Cockatrice
17th Uktar, 1495 DR (contd.)
As the party leave the Library of Mezro, they are confronted by Lieutenant Brokenbarrel and a squad of Flaming Fist soldiers. When the goliath demands the adventurers hand over all their treasure, Certes begins casting a fireball and battle is joined. Tharhul casts spike growth and Eysleigh casts entangle to slow the Fist’s advance, but both effects vanish when the casters are wounded and lose their concentration.
Brokenbarrel and her men close to melee but this doesn’t stop Certes from casting his fireball, incinerating Tyke and several Fists. Rhamash stuns Brokenbarrel and Sergeant Valdro takes her down. Eysleigh calls for the soliders’ surrender, but his words fall on deaf ears, and he falls unconscious to a veteran’s greatsword. Vorn activates, smashing the druid’s attacker with his mighty fists.
With the tide turning in the characters’ favour, the surviving Fists make a run for it. Two are shot down with arrows and Tharhul’s gun; one escapes.
The fight over, the characters tie up their unconscious enemies and throw their weapons into a nearby pool. Hastily, they leave the scene, with Vorn carrying Brokenbarrel. The other two captives are left behind.
Unsure where to go next, the party decide to head for the Agricultural District, home to the Children of the Crocodile cult. As they trudge through the overgrown ruins, they hear a huge creature approaching – a tyrannosaurus rex! The characters scatter and hide.
Suddenly, two figures sprint into view – Artus Cimber (Nanna’s mentor and the object of the party’s original quest) and Dragonbait, his saurial paladin companion. Nanna calls out and invites them to join her in her hiding place.
Once the T-rex has left the area, Artus invites the characters back to his home in the Residential Quarter. He explains that he came to Chult over 100 years ago in search of an artefact called the Ring of Winter. The ring grants eternal life and is said to have power over winter itself, so is much sought after by various evil groups. When Artus shows them the ring, Eysleigh spots Thunder in the Morning eyeing it greedily.
Artus continues his story, saying that while in Chult he fell in love with Alisanda, one of Mezro’s barae, but with enemies hunting for the ring, Artus couldn’t stay in the city for long periods, or he would put her in danger.
After the Spellplague ravaged Mezro, Artus found Alisanda’s body among the ruins. Yet somehow, he knew it wasn’t really her. By studying clues left in the city’s stonework. Artus determined that the barae had shifted Mezro to a demiplane to save it from the Spellplague and that Alisanda and he were now separated forever. He has been questing ever since for a way to reach Mezro or to bring the city back to the world. He believes a stone tablet taken from the ruins by the Flaming Fist and now in Brokenbarrel’s possession might offer vital clues.
Once Artus has finished his sad tale, the characters have a much needed long rest.
18th Uktar
The next morning, the characters wake up to find Thunder in the Morning has slipped away during the night. The group attempt to persuade the now-conscious Brokenbarrel to give them her stone tablet, but the goliath refuses to cooperate. They decide to come up with a plan to steal it or at least take a rubbing.
Certes, Eyseligh, and Tharhul go to fetch the party’s canoes from where they hid them in the Agricultural Quarter while Nanna and Rhamash carefully copy the map Artus has drawn of Mezro.
That evening, the characters head through the ruins towards Promise, accompanied by Artus and Dragonbait, as well as Eku and Sergeant Valdro. En route, they run into a Chultan man being chased by half a dozen yuan-ti. After dealing with the monstrous humanoids, they talk to the person they’ve rescued, but his tale doesn’t seem to add up. When they spot his forked tongue, they send him packing.
The characters have a short rest before continuing to the Flaming Fist settlement.
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Richard Green | Game Designer 