Here’s the write up from our latest Tomb of Annihilation session, in which the characters explored the gardens of Nangalore in search of a black orchid. For this session, I drew part of the gardens on my trusty Tact-Tiles and added clings from Loke Battle Mats and Tom Cartos.
At the start of the session, the death curse affecting their friend Sergeant Valdro worsened – a narrative loss sustained as a result of fleeing from the treant Kapokroot last session. This is the excellent Retreat (Party Action) rule I’ve borrowed from 13th Age. Death curse rules are from Chultan Death Curse Revised! by Teos Abadia.
Begin here with Session 0 – Caves of the Cockatrice
5th Nightal, 1495 DR (contd.)
When the party finish their short rest, Valdro and Tharhul experience an ominous vision of a 15-foot-tall obelisk of cracked stone, draped with vines and black moss. They can feel their very essence being pulled towards this stone. The vision sends a chill down Tharhul’s spine, but Valdro’s fate is worse – her death curse has advanced to stage 3.
The characters resolve to find the black orchid as quickly as possible so they can travel to Omu. Eysleigh channels power through the Green to cast locate animals and plants but is only able to confirm the black orchid is somewhere in the hanging gardens. The characters must do things the hard way, so they split up to search the west terrace.
Certes and Eysleigh become the targets of a troupe of mischievous flying monkeys who lob dancing monkey fruit at them. A fruit hits Eysleigh in the face, and he starts dancing on the spot, throwing comic shapes. Meanwhile, Rhamash, Tharhul and Vadlro disturb a group of yellow musk zombies which quickly surround them. Tharhul is drawn to the creeper entwining a nearby tree by its musk but snaps out of it before it can implant him with a deadly bulb.
Once the creeper and zombies have been dealt with, Rhamash has another rest while the others continue their search, finding sinda berries, wildroot, and ryath roots, but no black orchid. Eysleigh eats the berries to protect himself against poison. Tharhul encounters a chwinga but the tiny creature disappears into the undergrowth when he tries to speak to it. Next, he spots an almiraj, but the timid little animal also seems scared of hulking great minotaurs.
Certes is not so lucky and is grabbed by an assassin vine. He casts misty step to escape and orders the normally impassive Vorn into action. Eysleigh harvests poison from the vine once it’s been destroyed.
With the search of the terrace complete, the characters study the web-covered western spirit dome and spot the golden hilt of a sword sticking out of a cocooned shape. Certes uses his mage hand to tug the web, provoking a large ruin spider into attacking. Tharhul throws caution to the wind and fires his gun. Rhamash delivers the killing blow. Inside the cocoon, the characters find a desiccated albino dwarf corpse, a +2 riverine blade longsword, and a potion of pugilism.
Next, the party explore the sunken gardens which are home to hallucinogenic plants. Eysleigh and Tharhul become stoned and spend half an hour gathering leaves. Certes translates the inscriptions carved into the garden walls: “Without dreams, eternity is unbearable” and “For the lies of a few, all must pay.” The party peer inside the Ruined Palace where they can see a giant stone statue of a warrior, his face obliterated by deep gouges, towering over a cistern, and a smaller, very lifelike statue next to an urn. Certes tries to climb up to the ruined mezzanine where there is an inscription, but the steps crumble and he falls. Rhamash makes it up there and copies the words for the wizard to translate: “True love, faithful general, safe will you rest in Nangalore eternal. None will disturb you while I live. Such is my vow of penance, and for my sins I cannot die.”
Vorn forces open the east doors and part of the ceiling collapses on top of him, Certes, and Eysleigh. Luckily, no one is seriously hurt. Back outside, Eysleigh spots an eblis watching the party from the roof of the western pagoda. As the party have yet another short rest, two more eblis join the first.
The party explore the other two sunken gardens, where they encounter more dangerous plant life. After Valdro is nearly engulfed by a huge carnivorous plant in the northeast garden, Certes loses his patience and fireballs the tri-flower fronds in the southeast one. The inscriptions here read: “To dream, to dance” and “Great Ubtao, free me!”
The characters encounter another chwinga at the eastern spirit dome, peering out of a crack. Certes befriends the little chap, receiving a charm of restoration. They head to the northeast dome, home to Zalkoré, Queen of Omu.
Zalkoré greets the characters when they enter but appears to be addressing someone the party can’t see standing next to her. During the conversation, Eysleigh works out that she is talking to her lost love, the warrior-general Thiru-Taya. Zalkoré’s eblis servants appear with refreshments as Certes asks the queen about the large urn he saw in the ruined palace. This seems to agitate Zalkoré, but she calms down when the others reassure her that Certes won’t meddle with her dead lover’s ashes. At this point, Certes, Eysleigh, and Tharhul start to feel a bit peculiar, and realise they’ve been poisoned by the wine and fruit they’ve consumed. When the druid and the wizard reach for remedies, Zalkoré casts off her veil, revealing herself to be a medusa!
Certes turns invisible and moves away from the others. Zalkoré catches Eysleigh and Tharhul with her petrifying gaze and both are restrained. Tharhul opens fire and succeeds on his saving throw. Eysleigh cures himself of the poison but fails his save and turns to stone. Luckily Eku is on hand to cast greater restoration to turn him back to flesh. Rhamash attacks Zalkoré in melee, as the eblis attack the others. Certes casts mage hand and plucks the black orchid free from its pot. Rhamash stuns Zalkoré, and one of the eblis casts hypnotic pattern, incapacitating Valdro.
With the orchid safely out of the way, Certes casts fireball, killing the eblis and badly wounding Zalkoré, provoking a response from Thiru-Taya’s spirit who stabs the wizard. Rhamash attacks the medusa again, killing her. Her general lashes out at the kobold one last time before his spirit is finally laid to rest.
Exhausted but victorious, the party find a safe place in the ruins for a much-needed long rest.
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Richard Green | Game Designer 
Always a great session when fireball is unleashed at the end! I hadn’t seen the Revised Death Curse before, so I just picked it up from the Guild – thanks!
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