Tomb of Annihilation: Weeks 23-25

Hi all,

I previously posted some warts-and-all email summaries of the ‘Curse of Strahd’ campaign I ran in 2017. It was the first campaign I sent summaries to players by email after each game (I was a bit lazy prior to that). Here’s the follow up campaign – 2018’s ‘Tomb of Annihilation’. We used experience points rather than milestones/level-based progression, which led to some ‘xp grinding’ along the way. Each session was 4 hours long. Some of the summaries may be amusing; don’t forget these are unedited emails, so please forgive their somewhat chaotic nature and poor sentence structure/grammar. If you’re a D&D fan you may enjoy them. And maybe even if you aren’t.

Game on!

Steve 🙂

Week 23

OMU! The last shrines! (Thank the Lord, they were getting tiresome lol)

Off to the amphitheatre went the party. An impromptu performance by Daniel’s Bard, and a number of deinonychus were awakened (and then fireballed by Jake’s new Wizard, who just happened to be at the amphitheatre to join the party). Then a couple of Tyrannosaurs, who made mincemeat of Davor’s Ranger. Then Daniel’s Bard remembered he had the mask of beasts. One friended and the other killed. Williams’s Druid tried on his Allosaurus wildshape form.

I’Jinn’s Shrine

William’s Druid in Allosaurus form decided to eat the Almiraj – yum! How to cross a complex floor pattern without getting stuck with poisonous arrows: Davor’s ranger just ran across, William’s Druid just spider-shaped it, Daniel’s Bard tried a door on the floor and then worked out the pattern. At the end of a maze, a room with a puzzle cube. Mark’s Cleric searched for secret doors and got a hidden swinging blade for his troubles. Davor’s ranger grabbed the cube.

Unkh’s Shrine

A shed full of keys! An almost dead Wizard of Thay! A convenient plot-device story about the last puzzle cube being taken by the Yuan Ti! The puzzle solved, but not before the Wizard was zapped by the Unkh statue.

Off to the Fane of the Yuan Ti! Some basilisks protecting the back door! Chloe’s Cleric bit the big one (that’s petrification, in layman’s terms) and so she’ll need a new character for next week (that makes six characters stoned in this campaign, so far). The only good basilisk is a dead basilisk! Why am I using so many exclamation points!

Next week: The Fane of the Deathly Serpent of Devious and Deadly Means! Sounds very Potter-esque…  

Week 24

Into the back door of the Fane of the Serpent, secret hideaway of the Yuan Ti and Ras Nsi!

At first, the party successfully deceived several guards and slavers to get to a storeroom with a giant intelligent snake. William’s Druid, who squeezed through a number of large tunnels to retain his Allosaur beast shape, couldn’t fit into the smaller internal tunnels and so the party backtracked to discuss how they would sneak in.

Jake’s Wizard decided to upset the applecart (what’s new). Never much of a team player, he got fed up with the party discussion, headed back into the caves and fireballed the Broodguards.

The big battle raged on! The party fought Yuan Ti Broodguards, a Yuan Ti Mallison and a Hydra. Now, resting in the slaver’s cave, they heard the noise of more approaching guards. Mark’s Cleric locked the doors and broke the key in the lock.

Next week: Fight the coming guards or exit the lair and try the front door? Or something else involving boats? Who knows…   

Week 25

The party tried to sneak out the back door of the Fane of the Night Serpent and ran into Ras Nsi and his many Yuan Ti followers.

After a quick change of underwear, the party negotiated a truce after learning that Ras Nsi was affected by an unknown wasting disease. Deducing that it was the Soulmonger curse, they were ‘hired’ by Ras Nsi to go to the Tomb of the Nine Gods (which he’s been protecting for Acererak without realising what the arch-Lich was up to) and stop the Soulmonger.

Each party member was given a magic item and they received the final puzzle cube. They all achieved 7^th level!

Off to the Tomb of the Nine Gods, where they found an obelisk with a strange message and two entrances. After solving a puzzle, they found an amulet that took them to a hidden entrance. They solved the puzzle door, got past the floor trap (nice work, Morgan’s Rogue), killed a shadow demon hiding in a dark devil’s mouth (some great shots there, Davor’s Ranger), explored, got through a tomb and found a ring of protection (in which Dan’s halfling successfully avoided being possessed by…something), Mark’s Cleric lost his armour (rusted to bits on a magical statue), Dan’s halfling drank some necrotic water, Daniel’s psychotic Bard finally went all the way and turned Chaotic Evil, Orvex decided he’d had enough and nicked off, everyone pursued him, fought a bunch of wights and finally poor old Orvex met his maker when the Bard decided to go even further and turn cannibal (didn’t see that coming!). Phew! A lot happened this week!

Next Week: Deeper into the Tomb…

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