The party hits a major crossroad where they have to decide between obligation, morality, or friendship.

When last we left our heroes, they wrought havoc on a Yuan-ti ceremony that was about to sacrifice their friend and companion, Roland. They managed to save his life, killed a bunch of despicable snakemen, and rescued a half dozen civilians from Port Nyanzaru who were kidnapped and enslaved by these repugnant reptiles. They also freed several jungle tribesmen, but one was killed during the temple battle and another was transformed into a mindless Yuan-ti brute called a broodguard. They even rescued a mythical creature called a kamadan, a jaguar-like creature with six snakes protruding from its shoulders. It’s now just sitting around looking like it needs to be fed.

Now that the group is finally back together, I want them get out of this dungeon and back into the jungle. They were never meant to be here this long. I deliberately wrote this entire dungeon to be too dangerous for them. I wanted them to sneak in, realize that they were severely outmatched here, maybe steal some treasure and run away vowing to return when they were more powerful. It was supposed to be a lesson that the jungle doesn’t play fair and doesn’t care about the character’s lack of experience or the monsters challenge rating.

But due some bad planning, an overly cocky party, and a woefully unbalanced encounter, the group suffered a shocking TPK, got captured and then had to fight their way out from the inside. That changed the whole dynamic of the dungeon; for the better I might add. But now we are going on 4 sessions in the dungeon, and this recap combines two more. Over a month and a half on what is essentially a random encounter. It’s been great adventure, but it really put the brakes on exploring the jungle and escalating toward the death curse.

But we still can’t leave. All their gear is missing and Thames knows that the most important items are held by the boss Yuan-ti on the top floor. We are currently in the basement. Okay, we can do this. Let’s go kill this guy, get our stuff, and get the hell out of here… Oh, wait, you all want to interrogate these captured Yuan-ti first? Okay, we can do that.

While Gwen and Martic search the bodies for treasure and gold, Thames drags one Yuant-ti out of the temple to a side room while Roland questions his captive in the corner.

It’s too bad that Roland missed last week, because he didn’t get to see these guys in action or knew what they could do. Even worse, this particular Yuan-ti was knocked out early in the combat so it was at full strength. Immediately the snakeman cast suggestion. Roland failed his save and was ordered to, “Release me and give me your sword.” Which Roland dutifully did. While everyone was distracted or charmed, The Yuan-ti took off, running down the hall screaming in draconic, “Murder! Invaders! We’re under siege!” This was the same cowardly Yuan-ti that abandoned his post weeks ago allowing the party to sneak onto the temple grounds.

Everything came to a halt while Gwen, Martic and Roland had to chase this guy down and kill him before he alerted the whole complex. They managed to cut him down just as he reached the stairs leading up, but did they kill him in time?

And what about Thames? How was he doing with his captive? Sadly, he wasn’t doing any better. Thames keeps trying to have civil conversations with these vile abominations. So, Thames tried to reason with this guy and convince him to explain what the Yuan-ti are doing here. Of course, the Yuan-ti are not reasonable. They despise all other races and will only talk with them to punish, order, or threaten. But I’m a reasonable DM and I give Thames a Persuasion check.

I generally don’t care about these checks. I prefer to have the players tell me what they say, and then roleplay based on what they say. I never let them just say, “I persuade the king to give me the crown,” or worse, “I seduce the dragon.” Unh Hunh, exactly how do you seduce the dragon?

If the attempt is valid, and the request and the NPC are reasonable, I simply allow it to succeed; no roll necessary. Of course, all players love to roll dice for these things, so I’ll give him a DC of 5. Most players have a plus 2 or 3 in every check, so unless he rolls a 1 or 2, he passes. But if the attempt is poor (or non-existant), the request is ridiculous or the NPC unreasonable, then I’ll deny the attempt outright. In the case of a king abdicating his crown, I might give a very high DC, like 20. Or, in the case of banging a dragon, it gets a 25. The dragon gets a 25 because it is impossible but hilarious if it succeeds. To convince a Yuan-ti to talk. it gets a 20, because, however unlikely, there is a tiny chance it could succeed.

Thames fails and the Yuan-ti begins mocking him. “You are pathetic. Betraying your reptilian blood to act as a servant to these humans and elves. You disgust me. Now untie me and give me your sword!” He had one use of the suggestion spell left. Fortunately, Thames was still wearing his Amulet of Mind Blocking, giving him advantage on the save, which he does. Unfortunately, the Yuan-ti has one more trick that the players haven’t seen yet. It shapechanges into a medium snake, slipping out of his bonds and slithering toward his escape.

Thames gives chase, crying out to the others, “Hey guys, he’s getting away. I need help here!” But they are all busy chasing down their own escaping Yuan-ti in a different corridor. Thames is on his own. He ends up tackling the snake and grappling it, still trying to subdue it. It, of course, kept trying to bite him until Thames was fed up with it and decided to put the snake out of Thames’ misery. It was severely wounded in the previous battle and didn’t have many hit points left.

My attempt to hustle them through this dungeon are right out the window. We’re over 45 minutes into the session and we haven’t even left the first room. Still in the room, we continue with the treasure hunt. There’s actually some pretty good stuff in here. The first real treasure they’ve found so far on this entire excursion.

In addition to the jade chalice filled with icky black goo and the ceremonial malachite dagger, they found 57 silver, 38 gold (which would soon become a accidental running gag), 14 gems of jet and amber, a golden snake mask, and a seemingly plain bronze crown. This crown is key to restoring the temple back to the worship of Ubtao. Similar to the way Thames restored the Shrine of Ecatzin (the coatl) back in Session 12, if the players merely place the crown back on the head of the statue to Ubtao, the temple will be converted back to its uncorrupted state. I’ve mentioned before that Ubtao is often depicted with a bronze crown and there is a toppled statue of Ubtao right here in the room. But my players didn’t make the connection and moved on. That’s okay, we’ll figure this out later.

The player’s characters are completely spent. They have no spell slots left, every limited ability is gone, and they are all in single digit hit points. I justified keeping them in this diminished state because it amped up the drama while they fought against the clock to save Roland before he was sacrificed. But I’ve punished them enough and even though it doesn’t make sense to take a nap in this very active dungeon, I let them take a short rest. In my modified Rest Rules, a short rest would only heal a single Hit Dice of hp. But I reminded Thames that the Shrine of Ecatzin felt like a safe sanctuary. Barricading themselves inside, I ruled that this rest was imbued with divine power and fully healed the party.

With that out of the way, lets go get our stuff… Eventually. The players decided to clear every room of the dungeon. Every… Single… Room. All the cultist’s alcoves were looted, again. They killed the lone guard at the western entrance. The broodguard hovel was found empty (they were already all dead and keep no treasure). The last room on this level is a bath that was cold and empty (no one was left to stoke the fires to heat it).

On the next level, the raided the kitchen but all the stores and foodstuffs had already been hastily removed. All that remained was the upper body of a butchered human to remind Gwen of the meal she ate a few hours ago. (“I think I’m gonna be sick!”) In the ransacked armory, they found a quiver of arrows, a few bows and scimitars, plus a flask of the nasty Yuan-ti Blue poison that caused their TPK. The bath and the egg room were empty except for a single discarded Yuan-ti egg which the party naturally kept. Maybe Miche can make an omelet from it. Gross.

The next room was a huge storeroom. It had also been looted but looked like it once held standard (and unvaluable) equipment. But there in a corner, were all their backpacks and equipment. It was untouched because the Yuan-ti wanted nothing more to do with these Duthrael (non Yuan-ti) that had killed them. All the really good stuff; their maps, kits, holy symbols and magic foci were not here. Hopefully they’re still upstairs. To rub salt in their wounds, they realized that this room was directly connected to the room they originally escaped out of. They just never opened the door. Hee hee.

Two rooms left on this level. The first was another ransacked room, a bedroom for all the human-looking Pureblood Yuan-ti living here. Most of them were already dead too. Under one mattress, they found a pouch with 90 gold and 15 zircon gems.

The last room was boarded up and sealed from this side of the door. It was an easy task to pry loose the boards and enter. Inside this square room was completely filled with vines and plants and shrubbery. I asked each player for their alignment. But they passed, and nothing bad happened. On the far end, they discovered a small statue of a grubby little dwarf who looked like a caveman. This is Thard Harr, another ally of Ubtao. Nothing else was discovered here. After the session, my players asked what that was all about. I told them that if there were any evil characters in the group, then a few Assassin Vines would have attacked them, which is why the evil Yuan-ti sealed the door.

As they moved upstairs, they could hear a hurried commotion of several somethings running back and forth, yelling at each other in draconic to, “Hurry up!” and “Move faster.” Bursting into the room, they saw 3 Yuan-ti malisons with the human body and snake head variety trying to pack all their stuff into crates and beat a hasty retreat before whatever caused the temple massacre came back. They were abandoning the temple. Whether they had heard the cries for help earlier or discovered the bloody scene while the party napped, our heroes never learned.

Because, like feral mongoose, they charged at these snakemen and gave them no quarter. In a far cry from their first encounter, the players wasted no time in de-fanging this group. For these recaps, I generally don’t keep track of the individual details of every combat. One, because I find combat to be boring, and two, the constant compiling of damage until it passes the ever-increasing death blow threshold is tedious. Boring and tedious? Remind me why we play this game again.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, tearing these snakemen apart. This time the players were unstoppable, They passed every charm save, Martic was practically immune to poison, and without their poisoned arrows, these guys aren’t nearly as terrifying. The group slashed and smited, catapulted and tolled at the Yuan-ti until they lay dead. Martic nicked one with his off-hand attack, severing his carotid til he bled out on the floor. Roland leveled one with a merciless smite into a pile of goo. Even Gwen got the final kill when, in a bitter sense of irony, she plunged the ceremonial dagger intended for Roland into the heart of the last Yuan-ti.

Looting these corpses and crates yielded 163 gold, a brass drinking mug with jade inlay, a set of bone dice, a golden idol of a coiled snake, and gold circlet with 4 aquamarine gems. Not a bad haul, and certainly worth all the bother to get it. By the way, I never tell them what anything is worth, I keep a separate sheet with all the treasure they find and their values. You never know what a player will keep for themselves, sell at market (which can be its own fun haggling encounter), or unique to this adventure, save it to sell to their long-forgotten patron, Riandon and his museum/zoo., He has offered to pay over market price for any significant treasure. Maybe, we’ll live long enough to see how that works out.

Okay there’s just one more level to this temple pyramid. Let’s go kick this snake’s ass and get the rest of our stuff…

Next week, we wasted so much time searching every room that we played long and now the owners of the hobby store we play at are kicking us out onto the street.

Welcome back, it’s next week. I wouldn’t leave you hanging like that. I’ll just combine these two sessions, so that you, my dear readers, can get more bang for your buck, which last time I checked is $0. I really need to set up a Patreon account.

Finally, it’s the final battle against the pompous, slimy jerk that Thames has been wanting to kill for two months now. But I don’t intend to make it easy for them. I want to make this villain, Maztil, a recurring bad guy who will harass and antagonize our heroes for weeks maybe even so far as to still be alive during the final battle. That would be cool.

I gave this guy a personality based upon the James Bond villain, Auric Goldfinger, “No, no, no. As my arch nemesis, I don’t expect you to join me. I expect you to die!” I also made him a novice spellcaster with a custom set of spells. I even gave him a “foolproof” escape plan, so that he can slip out of the heroes’ grasp and live to thwart them another day when he’s even more powerful. I fully expect the players to win, but I don’t want them to defeat this guy just yet. Let’s see how this works out.

This is the first true spellcaster that my group has faced and I want something memorable. For Maztil’s spellbook, I gave him firebolt, mage hand, sword burst, expeditious retreat, snare and tasha’s caustic brew. I already set the snare at the top of the stairs. While the party is dealing with that, I’ll hit one of them with a suggestion to drink the black potion on the table. Maztil fancies himself an alchemist. This black sludge is the same one used to turn someone into a Broodguard. While the group tries to stop my unfortunate victim, I’ll hit them with tasha’s brew and a firebolt or two. Then I’ll slam the door, hopefully trapping one inside the bedroom with me.

After knocking them around for a while, I’ll probably need to escape. I’ll suggest for one of them to guard my door, then once I cast expeditious retreat, I’ll shapechange into a snake and slither out of the snake-sized escape hatch in the bedroom. By the time the group gets outside, Maztil will be long gone. He’ll have left behind all his treasure, plus his spellbook, which he will long to recover and exact his revenge. I can’t wait, I can’t wait.

The paladin set off my snare, but he made his DEX save to avoid being caught by it. No matter, I got plenty of stuff to wreck their day. Maztil slides into view in the bedroom doorway and starts to monologue, “Well, well. Look who decided to…”

Gwen yells, “I cast silence!”

“What, when the hell did you learn that spell?”

“I’ve always had it. I just decided to memorize it when you let us have that short rest.” Gods damn it!

Technically, this is prohibited according to the rules, and I could have disallowed it. You can only change your list of prepared spells during a long rest. So right here, the cleric would not have the ability to cast this new spell, silence. He would have to choose a spell from his previous list of prepared spells. But using silence in this exact moment is perfect. The player specifically chose that spell to counteract the Yuan-ti known ability to cast suggestion, not because he expected to fight a spellcaster, so it was brilliant planning. Since I am not a rules lawyer and I follow the rule of cool, I allowed it, but this ruined my, I mean, Maztil’s plans.

The epicenter of this silence was expertly placed. The players were just outside the circle and could do whatever they wanted. Maztil was stuck in the center and now my super-cool wizard was forced to fight in hand-to-hand combat. Enraged that this group of petty marauders had neutralized him, Maztil attacked furiously. Granted, he wields a +1 Scimitar, but who cares at this point? Fortunately, I did have one more trick up my sleeve, but it didn’t matter much.

Last session, I had intended to add a complication to the epic temple battle, but the combat was already dragging on and it felt mean and capricious to hit my players with it then. But here and now, with my bad guy in dire straits, was the proper time. While everyone is engaged on one front, a slithering sound is heard coming from the darkened room behind them. An enormous snake with heads on both ends slides into the room and attacks the squishy companions who always hide in the back. This thing is called an amphisbaena. It is a creature of Greek mythology, it has a 5e stat sheet in Tales from the Yawning Portal, and I happen to have a mini for it. I just have one question. How does it poop?

My players didn’t care about such esoteric conundrums. They were more concerned that the two-headed snake coiled around the cleric and squeezed real hard. Happily, she took damage, but sadly she maintained her concentration on the silence spell. C’mon, can I get a break here. Maztil had also coiled himself around the paladin, but this didn’t do the Yuan-ti any favors because now he was trapped in this close quarters kill zone.

Finally, the amphisbaena caused the cleric to break concentration. I was able to have Maztil cast his sword burst, which was nice, but too little, too late. He was almost dead and I wanted him to get away. He polymorphed into a snake and tried slip away using his escape hatch. Of course, nearly every player got to smack him with a free hit as he fled and it was more than he could bear. Maztil died as silently as he started the fight since Yuan-ti can’t speak in their snake form. He never even got to make any good threats.

The two-headed pet died soon after and the players looted this area too. In addition to all the key items of their personal equipment, plus their precious map, they found more gold, an expensive gold chain with a fire opal pendant, Maztil’s scimitar+1 and his spellbook which Thames didn’t care about at all because Artificers don’t actually cast spells. The were more interested in the other book; a Book of Alchemy that gave recipes for all the Yuan-ti potions, including the OP Blue poison and a serum that can reverse the broodguard transformation.

I really debated making this a thing they could do, but the cat’s out of the bag now. Thames who is proficient in alchemy, used the book to create a cure for the poor native that had been turned into the Yuan-ti brute. He passed some difficult skill checks and the serum worked, changing the native back into a human. He was exhausted and had to be carried by his tribesmen but he was cured.

But the most important treasure is a small plain rock with a blue triangle etched into it. This is a sending stone with a direct connection to Ras Nsi, whom the book goes to great lengths to set up as the main villain. (Even though he is not.) But as with most official D&D adventures, there is no connection and no interaction with the main villain of the adventure. I intend to use these sending stones like a fantasy version of the walkie-talkie, allowing the heroes to converse, threaten, and annoy Ras Nsi like John Mclane and Hans Gruber in “Die Hard”.

One final thing before we abandon this temple forever. In the room where the amphisbaena was hiding, they find a human-sized jade statue of a handsome Chultan male. The statue is priceless but too big and heavy to move. This is another shrine to Ubtao and a second chance for my players to cleanse this temple. This time, I remark that the head of the statue has a ridgeline running around his forehead as if something were missing from the statue.

My players take the hint and place the bronze crown on the statues head. As soon as they do, a mystic wave of energy spreads out in all directions in the temple. The effect is noticed immediately. The dark, drab, claustrophobic presence of the Yuan-ti is gone, replaced by a sense of life, light, and joy. The walls, once covered in hues of black and brown, are now painted in brilliant hues of yellow, red, and green. For cleansing the temple and reverting it back to the old gods, each player got a token of inspiration. I also expected that my players would want to claim this place for themselves and set it up as a home base. I was really excited to use the rules in the MCDM book, “Strongholds and Followers”, but for whatever reason, they never thought of this idea and just wanted to get back to camp.

Holy crap! Our Camp! They just now remembered about their camp. (I had not forgotten.) Ages ago, they left over a half dozen people back at camp before their fateful TPK and subsequent Yuan-ti misadventures. There was Miche, the currently unavailable PC, Undril, the NPC cleric who hired the group to take her upriver, their two jungle guides, Rivermist and Flask of Wine, plus five native porters. During the course of that TPK, they used whistles to alert the camp and left a series of ropes to guide them back; ropes which the Yuan-ti must have discovered by now. The fate of all these potential causalities is unknown.

With a whole new set of rescued NPCs in tow (more on that later), the party fled the newly restored Temple of Ubtao and ran back toward camp. When they were exactly 400’ feet away, they heard an agonized voice cry out, “Torm (Undril’s god), take me into your sanctuary. I’m sorry I couldn’t serve you better.” It was Undril’s voice. At full Dash, it takes just over 6 rounds to run 400 feet, but it only takes 5 rounds to guarantee that Undril will fail her Death Saves.

The party bursts into the decimated camp only to find Undril lying on her back, dead. But we just heard her speak, she’s been dead less than a minute. Quick, where is that revivify scroll that the DM gave us at the very start of the campaign? I actually gave them two scrolls with the intent to use them on NPCs that the characters had a vested interest in. This will be an important player hook once the death curse begins. In Session 2, they failed to save the sea captain’s daughter, Jeanette, which lead to a whole series of events that marooned them in the jungle. I’ve had to wait over five months for this next opportunity to occur in a plausible and natural way. Gwen better not blow this.

Since revivify is a higher spell than her current casting level, she has to roll a DC13 ability check against her spellcasting ability. The table is chanting, “Gwen, Gwen, Gwen…” Gwen blows on her dice for luck, and rolls… A 3! The table cries out in unison, “Nooooo!” But Gwen will not be denied. Cashing in her inspiration, Gwen calls out to her god, “Kelemvor. I can’t let Undril die until I show her up just once!” With the power of spite on her side, Gwen rolls a 17! Undril will live to serve her god and (criticize Gwen) once more. At least until the death curse saps her health and kills her again in excruciating pain.

The players cheered at their success. I think that Gwen’s player, Ian, who has played this adventure before, realized the implications of this action, but I don’t think the others did. This should be a nice and unwelcomed surprise for them. Of course, Undril was grateful for our heroes, plus a little shocked and proud that it was Gwen who brought her back from the dead. In her backhanded insulting way, Undril said, “So today the apprentice has become the tutor. I’m proud to say that my tutelage has raised your skills to where you could cast such a divine spell. Well done.”

They searched the remnants of the camp. They found three dead Yuan-ti, another dead porter and they salvaged four tents, a few 10’ poles (I always mention these whenever I can), a couple crates of food, and one empty but undamaged water barrel. It looks like where gonna be counting our rations again. They also discovered numerous footprints running north: two feline pawprints, one booted pair (Miche), and four barefoot sets (the remaining porters). They are being pursued by two other booted pairs, plus a single large snake trail, belonging to the Yuan-ti, chasing the abandoned party into the jungle. Of course, our heroes follow these tracks intent on saving their friends. They are such good little heroes.

But they had to rest eventually. Nightfall was approaching and since they had no guide, they were relying on Martic the ranger to follow the trail. At camp, I could finally have the conversations with all the NPCs they have collected along the way.

First, were the mute jungle natives. They are not actually mute, but they speak an unknown language of clicks and sounds that is completely alien to the players. A few sessions ago, it was pretty funny when the players struggled to communicate their instructions prior to the big temple battle.

These warriors also use a series hand gestures. I love the idea of alternate means of communication to confound my players. I often go to the trouble to create two handouts whenever something is written in a foreign tongue. One using the alternate alphabet and the other written in English for when they get around to translate it. But this time I wanted to do something really different.

So, I learned a few phrases in American Sign Language. The warriors bow to our heroes and proceed to communicate with them using the sequence above. Most everyone liked this; they looked at it like another puzzle to solve. Wes loved it. He made my go through the sign language phrase over a half dozen times, trying to figure out what I was saying. It may seem like nothing, but this was a pretty good way to do something unique for 15 minutes of the session. Mostly on their own, they figured out that the warriors were saying, “Thank you. We owe you our lives. We will serve you for one year.” I had always intended that if these guys were rescued then they would act as permanent porters. Eventually, though experience and work, I expect all of the unique complications of the jungle will be solved. They also learned that their names are Abebe, Chimola, Gero, Paki, and Thabo. Thanks, Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, I love those name lists.

Up next were all the civilians from Port Nyanzaru. When I added these guys to the dungeon, I didn’t really think them through. They were just intended to be another complication, another wrinkle in the plan, but nothing important. They could meet another jungle guide(s) in a different setting than Port, be the good guys by saving some random NPCs, and by adding Volo into the group, inject some levity into an otherwise serious dungeon; half the group finds him humorously annoying and the other half finds him hilarious. But I didn’t expect all of the baggage that would come with them.

How did they get here? Did they arrive together or separately? What did the Yuan-ti want with them? Why did they leave Port Nyanzaru at all? How do we get them home? Do we abort our jungle quest and take them back? Or do we drag them through the jungle while we complete our original mission? Will Volo be an annoying git the whole time? Can’t we just kill only Volo? (This was half-jokingly asked by Thames who is the most annoyed by Volo.) The players began by questioning the amiable scamp and this is where I created the Slaver sub-plot that will take up a few sessions when we get back to town. They asked him, “How did you get here?”

“Well, it’s a fascinating story. I was frequenting a local hostelry, promoting my recent book and researching my next one. Have you seen my recent book? I seem to have misplaced all my copies, but I can surely find you another back in Port, it’s available in all the finest general goods emporiums. Anyway, where was I? Yes, I was sampling the local inebriants when this fascinating Chultan approach and told me he knew of this place in Old Town that had the best tej in all the land. Have you had tej? It’s this mead made out of honey and it is the absolute best. Umh, chef’s kiss. Where was I? Oh yes, well, as soon as we got outside the gate, I can’t remember a thing and woke up here, forced to dig out another temple buried in the dirt for those despicable snake men. You’re quite certain they’re all dead, right?”

Thames really wanted to kill this guy. The other players only had one question, “What did this man look like?”

“He was tall, about six feet. He was a handsome Chultan male with steely-grey eyes. Oh, and he had this habit of licking his lips with his tongue and I could swear it was forked, but I figured that was the tej playing tricks on my eyes again. Wouldn’t be the first time.”

Thankfully, the other freed slaves were less verbose. Simone, the serving girl, was also lured to Old Town to apply for a new tavern job, but her captor was only 5 foot, 8 inches, with blue eyes. Sarouk, the randy noble from Neverwinter, was lured to Malar’s Throat for an “expedition” by an attractive female roughly 5½ feet tall, with green eyes. Kemet, a local sailor, was lured to Tiryki Anchorage to buy a boat from a very tall man, 6’2’’, with brown eyes. Houndspurr, the shifty Tabaxi minstrel, immediately claimed, “Yeah, yeah, that’s what happened to me too! Tall guy, brown eyes, looking to buy a boat.”

The players did not believe him for one second, but they insisted on rolling Insight to see if they thought he was telling the truth. Surprise, surprise, you think he’s lying. Roland tried to Persuade him, Thames tried to Intimidate him. Both worked. You know, it’s really hard to play friendly and terrified at the same time. “Okay, okay. Get this big iguana off me.” (No one ever calls Thames a dragonborn. They all just refer to him as some type of lizard.) The tabaxi continues, “Really, I was duped into going to Old Town to buy some stolen goods. She was short, like 5’2”, 5’3”, but I never saw her face, she wore a hood the whole time.”

The players were furiously writing down all these descriptions. They were determined to track them down as soon as we got back to Port. If we got back. Okay, now I gotta write up some sort of Slave Ring adventure. No problem. They guessed that a group of Yuan-ti purebloods (the ones that can pass as human) have been abducting people from Port Nyanzaru, tricking them outside the main city gates, using some sort of Poison, probably the Yuan-ti Blue, then kidnapping and transporting them here to dig up more of the temple complex. They had the descriptions of five different people in this Slaver Ring but didn’t know if there were more involved.

In the Yuan-ti dungeon, the party had killed four Purebloods. The torturer Martic killed and Gwen’s captor did not match any of these descriptions. During the temple battle they killed two more. One was over 6 feet tall with brown eyes. The players assumed (correctly) that this is the one that kidnapped Kemet. The other was a Chultan male, five feet, ten inches with hazel eyes. This didn’t match any descriptions, but he seemed vaguely familiar to the group. They all rolled miserably and no one could remember where they saw him.

Martic actually passed, but he was not present when this NPC was met, so he failed automatically. I even told them that they definitely saw this guy before, but Martic (who rolled highest) and Gwen (who rolled lowest) have no memory of this guy. Surprisingly, my players didn’t try to figure out when Martic and Gwen weren’t present, so this clue led nowhere. BTW, this Yuan-ti is the spice merchant that Miche (he would have had advantage on the roll, if he wasn’t off DM-ing some other group) bought from during their introduction to Volo back in Session 7. This location will get revisited.

Lastly, came the tale of the jungle guides, Faroul and Gondolo. They were not kidnapped from town. “We were guiding an expedition, escorting a wealthy patron, Lord Feron Silvermace of Cormyr. He was trying to retrace the steps of his great-great-great-great grandfather, Theron Silvermace, who traveled here over 125 years ago. We had traveled up the Tiryki river and were camped just south of Firefinger when we were ambushed by the Yuan-ti.”

“There were eight porters and six mercenaries with us, but they were no match for the snakemen. It was a slaughter. We yelled for Lord Silvermace to run. He disappeared into the jungle and we never saw him again. The soldiers were all killed and the four porters that were captured with us were since taken from the slave pits and never seen again, presumably turned into those mindless Yuan-ti brutes. Here, we still have Feron’s map which he said was a family heirloom.”

More names, more locations, more plot hooks. Will any of them be investigated? Maybe, maybe not. I like to throw a ton of possibilities at the players to see what they like. But I will add that this map comes straight out of the book, The Ring of Winter, the genesis of Chult and part of the story of Artus Cimber (a major NPC in this adventure) and the “lost” city of Mezro that several players have on their “must visit” list, so it will probably become important.

The next day, they realize that the trail they are following is leading them back to the river and hopefully their boats. But just a few dozen yards from the water, the group comes upon another massacre. The Yuan-ti had finally caught up with the fleeing Tabaxi guides and their companion Miche. Yet none of them are among the dead. Instead, three dead Yuan-ti were left to rot in the jungle heat. They do find the body of another nameless porter, but where are their friends?

Searching the scene, they discover a dozen small footprints running around the area then finally dragging several people away toward the east. They also find a discarded tribal mask lying in the dirt. Faroul exclaims, “Batiri! You would call them goblins, but here they ride on each other’s shoulders to hide their numbers. Very nasty. Your friends are probably dinner as we speak. We should leave.”

The players wanted to run after their stolen comrades, but they also wanted to check on the status of the boats in case any got away. Turns out the tabaxis led them very close to the where they were hidden. It seems that they were still intact and they were all accounted for. But when they turned one over that’s when five giant frogs attacked. These frogs thought they had found a perfect spot to hide from the crocodiles and they were not happy about being found but these foolish humans.

We haven’t had any combat at all in this particular session, so I threw them this one. It was short and sweet and the players kicked ass, which is important to allow them to have some easy combats once in a while. Not every fight has to be a monumental battle to the death. I think one of the players got swallowed, but after that frog was killed, plus one more, the rest figured they’d take their chances with the crocodiles and jumped into the river.

But now came the debate that took up the rest of the session. As the previous encounters played out, I tried to steer them toward this moment that would pull the players in three different directions and they had to decide which one to do. And each choice came with a different emotional trigger.

The NPC civilians all insisted on using the boats to go home which was north from here. They argued that they were in no shape to go adventuring in the jungle and they needed to go back to Port as soon as possible. This was the moral choice to make, since saving commoners from danger is a core heroic ideal. But they also had a duty and an obligation to take Undril to her faction’s camp which was up river to the south. She did pay the party to get her there and she did pay for these boats that they were using.

And then there was the emotional choice regarding their fellow companion and their two guides (no one cared about the porters). An adventuring party does not abandon one of their own if there is a chance to save them. The tracks that might lead to their rescue head east. To complicate this decision is the fact that we know by now that the missing player is not going to return to the campaign. Aidan is stuck running a different group and it doesn’t matter if his character, Miche, is left to die in the jungle.

What to do? Do the players make the moral choice, commit to their obligation, or do they choose friendship? The debate went on for quite some time, with all the players voicing their opinions and weighing the options. I stayed out of it (as I should) except to reiterate that the commoners want to go north, Undril wants to go south, and the tribal warriors have no opinion. Which would you choose?

Next week, our heroes make their choice, but will they face goblins, undead, or dinosaurs?

As always, present your players with a dilemma then keep your mouth shut, and Game On!

I have had it with these motherf*cking snakes in this motherf*cking jungle – Samuel L. Jackson in the movie version of this adventure. This became a recurring quote during our campaign.

Don’t forget to check out my Tomb of Annihilation Resources Page, filled with all the stuff I use to make this epic campaign even more epicier: My full Campaign Diary, plus Handouts, Maps, Charts, PDFs, Images, and more to use, abuse, or ignore at your peril.

And written specifically for this adventure, read my Explorer’s Guide to Chult to delve into all the legands, lore, history, religion, and culture that I used to bring even more life to this adventure.