Our heroes tangle with a metallic god, a dinosaur king, and they witness firsthand the devastation of the death curse.

When last we left our heroes, they had single-handedly stopped a horde of undead from sacking Camp Vengeance, the last bastion of the Order of the Gauntlet, whom have sworn to eradicate this scourge of walking dead that plagues the vibrant paradise that is Chult. During the course of the battle, our heroes caught their first glimpse of the man responsible for this wonton destruction, Ras Nsi.

Rumors abound about this mysterious necromancer. He was a paladin of the creator god, Ubtao, during the first age of Chult, thousands of years ago. He was a prince of Mezro, a city that vanished during the Spellplague just fifty years prior. Some say he was a man, or a yuan-ti, or even a god himself. Most say that he is long dead, and this man claiming to be Ras Nsi is just an impostor. Whoever it was that our heroes saw, he was real, he was powerful, and he escaped into the night.

But today is the dawn of a new day and there is much to be thankful for. Our heroes, their entourage, and most of their allies are alive for now. Many soldiers sacrificed their lives, but the Order will survive and carry on their mission. Despite my players’ attempts to sway them from, what my players consider it to be, a suicidal and pointless path. But the Order, and its fanatical leader, Templar Niles Breakbone, will not be deterred. Unable to save the Order from themselves, our heroes make plans to return to Port Nyanzaru.

But first, they ask if anyone has seen any sign of a thing called Vorn, which is rumored to be some vestige of a new “god” that local monsters have been worshipping. Finding evidence of this Vorn is yet another side quest given by one of the Merchant Princes back at Port. The soldiers tell them that one reconnaissance squad spotted a strange statue about two days north of Camp, but they were chased off by a tribe of goblins. They give the party crude directions on where to find it. And off they trot into the wild green yonder.

I’m anxious to get the players back to Port, so I don’t want this distraction to take long. I decree that Ras Nsi summoned every undead in the area for last night’s invasion. With them all eradicated, the jungle is returned to its natural state, teeming with noises, light, and life. Aside from the abundant animal sightings, nothing disturbs the journey toward the area of the statue’s sighting. That’s not to say that nothing occurred along the way.

In the middle of the first day, the pebble in Thames pocket squawks to life with another thinly veiled threat. The menacing dulcet tones of Ras Nsi speak through the sending stone, “I assume that was you I saw at Camp last night. Last warning. Run back home and live out your mundane and pathetically short existence.” Once again, my group was uncertain how to respond so they remained silent. But at least I maintained the omnipresence of the main villain even when he isn’t physically in the session.

On day two, they received another reminder that many others have attempted to tame the jungle of Chult and failed. The group comes across the skeleton of another dead explorer. It is laying face down in the dirt with no indication of how it died. How it escaped Ras Nsi and his compulsive necromancy is another mystery. What is no mystery is his apparel and it sent a shiver down the spine of my players. This skeleton wore the distinctive robes of the Red Wizards of Thay. Thames especially was adversely affected. His character is stunned with a mixture of rage and fear. These are some of my favorite encounters. I drop a bombshell announcement and sit back while my player discuss.

The group already knows that Thames’s homeland, far to the east, is at war with a nation of evil humans. Here they learn that the nation is the Red Wizards of Thay. My players go back and forth about what each character knows about this despicable nation and what it could mean for the campaign. I’ve wanted to introduce this deadly faction to the story for a long time. But their goals are tied up in the search for the Death Curse, so it made no sense to feature them before that event. I like this soft introduction to the faction; it belies their true threat and also gives more gravitas to Thames’s backstory.

Gwen has begun to collect the heads of her enemies (I really need to speak with this lawful good cleric about her methodology) so she can cast Speak with the Dead and gain some otherwise unknowable intel. Despite the grim nature of this action, it has proven useful if cryptic. I decided to make this particular red dead wizard the prior master of the “god” Vorn they are seeking, which is unspecified in the book. Although this “conversation” actually happens next week, I’ll include it here to avoid confusion.

Like Hamlet, Gwen holds this skull (whose name just became Yorik) aloft and asks, “Why are you in Chult?” We are exploring. “What are you looking for? Evidence of an undead god. (But is this Ras Nsi or something worse?) Who are your allies? We have no allies, only minions. Who killed you? No man killed me. (This is true. He drowned in a puddle. Gwen asked the wrong question.) What is your deepest secret? I seek the power to dethrone Zzas Tam. (Two of my more savvy players know exactly who this is. But the other two players and all four characters are clueless, yet sadly, they are all out of questions.)

Moving on, a mere 200 feet from this corpse, our heroes stumble upon a large statue. But it’s not like a statue. There is no base, it is just standing on the jungle ground and it appears assembled from pieces of copper, brass steel, and stone rather than carved. In fact, it seems more like Thames’s griffon construct than a statue. That’s because it is. It is a Shield Guardian and frankly, I wish I had not included it in the adventure.

A Shield Guardian is a ridiculously powerful item and one that no players should be allowed access to except in very high-level play. It’s stupidly strong, nigh-invincible, regenerates, and it make it’s master nearly impossible to kill by boosting his AC and absorbing half of all damage. On top of that it gives two extra attacks per turn and acts as a ring of spell storing. Players will inevitably abuse its abilities relying solely on this golem like a crutch. If I were a player, I would never enter combat again, I’d just send in the robot.

The problem is the balance between the power level of the PCs versus their hirelings. Allowing this “monster” to join the party essentially makes him an NPC controlled by the players. In principle, I don’t mind this. The group already has Grum, and more NPCs eventually get hired later. But those NPCs are much weaker than the players. Their only purpose is to allow for a single extra attack and to pull the occasional monster attack away from the players. They are not the heroes. But whenever a stronger NPC ally joins the group, all the focus falls on that NPC, and the players end up expecting that NPC to solve all their problems, especially combat. I just spent the past few months doing everything I could to keep the NPC Undril, a stronger cleric than Gwen, away from combat and now I’m about to give them a 15^th level robot barbarian!

How did I get in this predicament? It is a result of not reading the book fully before the campaign, a daunting and unrealistic expectation. Once I knew the general direction my players were heading for this first expedition, I glanced at the various locations that they might visit and I saw this cool frozen statue in the jungle. Ooh, this Vorn thing seems interesting, and the control amulet is at the goblin camp. I’ll plant a seed and have a merchant prince hire the group to investigate this thing. It wasn’t until I read the full description and looked up what a Shield Guardian actually was, that I realized I was screwed. I don’t want my players to have this just yet. Later, maybe, but not now.

If I were to do this again, I would change one small detail. I would not put the command amulet at Yellyark. I would keep its location secret until the players are at least 9^th level. If the players visit and clear Yellyark early in the campaign, then it just isn’t there. Maybe it’s at Dungrunglung, the grung village, or with the vegepygmies at The Narwhal. It could be anywhere as part of any treasure horde, but no one knows what it does. In fact, if the players find the Vorn statue early, it would be a neat side quest to always be on the lookout for its amulet.

Unfortunately, my players had already cleared Yellyark and have possession of the blasted amulet. They had cast Identify on it, and they knew exactly what it did. Since Thames had the amulet on him, he is now the proud owner of his very own, Brand New Tank! Enjoy. Ugh, this thing is going to throw off the entire balance of the game. Just to nerf it for now, I said that it moves really slowly through the jungle (due to its lumbering size). It will ultimately follow Thames all the way to Port Nyanzaru, but it will take twice as long to get there. Thankfully, my players opted to travel at the normal pace, leaving the robot to follow slowly behind. I really wanted to spring a gang of furious grungs on the group for stealing their “god”, but I just wasn’t prepared to run a combat that included this guardian, so we moved on.

Our heroes easily get back to Camp Vengeance, collect their NPC entourage and their disease-ridden Gauntlet soldiers, load everything into the canoes and head back down river toward home. Hopefully, Meepo has managed to patch all the holes in the roof by now. Yes, I want to get my players home as soon as possible, but I am also an idiot sadist DM, so, of course, I have a long list of encounters along the way.

On Day 1, they returned to the abandoned Camp Righteous and Crocodile Man shrine, where they learn that a flock of axebeaks have taken over the camp. A group of axebeaks has no official name, so I’m going to call it a gaggle. My players wanted nothing to do with these hard-headed herons and paddled past. Day 2 had no encounters and Day 3 had a swarm of quippers, basically pirahnas, that kept trying to eat the oars. I don’t remember what the party did to end this encounter, so I’m gonna assume that Thames Thunderwaved the entire river and they rowed on.

This brought them back to an added location on the Soshestar River called Thunder Falls. The last time they were here they discovered a frozen tundra that completely iced over the lake below the Falls. They also found signs of a man, a bipedal lizard, and a huge dinosaur. The dinosaur is a monster of legend that the locals call the Thunder King. No one has ever seen this creature and lived to tell the tale. With great trepidation, our heroes attempt to cross through his domain once again.

Thunder Falls includes two small lakes, one at the top of the falls and one at the bottom. Our heroes are on the upper lake in three canoes. Players, porters, guides, and injured soldiers are spread out amongst all three canoes. On the east side of the lake, there is a landing that begins the portage trail that allows people to carry their canoes down to the lower lake. The process is slow and takes about a half day. The falls are at the north end of the lake. It is a colossal cascade of water over 100’ wide that drops 80’ into the pool below. The current is quite strong and if you miss the canoe landing you run the risk of being swept over the falls.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, a tremulous roar is heard very close by to the west. A sixty-foot tree falls into the lake and then a gigantic dinosaur emerges from the jungle. It stands over forty feet long with an enormous head filled with razor sharp teeth bigger than daggers. It is the mighty tyrannosaurus rex, because of course it is. Its beady black eyes focus in on our pathetic victims in their tiny boats and with another roar, it charges forward looking for a quick snack. The surface of the lake barely comes up to its knees as it splashes toward our heroes.

I have zero clue what my players will do here. They could fight it (and likely die), they could beach the boats and run (leaving the immobile soldiers to a grisly death) or they could distract the beast (with what I have no idea). I had half-expected and planned for the group to row full steam ahead over the falls. When falling into water, I allow a save to avoid all damage. Even a failed save only take half, unless it is a critical fail. But my players were terrified of going over the edge and like a kamikaze pilot, Roland insisted on fighting the dinosaur king.

Roland attempted to turn the canoe to face the Jurassic eating machine. I had him roll an Athletics check to control the boat during this turn. He boned this roll. He rolled so badly that I decreed that he collided with one of the other canoes. The occupants of that canoe then also failed to control their boat and crashed into the third boat. They also all failed. I had only set the DC to 12, but everybody failed.

Now they were all caught in the current heading over the falls and all three boats were spinning wildly. I had them roll a DC15 to gain control of their boats and paddle against the rapidly increasing current. Everybody failed again. They were all going over. I gave them each one more roll to see if they could at least steer into the direction of the rapids. One passed, one failed by a little, and one failed by a lot. The DC was 10.

“Mere seconds before the T-Rex is able to take a bite out of one of the boats and its snack-sized passengers, all three canoes careen over the edge of Thunder Falls. One facing forward, one backwards, one goes over sideways. Everyone roll me a DC10 Dexterity check. Those who went over forward can roll with advantage, backwards roll normal, and those who fell sideways, roll with disadvantage.” All these waterfall rules for going over backwards, rolling with advantage or not, the various DC levels, were made up on the spot. There was no way to plan for them, but the rules seemed fair and reasonable at the time and no one had an issue with them.

Several members of the entourage channeled Greg Louganis performed a perfect dive into the water, taking no damage. Most tumbled into lower pool taking half damage and a few bellyflopped into the lake for full damage. Only one died. One of the injured soldiers landed on a rock and was killed instantly. The T-Rex stood at the top of the Falls bellowing a frustrated roar at the loss of an easy meal. The survivors quickly righted the overturned canoes, salvaged what supplies they could (they lost a fair amount) and fled the area before the T-Rex decided to chase after them or worse, jump off the cliff.

Our heroes rowed as hard as they could to place as much distance away from Thunder Falls and its very hungry king. They were exhausted by the time they made camp. That night, I hit them with yet another unique monster to Chult, one that I can’t believe I hadn’t used yet. Tomb of Annihilation has a couple shortcomings but it’s diversity of unique creatures is not one of them.

As they slept, a dozen yellow musk zombies snuck into camp and dragged off a couple of porters and soldiers. These aren’t your regular zombies that dine on brains. These are “The Last of Us” fungal zombies, that take their unconscious victims to the host plant to be assimilated into the Borg collective, I mean, infected with a spore that rots your brain and then assimilates you. Totally different.

It took several rounds before our heroes realized that something was amiss. By that time, the zombies had a sizeable lead when the party finally gave chase. Due to the chaotic response, some players were ahead of others and they split the party further in an attempt to save each hapless victim. All of this was just an attempt isolate players and lure them toward the real danger of the Yellow Musk Creeper, yet another carnivorous plant that exists solely to vex and kill your players in creepy, unsettling ways. Incredibly, this plan actually worked as intended. Score one for the DM!

Roland was the first to enter the Creeper’s pheromone strike radius. He failed his save (yea!), was instantly charmed, and began walking in a trance toward certain doom. Everyone else had to change tactics to save their friend and they weren’t even sure where the threat was coming from. Finally, they came upon another abandoned shrine. Chult is literally littered with them. Just a few broken pillars remained of this shrine, but clinging to one was an ominous yellow orchid whose tendrils were latching one to Roland and one of the hapless porters. (I gave the plant two attacks per round and a 10’ range just to make it a little more challenging.

Once the creature revealed itself, it was only a matter of time before it was vanquished. The only thing that kept it viable was its regeneration ability. I also decreed that these are not necromantic zombies and thus immune to the cleric’s turn undead ability, which was an unpleasant surprise for Gwen. These zombies need to be killed the old-fashioned way; with steel. But eventually, killed they were, as was the plant that spawned them. In the aftermath, one of the two remaining original porters was killed and the party found the body of another unlucky adventurer who had some minor treasure but more importantly, a working spyglass.

The rest of the journey home was uneventful except on the morning of the last day in the jungle. As the party prepared to break camp and cast off one last time, a strange creature emerged from the murky waters of the Soshenstar River. A singular creature, it was the shape and form of a lobster, complete with six chitinous legs, two huge pincer claws, and a hard, bony carapace ending at a flared lobster tail. But it was the size of a man and it has a human face that hints at the creature’s cursed heritage. It held its claws in a position of surrender as it approached and bowed as it got near to the group. From within its segmented shell, it removed a large spiral conch shell and laid it on the sand at their feet. Then just as silently as it approached, the lobster-man receded back into the river’s depth.

Our heroes had seen these beings before, but always indirectly or at a distance. This was the first time they’d seen one up close and still it gave more questions than answers, What are these things, why does it have the face of a man, and what  is the purpose of this mysterious shell? I own a conch shell from a recent beach vacation, so naturally, I brought it as a prop to place before my players. I get to watch my players as they puzzled over this shell for some time, looking at it, discussing it, turning it over in their hands, checking it for secret notes or some clue to its purpose. But it was James who solved the riddle when he put the shell up to his ear.

“When you put the conch up to your ear, instead of the sounds of waves crashing, you hear a sweet, melodic female voice say, “Go to the mouth of the Olung and born your horn.””

Even more mysteries, more questions, more tasks to complete. Who are these lobstermen? Who is the female voice? Where is the Olung? What is this horn? And what happens when you blow it? The answers to these riddles involve the lost city of Mezro, the paladins sworn to protect her, and especially Ras Nsi, the main villain of this part of the adventure. All this new content is based upon canonical lore, to build on the mythology and legacy of the Land of Chult.

The slow buildup to this encounter: the numerous glimpses of these lobstermen, leading up to this initial mysterious reveal, and the receipt of this enigmatic present, proved to be one of my best plot hooks. Despite the real-life time between receiving this conch shell today and actually blowing it months later, my players always kept this task at the top of their “To Do” list, despite all the distractions I threw at them along the way. But for now, the group had to put this mystery aside. They had more immediate concerns.

“Finally, after an eternity lost in the jungle, you see the walls and spires of Port Nyanzaru once more. At last, there is safety, civilization, and the prospect of sleeping in a dry bed for the first time in over forty days. But as you get closer, you realize this is not the bustling, vibrant, teeming with life Port Nyanzaru you left. The streets are barren, no one is walking about and the city is as silent as a tomb. No sooner have you entered the outskirts of Old Town before you are accosted by a squadron of 50 guards. In addition to their armor, they all wear cloths that cover their mouths and noses. “Halt! Do not approach any further. Is anyone in your group sick or dying? Port Nyanzaru is under quarantine!””

So, let’s talk about the Death Curse and the effect it would have upon our fantasy world. The Death Curse is a global pandemic that has two main effects. First, anyone who dies loses their soul to feed the villain’s mad scheme. Second, anyone who has ever been resurrected, slowly withers away, inevitably dying again and loses their soul. This Curse has three big problems. One, it’s too vague. Losing your soul is horrific, but other than a few clerics, who would even know about this? Two, it’s too small. Even in a fantasy world, how many people do you think have been resurrected? I argue that the number is very small; a mere fraction of 1%. Even the book only lists three victims, and one of them is the villain! But by far the worst sin is that the Death Curse is boring!

The Curse is presented in such a matter-of-fact, who-gives-a-crap way. In the book, your new boss, whom you’ve never met before and don’t care about, tells you that your soul, if you believe in that sort of thing, is in peril and that she and only she, as far as you know, is dying of this curse. Now go fix it! Aside from character death being permanent, the players are not affected by this curse, so it is just this thing in the background. Now, this adventure was written in 2017, three years before we saw firsthand what a real pandemic can do to the world. The isolation, fear, hopelessness, frustration, anger but also, bravery, resilience, and perseverance in the face of catastrophic devastation were all real things that we lived through.

In comparison, this Death Curse is silly, contrived, and lacks any sense of gravitas. Now I’m not suggesting that you relive the pandemic, but we can make this fictional curse more grounded and impactful.

First and foremost, this Curse will unfortunately require more victims and hopefully some will have a personal connection to your PCs. Ask your players directly if anyone in their backstory has ever been resurrected. I did this indirectly and got no response. Next, try to develop some non-essential NPCs that the players connect with. Then give them a backstory that involves a resurrection, or better yet, have that NPC die before the Death Curse is active and revive them. Also, once the Death Curse is active, create a list of “random” NPCs that get sick. Through role-play, have the players discover that the one factor they all have in common is a previous resurrection.

But even with a list of 15-20 extra Death Curse victims, this isn’t enough to create the wide spread panic that the adventure intends. Since the villain’s scheme involves feeding souls into an infernal machine, they need to kill as many people as possible and they can’t wait around for the few resurrection victims to slowly wither away. So, I created a whole new pandemic disaster on top of the one in the book. This second disease has killed several hundred people already and hundreds more are dying. The city has shut down as people hide in their homes, since no one can figure out what the source of the disease is. Worse still, they have not realized that it is actually two separate diseases, or rather, curses.

I had a few other tricks to increase the paranoia. As part of my session prep, I roll for the daily temperature. After the Death Curse started, I rolled over 100 degrees for ten days in a row. My players were convinced that this heat wave was an intentional aspect of the Death Curse. I leaned into this misconception and added a water draught to show that this curse was affecting every aspect of life, even the weather. In another happy accident, when the Death Curse started, I gave my players prophetic dreams of dread and doom to unnerve them. Unexpectedly, they asked multiple NPCs if they had similar dreams. I had to scramble with their stories, but I played it that every single person on the planet had a personalized prophesy of their impending death. This extra creepy element showed my players that this curse was a global threat.

Leaning into this dream motif, I am lucky to have a player like Ian at the table. He specifically chose to play a cleric of Kelemvor, the god of the dead, to fully embrace the theme of this adventure. Since the Curse began, I gave Gwen several visions of her version of Heaven, The Fugue Plane, where the dead go to await judgment. “The land of the dead is empty. Where once there were thousands of new arrivals each day, now, there is no one. Not a single soul has entered its gates since that fateful monsoon ten days ago.” This has led to some interesting roleplay where Gwen tries to convince several NPCs and her fellow players about this existential crisis and no one even cares. But at least by now the players are fully invested in exploring the causes of this Death Curse.

Back to the standoff between my players and fifty panicked guards. My group played it cool, convinced the guards that they weren’t a threat, but they did have three injured people with them. The guards ordered the group to follow them to the quarantine station. My players said that they needed to report to the Order of the Gauntlet. “Well, you’re in luck, because that’s whose running the quarantine.”

If they thought the conditions in the Medical tent at Camp Righteous were bad; they were shocked at the state of this “hospital”. One of the ziggurats in Old Town was converted into this field clinic. The conditions were deplorable; hundreds of cots were strewn about, each one filled with a desperate victim with no separation between the sick, dead and dying. Dead bodies lay stacked in a corner waiting to be taken to the nearby Refuse Pit for “disposal”. A dozen harried clerics were stumbling about, staggering form cot to cot in a state of exhaustion trying their best to ease their suffering, but there is no cure, just a debilitating sense of hopelessness and despair.

Without hesitation, our heroes found the nearest cleric and said, “How can we help?

Next week, our heroes discover the source of the Nyanzaru plague, which leads to a very unexpected reunion.

As always, trust that your player will do the right thing, and Game On!

See You Soon! – the ominous voice at the end of each death dream.

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.