Our heroes receive a prophetic gift in a session filled with runes, glyphs, and secret societies. And the Flaming Fist.

When last we left our heroes, they had returned home to Port Nyanzaru, only to find the city locked down, seized in the grip of a lethal Death Curse. Hundreds of people were sick and dying, and no one knew why. Our heroes followed a series of clues that lead them to an abandoned home in the Merchant District. Inside they found a nest of vipers, Yuan-ti snakemen, that had been poisoning the water supply. Vigilante justice prevailed. Our heroes killed the perpetrators of this heinous crime, found the antidote, and saved the city, then claimed the hideout for their own by eminent domain. The Death Curse is still active, but we can’t do anything about that yet.

As part of the hag’s treasure horde, they discovered a cryptic note. This note was meant to be a cute little puzzle, nothing crazy, that would foreshadow the existence of the even more deadly hags found at the end of the adventure. Since all hags are aware of other nearby hags, I thought it would be funny to have this weaker group of sea hags begging to join the stronger group of night hags. This letter was the response from those night hags. Sadly, this coded letter proved to be more trouble than it was worth.

There are basically two types of codes: The letter shift and the letter substitution. The letter shift code is solved by some sort of key, the simplest of which moves the correct letter “x” number of spaces down the alphabet. For example, if “x = x+5” then, a=f, b=g, c=h, etc. You can complicate this code by using a key word, alternating the value of the shift, removing blank spaces, and other methods, but you get the idea.

A letter substitution code changes each letter to another random letter but that letter must stay constant throughout the code. This is the code used in the common cryptogram found in puzzle books and can be solved by letter frequency and common word groupings. For example, the code, “hd wm de cdt hd wm, hxjh vt hxm zkmthvde” would translate as: To be or not to be, that is the question. One way to complicate this code is to substitute each letter for a random symbol, as I have seemingly done. When any DM writes a note using dwarven or elven script, that is a substitution code. Technically, my code can be solved like a cryptogram but that is not what I intended.

 

That’s because this isn’t actually a code, it’s a puzzle and can be read normally if you can figure it out. I was inspired by the writing style called ambigrams where letters are written so that they can be read right side up and upside down. This was popularized in the Dan Brown novel “Angels and Demons”. I don’t have the skill to write in such an ornate way, but I could probably manage to do something similar, by writing backward or even better: mirror writing.

Backward writing is putting the letters in reverse order such as: “eb ot ton ro eb ot”. The problem is the human brain is really good at detecting patterns and this “code” would be immediately deciphered. Mirror writing is a little trickier. Leonardo DaVinci was famous for his style of backward writing and while it looks cool and alien, the letters still look familiar. One look at this “puzzle” should have one scream, “Get me a mirror!’

Nope. I gotta make way more work for myself and in the process, hopelessly confound my players. I need to invent a whole new alphabet. I tried to find a Word font that would just allow me to type the kind of message I want, but it does not exist. So, it’s back to the drawing board. I want my alphabet to look correct in a mirror, but on the page, it needs to be unrecognizable or look like a completely different letter. Some letters were easy; mirrored “e” looks like a “g”, b=d, s=z, and so forth. But some letters, I just couldn’t get right, specifically “f”, “t”, and “y”.

I went through reams of paper, tweaking my new alphabet, adding serifs, descenders, flags, cross strokes, and other flourishes to disguise each letter. I was happy with the result; it looks like gibberish. I made a few errors on it, one “o” is missing a serif, for example, but that should not have mattered. Someday I might turn this into a proper font available for download, but for now you can write your own coded messages by using the same script. Again, this was never meant to be difficult. I expected it to take about fifteen minutes before someone solved it. Spoiler Warning: Skip the next picture if you want to solve it for yourself.

Oh my god, was I so wrong. My players went down a rabbit hole of cyphers, codes, cryptograms, and conspiracy theories. It was not solved during the last session. Nor this session, nor the next one, nor the one after that. Every inch of this paper was scrutinized. That “o” with the missing serif became a completely different character throwing the whole analysis out of whack. Those little dots on the letter? I placed those to “help” my players by indicating the start of each word. Wrong! They must be a whole new letter. Start over. One player started writing a computer program to crack my cypher. If the Germans had used this code instead of the Enigma machine, we might have lost World War II.

But for now, I refused to give them any hints. I didn’t want to cheapen the victory of solving it themselves. Each player took a photo of the handout, and for the next three sessions, the first 20 minutes were spent trying to crack the code. I’ll discuss the meaning behind the note when the group finally solves it, but we don’t have time for this right now, we got to meet our new bosses.

One of the many things I like about Tomb of Annihilation is its refusal to use the standard factions as a crutch. They’re all here, but since Chult is so remote and isolated they only serve minor roles in the adventure. But using factions such as these do lend a sense of gravitas to a campaign. So far, the quests that my players have done were on a smaller, personal scale.

This is fine for low level play, but now that my group has solved city-wide plagues and broke up a slaver guild, it’s hard to go back to rescuing cats out of trees. This requires higher stakes and powerful quest givers. This is where factions play a key role. But my players have no real allegiance to the usual suspects. Fortunately, the book provides a new faction that perfectly fits this adventure’s theme.

I like everything that WotC created for this benevolent secret society: the fact that no one knows who they are, their cool triceratops logo, even the iron coins of warning that have been coopted by rogue agents, but they do need some fleshing out. The book lists that the society has about 50 members but only names two. I changed it to a true triceratops society and have it run by three members: Wakanga the merchant prince, Zindar the harbor master, and Zitembe the head cleric of Savras. This puts a member in the three branches of medieval society, government, military, and religion.

During the events of last session’s plague mystery, our heroes reconnected with these NPCs, so they weren’t surprised when Wakanga called for a meeting with our heroes. But they were surprised to find all three important townfolk here, alone with just our heroes, strangers to the land. My players had previously met each one in a separate encounter at various points in the campaign and made a good impression on all three. But they were never in the same room together. Until now. After the customary pleasantries and platitudes, the three get straight to business.

Our heroes have been closely monitored since their arrival with a mixture of pride and admiration. More importantly, these three would like to induct our heroes into the ranks of the Ytepka Society as trusted field agents. They can continue with their own agenda, but should the need arise, they must do all they can to protect Port Nyanzaru and Chult. Two heroes, Roland and Martic, were immediately on board, while the other two agreed but with reservations. This gradual build up from innocuous introductions, leading up to the grand reveal and subsequent initiation into a secret society was made all the more sweeter since my players felt they had earned it, rather than have it handed to them at the start of the campaign, as most other factions are used.

As it were, the Society has a pressing matter at hand that would be perfect for our heroes to investigate. “As you are probably aware, we have been harassed of late by a merciless band of pirates. They seem to have a vast knowledge of our shipping schedule and only attack our most wealth-laden ships. More importantly, they never seem to attack the ships coming from Fort Beluarian. We fear that the Flaming Fist stationed there may be in league with these pirates.

We want you to go to Fort Belurian, use your natural cover as explorers looking to charter an expedition, and discover any proof of collusion between these pirates and the Flaming Fist. If true, try to discover if this deceit is sanctioned by Baldur’s Gate. Gather whatever evidence you can find. Ultimately, we want to discover a way to end this pirate scourge permanently. Now, if any of your group are captured or killed, we will disavow any knowledge of your actions. Good Luck.”

Before we head off to Fort Beluarian, I wanted to do something special for my players. There has been an under current of prophesy running through the campaign: the snake goddess Dendar is prophesized to destroy the world, Mezro will not return until all threats to it are eliminated, even Acererak has his dark dreams of impending doom. In addition, I love the Tarroka deck used in Curse of Strahd and I wanted to do something similar. Now, I do own a Tarot deck and considered using it, but there are no gypsies in Chult and it didn’t really blend with the other themes in the book. I didn’t have any African or jungle themed prophesy props, but there is one group here in Chult that strangely fits the theme and I do own a divination device that aligns with them. The Frost Giants.

The giant play and important part in the Ring of Winter subplot and I wanted to lean further into this Nordic Viking theme. For decades I’ve owned a set of divination runes and never had a chance to use them. I created the character of Sigfrid, cleric of Savras, god of divination. She is afflicted with the Death Curse and as an ex-adventurer from the artic north, my group and she hit it off right away. As a thank you for saving the city from the recent plague, Sigfrid wants to give our heroes a full runic reading.

I wanted this reading to be played live and completely unscripted, so I brushed up on my Book of Runes and crossed my fingers. The runes were drawn at random and I had no idea where this reading would go. Fortunately, the runes are vague enough to allow for personal interpretation. Of course, the persons I’m interpreting for are ill-defined fictional characters with barely any backstory, so we’ll see how this goes. I tried to roleplay each rune as if I was conducting a seance, but I’ll be honest, sometimes I just read directly from the Book of Runes. If you want to run your own Rune Reading (for any campaign) you can print out the runes below on card stock and put them in a dice bag. As for the rune meanings, you can get a Book of Runes like I have, or you can use this PDF that I created with a very basic reading of each rune. Here is the link: Nordic Runes

Happily, our reading turned out really well. I had each player pull a personal rune from the bag and I was able to match each one with at least some aspect of the PC’s personality and past actions. Some were more accurate than others. Thames was confused when he drew INGUZ – the Rune of Fertility. But it is also the rune of new beginnings and the moon, both of which apply to our campaign. Martic drew ALGIZ – the Rune of Protection. As the party tank, this seemed appropriate. Roland was elated when he drew DAGAZ – the Rune of Knowledge. He exclaimed, “It’s true. I want to learn all there is to learn about Chult.” But Gwen was by far the funniest when she drew BERKANA – the Rune of Rebirth. Everyone nodded in agreement as I explain this rune, then rolled with laughter when I revealed that she drew this rune reversed and Gwen was actually a harbinger of death. As a cleric of death worshipping the god of the dead, this was easily the most accurate rune.

Next came the reading itself. A basic read involves a five-rune spread representing: an Overview of the dilemma, the Challenge faced by the subject, an Action that needs to be taken, a Sacrifice that needs to happen, and a glimpse into the New Situation that exist when all is resolved. As before, I had each player draw a single rune while I drew the fifth. (I’m a player too!) These runes weren’t as easy to relate to the adventure as the personal runes, but there were enough hints that I could shoehorn them into the campaign.

Dilemma drew EIHWAZ – the Rune of Magic. Given the dark magic performed by Acererak to create the Death Curse this one was easy to weave into the reading. For Challenge, we drew OTHILA – the Rune of Separation. I played it up that the party might have to split up (which they do all the time) or give up a precious item (which they never do). Interestingly, for Action we drew ODIN – the Unknowable Rune of Destiny. I deemed that this blank rune meant that only the gods know what needs to be done, the players will just have to figure it out on their own. For their Sacrifice they drew SUWELU – the Rune of the Sun. This also represents the forces of life and in a campaign about a Death Curse, this is a very grave rune to draw. Finally, the Outcome drew ANSUZ – the Rune of Signals and Gods. I foretold that their success depended upon decoding all the signs and signals along the way, and that the gods are intimately entwined with the outcome. Since I have spent so much time presenting the unique pantheon of Chult to my players, this was another appropriate rune to draw.

In between the sessions, I fleshed out each of the runes from the reading, adding in greater detail, weaving in deeper spiritual tones, and dropping a few obscure hints of potential encounters and objects to acquire. Many of these hints refer to the final Tomb of the Nine Gods, such as the skeleton keys, the gears of hate, and the deadly mirrored hallway. Others hints mention the “fertile” Garden of Nangalore, a lunar eclipse, and sanctuaries to be found amongst birch trees and elk antlers. My most blatant clue went to Roland with the line “Reflect upon that which is indecipherable.” This refers directly to the solution for the hag’s coded letter. Naturally, my players ignored this clue and fumbled along with their frequency analysis and computer hacking programs.

Now the biggest pitfall to potentially befall running a prophesy like this is railroading your players. Frankly, I don’t worry about such things. The fact is that every epic adventure of this sort has a certain amount of railroad in it. All roads lead to Omu, but I have no idea which one my players will choose. For instance, I’ve hinted about the Nangalore location twice now. Yes, I want my players to go there because it is cool and I added a nice magic item that could help my players, but if they never go there, it’s okay, they’ll manage. As for the reading, the runes were completely random. I took it as a challenge for myself to make each rune relevant to the campaign.

Following the success of my fortune telling session, my group was anxious to get back into the jungle. The Ytepka society provided them with a wagon, equipment, and some cages to keep up the “disguise” of mounting a hunting expedition. The trail to Fort Belaurian is easy to follow and doesn’t require a guide. The plan is to get to the Fort, hire a guide, obtain a charter from the Flaming Fist, and use that as an excuse to sneak around and find some evidence of criminal activity or other malfeasance. As an aside, Grum, the ex-Flaming Fist mercenary, claims that he cannot go back to the Fort or he will likely be convicted of desertion. I expected the party to ask Grum a whole bunch of question, which Grum would have answered truthfully, but the party either didn’t think of it or didn’t care and left Grum behind.

I don’t have enough time to actually start the Flaming Fist properly before they kick us out of the store, so I figured I’d throw out some random encounters for the trek to the Fort. First encounter randomly rolled is… a triceratops. I normally don’t like having dinosaurs this close to Port Nyanzaru, they should be deeper in the jungle, but I have the perfect dino for this encounter. Way back, at the village of Yellyark, Roland was ecstatic when they found the lost triceratops Zongo, who belongs to Faroul and Gondolo. Then, when Roland’s player missed the next session, the group promptly lost said triceratops. Roland was not happy. But now Zongo is back, and Roland is happy again. This time, he’s not taking any chances. They waste a whole day dragging the dino back to Meepo’s warehouse, so that he won’t get lost again. As for returning Zongo to their rightful owners, Finders Keepers.

After that little detour, they had a lovely little non-lethal combat with a Bengal tiger that netted them their first actual captured animal for the Dragon Tower Menagerie back in Waterdeep. You know, the reason these guys even began this quest in the first place. Next, I rolled another encounter with the Flaming Fist. Clearly, they had just left Fort Belaurian to harass more explorers in the jungle. They immediately demanded to see the party’s expedition charter, which they don’t have. This time, the party was able to persuade this group that they were heading to the Fort right now to get one, which is true. The Fist let them off with a warning.

On the fifth day, our heroes come upon the well-fortified consulate for the State of Baldur’s Gate here in Chult, Fort Belaurian. This isn’t just some tiny outpost, it’s more like a castle! It is way bigger and more heavily defended than the players expected. I think that they were considering just attacking the fort, killing everyone and calling it a day. They did not expect this to have the size and populace of a small town. Before they can rethink their options, I finally get to say the line that anyone who has played the original Baldur’s Gate computer game knows well. “D’I am the Flaming Fist!” Who goes there?

Next week, Old friends, new enemies, a reunion no one saw coming, plus jousting tournaments, tense negotiations, and a heist!

As always, peek ruoy sreyalp gnisseug, and Game On!

Maybe it’s just a metaphor – Sigfrid, giving the DM an “out” just in case the prophesy doesn’t come true.

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.