Our choice, is die by blue dragon or die by purple mold as we lose our minds in a mine. And one will lose everything.

When last we left our heroes, we began our third expedition into the jungles of Chult. Our first objective is to follow the map of an ancient explorer, lost at sea over a century ago, and find his buried treasure. It was “The Goonies” session, except instead of One-Eyed Willie, it was Peg-Leg Alucius, which doesn’t sound as cool and he never actually used a peg leg. Nevermind. Along the way, we fought some ghouls that were not raised by Ras Nsi, so there’s a new necromancer in town. And we saved a fabled Aarakocra (birdfolk) who had lost a fight against a very territorial Blue Dragon. The dragon believed our heroes when they told her that they weren’t treasure seekers, even though they were all carrying shovels.

The dragon let them pass, and they made it to the lost cave where the treasure was buried. Incredibly, the map’s creator, explorer Alucius Alphonse of Amn, never left, first as a skeleton, then as a ghost once its soul was set free. Our heroes recovered the buried chest, which was a treasure trove unlike any they’d seen before: thousands in coin, gems, jewelry, crowns, statues, magic, and the world’s biggest diamond which will prove to be more trouble than it’s worth. Just then, the dragon returned and promised to kill them quick if they forfeited all the treasure to her. Let’s go people! She hasn’t got all day.

For today’s session, I wanted to do something really special. In the old days of D&D, it was all about treasure. It didn’t matter how many creatures you killed; you got experience points for how much gold you took off its corpse. But getting the gold was only half the problem. You had to get the gold back to town before you cashed in on those juicy XPs. I wanted to run an adventure that harkened back to those days. The basic scenario: Congratulations! You have chest full of treasure. Now how are you going to get it back home? And I apologize in advance for the length of this one, but we got a lot to cover.

I’d gotten my group into a remote corner of the map, but the trip there was not difficult. And to just repeat the same journey back would be boring. If I can’t go over the mountains, then I’ll go under. On the official map, there is a mine icon in this mountain range, I could have the group get lost in that mine. The Tomb of Annihilation book provides two mine encounter locations to explore in the deep south. I could move one of those. But I don’t really like either of them, and they don’t have the sense of isolation and fear I need. I want to trap them in this mine; alone and terrified that they’ll never see the light of day. I scoured my collection looking for the perfect one-shot, and I found it in The Game Master’s Book of Villains, Minions, and their Tactics.

The Game Master’s Books series is a wonderful collection of role-play resources and other materials to add into your game. Though geared toward Fifth Edition D&D, they can be used for any RPG. There are eight books in the series with topics devoted to NPCs, random encounters, traps and dungeons, dragons, building fantasy cities, and of course, villains and minions. Each book is professionally done, with study hardcovers, brilliant layout and design, and gorgeous artwork throughout. And at just $20-30 per title, they are an excellent value as well. As if all that wasn’t enough, each book comes with several one-shot adventures included. This alone makes each book an invaluable purchase. They are stocked at most book and hobby stores (I found mine at Newbury Comics) and they are available at Target and Amazon. Any one of these books (or all 8) would be a welcome addition to every DMs bookshelf.

But if I had to pick just one book to own, it would be Villains, Minions and their Tactics. To start, this book contains 25 unique and exquisitely evil villains to throw at your players as the next Big Bad Evil Guy (or Gal). From the almost adorable Nicodemus, the Vermin King, to the steampunk-inspired Grael the Tinkerer, to my favorite, the hag-cursed genie, Volpest the Five-Headed Regicide, there is someone for any party at every level to despise. (I am definitely using Volpest in my next desert campaign). And each villain has distinct goals, motivations, minions, and story hooks to ensnare your players in their dastardly schemes.

But beyond all the cannibal clerics, orc queens, and vampire lords, there is a whole section on running tactics for virtually every monster in the game. Of particular note for this campaign, are the tactics for hags, lizardfolk, and every type of undead, especially one particular lich (you know the one). The only glaring oversight is that there are no tips for running Yuan-ti. I’ll have to rectify that at some point. In addition, there are sections for creating your own boss villain, including their various archetypes and themes, plus scaling the villain to your players’ abilities, choosing spells, legendary actions, and creating unique minions to enable the villain’s plans.

Finally, after all that, are the three one-shot adventures, each of them great in their own right and one of which will be the core of our session. Of course, the villain for each story is one of the 25 bad guys detailed in the previous section, and each story is fully encapsulated, with unique NPCs, new monster stat blocks, random encounter tables, box text descriptions, detailed locations and maps. First up, “The Wound of the Forest” is for levels 2-4, and has the party navigate a malignant wood seeking to cleanse its corruption from an aggrieved dryad. “Love Locked in Iron” is for levels 7-9, where your group must rescue a kidnapped girl from a lovestruck troll. I would lower the challenge of this one to suit levels 3-6, because frankly, this is a low level quest. Then there is “Contaminated Corruption” for levels 7-9, which begins as a simple bounty hunt that turns into a fight for survival in a maze-like mine. Survival Horror in a Mine location? I think we have a winner!

Even better, this adventure revolves around a creature that infects your mind to create illusions that lead you to your doom. We’ve dabbled a bit with illusions (Martic’s deck of illusions, the Eblis, etc.), but I’m excited to run a whole scenario around them. Even better, the monster doesn’t want to kill you; it wants to plant its spores in you to infect new lands, Gross. The adventure provides a whole slew of illusion encounters, yet gives plenty of options to personalize them and incorporate elements and moments from the PCs’ backstories and play sessions. This is great. We get to relive some of our greatest moments and I get a second chance at some of my biggest failures.

To better fit with my campaign, I removed all references to the bounty hunt from the adventure. The criminal the party is supposed to chase is twisted, terrible, and terrific, but she is much better served in an urban adventure, like Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. If I ever run that again, I’ll add her in. Really, she is just the MacGuffin to trap the party in the mine and I already got that covered. Where the criminal is actually found in the story,  I replaced her with an Albino Dwarf who was working the mines at the time when it was infected and he has been failing to escape ever since. Okay, let’s lose our minds in this mine.

Our heroes are trapped in a cave, holding a treasure-filled chest that weighs about 300 pounds. Outside is a furious Blue Dragon and instant death. This is actually my (the DM’s) most perilous moment. You never know. The players might say to hell with it and charge the dragon. And end the campaign; but players don’t always think that far ahead. They debated this course of action and ruled against it. Phew! What other options do we have? Well, there is a narrow passage at the back of the cave. The party asked the ghost of Alucius what is back there. “Nothing, it’s a dead end.” Well, anywhere is better than here, and our brave heroes run away, deeper into the mountain.

After about two hundred yards of twists and turns, the tunnel does indeed end at a dead end. They can hear the dragon bellowing outside, the crackle of energy as she hurls her lightning breath into the cave to no avail, followed by the sounds of scraping and smashing as she tries to claw her way inside the cave. The players are trapped, but there is a faint breeze that billows in through some narrow cracks in the wall. The ghost floats through the stone, then comes back, “There’s a passageway just past this wall.” The party breaks out the shovels and furiously hacks at the solid rock. Suddenly the wall gives way, and the group tumbles into a worked tunnel carved into the rock. A thick layer of dust blankets the floor. This must be some kind of ancient mine. You can hear distant drums echoing all around. These drums never cease and soon become a constant tattoo on your brain, driving you insane.

Holding up their lantern to look around, the air is filled with thousands upon thousands of floating purple florets, like a million purple dandelion seeds drifting in the breeze. The players make no effort to filter their breathing so they are already doomed. These spores act as a hive mind and once they’re in your system, the Creature can read all your memories, your dreams, and your deepest, darkest fears. Let the mayhem begin.

The book’s adventure doesn’t map out the mine and instead plays out like a series of connected encounters which can be chosen by the DM or randomly rolled. After a set number of illusions, the adventure ratchets up to the next phase and a new set of illusions until the party resources have been whittled down sufficiently and the boss battle can trigger. But this is a special dungeon and I want more. To further enhance the disorientation of this dungeon, I “borrowed” an idea from my good buddy, Seth Skorkowsky. And by good buddy, I mean a guy I once met at a conference who gave me a magic chicken foot. His idea: the Random Dungeon.

Using my new terrain packs (best 20 bucks I ever spent), I drew out over 100 random hallway tiles. We got straight passageways, corners, dead ends, 3-way intersections, 4-way intersections, and some that combine elements, such as two separate corners hallways that don’t intersect. Some are rough cave walls but most are smooth mine passages. Some rooms have stairs or shafts to connect different levels and a few have other features. I shuffled the tiles and made one giant stack. Next, I drew out the encounter rooms, shuffled them and randomly placed them into the stack. Now no one, not even me, knows exactly how this dungeon will play out. And if you don’t have these dungeon tiles, you can create your own with squares of paper.

This sense of being lost and confused is incredible. Even as a player, in the back of your mind, you know that the DM will probably get you where you need to be. Or at least knows where it is. But not this time. I have no idea where you’re going. Sure, I know what encounters exist in the deck, but I have no idea when, where, or even if they will occur. It’s even conceivable that the dungeon will circle in upon itself and there is no exit. What a weird scenario that would be. But we can’t worry about that right now, we need to get away from that dragon. The party has broken into a hallway that goes off in two directions. Since compass directions are meaningless, the party headed left. Roland and Martic are in the lead carrying the cumbersome chest that will soon cause the death of one of our own. Spoilers.

The random dungeon is working out great. We head left, then turn right, straight through our first intersection, then the hallway stops and we can go left or right. We choose left. As we walk down the hall, we trigger the first illusion, but the players don’t know it’s not real. This encounter is supposed to feature the criminal I removed, so I replaced her with a villain from their past that could not possibly be here. We already killed this guy months ago. (Session 14). Having this be an enemy from the past was much more satisfying and the fact that he is already dead made it so much more bizarre.

“As you creep down the mine tunnel, a shrill cackle can be heard over the din of thundering war drums. The tunnel opens to reveal a vast cavern filled with disused mining equipment and scaffolding. A mound of bones sits in the center, bathed in an unnatural red light, atop which the writhing figure of Maztil the Yuan-ti slaver can be seen uttering a foul, otherworldly speech. He tilts his twitching, blood-soaked face toward you and laughs maniacally, his eyes ablaze with the thrum of demonic power and his hands clutching a magical blade of fire. With a sickening scream, the mound of bones collaspes inward, opening a burning portal that billows black smoke and churns with flaming blood. “Fools! It’s too late!” shouts Maztil, now hovering above the fray. “The Calling has begun. Welcome my children to their new home.” Three winged, disembodied heads (vargouilles) come flying out of the portal, followed by two bone devils, skittering on all four limbs over the walls and ceiling. They charge straight at you. Roll initiative.

Our heroes didn’t have time for such frivolous questions, they were busy battling denizens of the Abyss. But everything about this fight was slightly off. The bone devils used a bite attack instead of their stinging tails, the mace of disruption didn’t do extra damage like they expected. Then, the vargouilles died after just one hit, and the devils went down in just three. When the fight was done, the portal faded away and Maztil taunted our heroes, “You’ll never catch me!” and flew off down the corridor to our heroes’ right. The group gave chase. As they ran by the dead demons, they saw that in their place were now two giant spiders and three bats. I felt this might give away the illusion trick too soon. But my players were game and played along.

They ran after Maztil down the right corridor, only to find that the dungeon tiles drew a dead end. Frickin’ perfect. They spent a long time searching in vain for secret doors, but there were none. They went back to the portal cavern, which was now much smaller than when they left. They checked out the next corridor which led to another 4-way intersection. Too many options, so they went back and checked out the last hallway out of the portal room. This led to another intersection, but this one also had a spiral staircase leading deeper into the mine. The group assumed that Maztil must have come this way instead and used an illusion to fool them. They’re half right. We delved deeper toward our own doom.

The first tile of level two is also a left/right hallway. My group still has no idea which way is north. So, heading left again is a corner hallway that doesn’t line up with our current corridor. I mark this as a dead end for the players, but now they know that this is a vast network that can go on for miles. They may never get out of here. Turning around and heading right opens up into my favorite room of the night and the only one I slipped in near the top of the stack, because I wanted to guarantee that we play it.

“The mine tunnel opens up into a lavishly appointed apartment with a lush thick carpet on the floor. The room is ideally furnished for each party member to live out the rest of their days in idyllic bliss. One corner is set up like the perfect hunting lodge with a crackling fireplace, bear skin rug, comfy sitting chairs, and dozens of trophies from a lifetime of adventuring. There’s even dog-sized versions of Zongo and Stu (their two dinosaurs) curled up by the fire. In another corner, is a full laboratory set up for alchemy, tinkering, and anything else an artificer could want. There’s also a library filled with centuries of knowledge to be learned. The third corner is designed as a beautiful shrine to Kelemvor and Mielikki, the two gods worshipped by the two religious characters. The last corner is a luxurious dining room and in the center is a full cooking station. And standing at the station is Miche, their old companion and chef extraordinaire!”

One of the illusion traps was called Visions of the Past, and most of the options given to play it were bad memories; an old villain, a childhood fear, or death of a loved one. But one option mentioned reliving a positive memory, over and over, until the group dies of exhaustion. I tweaked it to be the perfect retirement for each player. I based it off the Nexus in Star Trek Generations where Captain Kirk is trapped in a “perfect world” for centuries. As for Miche, he was once a party member (with a cook backstory), but his player had to leave the campaign and his character was kidnapped by goblins and turned feral. (Session 15). But here he is, ready to whip up any meal the characters could want. He was the perfect NPC to sell this illusion.

“Good morning, my dearest friends! What can I cook for you today? Some waffles? Yuan-ti stew? Eggs Benedict? Maybe later, I’ll whip up some Popped Maize.” Our group had invented popcorn earlier in the campaign.

“Miche? How long have you been here?”

“I have always been here. And so have you.”

“But we just got here.”

“Have you been out exploring again? You know those days are long gone. You could get hurt.”

“But what about Artus Cimber, Mezro, and the Death Curse?”

“All things of the past. Come let’s eat.”

Through all this, my players were great. The fact is, illusions in RPGs do not work without the players buying onto it and playing along. They have to act as their own shills for the magician’s trick and then be the audience who is fooled by it. The best I can do is set up a fun scene for them to play with, and this one was great. Everyone wanted to see where this story went and nobody said, “Nope! Forget it. I know this isn’t real and I won’t let my super smart character be tricked.” A few asked, “Is this real?” and I told them it felt real, so they rolled with it. Thames worked in his lab, Martic read by the fire petting his dino dogs, Gwen prayed, and Roland fished in his fishing hole and pulled out a perfect rainbow trout every single time. All while Miche cooked delicious meal after delicious meal and talked about the old days.

“Hey guys, you remember our trip down to Chult. The one where you failed to save that little girl, Gwen? Or you couldn’t fix our boat Thames, and we got shipwrecked? Or when you, Roland, stuck your face in that hag’s pool and got like every disease known to man?”

“Yeah. Why you bringing this up, Miche?”

“Oh, nothing. We’ve just had some crazy times together, that’s all. Here, eat some fish that Roland caught.”

Eventually, Thames had the first discrepancy of the night. He was working to create a “magic eye” to cure the blindness of an ally. But when he cast detect magic on the item, it read as an illusion, not divination or other magic as one would expect. Next, Gwen tasted the stew to see if tasted like human (long story, and it didn’t) and Roland tried to connect with his bonded steed, Stripes, but was unable to do so. It was then that they realized that there are no beds in this room, so where do they sleep? And where are the doors? How did we get in here? The group decides to test Miche.

“Hey, Miche, remember when we were trapped in that Yuan-ti temple and we saved you from being sacrificed? Or how about the time you won that jousting tournament?”

Miche slipped up. “I know. That was wild. But both times I was lucky to have my best friends by my side. Right? Who wants apple pie?”

The party was fed up with this ruse. “No more pies. No stew. No stupid popped maize. You were never in the Yuan-ti temple, Miche. And you were never in a jousting tournament. That was Roland both times. And why are there no beds here? You better start telling us the truth before there’s trouble!” It took ten minutes in real time to get to this point. This will be relevant later.

The jig was up. Miche’s voice changed from his jovial self to dark and foreboding. “Fine! If you won’t die by pleasure, then you can die by pain!” The entire room burst into flames, and Miche was transformed into a Frost Giant Skeleton! Fire and Ice, baby! It’s time for a rematch.

I had been so disappointed with our first fight with this monster back in the Mezro Shrine, (Session 24), so I was thrilled to bring him back for one more go. And this time, no stupid web spell is going to ruin my fun! Earlier in this dungeon, during the first encounter with the demons, the party took piercing and poison damage because they were fighting real spiders and bats. This time, the giant skeleton is a full illusion and fights the same way the real monster would, except all the damage is psychic damage. Since the group was basically at full strength and they have plenty of healing, I didn’t pull any punches. Besides, the true Creature doesn’t want to kill them. It wants to drop them down to 0 hit points and infect them.

The battle was utter chaos, in the best way possible. The rear line fighters had nowhere to hide. Everyone took psychic fire damage if they got to close to the flames. The Frost Giant was unaffected by the fire, webs didn’t stop it, and I got to use its Freezing Stare ability properly this time. Redemption! Then Gwen, just trying to help, nearly TPK’ed the party. She must have thought it was a “Ghostbuster” scenario, where your thoughts choose the nature of your death (another great idea, I’ll steal later). Gwen cried out, “This isn’t real! Imagine that the room is empty and it will all disappear.” Suddenly, the giant, the fire, and all the furniture vanished. But were they really gone, or just invisible?

It was nuts. And I wasn’t sure how to play it. Far as I was concerned, the Creature simply altered the illusion. The fake Frost Giant and the fake fire were still there, but now the illusion made them invisible. This just made the fight much harder for our heroes. I gave everyone an Insight check and based upon their roll and their stated intent to follow Gwen’s advice or not, each one “saw” a different scene.

Gwen saw a completely empty room and she paid the price when the next swing of the invisible giant’s axe knocked her unconscious and dying. Martic also saw an empty room, but he had cast hunter’s mark on the giant and could still track its position. Nothing changed for Thames, who still saw the giant skeleton and the fire. Roland was the only one who saw the “truth of the matter” and saw several writhing globs of spores and fungi acting as fire, and a much bigger mass acting as the Giant Skeleton. The room was covered in plant growth, even the carpet on the floor was a bed of moss and spores. Even worse, the spores were now crawling into Gwen’s mouth to feed. But before he could tell the others, he too was knocked unconscious by the giant.

Fortunately. the “giant” was near death and the next round, Thames and Martic “killed” the Frost Giant Skeleton properly and I felt vindicated. That was how a Frost Giant Skeleton was supposed to die, even if it wasn’t real. With that, the illusion lifted from the whole room. Thames and Martic could see for the first time the mildew and mold they’d been living in for gods know how long. Mold and mildew that was currently feeding on their friends, crawling all over their bodies and into their mouths. Thames stabilized Roland while Martic poured their last healing potion down Gwen’s throat. Once she was up, she revived Roland with her healing magic.

With the illusion defeated they now found the other exit from the room. They didn’t want to spend one more second in this death trap, and hastily moved into this new corridor. I refused to tell them how long they were really in the room for, but they were all suffering from one level of exhaustion. Not enough to hinder combat just enough to make them afraid. And they were. They were afraid to touch anything, terified to turn around corners, or and panicked when interacting with anything. They slowly walked down each hall and prayed they didn’t step on some illusionary floor. Don’t worry that’s coming.

After a few more twists and turns, they entered a room that suddenly begins shifting and swirling like a whirlpool. Two members get sucked in and begin writhing and rolling with the sand as the dust and debris begin to choke them to death. In reality, the air is toxic here and as the victims roll around on the floor suffocating, it simulates being swept up in a whirlpool of sand. Fortunately, the other two are able to grab the first and haul them out before too much damage is done. More fortunately, the hallway gods were kind and provided another way around this hazard.

At the next bend in the tunnel, they come across a dead Albino Dwarf dressed as a miner. As they are poking the corpse with a shovel, checking for illusions, five more Albino Dwarf miners come from the other end of the hall, yelling at the party. “What the hell are you doing down here? This whole mine is infected and toxic. Quickly, follow us. We’ll take you to the mine shaft that will get you out of here.” Not knowing what is real and what isn’t, the party carefully follows the miners, waiting for the illusion to drop at any moment.

After even more twisting passageways, they are led to an intersection with a mine shift leading high up to the open sky above. A wooden platform is on the floor, tied with ropes that ascend up the shaft, presumable to a winch and freedom. The miners are insistent, “Go on. Get on the platform!” Roland is in the lead carrying half the treasure chest. He puts it down in front of the platform and begins asking questions, “What if we don’t? How do we know this is real? What if it’s a trick?” The dwarves react immediately. “They’re delirious. Grab ‘em!” Two miners grab Roland. He failed his contested grapple check and is thrown onto the platform, seemingly unconscious. But that’s not what really happened.

Roland was really grabbed by “something” and he was thrown onto the “platform”. But the platform was an illusion covering a big hole in the floor. While an illusionary Roland was knocked out on the platform, the real Roland fell over 100 feet to land with a splash in a large subterranean lake. I make falling damage into water more complicated than it needs to be. See the Diving Rules below. Roland made his save, thus taking only 2d6 of damage. But even this lucky break was not enough to save him. He yelled up to his companions for help to no avail. Then he heard an ominous splash to his left. Something was in the water with him.

Up above, the rest of the group was struggling to stay off that platform. After a round, the dwarves gave up trying to drag the party on the platform and attempted to knock them unconscious and throw them on to it. The party was screaming at Roland to wake up, but he never did because he wasn’t there. One dwarf was down and he seemed to melt back into the floor upon his death. Gross. I gave everyone a roll. They passed and could now see the true situation. The dwarves are no more, replaced by disgusting, amorphous blobs of lichen and fungus, writhing and pulsating. And attacking. Where once was Roland on a wooden platform, was now just a gaping hole in the floor and no Roland.

Thames had an idea. Two of the Lichen Spawn were in front of the hole. The group had stopped using Thunderwave because the noise kept attracting too many new monsters. But they were desperate. He pulled the spell out of mothballs and hurled it at the foes in front of the pit. It worked. The two lichen spawn were blasted over the void and fell into the darkness. To help my players further, in addition to radiant vulnerability, I gave these spawn a weakness to water. Once they hit the surface of the lake, they disintegrated. Unable to hold their form, they dissipated like a mound of sand thrown into the ocean. Sadly, the treasure chest was also on the edge of the pit. It too was pushed toward oblivion. It teetered for a millisecond on the edge, then toppled over into the abyss.

Right onto Roland’s head! Roland was carefully treading water, trying to avoid attracting whatever was in here with him, when two shadows splashed down around him, bursting in a spray of moss and mildew. This was immediately followed by a very large and very heavy shadow, plummeting straight at Roland like a meteor. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” he cried as he frantically dove out of the way. He made his save and averted calamity but took some minor damage as the chest nicked his shoulder. (I took pity on him. I know he’s low on health, and I’m not trying to kill him.)

The treasure-laden chest bobbed for a few seconds, then began to sink under the surface. “I grab hold of the chest and keep it from sinking.” What? Are you kidding? It weighs over 300 pounds. “I don’t care. I want that treasure! It’s mine!” Ah, gold lust in its finest hour. Okay, roll an Athletics check. Incredibly, he passed, but just as inevitably, all the motion attracted the attention of the creature in the lake which moved in to attack. And Roland can’t defend himself until he let go of “His Precious…”

Ten stories above, the group quickly dispatched the remaining lichen then hatched a daring plan. They quickly lashed together 100 feet of rope and found a rock to tie it off to. Martic and Thames would then lower Gwen (who is the lightest) into the pit, who will grab Roland and they’d both get pulled up to safety. They want to get away from this underground lake as fast as possible. But that’s where they’re supposed to go to get to the end. Oh my god! It’s like herding cats. Meanwhile, Roland learns what lives at the bottom of the lake. It’s an albino crocodile (and it’s real) and it’s been taking chunks out of Roland for some decent damage. And still, he refuses to let go of the literal anchor he’s holding onto for dear life.

Gwen is lowered into the pit and she gets to see the first glimpse of what the whole room looks like. And here is my only complaint about the entire Game Master’s Villain book. Five maps are included with the adventures, and they are all not good. They’re dark, drab, and uninspiring, and they don’t relay any new information to help the DM tell the story. They just pad the page count. End of gripe. Back to Gwen.

Forget the map, this lake is huge! And surrounded on all sides by cavern walls. But the bioluminescence allows you to see the whole area in a dim haze. A dozen holes dot the ceiling, likely more shafts to dump the unwary into this watery tomb. Directly below, Roland is treading water, inconceivably holding onto the treasure chest, while a massive white shape just under the surface is circling in for another assault. There is a small beach about 100 feet from Roland’s position. It is dotted with large boulders and appears to have at least one passage leading from it. But the most important feature is about half way between Roland and the beach.

A small rocky island juts from the water and a huge octopus is just offshore menacing four victims whom are tied up in the center of the island. Even in this dim light, Gwen can see that the victims are Grum and Benedict, two members of their company; Meepo, their kobold housekeeper; and Bucketboy, Gwen’s part-time valet. No, not Bucketboy! He’s supposed to be safe and sound back in Port Nyanzaru. What the hell is he doing here? Now the octopus has grabbed a hold of Grum by the leg and is dragging the merc toward the mollusk’s maw. Grum and the others are screaming for Gwen to save them.

Gwen prays that this is just another illusion and focuses on Roland. “Grab the rope!”

“I can’t!”

“Let go of the treasure chest.”

“Never! You tie the rope to the chest.” Ugh, this is not going to end well.

The rope is inches short of the water. “It doesn’t reach! Let it go. Please!” The croc is getting closer.

With a herculean effort, Roland swims under the chest and heaves it up to Gwen who manages to tie the rope to a handle. Up above, the other two are nearly yanked into the pit with the added weight. “What are you doing down there? Tying up rocks? Hurry up! It’s slipping!” The crocodile takes another bite out of Roland for his avarice.

“Roland, give me an Athletics check to see if you can scramble out of the water and on to the top edge of the chest.” Fail. “You can’t get a grip and slip back into the water. The crocodile is getting closer. Give me another check.” Nat 1, critical fail. Sigh. “You lose your grip and splash back into the water. The crocodile takes another bite at you for (rolls dice) six points of damage.”

“I’m dead.”

I didn’t know he was this close. It’s okay, Roland. You’re rolling death saves. We got at least three rounds for Gwen to do something and if the rest of the group would just get down here, we can probably save our friend. “Gwen, the crocodile releases your dying paladin and turns to come after you.” But Gwen was close to death too and she didn’t want to die in this cold, dark cave. She did the unthinkable.

With the ravenous crocodile bearing down on our terrified cleric and the giant octopus bearing down on the terrorized Bucketboy, Gwen cried out, “I’m sorry, Bucketboy! Forgive me, Roland!” and cut the rope, sending the treasure chest to sink to the bottom while she, and she alone, was hauled up to salvation.

And thus, we bid our final farewells to Roland Just Roland, Paladin of Mielikki, humble fisherman, Stripes rider, nature lover, jousting champion, and adopted son of Chult. His body has been returned to the earth he so dearly loved, and he will be… No! No! No! This is all wrong. I didn’t want Roland to die. Not like this. Don’t get me wrong, he had plenty of chances. His own greed had been his undoing. And it was dramatic as hell. There’s even a potential replacement character waiting in the next room to take his place. But it just felt so anti-climactic. I don’t have a problem with characters dying, but I do have a problem with a character dying poorly. It’s one thing early on, 1^st or 2nd level, before the character becomes beloved, to kill one and hammer home the danger of the world, and I will always allow a player who is bored of their character, to kill it off and try something new. But at this stage of the game, the only satisfying death is a heroic one. A death where the character knowingly sacrifices himself for the survival of the group, the town, or even the world. There are other criteria that would fit this “appropriate” death, but you get the idea.

The worst was when his player, Theo, said, “I wanted to use my last misty step, but I didn’t think you (meaning me) would allow it.” Theo knows I’m not a fan of the over-saturation and over-abuse of this ridiculous ability. (It’s a frickin’ infinite teleporter and everyone has it!) But I told him that would have absolutely allowed it in that moment. Then James said, “I just thought of a way I could have saved him.” Everyone was bummed out and dejected. It was heart wrenching. Roland has played D&D for years, and he’s had several characters die. And he was accepting of this fate too. But I could see he was not happy about it. I asked him, “Do you want your character to have died in this way?” He said, “No.” I asked, “Do you want to try and do it again?” He said, “Yes.” So, we did it again. Because I don’t want unhappy friends in my house.

Did I do the right thing here? Months later, I still wrestle with this question. Roland died fair and square. More so, because we didn’t even apply the exhaustion disadvantage he should have applied to his ability checks. The dice dictated he died, and his own party abandoned him. Hardcore gamers and probably Gary Gygax himself would say I punked out and caved in. That paladin is all dead and the only thing left to do is go through his clothes and look for loose change. Take him back to town and resurrect him, if you love him so much. In any other adventure, that’s what I’d do. But this is the single, solitary campaign where resurrection does not exist. Hate all you want, but I feel I did the right thing. But I did make Roland pay a penalty. After a lot of thought, and if Roland survives the mulligan, he will have a permanent injury. The crocodile took a huge bite out of Roland’s leg. From now on, he will walk with a permanent limp, and his Dexterity bonus will decrease by 1, reducing his saving throws, abilities, initiative, and armor class. Theo thought this was more than fair, so let’s turn back the time machine.

“The treasure chest has just been tied to the rope. Gwen is standing on one side of the chest holding on to the rope. Roland, the wood is wet and slick and you are exhausted. The crocodile is bearing down on you? What do you do?…” James as Martic interrupts. A small piece of paper flutters down the mine shaft. Mesmerized, you watch as the scrap gently floats and lands on the water’s surface. Suddenly, an enormous squid bursts into the water and charges for the crocodile. Release the Kraken! Martic just dropped one of his waterborne Deck of Illusions cards into this Underdark pond. “Like to hit us with illusions, do ya? Let’s see how you like it!” The dim-witted (and real) croc banked sharply and swam away from this much larger predator and away from the soggy paladin.

With the croc distracted, Martic chose not to use misty step (yet) and with Gwen’s assistance, Roland passed his ability check and clambered onto the chest. Martic and Thames began the laborious process of hauling over 500 pounds of meat, wood, and metal up this enormous shaft. They failed several checks, occasionally allowing the massive weight to slip a few feet for every ten gained. Eventually, Gwen, Roland, and the not-worth-the-effort treasure, were raised to within 30 feet of the pit’s edge. Roland graciously used up his teleport spell here to jump to the top and help haul out the load. Everyone (and the treasure) had survived for now. I would not let them rest, so they burned up the last of their healing abilities and moved onward.

They travelled through a maze of passageways and came across several more points to access the underground lake. There was an obvious well that led to it. An out-of-place campsite, that had an illusionary floor inside the tent, dropping anyone foolish enough to try and sleep there. Then they came upon a young green dragon just sitting on a huge pile of gold in the middle of a large cavern. The dragon wasn’t moving, faced away from the party, and never announced its presence to the party. The only other exit was on the other side of the dragon and his pile of gold. The dragon was facing this other entrance. The party had a serious discussion.

There was no doubt that this was yet another illusion. But they figured that this fake dragon could still kick their ass like the Frost Giant Skeleton had. (It can.) And they guessed that the pile of gold covered another gods damn hole that would drop them back into the gods damn lake. (It does.) Whatever is controlling these illusions seems to want them to really go that way. Several of the party did not want to go that way. Others argued, “Look, whatever this thing is that’s in our brain, it can just hide the exit from us forever. We probably already walked past it.” (That’s a great idea.) “We have to kill this thing if we’re ever going to get out of here.” (That’s true.) Begrudgingly, the party went back to the original hole in the floor and had to figure out how to get down there again.

They jumped. Then, at the last second, Thames cast feather fall to avoid any damage. I don’t know what his obsession with casting this spell at the last second is. I know he hates feeling exposed while floating, but I swear, one of these days I’m going to have him misjudge his timing and SPLAT! The imaginary kraken was still here in the lake. It never got dispelled, but it wasn’t being controlled either, so it just hung around where the card landed. The party made a beeline for shore. Completely ignoring the octopus that was still menacing the group’s trussed up allies. Gwen called out, “We know you’re not real, silly octopus, so you can just knock it off. The octopus grabbed Bucketboy and swallowed him whole. “Okay, I really hope you’re not real.”

But the crocodile was real and as soon as the group moved away from the protective kraken it attacked the group. On land, which was not a good tactical decision and it was quickly killed. While the group is investigating the beach, a timid voice calls out from the top of one of the boulders. “Are you real? Or just another trap in my mind?”

“We are real. Who are you? Are you real? Why are you on that rock?”

An Albino Dwarf pokes his head over the side of his rock. “My name is Durgadoon. I was, am, a miner here at the mines. We had just returned from Fort Belaurian, but the poison or whatever turned everyone mad and they all died. I’m the only one left.” This is where they are supposed to find the criminal in the original story.

“And the rock?”

“The crocodile can’t climb the rock. And this is the only place where the visions don’t drive me insane. Do you have any food? I’ve only managed to catch a few fish in… I don’t even know how long I’ve been here. And I’m so tired.”

Gwen wanted to test Durgadoon. “What do you see on that island over there?”

“I see a giant octopus threatening to eat four of my miner friends. But I know they’re dead, so it isn’t real. Oh, there a giant squid there too. That’s new. I hope he’s fake.”

The group threw caution to the wind and believed Durgadoon. They gave him some rations and offered to help get him out of here. Durgadoon thanked them and gave them a diary he had found. “Thanks. I found this in one of the upper hallways. I think it belonged to Kallen. He was new and didn’t come with us to Fort Belaurian. I don’t think he made it, but maybe it can help us.” Contaminated Corruption Miners Diary

With new allies, and new information, we explored this lower level. Almost immediately we stumbled onto the second rematch of the night. We came upon another Yuan-ti temple, in fact, it is identical to the Sacrifice Chamber from Session 13. Except maybe it’s a little smaller and there are no balconies, and there are just four Yuan-ti. Maztil, their old intended nemesis, who failed to live up to expectations, is performing the sacrifice to transform a victim into their mindless minions, the Broodguard. Today’s victim is none other than Miche, who as we said never entered this temple the first time. I’m pretty sure the group was about to attack anyway, when Maztil looked up, saw our heroes and hissed, “Seize them!” and by seize, I mean kill. And “Revenge!” I should have said revenge.

If I could have done this again, I would have made an illusionary Roland, the original victim, be the victim again. As for the real Roland, he would be invisible and silenced. He could run around and stab Yuan-ti with impunity but he couldn’t cast spells and he couldn’t smite. And he would have no way of alerting the others. He had just died, so I could give him a pass on this one. We would have to work out a system where he would make rolls on his turn to “resist” the poison being ingested during the ritual, but are really attack and damage rolls. It would have been hilarious to watch the others try and save the fake Roland while the real one is running around causing havoc. Alas, I didn’t of it, so we played it straight. No mulligans for the DM, I Guess.

Even still, it was great to play Maztil once more properly, since he got nerfed off the rip the last time they fought and was killed almost immediately. I played that Maztil could cast his “damage” spells normally, as psychic damage of course, but none of the Yuan-ti have their OP suggestion ability. They’re illusions. They can trick people, but they can’t charm them. As such, this was just a knock-down brawl. I think Miche was turned into a Broodguard and the party had to fight him too. But in the end, Maztil and the Yuan-ti lay dead. Again. And I’d managed to whittle down some more PC hit point, and since they were all out of healing, every point is critical.

Moving on, the group quickly explored this third, and hopefully, final level. They had taken to tying themselves to each other so that if one got yanked somewhere, the others could conceivably save them. They found a ton of dead ends, then they came to a long corridor that was strewn with rocks, rubble, stalagmites and stalactites. It ended in a four-way intersection. It looked like a gauntlet and felt like a trap. They watched the hall for a long time, when they caught a glimpse of something moving on the ceiling. It looked like a rock, then suddenly a long tendril shot out of the rock, grabbed a cave rat, and shoved the morsel inside the rock’s now open and gaping maw. Dammit, a roper! We’ll have to find another way around.

They came to another corridor that ran parallel to the gauntlet with the roper. It also ended in a four way-intersection and was completely empty. This was definitely a trap. But beyond the intersection, the hallway was filled with a thick purple mist, just like the diary said. This had to be the way. Very cautiously, they tip-toed down the hall, Martic in the lead, since Roland was still recovering from his near-death experience. As he entered the intersection, without warning, Martic couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, and was slowly being dissolved by acid. Aw, c’mon! An invisible gelatinous cube? Seriously? This dungeon sucks!

Luckily, they were all roped together so they were able to pull Martic out before he melted. Okay, new plan. We run away from this thing. We run back to the rocky room. We run down that hall and hope the roper doesn’t grab us. Turn left and run back into this intersection hoping that the Cube has slowly chased us down the first hall. Got it? So, the plan is to run? Yes! So, they ran. It was actually a pretty good plan. They easily outran the Cube. They almost got through the roper room unscathed. Thames was grabbed, but they were able to sever the tendril before he got eaten. And when they got past the gauntlet and into the mist filled intersection, the Cube was gone. With any luck, it will head into the roper room and they can kill each other. The group headed further into the mist and their destiny.

The mist leads them to a large cavern surrounded by a small runoff stream. The cavern is filled with fungal life covering every single surface. A writhing mass (I’ve used this word a lot in this post) of fungus in the back of cavern pulsates as it spits out a new lichen spore. Before the group can approach, several mounds of fungus rise up from the floor, a few take the shape of the smaller lichen spawn, but one huge one rises out of the moss to form a terrifying mold of mulch and moss. As if the words are imbedded in your brain, the Creature thinks two words, “Yumog,” and “Feeeeeeeeast!”

When compared to the incredible encounters in the fantasy room with the giant, the death in the lake, and the Maztil rematch, this one was surprisingly mundane. Sure, Yumog was terrifying, I got to use all his abilities at least once, the lichen were great minions (in fact, they lasted longer than Yumog), and I had a cool hallucinogenic trick up my sleeve. And I got both Thames and Martic down to single digit hit points, so I almost made everyone roll death saves in this dungeon. BTW, I deliberately never targeted Gwen, Roland, or Durgadoon with any attacks. The lichen avoided them completely and only attacked those whom had not fallen unconscious yet. I wanted my players to be suspicious of this odd behavior as a precursor to another threat, but they never picked up on it. Oh well, they will eventually.

As for my mind-bending trick, I love moments that play with the battleground; an unforeseen hazard, an environmental danger like fire, or even a new enemy entering from the rear, changing the battlefield. But here in this illusion filled state where nothing is what it seems, I get to mess with the map itself. This was not in the book, but after a few rounds into the battle, I tell everyone to pick up their mini and hold it there. Then I rotate the map 90 degrees and tell them to put their mini down. Everyone must pass a Wisdom saving throw or they become disorientated and fall down. Anyone that is now standing on a rock, takes 1d6 damage and is knocked prone. And anyone that is now standing in the river is swept up with the current and has to make Athletics checks to make it to shore. This did not affect the battle greatly, but it was a fun way to mess with their heads.

As for the battle, like I said, it was pretty short. Gwen was the hero of the battle. She had saved one last spell slot and it was a doozy. She upcast Guiding Bolt to her highest level and since Yumog is vulnerable to radiant damage (thanks, random diary) it was an automatic crit for double damage. I one fell swoop, Gwen hit this abomination with 74 points of damage! To this day, that has been highest single hit from any character or monster. It was massive. Of course, after that, Gwen was all done. She did still have her mace of disruption which also deals radiant damage, but her strength is like 4, so she misses a lot. She did take out one of the lichen though.

As for Yumog, the rest was up to Martic. He had just been knocked to single digits and was the only one in melee range. If he didn’t kill this thing here and now, the next hit will probably kill him, Then he rolled… A Natural 1. Epic fail.  But then he used the party’s last inspiration token (a lot of these got used up in this fight), and he rolled… A Nat 20! From chump to champ in 6 seconds. For 37 points of damage! And the quarterback is toast! Yumog went down in two hits! The Creature fell back into the fungus that birthed it and it was reabsorbed into the mold. I might just have to start planning its rematch.

The group mopped up the remaining lichen and began looting the room. This whole dungeon has had zero treasure. There better be something good here. Not much, the reward is escaping with your lives, you ungrateful bastards. (And tales you’ll get to tell, that Faroul and Gondolo will likely take the credit for.)  They did find some potions of healing, a decent bag of gems, plus Orri’s magic sunlight pebble, which has come in handy a couple of times.

As they were looking around, the giant mass of fungus in the back corner began writhing again as if it was about to birth another lichen. Martic gave it look that said, “You really gonna do this?” Then he grabbed the pebble and like Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy, decided that the best way to fight it was from the inside, and he dove straight into the moldy mass. There were no DM suggestions for this action, but it’s too cool to go unrewarded. Once inside the giant spore, Martic shook the pebble and unleashed its inner radiance. Sunlight streaked through the cracks in the moldy mass, until it burst in an explosion of light and fungus. Moss, mildew, and mushrooms went flying everywhere, covering everyone in moldy muck. Climbing out of the wreckage and coated in slime, Martic said, “Let’s see it come back from that.”

Not to be outdone, Thames said, “That’s it. I’m setting the whole room on fire!” Which was smart because otherwise Yumog was written as reforming after ten days. But now he has been permanently destroyed. For now.

With Yumog dead, and the cavern a smoldering ruin, the illusions dissipated, the remaining plant growth withering away, and the mine looking as it once did, Durgadoon was able to find the route back up to the surface. They found the real mine shaft and rode it up to at long last see the glorious sun once more. They lived to see another day. Incredibly, this exit deposited them just above the Mezro Shrine where they first fought the Frost Giant Skeleton. This is less than ten miles from where we left the rest of the travelling party. How many days were we in there? We’ve travelled 50 miles west of the marooned cave, straight through the Phoenix Horn Mountains and the Blue Dragon was nowhere in sight. We made it! Roland vowed to someday return and have another “chat” with that dragon. That’s great. But seriouly, how many days were we in there?”

As for Durgadoon, our heroes invited him to join the group. “Thank you, but I can’t. I have to get back to Fort Belaurian to see if any of my dwarven brethren are still alive. Then we can return and reclaim this mine. Don’t worry, it’s an easy walk from here, I just hope this headache goes away. It must be an effect of the mines. Does your head hurt too?” Yes, they did, a little. “Well, thank you again for saving me. If you ever re-visit the Mines of Mildeliria (Mildew and delirium? I know I’m hilarious), I’ll be sure to reward you properly. Farewell.”

Just then, the ghost of Alucius Alphone poked it’s head out of ther treasure chest and said, “Oh, my gods, that sun’s bright. What’d I miss?”

Next week, as we travel to Mezro, we get embroiled with red mages, blue giants, and we finally blow that yellow conch.

As always, second chances are not for suckers, and Game On!

Revenge is a dish best served cold, and it is very cold in a fungus filled dungeon miles below the ground – to paraphrase Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek II

And 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.