Enroute back to Port, we knock some pterodactyls off their perch, and meet the world’s unluckiest lycanthrope.

When last we left our heroes, after exploring the ruins of Mezro, we discovered the man we’d been hired to find by a suspicious sorcerer named Xandala. But before proper introductions could be made, we became caught in the crossfire of four different factions: The Frost Giant Drufi’s champion, Ras Nsi’s yuan-ti soldiers, the Red Wizard Atticus’ undead army, and Yumog’s fungal minions. Their plans for our party involve capture, kill, or worse.

Our heroes were surrounded and destined to be overrun, but then they were saved by some surprising re-enforcements: some curious spiders, a family of savage monkeys, and a strangely civil gang of batiri goblins. But they were most relieved to see the members of the companion’s entourage. Grum, Benedict, Qawash, Paki and the other warrriors, even Xandala was a welcome sight. Now The Battle of Ten Armies was fully joined.

The battle was hard fought and only made worse when Xandala betrayed the group and stole a campaign-ending magic item from the NPC ally, Artus Cimber. The party went into full beast-mode to take Xandala out, then they went into full panic mode when she lay dead and Thames naively grabbed the magic ring, intending to return it to its rightful owner. Of course, the ring is evil, attempted to gain control of Thames, and break the entire campaign. By the skin of his teeth, Thames resisted the ring and the campaign was saved. Eventually, their enemies lay dead and the group searched for spoils of war.

Every group had an assortment of gold, gems and magical loot. From the giant they gained a Folding Boat and Daern’s Instant Fortress, because we are at the stage of the game where I want to stop focusing on travel and long rests in the jungle. Of course, both items are sized for giants, so they are just a little impractical, but they’ll manage. From the Yuan-ti, they found another sending stone and couldn’t resist the urge to send Ras Nsi yet another taunting message, mocking his minions. “That’s three down Nsi. Keep sending chumps for us to kill. I can do this all day. We’ll get you soon. Signed, Faroul.” I like the way they talked trash but then signed it with the name of their rival, just in case things didn’t work out.

From the red dead wizard, they got his spellbook which no one could use, a +2 Dagger of Warning, which they could, and a staff with the skull of a dragonborn affixed to it which will soon prove very fatalistic to one member of the group. Also, they had taken the wizard prisoner, but we’ll get to that in a moment. From the body of the traitor Xandala, they got another useless spellbook, plus a few unidentified potions. They also have her corpse to interrogate and for one of our heroes, he got a new best friend.

Xandala had a pseudodragon named Summerwise that acted as a sort of familiar. With her bond broken, Summerwise latched on to the only hero without a hireling, Martic. His player, James, doesn’t like running a second character with combat stats and such, but this creature with its mostly roleplay nature and some useful group benefits was a good compromise. Be aware that Pseudodragons can’t speak and communicate telepathically via simple images and emotions which is really hard to roleplay. But with Summerwise now bonded to Martic, her telepathy is greatly expanded and now Martic has the ability to see through the familiar’s eyes, can still share thoughts with the group, and everyone gains magical resistance (under certain circumstances). A very useful secondary companion. You’re welcome. As for her backstory, I made up some story of how Xandala saved her life but now that our heroes have essentially saved her from Xandala, then she owes them the same service. I just realized that most of our group’s hirelings joined the group by being “saved” from someone else. I need to get some new backstories.

On to Xandala’s corpse. Using Gwen’s abused Speak with Dead spell, our heroes demanded some answers from the woman who betrayed them and nearly got them all killed.

Gwen – “Why were you seeking the Ring of Winter?’

Xandala – “I sought its immense power to rule the world.”

Roland, just back from unconsciousness, forgetting what is going on, and talking about something else to another character asks a question that can be heard by the corpse – “Can I?”

Xandala – “Yes, you can,”

Roland – “Sorry, sorry. I’ll shut up now.”

Gwen, with a withering glance at Roland – “How did you hear about the ring?”

Xandala – “Through rumors I heard back in Cormyr (where the ring and Artus Cimber are from) and my own research.”

Gwen – “What is your connection to the giants?”

Xandala – “None.”

Gwen – “Who are your allies in Chult?”

Xandala – “No one. I came alone.”

There would have been another question but Roland ruined it. I love trapping players within the strict five question rule of this spell. Any more interrogation of this sorcerer will have to wait.

 

Next, the group wants to question the skull on the red wizard’s staff. Tomb of Annihilation doesn’t really lend itself to incorporating your player’s backstory into the adventure, so I always appreciate when I get to mess with a player and use his own words against him. For context, the dragonborn, Thames Dasow, has been fighting a war with the Red Wizards in his homeland far to the east. Many of his friends and family have been killed and Thames has already been haunted by visions of his past. For now, Gwen uses her last Speak with Dead on this defiled skull.

Thames – “What is your name?”

Skull – “Jacari Dasow.” (note the last name.)

Roland, not quite hearing what I said, – “What did he say?”

Skull – “I said Jacari Dasow.” Ha ha! Got you again.

Roland – “Dammit! Sorry. Sorry. I promise I won’t talk anymore.”

Thames, with a glare at Roland, – “What is your relation to me?”

Skull – “I was your kin, your brother.”

Thames – “How is the war going?”

Skull – “We are losing badly and soon will be utterly defeated if not destroyed.”

Thames – “How did you die?”

Skull – “That wizard there, Atticus, killed me at Castle Itter.” (a location mentioned in Thames’ backstory.) Sadly, that was also the end of the questions. Thames had a million more, but the skull was dead once again. Thames was having an existential crisis. He really wanted to murder the red wizard, but they had to interrogate him first.

The group was convinced that Atticus was going to lie his ass off, so they cast zone of truth first. This was unnecessary since I had little intention of lying to them. I played the captured wizard like the captured android Bishop in Alien; cold, annoyingly aloof, and unrepentant. I even said at one point, “The truth won’t save you, but you have my sympathies.” I steal good lines from movies all the time. Your players will think you’re smart, and if someone recognizes the quote then you both feel smart.

Anyway, Aticus told them most everything about the Red Wizards presence here in Chult. They want to discover the source of the soul stealing magic here in Chult. They want to use it feed their own soul-storing phylacteries. And yes, Zass Tam, their supreme leader, is a lich. This has zero bearing on the adventure, but the players kept badgering me about this question until I relented and released this irrelevant tidbit of meta-game knowledge. I did not tell them that the local leader here in Chult, Valindra, is also a lich. They did not specifically ask, and I have to keep some surprises for the group. But I did point on the map where their base at the mysterious Heart of Ubtao was located. Hopefully, we can head there next. Eventually.

Finally, the interrogation turned to Thames and his peoples’ involvement with these Red Wizards. Thames’ player, Wes, had given me a very loose backstory that he came from a far-away land and was at war with an unnamed enemy. Thames is here in Chult looking for magic items to hopefully end this war and save his people. I placed his land far to the east, next to the red wizard homeland of Thay, making the red wizards Thames’ mortal enemy. Here, Atticus really displayed his heartless nature. “Don’t bore me with your platitudes of morality. You have land that we needed and as the superior race of this world it is within our right to take what we want. You had the choice to flee and live, but you stupidly chose to stay and die, so I have no pity for you or your kin. There is no hope for you dragon-spawn, you will die. As for the rest of you, it is our destiny to rule and yours to be ruled. Submit to our will, or be destroyed.”

Turning back to Thames, Atticus continued his loathsome, hateful rant, attempting to provoke a reaction. “You and your kin are an abomination, an affront to the gods and your filth should be wiped clean from the world. You are like a cockroach, whose only purpose in life is to be exterminated. And your brother died a coward, attempting to run away when I killed him like a dog in the…”

Thames executed the prisoner with a blast of his frigid dragonborn breath. Atticus Sheffield Smyth died with a sneering smile forever frozen on his fat, flaccid face. I generally don’t approve of murder-hobo massacres and the killing of defenseless prisoners, but I think we can all agree, that in fantasy D&D, this action was to be expected here. But was justice served? Or was it just vengeance? This is one of my favorite moral conundrums of D&D and I’m glad that it presented itself here. I offer no answers or absolutions, but now Thames will have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his fictitious life.

With the death of the despicable Atticus, the only question that remained was why a band of savage Batiri goblins, whom have tried to eat our heroes at every turn, had now fought on our side. The answer came when a familiar face revealed himself after the battle. Feron Silvermace, a homebrewed NPC I had added just to lay some easter eggs and drop some plot hooks, revealed himself to be the leader of these savages. When last we saw Feron in Session 25, he was a half-starved, naïve noble who wandered out of the jungle in a trance, babbling about an oracle who lives in a place called Orolunga. He was separated from his jungle expedition and had no memory of how he got to where the players found him. The party offered to lead him back to Port, but sadly Feron refused to leave his beloved jungle. The group was compelled to watch as Feron disappeared back into the jungle, presumably to his death. So, how exactly did he come to be the king of this tribe of goblins?

This tale needed to be the most ridiculous thing ever to counter-balance the grim homicide that had just occurred. Feron began to recount his story of the last month (coincidentally, it’s been exactly 30 days since we first meet Feron).

“After we parted ways, I wandered aimlessly, hoping that I was heading south. After a few days a saw a huge banquet of food, set upon a luxurious table just like the one my family owns back in Cormyr. It was sitting right there in the middle of a path, so I ran toward it. It was apparently a trap, for I soon as I got near, it disappeared and I found myself sinking in quicksand. All the while I could hear some things laughing at me from the trees. (This event also occurred to our party when they encountered a nasty flock of eblis, yet did not eliminate these pesky monsters.) Fortunately, a snake passed by slithering across the top of the quicksand. I grabbed its tail, and it pulled me to safety, allowing me to continue my tale.

Unfortunately, I lost all the weapons you had provided me in the quicksand. I found myself running anytime I heard any sound. But this proved lucky, for one time, I heard the roar of a dinosaur and ran off in the opposite direction right into the clearing where I found the memorial statue of my ancestor and the purpose of my journey. If that dinosaur had not roared, I would have walked right past it.

I had reached the end of my quest, but I knew that this wasn’t the end of my story, so I continued south toward Mezro. Along the way I heard the same dino roar from before. He must have been tracking me. I climbed up the tallest tree to get away. Suddenly a small goblin ran into the clearing and tried to hide behind the very tree I was in. Just then the biggest dinosaur I’d ever seen, a T-Rex over 40 feet tall with brilliant feathers running down its neck like a peacock’s plumage, thundered into the clearing. (A foreshadowing of the King of Feathers to be found in Omu). Terrified, I tried to climb higher, but the branch I was holding snapped. I got tangled in some vines and plummeted out of the tree, screaming the whole way. Then I blacked out.

I woke up in a straw hut being nursed back to health by the same goblin under the tree. She called herself M’bobo, (a nod to the goblin queen in The Ring of Winter) and as fate would have it, she is the chieftain’s daughter. M’bobo convinced her father that I must be a god because as I fell from the sky, I scared away the dinosaur and only a god can scare one of Ubtao’s children (what the natives call dinosaurs). The chief took me in and named me as his successor until M’bobo comes of age to lead her tribe. A ten day ago the chieftain died, and I have led this tribe of goblins since. I have tried to teach them culture like eating with a fork and playing chess, but they keep stabbing each other with the forks and eating the chess pieces. Last night, the feathered dinosaur visited me in my dreams and told me to take my best warriors and meet you here in Mezro, so here we are.”

Our heroes were thrilled to hear that Feron has thrived here in the jungle, even if it was just through ridiculous luck and they were certainly relived that he and his goblins arrived when they did. Following the tale, Artus Cimber quipped, “Well that only proves what my good friend Byrt always used to say, “You can’t fall out of a tree without landing on a batiri goblin. It looks like you fell on just the right one.” This is actually a canonical quote, and I was determined to say it at least once in the adventure.

Speaking of Artus Cimber, after getting chummy with goblins, desecrating the dead, and violating the Geneva Convention, we finally got to talk with the enigmatic man they been tracking. After dropping hints and tidbit for months, this time I held nothing back and gave them the whole story. My players were happy because after all the campaigning to get here, they felt that they had earned the right to hear the tale. Too bad the book doesn’t provide it for you.

Here is the Cliff Notes version of his story. In 1362 DR, 130 years ago, Artus Cimber was a mercenary who had just left the Harpers because he was sick of their secretive ways and privately, he craved fame and glory. During this time, Artus had gained the favor of the Centaurs of Pastilar near Spiderhaunt Woods in Cormyr who gifted Artus with the magic dagger, Bookmark, which allows him to control spiders. (This came in very handy last session during that battle.)

Later, Artus joined the Society of Stalwart Adventurers in Cormyr who were renown for their daring exploits, but now they were just a group of old men who sat around telling tales about the old days. Artus had heard of Lord Dhalmass Rayburton, founder of the Society, who had disappeared in the jungles of Chult 600 years prior, looking for the legendary artifact, the Ring of Winter.

Artus and his friend, Sir Hydel Pontifax, travelled to Chult to find this magical ring. They booked passage aboard the ship The Narwhal (currently a shipwreck location in this adventure, plus my players travelled to Chult via The Narwhal II which also wrecked.) En route, Artus and Hydel narrowly escaped the dragon turtle Aremag, and they arrived in Chult at Port Castigliar.

In Port Castigliar, Hydel was murdered by agents of the Cult of Frost, an evil group who had followed Artus to claim the ring for themselves. The Cult is run by a man named Kaverin Ebonhand. Hydel was buried in the Port Castigliar graveyard. (In Session 29, our heroes found this grave and Roland took the medallion (it is magical) that marked his tombstone. This caused some friction between Artus and Roland, but then Artus dismissed the issue by saying, “In Chult, I’ve learned that nothing happens without Ubtao’s blessing. If he deems you worthy, then you may keep it. Perhaps someday, you will reform the new Society of Stalwart Adventurers.”)

During his adventures, Artus met two awakened wombats named Byrt and Lugg who mostly ate the food out of his canteen, but proved to be loyal and dear companions. Artus has since tattooed their names onto the knuckles of his hands. (Their fate after The Ring of Winter is unrecorded so feel free to invent your own wild escapades.)

Artus searched in vain for the fabled city of Mezro, not knowing that the city was hidden by powerful illusions. Anyone who approached the city saw nothing but jungle before them. Then another enchantment compelled the outsider to walk along the perimeter of the city until they walked around to the other side unaware that they had just walked past Mezro. While running from some Batiri goblins, Artus fell into a cave tunnel that led him under the magical shield. He stumbled into a library filled with a millennia of lost knowledge where he met a man claiming to be Lord Rayburton. In order for this to be true, Rayburton, a human, would have to be almost 700 years old. These details were written in an ancient tome that Dhalmass presented to Artus. For those who care, I made a PDF copy of this “history” book to hand to your players. ToA Eternal Life of Mezro

But it was true, Artus had found the real Dhalmass Rayburton. He told Artus that when he arrived in Chult, he fell in love with this incredible city and the vast knowledge it had accumulated. Everyone on the mainland assumed that Mezro was a primitive jungle village, yet it was more advanced and learned than any of the so-called modern kingdoms back home. Rayburton vowed to stay and became a loyal defender of the city. In time, he was chosen to become one of the seven barae (leaders) of the city, the first non-native Chultan to do so. His status as a bara is what grants him his immortality. He claimed to have never found the ring of winter and pleaded with Artus give up on this quest as a fool’s errand that can only end in tragedy.

While in Mezro, Artus fell in love with Alisanda Rayburton, Dhalmass’s daughter and also a bara of Mezro. Unbeknownst to Artus, Alisanda, nicknamed Sanda, is also immortal and over 200 years old but didn’t look a day over 30. Artus and Sanda travelled to find a way to stop The Cult of Frost who had joined forces with the Batiri goblins. They met with the exile, Ras Nsi, who was still human at the time. Ras Nsi refused to help because he was bitter for being exiled for doing his duty.

While they were away, The Cult of Frost kidnapped Dhalmass, used him to break through the defenses and invade the city. Mezro was in danger of being overrun and Artus was convinced that only the power of the Ring of Winter could save them. Artus learned that Dhalmass did not come to Chult looking for the Ring of Winter, but rather he owned the Ring back in Cormyr and lost control of it, accidentally destroying several villages and murdering scores of people. Dhalmass took the Ring to Chult to keep it away from civilization and those who would seek to use its power for evil. The Ring is currently secure, hidden in the inner sanctum of the Temple of Ubtao at the center of the city.

Artus ran to the Temple, passed the trials reserved for the bara and gained the favor of Ubtao. Ubtao granted Artus to take possession of the Ring of Winter. Artus was able to resist the evil impulses of the ring and gained control of it. Using the Ring, Artus was able to turn the tide of the battle, drive back the goblin forces and defeat the Cult of Frost. During the battle, Ras Nsi and his undead forces were seen defending the city outside the gates; then went back into exile when the fighting was done. The opposite of what Tomb of Annihilation claims happened. Ras Nsi is a complicated guy.

After the battle, the barae of Mezro decided to remove the magical shield and rejoin the world. One of the powers of the Ring slows Artus’s aging, effectively making him immortal too, allowing him to be with Alisanda. The two were married and spent decades living together in Mezro.

About 50 years ago, Artus longed to see his homeland of Cormyr once more. Alisanda is bound to the continent of Chult and could not accompany him. While he was gone the Spellplauge struck unleashing devastation across the land and the city of Mezro disappeared, seemingly destroyed. Artus journeyed back to Chult, met his silent companion, Dargonbait, in Port Nyanzaru and has been looking to uncover the fate of Mezro ever since. Feel free to reveal as much or as little of this backstory to your players but at least you will have it to use as context as you roleplay Artus Cimber.

Now the players got to reveal what they had learned about Mezro which was: to avoid the calamity, the barae (including Ras Nsi) transported the entire city to a pocket dimension, safe from destruction, but, due to Ras Nsi’s devious wording of the spell, the city was now trapped in that alternate reality until, “All threats to Mezro are gone from this world.” Presumably, this includes Ras Nsi and the Death Curse. Artus is relieved to learn that his wife is still alive, although trapped. After the players mention that possible answers may be learned from the Oracle at Orolunga, Artus says that he will be heading that way.

Now that I’ve finally introduced Artus Cimber into the campaign, the next thing I need to do is get rid of him. As a 15^th level Ranger, he is just too powerful to keep around and that’s before we add in his bad-ass saurial paladin and the campaign ruining Ring of Winter. With these guys in the party there is nothing left for the players to do. Any encounter you plan will be either too deadly for the players or worse, too easy for the NPCs. So, they’ve got to go.

Long before Artus joined the group, the tentative plan for this expedition was to travel down the eastern coast to Mezro, then bushwhack through the jungle to the Tiriki River and then down river back to Port Nyanzaru. They hoped to find the landmark called Firefinger before heading back to Port. I didn’t even want Artus Cimber to be around for this location, so when the group got lost one day in the jungle I had them travel further south than expected. I hoped that the group would head even further south and maybe explore the grung village at Dungrunglung or even the red wizard’s base at the Heart of Ubtao. I was even willing for Artus Cimber to tag along if the group chose this path. But the players were anxious to begin the pirate subplot back at Port, so here is where the groups parted ways. Artus and Cimber planned to travel overland to reach the oracle at Oralunga, perhaps, by the will of Ubtao, their paths would cross once more.

Leaving Artus to his fate, our heroes journeyed north until they came upon a peculiar site. In a clearing along the river, a natural rock formation towered over 300 feet into the sky. At the top, a perpetual fire burns like a beacon to the gods. The locals call this mesa Firefinger. In ages past, this was a pilgrimage site where the devout could climb ladders to the peak. But now, most of the ladders have rusted away and the once holy site has been desecrated by a flock of Pterafolk that use the tower as their nest. A half dozen flying abominations could be seen circling the summit as night quickly approached. Pure curiosity drove our heroes to investigate.

Our heroes we spying on the tower from the jungle, planning their assault, deciding how to best sneak through the clearing surrounding the tower without being seen by the flying sentries, never realizing that they were not alone. Our heroes would make terrible assassins since they were caught completely unaware as this unknown entity stalked them and snuck right up on them before announcing her presence. “Well, it appears I’m not the only one up for a little nighttime raid. My name is Azaka, and you are?”

There are nine different potential guides for the players to hire to lead their various expeditions. But your group will likely hire just three of them during the campaign. I did my best to have as much interaction with them as possible and even got two of them to become our heroes’ mortal nemeses, but I want more. So if the party won’t come to the guides, then the  guides will just have to come to them.

After the customary introductions, Azaka explains her plan to reclaim her heirloom that the pterafolk have stolen, and the mission was on. I kept her big secret to herself for now, but it will have to be revealed eventually, because my DM motto is: A secret doesn’t exist until the players discover it. It’s like Schrodinger’s Cat, or in this case, Schrodinger’s Lycanthrope.

As for the dungeon itself, I ran it straight from the book with no real changes. After weeks of running homebrewed content, I was glad to run something I didn’t have to plan out to infinity. I still needed to wait for the right moment to throw a nasty surprise at them, but I didn’t have to really think about this one. I didn’t even take any real notes and barely remember this part of the session.

The first thing I remember is that Gwen is abysmal at climbing. Anything that involved a Strength or Athletics check, Gwen would fail. The party had to tie Gwen to the others, so that when she did fail, those others had to make another check to catch her before she plummeted to her death, dragging everyone else with her. The best moments were when the group had to travel outside to climb up the rickety rusty ladders; those were truly terrifying times,

The second thing I remember is that Azaka is terrible at everything else. Stealth, Combat, whatever. Azaka’s dice rolls were terrible. She was useless. I spent the whole time roleplaying how sorry she was that she could not contribute anything to the group, “I’m having a real off night. I don’t understand it. What’s wrong with me?” It got really embarrassing when she had her first encounter with a pterafolk. “Stand back,” she said, “I’m gonna teach this pigeon a lesson.” Then she revealed her big secret and transformed into a terrifying and formidable were-tiger and promptly got her ass kicked to the point that the heroes had to step in and save her.

At the pinnacle, things got interesting, I added several more pterafolk to the area, bringing the total up to ten. I put two outside the stone tower as guards, three flying around as sentries and five more, including the surprisingly memorable leader, Nrak. Six months after the session, the players still remembered this scar-face pterodactyl. Maybe it’s because I kept having him taunt the heroes in the third person and he pronounced his name like a squawk, “Neh-RAAACK!” The group just called it “Scarface”.

Or maybe it because as they snuck up on the first one, the “apex-predator” Azaka fell flat on her face with a loud crash, ruining all chance at surprise. Either way, the combat was surprisingly tense. The players cast a spell (I don’t remember which one, I’m sure one of them will educate me) that trapped several pterafolk inside the tower, but once they got outside and took to the air, it was a dangerous fight. Their dive attacks were deadly, but even more so was the prospect of falling off a ledge and reconnecting once more with the land for 30d6 of damage. (I know D&D terminal velocity is 20d6, but let me have this).

The players did everything they could to give these rapacious raptors a taste of their own medicine. One was webbed and plummeted to his doom. Another was paralyzed and met the same fate. But inevitably one of our heroes went over the precipice of death. A pterafolk grabbed Roland, who failed his contested grapple check. He was lifted into the air and flung over the edge. But don’t worry, Thames had the bane of gravity in his back pocket, feather fall. Of course, Thames’s player, Wes, is never satisfied by the written word of any spell and always wants to “make it better”. This time, Thames wants to cast the spell a fraction of a second before Roland hits the ground so he doesn’t waste any of his turns “floating”. Really? This just means more work for me.

I had to look up the time it takes to fall 3oo feet. It’s 4.318 seconds by the way. I had to compute Thames’ distance from the ledge and his line of sight before Roland fell past the point of no return; about 30 feet. Do I allow Thames time to run to the ledge? I had to consider the speed at which a spell travels. Is it the speed of sound? 1,125 feet per second. The speed of light? A ridiculous 983,571,056 feet per second. Is the speed equal to the distance of the longest ranged spell? Which one is that? Well, let me consult my nerd bible… Actually, a sorcerer dipped in warlock with the Spell Sniper feat and Distant Spell metamagic can hurl an eldritch blast 1,200 feet, so… Burn in hell, Reddit! You too, DM Shorts!

I came up with two solutions. One, Thames can make an Arcana check with a high DC, at least 20, to calculate the exact moment to cast the spell. If he fails, then he guessed wrong and Roland splats on the ground. Full damage. Or, if he uses his next turn as a full action, no bonuses or other reactions, then the DC is much lower, maybe 10. Is he fails that, full damage for poor, presumably dead Roland. However, all of this is moot, since I denied his request anyway. The range of feather fall is just 60 feet. No dual classed, feat slinging metamagic applies. 60 feet. Any delay puts Roland out of range and splat! Street Pizza. But I reserve the right to change my mind under a different set of circumstances. So finally, after the longest reaction ever, Thames cast his spell as a proper reaction, and Roland drifted safely toward the ground.

In the end, this worked in Roland favor, since I allowed an Acrobatics check for Roland to grab a passing ledge as he floated by. He rolled high and this put him back into the fight way quicker than if he had to descend all the way down and run all the way back up. From here, the party began fighting tactically, staying in pairs to better defend against the pterafolk dive attacks and help if another member gets grabbed by one.

One by one, these leathery abominations fell before our mighty heroes and their useless feline anchor. Neh-RAAACK was the last to die with a mighty Squ-AAACK and his severed head was added to Gwen’s increasingly more gory Skull Sack. For future interrogation purposes, of course. They ransacked the place for its totally not-worth-the-effort amount of loot, plus the single interesting item, another Mask of the Beast, this one with the face of a tiger.

This was immediately claimed by Azaka who had done nothing to earn her right to keep it. Fortunately, the group gave it to her without debate. After all the conversations at the start of the session, I was roleplayed out and didn’t have it in me to defend her claim had the players reneged on the deal. In gratitude Azaka offered her services as a guide for free for any future expeditions. Thanks to Azaka’s dubious skills, the players reaction was less than stellar. “Oh geez, thanks. Yeah, yeah, no, we’ll give you a call, definitely.” With that, Azaka and the group parted ways and good riddance,

There was one other significant moment at Firefinger. The group rescued a prisoner being held by the pterafolk, an Aarakocra whom I renamed Zephyr, which is more thematic than the book’s Nephyr. Upon his release, he thanked our heroes and implored them to visit his home at Kir Sabal. Months from now, this random act of kindness will save the campaign from imploding.

But right now, I was tired, so the rest of the journey back to Port Nyanzaru was uneventful. Had I known then that this would be my last chance to have any random jungle encounters in the game, I would have pulled out all the stops. But I could not have predicted the major calamity that would soon tear asunder our merry band, and our heroes arrived back at Port blissfully unaware and with little fanfare. To later compel my players into picking a new guide, I had their current one, Qawasha, leave the group. In a bit not subtle foreshadowing that would never pay off, he ominously told our heroes, “I must return to Fort Beluarian. I sense a great disturbance in the force, er, I mean, in the balance of nature and I must investigate. I’m sure our paths will cross once more.” They won’t.

 

Next week, prior to pillaging the pirates, a prince perpetrates an appalling plan of pernicious payback on the impatient party. Period.

As always, D&D secrets only exist to be told, and Game On!

Be a 2nd level Artificer with two hawks and two bags of holding. Have your hawk familiar fly one bag into the other open bag and… – DnD Shorts. Stop giving lazy players stupid ideas, Will! Love ya, @$$#*!&

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.